The private car collection of Lee Roy Hartung was auctioned off

1936 Lincoln Zephyr custom sedan has an unusual dual nose and shows 19,600 miles on the odometer.
Credit: Tudor Van Hampton for The New York Times
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/piece-by-piece-the-hartung-collection-is-dismantled/

The eclectic Lee Roy Hartung Collection of automobiles, motorcycles and memorabilia was gathered over the past 50 years by the Chicago collector.

Mr. Hartung dealt in scrap metal, sold used cars and maintained a hauling business that aided his hobby. After a garage fire destroyed an antique bicycle collection, Mr. Hartung in 1972 built a 10,000-square-foot barn on his four-acre property and spent the next several decades stuffing it with treasures

Mr. Hartung operated the space as a museum by appointment only. In it, he stored about 80 cars, 40 motorcycles, 100 bicycles and thousands of pieces of automobilia. He had what experts called one of the most complete collections of license plates in the United States

A 1912 Harley-Davidson Single-Cylinder Belt Drive, believed to be among the best 1912 examples in the world, brought $115,000.
original bicycles were highlighted by a like-new 1934 Iver Johnson, an Elgin Bluebird and a Schwinn Aerocycle, which individually sold for $5,175 each.

Lee Hartung Collection Auctions America by RM – Top 10 Auction Results

1. 1911 Flying Merkel Twin Belt Drive – $201,250
2. 1950 Veritas BMW – $195,500

 The 1949 Veritas was built by BMW and bodied by Spohn, the German coachworks company. It was believed to have been sent back to Spohn in the ’50s to receive tail fins and other retrofits to echo General Motors’ 1951 LeSabre concept car.
 3. 1950 Edwards R-26 Roadster – $143,750
4. 1912 Harley-Davidson Single-Cylinder Belt Drive – $115,000
5. 1911 Pope Model H – $83,375
6. 1909 Sears – $66,125
7. 1938 Indian Four-Cylinder Rigid Frame – $64,400
8. 1926 Henderson Deluxe Fire Department Motorcycle – $63,250
9. 1915 Harley-Davidson Single-Cylinder Two-Speed – $57,500
10. 1904 Fabrique-Nationale Four-Cylinder Shaft Drive – $55,200
http://www.sportscardigest.com/lee-hartung-auctions-america-by-rm-auction-results/

If you love Duesenburgs, and are in Southern California, you might want to run over to the Lyon Air Museum, as 10 of the 378 known are on a short time display

images are just 2 of a full gallery you can look at over at Bill's blog: http://wildbillphoto.blogspot.com/2011/07/rare-deusenbergs-at-lyons-air-museum.html 

If you can get over to the museum, the exhibit of ten Duesenburgs from now til July 24th
One is the 1st Model J, 1929 dual cowl body by LeBaron , another is a 1929 Murphy bodied dual cowl, a 1930 Murphy Model J speedster, a 1931 model J Weymann bodied speedster, a 1931 model SJ Murphy bodied conv coupe,  and the 1935 SJ Gurney Nutting Speedster that was built for an Indian Maharaja, who wasn't keen on risking losing everything due to Japan invading so many neighboring countries, so he instead took delivery at his Santa Ana mansion. It was thought lost until 1959

the museum website http://www.lyonairmuseum.org/news/duesenberg-exhibit and it is located in 19300 Ike Jones Rd, Santa Ana

Barney Pollard car collection, many were stacked on end..

excepted story from this thread http://forums.aaca.org/f169/barney-pollards-collection-271191-2.html about the Pollard collection:
I was going to school at GMI in Flint in 1955 and had met Mr. Pollard on the 1953 Glidden Tour. I called him and made an appointment to see his cars one Saturday, my room mate and I went down, I believe Pontiac, and he showed us through his collection. It was unbelievable. There were several buildings, one had only brass lamps in it. The cars that were stacked on end we couldn't see much, they were so tight you couldn't walk between them, but in a couple of buildings the cars were parked fender to fender and bumper to bumper. I was looking for a Peerless and he told us where it was and we had to slide down fenders and walk running boards to get back to it. He had several hundred cars and he knew where they were. He even showed us a garage that had a stack of brand new high wheel bikes, in the original crates, stacked to the ceiling. While we were walking back to his office I asked what was under the canvas covers, two American Underslunges, sitting out side. And inside his shop area were several Stutz, Mercer, etc.

Barney Pollard was my grandfather and the collection of around 1200 cars was my playground as a kid. Know most of the cars,as I personally titled 700 of them. As to the fire we lost around 110 cars in that fire which was started by a spark from a locomotive which started a grass fire and then the building went. Lost some pretty rare cars in the fire, such as the only two Olivers ever built

My grandfather did work hard at keeping the government from destroying all of the cars. My grandfather started collecting in 1938 and kept them parked about his property where he parked his trucks. In flying recon missions around Detroit the government saw what my grandfather had as a treasure trove for materials.

