Italia at RM Auctions Jan 18...

SamJ

This is the ex-Harrah collection car. Nice auction presentation. This baby went for around 40 large when Harrah's cars were auctioned off 20+ years ago. I know one member who showed his Italia at Pebble Beach recently and he told me he was approached by a buyer who said "Price is no object." Frank Spring has created a family trust which owns his car. So you may have to bully the lunch money out of quite a few kids to bid on this one. Should be an interesting auction. :cool:



http://www.rmauctions.com/CarDetails.cfm?SaleCode=AZ08&CarID=r163

hudsontech

Probably a wee bit beyond my pocket book.



Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

HudsonTech

Memphis, TN

oldhudsons

As I recall this Italia had a Chevy V8 in it when Harrah had it.

You say "Frank Spring's" car, etc. - when he died he had/owned the X-161 - are you referring to another Italia he had earlier?

The best original one I ever saw was #25 which belonged to the original owner in one of the so. Calif. beach cities - I can't remember his name any longer, but he was of Italian ancestory, an aeronautical engineer, and had gone to Italy to watch them build his. He told me his buddy had bought #26 & shortly after getting it in Calif. drove it to Fla. but he'd lost contact with his friend. I don't know who has #25 any longer or if #26 exists.

frank spring

oldhudsons wrote:

As I recall this Italia had a Chevy V8 in it when Harrah had it.

You say "Frank Spring's" car, etc. - when he died he had/owned the X-161 - are you referring to another Italia he had earlier?

The best original one I ever saw was #25 which belonged to the original owner in one of the so. Calif. beach cities - I can't remember his name any longer, but he was of Italian ancestory, an aeronautical engineer, and had gone to Italy to watch them build his. He told me his buddy had bought #26 & shortly after getting it in Calif. drove it to Fla. but he'd lost contact with his friend. I don't know who has #25 any longer or if #26 exists.

John Contus was the engineer, he passed away a few years ago. Fred Roth has this car now. Ashenfelder, the owner of car 22 was Contus's boss.

frank spring

I saw the car at Hershey this year, it has the original eingine in it per the serial number on the front of the block.

Unknown

The best italia I ever seen, was the one a the HET nationals in 04, in Pittsburgh, can't remember the fellows name that owned it? hmmm....



I know I sat in it, and pretended to speed shift, and Oh yeah, I had a double quarter pounder and large coke, while I was there...



Don't tell frank spring..... hehe....

oldhudsons

Thanks Frank, & right, J. J. Contus was the guy's name. Knew Fred got a 2nd Italia, didn't know it was Contus'.

Unknown

frank spring wrote:

I saw the car at Hershey this year, it has the original eingine in it per the serial number on the front of the block.

I saw the silver one at Hershey . If my recollection is right it showed a little wear around the edges and Hyman may have been trying to sell it. At least it was in a group with his cars. That was the only silver on I had ever seen and assumed it was a repaint somewhere in it's life.

[Deleted User]

Since I'm in the piano business, I run into old acquaintances of Liberace's from time to time. Whenever I do, I show them a pic of this silver Italia. Nobody's recognized it so far.