Barrett-Jackson at Palm Beach......

[TimG]

Just got back from hauling the LS6 convertible out there. I flew to LA in 2001 to look at this car for a friend. It was real with a warranty plate and great owner history but had a terrible restoration. I was given the keys and told to have fun test driving the car, I did. It was purchased at a good price with the understanding that it needed a good restoration, not the local body shop kind that it had. The owner wanted to drive the car and hence the street restoration. The original M40 was with the car but had a horrible crack in the bellhousing from racing. As per Dave, it could not be put back in the car with this severe damage. The owner put a five speed manual in the car and told Dave to restore it for street use. He chose to put radial tires on the car and did not put a somg pump on it either. Dave did a nice job, but the owner did choose to put some repo parts on the car.
The car had the correct dated carb, heads, original block with numbers intact and good broach. The rear end was original and the damaged M40 was in the trailer with us for the new owner. The exhaust manifolds were correct part numbers, but dated late for the car, it ran headers for many years. I think that the changes that were made prevented this original LS6 convertible from reaching its potential. I'm not sure why the owner wanted to sell the car, he is a good friend and we do lots of car stuff together. He could not haul the car there last week and I thought it would be a fun trip, it also helped him out. My two sons were on spring break and we had a blast hauling the car and spending some time in Palm Springs. The gala was really a good time as was the auction and cars. The owner flew in on Friday and got the truck and empty trailer back, we flew back to Austin. Bottom line was that even with the cost of the car and restoration, he did fine on the car. No big profit, but he got his money out of it. The best thing is that I can say I drove the same LS6 convertible in California, Texas and Florida.