Muscle-car fanatics go goggle-eyed whenever they hear mention of the vaunted Wellborn Musclecar Museum Collection, a spectacular trove of rare and impressive performance icons from Mopar, GM and Ford.
So the torque addicts should take notice that 25 of those cars, nearly half of the collection, are going up for sale when Mecum holds its Kissimmee, Florida, sale January 16-25, 2015. Some 3,000 collector cars will be offered during the Florida auction.
Compiled by Tim Wellborn, one of the world’s top muscle-car and Mopar collectors, the high-quality vehicles from the muscle-car museum include some very special low-mileage, unrestored originals as well as exceedingly rare Holy Grail muscle cars from the late ’60s and early ’70s.
Hemi power dominates the collection – which includes what’s reputed to be the world’s largest gathering of Dodge Chargers – but the competition from Ford and GM are well-represented.
“We’ve undoubtedly had some truly amazing collections cross our block through the years, but this group probably tops all of them,” said Dana Mecum, Mecum Auctions’ president and founder.
Among the Wellborn Musclecar Museum offerings at Mecum are several pristine unrestored cars from the muscle-car apex year of 1970, including a Dodge Challenger T/A, a Ford Mustang Boss 429, and one of GM’s most legendary muscle cars, a Chevelle LS6 coupe.
There are also such things as the famous 1978 Pontiac Firebird featured in the TV series The Rockford Files and a 1969 Dodge Hemi Daytona with 426-cid Hemi V8, a four-speed manual transmission and only 6,400 mile on its odometer.
“It is very rare that collections of the magnitude and notoriety of the Wellborn Collection come up for sale,” said Frank Mecum, the auctions’ consignment director. “It is also important to note that most of the cars coming out of the Wellborn Collection have never been offered to the public.”
Tim Wellborn said he is selling off the cars from his museum in Alexander City, Alabama, to provide space for others.
“The goal here is really to make room to continue rotating the museum inventory,” Wellborn said. “Space is limited, so we can’t just keep adding to the current group of cars, and we want to keep the muscle-car displays fresh – and always the best of the best. This is actually the start of a new era for the Wellborn Musclecar Museum.”
For more on the Wellborn muscle cars, see the Mecum website at mecum.com/collection.
