After three days at Spring Carlisle, how do I sum up this event?
In a word? Big!
To start, if you’re going next year, be sure that you are ready to get some exercise, because the event has about 18 miles of vendor rows and car corral areas. Comfortable shoes are a must. Also bring clothes for any foreseeable weather condition because temperatures last week varied from between 35 and 70 degrees and it can get very windy. I ended up buying not one but two jackets as I was unprepared for the changes in weather and Thursday was absolutely freezing. On the plus side, I did score a mint vintage Dale Earnhardt racing jacket for only $20.
The Spring Carlisle is miles of swap meet vendors, way too many to count, offering everything from old parts to complete cars with everything in between. If you were looking for parts for any American car, you can find them as NOS, Used or new parts at this event. I don’t care if you were looking for a grille for a 1949 Packard or fenders for a 2002 Mustang. If you needed something, it was there.
The swap meet also had its share of weird things for sale, often with nothing to do with the car hobby. Some of the strangest things we saw were a family of giraffe sculptures, a 1960s phone booth, and a wild boar head.
On the cars for sale front, it was much the same. Looking for a Ford Model A or a C2 big-block Corvette, there was a car that you would want to add to your collection, often at a quite reasonable price.
I was stunned at the number and variety of the cars offered and saw way too many cars that I wanted to add to my collection. In a nutshell, Spring Carlisle can be a great way to find and buy the car you have been searching for.
On the auction front, whatever was not in the car corral was likely to be found at the auction. We saw everything from pre-war full classics to modern European sports cars on offer, many changing hands for very fair prices. Overall, the auction sold 65 percent of the 360 consignments for a total of $4 million.
If you have yet to attend Spring Carlisle, do so. It is a top-tier collector car event with something for everyone, no matter where your classic car interests lie.
I thought the Bandit car was a ripoff…www.ericsmusclecars.com
It was expensive but cheap compared to the 450K the last one sold for a few months ago.
That was a real car Andy, this was a car provided by Trans Am specialities and not really restored to the degree that it could have been. The buyer paid for the autograph in my humble opinion but to each his own.
Agree, there is a “perfect” car for everyone, even the Yugo for some. 🙂
I will give you 30 for the racing jacket..
No way, I had one of those jackets years ago and was happy at being able to replace it. 🙂