Mecum Auctions came off its recent sale in Tulsa in fine, flush fashion, hammering a total of 643 historic vehicles in its just-concluded sale that took place in the SageNet Center at Expo Square, with total sales coming in at $17 million. If you follow the company, you already know that Mecum’s reputation for expertise is based in large part on its ability to sell muscle cars. To that end, the biggest money at Tulsa was captured by a 1965 Shelby Cobra CSX4000 Series Roadster that found a new home at $409,750. What caught our eye was the second-place seller, which underscores the variety you can find at these happenings.
Mecum’s second-ranking seller was a delicious piece of history, which came out of the Tommy Cronk Collection of vintage American performance cars that was consigned at Tulsa. This 1965 Mercury Comet A/FX, from the lightweight stocker exhibition class in drag racing that eventually morphed into today’s Funny Cars, is one of eight built to Lincoln-Mercury specifications in the Long Beach, California, shop of famed Bill Stroppe, who once built racing Lincolns for the Carrera Panamericana. Powered by a NASCAR-style 427-cu.in. side-oiler V-8, the flaming Comet rang the bell at Tulsa for $313,500, an impressive number for a car that’s not feasibly streetable.
Jim Donnelly On Wheels 