INSANE CAR PEOPLE
One automotive enthusiast just wanted it all, writes David Shaftel
ON a steamy March day, Jerry Seinfeld stood before a group of men, most of them in polo shirts and loafers, in a muggy tent at the Omni Amelia Plantation Resort in Florida. “Thank you, insane car people,” he said to a round of applause.
He was here because “the Jerry Seinfeld Collection,” a fleet of 18 cars — 16 Porsches and two Volkswagens — was to be sold that day by the auction house Gooding & Co at its annual Amelia Island auction.
“Let me be honest with you,” Seinfeld said. “I could have gotten rid of every one of these in one day with no problem. But I wanted to be here with you all, who see these things the way I do and enjoy it the way I do. I want to see your face and feel your enthusiasm.”
With that, he ceded the stage to Charlie Ross, the veteran British auctioneer.
“Feel the enthusiasm!” Ross shouted before introducing the first item: Seinfeld’s unrestored 1966 Porsche 911 with a colour described as “sand over brown.” Ross mentioned the catalogue’s description of its “delicious” interior smell. “It was Jerry who said, ‘Smell it’,” he said. “Well, I did. I sat in it and smelt it. And it was wonderful.”
The vehicle sold for US$275,000 (RM1.15 million) (and a 10 per cent buyer’s premium).
Up soon after was a blue 2011 Porsche 997 Speedster, the ninth of 356 produced. It included “a lot of cool, bare carbon fibre, which I never get tired of,” the catalogue quoted Seinfeld as saying. And it fetched US$440,000.
If the Porsches attracted serious, or at least wealthy, collectors, the two Volkswagens, a 1960 Beetle and a 1964 camper van, were of greater interest to fans of Seinfeld’s, said Bill Noon, a classic car dealer from San Diego. The Volkswagens, he said, “were the giggleand-grin lots to bookend the big sales.”
“Let’s have some fun!” Ross shouted as he introduced the camper.
Noon got it for US$99,000 on behalf of a fan who wished to remain anonymous. “They wanted to have some Seinfeld memorabilia,” Noon said. “They think he’s a great comedian.”
(The sale called to mind the Seinfeld episode in which George Costanza bought a used Chrysler LeBaron because he was under the impression that it once belonged to actor Jon Voight.)
A deep round of applause indicated that things had taken a more serious turn with the introduction of the next lot: A 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder, not unlike the one James Dean was driving when he died. “You can’t drive a sonnet by Shakespeare or a symphony by Beethoven,” Seinfeld said of this car in the catalogue. “But this would be the automotive equivalent.”
After Ross wielded his magic, it sold
for US$5.3 million.
ViNTAGE AUTOmOBiLEs
Astute viewers of Seinfeld have noted the poster of an airborne Porsche in the apartment of Seinfeld’s TV character. Since the show ended in 1998, he has become increasingly associated with collectible cars, especially Porsches, first through the star-crossed construction of a bunker-like garage near his Upper West Side home and, more recently, through his Web series, Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, which gives nearly as much time to vintage automobiles as it does to its guests, who have included Mel Brooks and President Barack Obama.
Magnus Walker, the scruffy Porsche collector and blogger, said he was in attendance to get a close-up glimpse of this portion of Seinfeld’s fleet. “There’s a certain attraction to this particular collection all coming out in one go,” he said, “especially since he’s chosen to go this way rather then selling them off privately.”
Since Walker makes a point of bargain hunting for the air-cooled Porsche 911 models he favours, he didn’t bid on the Seinfeld cars. He said he has noticed an increasing number of “Ferrari guys or Lamborghini guys coming into the Porsche world,” making it more of a challenge to get the cars he wants at a decent price.
One such guy is Tony Shooshani, a real estate developer from Los Angeles. “He’s a Porsche guy, I’m a Ferrari guy, and I’m branching out to be in his world,” Shooshani said of Seinfeld. He made the winning bid of US$363,000 for a white and black 1989 911 Carrera Speedster, described in the catalogue by Seinfeld as having a “’Star Wars’ Storm Trooper look with snazzy low-cut top.”
Shooshani received a confirmation form for the vehicle and a chit entitling him to a photograph with Seinfeld. “He just told me about the car and the way he drove it and how much he loved it,” Shooshani said after acquiring the car. He attended the event with his girlfriend, Danielle Alura, a 2015 Miss US International beauty pageant contestant.
It’s hard to gauge the premium placed on Seinfeld’s cars, but later in the auction a 1989 Speedster similar to the one purchased by Shooshani (but not owned by Seinfeld) sold for US$209,000.
During the day, Seinfeld parted with a light-yellow 1974 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 built for the International Race of Champions racing series (for US$2.31 million) and a 1959 Porsche 718 RSK (US$2.86 million). Not all pre-auction estimates were met. A 1973 917/30 Can-Am Spyder racing car with a projected price of US$5 million to US$7 million sold for US$3 million. All told, the 18 Seinfeld Collection vehicles brought in roughly US$22 million.
“It’s not like he’s selling lesser examples from his collection or cars that aren’t great,” said David Gooding, the president of Gooding & Co. “It’s a catch-and-release kind of thing.”
Spike Feresten, the host of Car Matchmaker on the Esquire Network, attended as a Porsche enthusiast and as a friend to Seinfeld. He wrote the Soup Nazi and Muffin Tops episodes for Seinfeld, and he has remained friends with Seinfeld in the years since.
“Jerry has been generous enough to let me drive an awful lot of his collection,” Feresten said, before finding himself unable to resist making a Seinfeld allusion. “And I can tell you: They’re real and they’re spectacular.” NYT