Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: The Mark Smith Estate Sale... Continue reading the Original Blog Post
Mark was a close friend of my family's, and over the years owned everything you could imagine. Despite not being a recognizable/marquee name to the average car person, he had been collecting and dealing on a serious level for five decades. When people speak of the first "Ferrari Bubble" back in the '80s, Mark was one of the people who profited/benefited from—and some say—caused it. He owned, bought, and sold all the great cars...had 250 GTOs, 275 LMs, California Spiders, and more. He had a fabulous eye for cars, signs, and other related material and collected on a scale that's hard to fathom. He also had a serious love of unrestored Fords. The basement of one of his many buildings was full from end to end, side to side with pre-war Fords and Ford-engined cars. I won't get into what it was like to deal with Mark...but it's safe to say that regardless of whether you were buying from him or selling to him (we had both experiences...) he would bend time and space to make sure he came out on top of the deal...to an almost gratuitous degree sometimes. The thing is...this three-day auction, despite what a lot of the videos are implying, is just the tip of the iceberg of his collection...and while there are some good cars in there, there's a lot of stuff that was just "inventory"...The dispersal of it has been going on for months, both privately and in a series of auctions that's still not over. I think the motorcycles are coming up next. And the cream of the crop (the cars that haven't been sold privately already) will probably be hitting the Monterey auctions next summer. About a month before he suffered the stroke (on the field at Hershey last year,) we visited him and he gave us a ride in his latest purchase. He told us he'd been after this car for over 40 years... Mark was a sucker for unrestored cars, and had won preservation awards at most of the big concours events. I don't even know where to begin as far as listing the "big" unrestored cars he owned...I'm looking at one album of pictures I took on a visit to his place in Virginia 15 or so years ago, and in one building he had—all unrestored—everything from one-off Rolls-Royces (3 of them,) to a Bugatti T57C, Bentley, a Chrysler a lot of people tried—but never managed—to buy off him, a 289 Cobra with the accessory hardtop still in the shipping crate, Duesenbergs, a Ferrari Lusso, a Team Roosevelt Fiat-Abarth, Chrysler Airflow, a Bugatti T52 (kids' car,) Bugatti T57 Stelvio, a bunch of motorcycles (including some ex TT bikes)...again, all unrestored/preserved.
I attended the 2nd day and was amazed! I am not an auction guy but thought this was worth seeing. It didn’t disappoint. If this is only a part of what he collected, it will be amazing to see what comes next! Did have my eye on a few pieces and few cars but factor in the buyers fee and it put me just short of where I could see myself on the cars. Still had a great time looking!
That McQuay Norris in teardrop caused a big flurry, I think six or eight were built, and the Hemmings car was only known survivor! The deuce phaeton looks like the one Fred Steele had, with chickens tied to at event coverage circa '77-'78.
Some neat stuff there to be sure. The McQuay Norris teardrop car is going to be a very challenging restoration unless a lot of the missing pieces are included, but either way I think it's well worth doing, it's an incredible piece of history.
Bidding fee aside, based on the prices, it looks like some of those cars were being practically given away relative to the condition of them.
There is a McQuay Norris streamliner in the lane museum in Nashville I think so there is more than one
Love the Lane! Yes, the car they have, which flew the Hemmings banner, WAS thought to be only one left, UNTIL this one showed up. Maybe Dymaxion #3 is hidden away in a barn still....
I met Mark in the summer of 2020 after trying to track him down since the first time I laid eyes on his old tobacco warehouse in Lynchburg Virginia. I was amazed when he agreed to show me around the building and show me a very small part of his collection. He allowed me to take pictures so long as I didn’t post them online. I would love to share some of his amazing collection, but I hesitate to do so after telling him I wouldn’t. Mark is gone and the collection is being spread out, what are people’s opinions, can I share the pictures now? Back in July and august some of Mark’s better signs were also auctioned off. You can see the results of those three auctions here; https://www.proxibid.com/Matthews-A...ion-3/event-catalog/213519?srch=&srchloc=true
I was shockt I bougth my Marmon motor from him and want visit him in beginning 2020 but then corona was there and no flights to US. I am so sad that I never meet him. the stories told me was worth the trip to US. A real lost ind human caracter
I would share the pictures, I'm sure everyone going there for those "specific" cars know they're there, but us poor guys will never ever get a glance at such things, let alone buy any of it.
The first time I met Mark was about in the 1960s. He was a frequent visitor at meetings of the Sports Car Club I belong to in Bucks / Montgomery County, PA. He always had a KEEN eye for great cars. We visited several times at Hershey but our most recent visits were after he acquired the 1935 Brewster Convertible Coupe. He was a willing host to show us his life long collection. I sure would have loved to become the "Caretaker" of his Brewster. Brewster only built 4 different body styles and we have the other 3. It would have completed our collection! OH WELL! Don Weir https://dons-neatstuff.com/brewster2.htm
That is the car! I had been keeping an eye on it since the early 1980s and contacted the owner and/or his representatives several times. However, Mark had already been in contact and had a great lead on it. GREAT CAR!
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