A Porsche Speedster

A Porsche Speedster replica make its way
to the auction block. It did not sell at $27,000.

You could see this one coming a mile away.
On Sept. 11, RM Auctions, which has been vigorously expanding its international presence, divested itself of the annual spring and fall Classic Car Auctions of Toronto, billed as Canada’s biggest.
“We’re streamlining the business by increasingly focusing our expertise on the investment-grade segment of the collector car market and exploring international growth opportunities,” said Rob Myers, RM’s chairman and founder.
Just a few weeks later, RM announced the addition of a new European sale on May 1, 2010. To be held during the same weekend as the 7th Grand Prix Historique de Monaco, the Sporting Classics of Monaco event will present “80 of the world’s finest motor cars to an elite assemblage of automotive enthusiasts and collectors.”
Guess Canadians aren’t elite or enthusiastic enough.
Or maybe that’s being unfair.
After all, RM is still proudly Canadian, still based in Blenheim, Ont., near Chatham, and still using homegrown craftsmen at its world-class restoration shops there.
The cold, hard fact is that one car at any of the RM’s high end European or American auctions can bring more money than all the vehicles sold in Toronto over three days.
Few – if any – cars from the “investment-grade segment” cross the block at the Toronto auctions.
So lest you think shedding the events that got RM started was unpatriotic, let me put it to you this way: if you had a true classic, such as a 1940 Packard Darrin convertible, where would you consign it? Would you send it to the Toronto sale – or to any auction in Canada, for that matter – or ship it to Monterey, Scottsdale or Amelia Island?
Thought so. I rest my case.
When RM announced it was leaving Toronto to concentrate on its growing European business, the spring and fall Classic Car Auctions returned to the sole ownership of Dan Spendick under a new company called Collector Car Productions.
And while it may not get the classic Duesenbergs or Shelby Cobras, the Toronto sale fills an important niche in the collector car scene in this country, giving sellers and buyers of high quality, medium-priced vehicles a place to hook up.
Spendick is no stranger to the Canadian vintage car scene, having operated the two Toronto sales on his own before partnering with RM 17 years ago.
Other than a change of name on the banners over the sale stage at Mississauga’s International Centre Oct. 23-25, there was no difference from the sale run under RM auspices last spring.

1956 Monarch Richelieu convertible sold for $60,500
including buyer’s premium.

The top five sellers were a rare 1998 Bentley Continental “R” Coupe that went for $101,200 (including the buyer’s premium), followed by an original fuel injected 1961 Corvette convertible at $79,200. The other top sellers were a gorgeous 1954 Packard Caribbean convertible at $66,000, a national award winning 1956 Ford Thunderbird at $62,700 and a Canadian-built 1956 Monarch Richelieu convertible at $60,500
Unlike many of the auctions in the U.S. and abroad, most of the vehicles at Toronto have a reserve price. It takes a brave vendor in today’s market to do otherwise.
Sometimes, when bidding stalls, removing the reserve works – as it did for the 1961 second-place 1961 Corvette convertible, but not for the the fifth-place1956 Monarch ragtop.
“If we’d had some European buyers there it might have made a difference, but I saw no phone action at all,” the owner told me. “I lost a bit of money on the car but had a lot of fun all the same. I have no regrets … but if the auctioneer had held the hammer off the block for another minute?”
Final results for the Toronto sale can be found on Collector Car Productions’ website at www.ccpauctions.com or by calling 519-352-4575.
The company’s next scheduled event is the annual spring Classic Car Auction of Toronto to held April 9-11, 2010 at the International Centre.