The government insisted he give up the cars for the war effort. My grandfather went to Washington in an attempt to make a deal with them. He bought tons of scrap (both steel and aluminum) that they had not discovered and the deal he made was to strip all of the tires and give them all of the scrap he had found and to give up one car a week that he had to deliver to the Ford Rouge plant.

My grandfather and Henry Ford were not the best of friends (due to a couple of incidents but one story as he related to the Ford writer David Lewis) as my grandfather laid miles of roadbed for the railroad tracks at the rouge and Ford sent his associate Bennett to intimidate my grandfather into taking less.

The problem is that my grandfather was the toughest man I have ever met and in some pretty colorful language I can only assume, he told Bennett to take a hike. Long story short my grandfather had many Fords in his collection and so he took over only Fords, one a week for a few weeks and then he stopped. Ford never turned him in as he figured my grandfather would only continue to bring Fords.

Then my grandfather decided he had better hide the cars from any more prying eyes so he sunk telephone poles into the ground and put 90 lb railroad rail from post to post and hung the cars from the rail with wire rope. Then he built walls around the buildings and so when you went in the buildings there were hundreds of cars hanging from their front bumpers. Crude but it saved a bunch of cars.

I thought that the Harrah car collection was closed, I was wrong, it's now called the National Automobile Museum

http://www.automuseum.org/index.html
I'm continuously adding to my list of auto museums in America, the full list is here: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/02/if-you-are-looking-to-visit-car-museums.html

Did you know that Dick Clark had a tourist attraction?

Lots of classic cars from the year 1957, the cars on display represented every major American manufacturer from 1957, including Buick, Chevrolet, Ford, Cadillac, DeSoto, Hudson, Nash, Studebaker and Packard.

There was an entirely recreated drive-in movie, fire station, barbershop, gas station, Cadillac dealership and more.

it shut down and sold off the cars http://mecum.com/auctions/consignment_list.cfm?AUCTION_ID=HE1009 and memorabilia

Images snagged from the still running virtual tour (love this technology where you direct the camera and can spin 360 degrees, plus zoom in, or up) take a look, it's fun. Bottom of the page at http://www.dickclarksbranson.com/coolcars.cfm

I didn't know that the Detroit Historic Museum had an extensive car collection, the historic society has been collecting for 90 years

news story and video that is worth watching here: http://detnews.com/article/20110219/METRO01/102190368/Part-of-Detroit%E2%80%99s-history-kept-under-wraps

Part of the approximately 60 car collection are:

an 1870 Phaeton Carriage made for the worlds fair,
a 1963 Chrysler Turbine that would run on diesel fuel, unleaded gasoline, kerosene, vegetable oil and even tequila
a 1911 Ford Model T keeps company
a 1963 pre-production Ford Mustang and John Dodge's 1919 coupe.
A 1963 Cougar II concept car by Ford
A 1956 Packard Patrician: an aristocratic sedan, this was the last year for Packard. A 1947 Kaiser
A 1949 Buick Super 8:
a rare one of 7 built 1959 Chrysler Crown Imperial, with a 413 and a stainless steel top. When sold it was the most expensive American car, it went for about $7,500 when most houses sold for about $4,500

The society started collecting items in the early 1920s and obtained its first car in 1954 — a 1905 Cadillac Osceola donated by Henry M. Leland, who founded Cadillac and Lincoln.

Thanks to Marc for letting me know about this story!

The Schlumpf Collection is on display in France at the National Museum in Mulhouse, the Cité de l’Automobile

The Schlumpf Collection may be the most prestigious car collection in the world. This is demonstrated by the two of the only 6 made Bugatti Royales, including the famous Coupé Napoléon, the 150 Bugatti, Hispano-Suiza, Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, Maserati, Maybach, Mercedes models, etc.

One of the Royales they acquired when they purchased the Shakespeare collection, in 1964, which was a total of 30 Bugattis and a gallery of those being loaded on a Illinois train is here: http://svammelsurium.blogg.se/2010/june/en-dag-i-illinois-1964.html

It was in a former Mulhouse woollen mill, with its typically 19th century architecture, that Fritz Schlumpf established his fabulous collection of 437 cars belonging to 97 different brands. With part of on display at the Cité de l’Automobile, it is certainly a must see if you get to France

www.collection-schlumpf.com/en/schlumpf/ learned about it from http://www.sportscardigest.com/schlumpf-collection-profile-and-photo-gallery

The collection was seized by the workers employed by the Schlumpf brothers, who had collected for years, and topped off their collection when Hispano Suiza needed to liquidate many of the Bugatti assets in 1963 after having purchased the Bugatti company. The Schlumpfs puchased Ettore Bugatti’s personal Bugatti Royale and many original spares and patterns—over the strong objections of the managing director and Roland Bugatti, Ettore Bugatti’s surviving son.

In 1971 the union of workers that had been restoring the cars, building restaurants, and a hotel that would have housed guests to the collection, went on strike, and years later the French government seized all of the Schlumpf assetts, including 437 vehicles. The strike was part of what forced the brothers to flee to Switzerland, echoing Bugatti's flight to Paris in the 1937 strike. Read all about it http://www.sportscardigest.com/schlumpf-collection-profile-and-photo-gallery

Stash of Aussie Ford GT's found in South Africa

during that era a whole bunch of Falcon GT parts were exported to South Africa where they were assembled into Fairmont GTs. Recently, a large haul of Fairmont GTs was unearthed and the collector is the first commentor on the article, setting the story straight
read about it http://www.ausmotive.com/2009/02/19/ford-gt-stash-uncovered-in-south-africa.html

Sultan of Brunei collection

Aston Martin One-77 supercars, limited to just 77 examples, for $1.7 million apiece were just bought by an anonymous purchaser.

Now educated insiders are speculating that the Sultan of Brunei bought the cars to add to his multi-billion-dollar, 7,000-strong car collection, the world’s most expensive auto hoard.

According to Guinness World Records the Sultan’s collection includes over
600 Rolls-Royces,
more than 450 Ferraris,
570 Mercedes-Benzes,
380 Bentleys,
170 Porsches,
dozens of Koenigseggs,
and 20 Lamborghinis to name a few.

He owns several rare custom, one-off and concept cars, some worth tens of millions apiece, including a Ferrari Mythos, a Jaguar XJ220 by Pininfarina, a Bentley Java, a Bentley Dominator SUV, bespoke Rolls-Royce and Ferrari station wagons, a Porsche Carma and a Koenigsegg Agera.

In the '90s the royal family accounted for nearly 50-percent of all Rolls-Royces sold. The Sultan owns the racecars driven by each F1 world champion since the 1980 season.

Known for buying multiple models of supercars in order to have one in every color, he owns several McLaren F1s, six Ferrari FXXs, four Ferrari F40s and three Ferrari F50s. The Sultan, who’s worth an estimated $20 billion, stores the collection in five heavily-guarded airplane hangars and employs a team of mechanics and specialists to keep the cars in perfect working condition.
info from http://ultimate-luxury-community.com/

See a gallery of some of the cars at http://jalopnik.com/379855/a-garage-fit-for-a-king-the-best-of-the-sultan-of-bruneis-amazing-car-collection

Ralph Lauren garage was just photographed by Vanity Fair

See the whole gallery at http://www.vanityfair.com/style/features/2011/01/ralph-lauren-garage-slide-show-201101#slide=1 or read about it http://www.vanityfair.com/style/features/2011/01/ralph-lauren-garage-201101 via: http://stipistop.com/

A tour of Ralph Lauren’s car collection is up for auction for charity, and the estimated tour is $150,000. That’s right, $150,000 to look at–not to own–the vintage Ferraris, Porsches and a 1936 Bugatti Atlantic, which is valued at north of $30 million. As the bidding description states, “You and a friend will receive a tour of this extraordinary private collection of classic cars given by Ralph Lauren himself.” The day ends with a ride in the 1936 Bugatti. The winner also get a signed copy of “Speed, Style, and Beauty: Cars from the Ralph Lauren Collection.”

Having some quality car-talk time with Ralph would be an experience to remember. But for $150,000? For that amount, I think I would rather buy my own Porsche or Ferrari. This is, however, for a cause, and someone may well hit the estimate. Even if they don’t, the tour is likely to raise a large chunk of change. So far there have been four bidders and the top bid is $42,500
For more about it http://ultimate-luxury-community.com/category/luxury-addict/luxury-cars
and http://justacargal-s.blogspot.com/2011/02/ralph-lauren-car-collection.html

Update on the Portugese barn find collection that shocked everyone a couple years ago, full story and list of cars

Feb 2007 was when 58 photos and a description of a barn with steel doors welded shut was opened for the first time in decades and this collection was found. Well, the story was all made up... but a journalist finally went to get to the truth of the matter in 2009, and new photos as well as a complete inventory are after the link

http://www.hagerty.com/Hagerty-Online/News/Features/All-articles/2010/12/08/Portuguese-Barn-Find-Photo-Gallery?utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_medium=email&utm_term=December&utm_content=News&utm_name=Hagerty%20Plus%20Member%20News

LeMay museum finally had it's groundbreaking (2 years since I posted that it would happen)

http://hagertyblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/lemay-museum-groundbreaking-june-2010.html for the story and photo gallery. My first post didn't say much, just informative that it's supposed to become the largest in the world
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2008/03/if-you-live-near-seattle-you-might-want.html

The Mullin museum is finally open, but only two days a month, on a reservation basis

The above is one of two made, the other is unrestored. A commisioned painting of it by Nicola Wood is posted here: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/10/marvelous-paintings-of-nicola-wood.html

Above images from http://motomania.tumblr.com/

Here's one amazing car from the Mullins collection, a Hispano-Suiza woody!

http://karakullake.blogspot.com/2010/08/mullin-automotive-museum-review-part-1.html for a full write up and gallery

For hours and dates it's open: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/02/mullins-museum-info-its-not-open-often.html

Evans Garage... what a cool looking place (not open to the public)

Cmon, that is a cool way to dress up your mailbox!