Yesterday I went to the Barrett-Jackson car auction in Scottsdale. This is my third year going to the auction, and by far the most exciting. I wouldn’t miss this car auction for the world. It’s a car guy’s dream to be at one place you have the finest cars and the most renowned custom car builders. Anyone who is anybody is the car world comes to Scottsdale for this auction.

I’ve been famous for a couple years after being on two reality shows. Through that experience I’ve met a lot of famous people in the entertainment industry. Some of those people have shallow fame.

I met three key people in the custom car world yesterday:

1. Barry Meguiar

The first was Barry Meguiar who is the host of Car Crazy on Speed Vision. Barry has built up an empire around his car polish. Well, they make more than that, and everything they make is high quality and every car guy really enjoys using. He’s a big fan of the car culture. Through his TV show he introduces the viewers to custom car people who make the whole scene come together. You never get the since that he’s just putting on the nice guy role so that he can sell more products. He seems authentic.

I explained to Barry what I wanted to do with Kustoms.com, and he seemed really interested in my concept, which is to create a website to help younger people understand the historical and social context of the classic cars they admire. I hope that a young person could see a ‘57 Chevy and not just say that it is cool, but they understand what was going on in the world in 1957 and how what was going on affected the success of that car. You need to know what older folks think about when they see the car because they were alive when it came out. I don’t like the fact that many Americans forget their past in their pursuit of the future. I felt fortunate that Barry was truly interested in my plans.

I learned more about what he’s doing with his website: CarCrazyCentral.com. They are letting the website be the center of everything they do. I know this isn’t a new concept, but it is new for people who are in the TV industry who’s only priority has been their show. He invited me to visit their studio/headquarters in Irvine, California, where they produce their television show and the website. I’ll have to visit them on my next trip out to San Diego.

2. Chip Foose

Meeting Chip Foose yesterday was an honor. I admire his God-given talent and his dedication to crafting stunning custom cars. On television, he seems like a kind and authentic person. You can tell he stands for something. I was happy to get his autograph and then walk with him as he was leaving the event. I know what it’s like to have people wanting to meet you or build a 30-second relationship with you.

3. Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top

Billy Gibbons is one of the guys with the long beards in the band ZZ Top. Although most hipsters wouldn’t notice their music, ZZ Top has created music for car lovers and showed music lovers the world of cars. So in the car world, Billy Gibbons is royalty. The car world is fun because it makes celebrities more real. There’s a connection between guys who spend time under the hood of your car. It doesn’t matter what car you’re working on, it’s still working on a car. It requires hard work and passion.

Meeting these three guys was cool because they’ve done a lot for the car hobby. I know that they would each think that my ideas for kustoms.com is a good one, and they’d applaud me for the ambition. That’s what car guys do for each other, they encourage one another to do cool things. But I realize that the site really will just be a hobby site. It’s not doomed to failure because it will be my hobby, but it’s growth is dependent on my free time (which I have none) and money (which I need to put other places.) So in order to get the site up and keep it going, I’m going to have to figure out a business plan to bring in some cash too. If it is a source of income–however small–it is larger than a hobby.

Good News for the Ford Mustang

After yesterday’s car auction, I am happy for the American auto industry, especially Ford Motor Company. Ford introducing their retro-inspired Mustang last year was a bold move. Most people assume that if you do something retro then it will be popular. But when you do that, you run the risk of creating something that is forgettable ten years down the road. I mean, who really cares about the re-introduced Pontiac GTO from two years ago? The the GTO is legend with millions of people waiting to love it again. GM tried to do it again, and they failed.

Yesterday several customized 2005 Mustangs sold for well over $125,000. That’s pretty cool considering you can get a new one for less than $25,000. It’s a complicated discussion to sort out what makes a car worth a lot of money, and I don’t have the room to write about it. But anytime that your factory vehicle can be customized and sold for such big money is really good news for your company. This doesn’t happen with custom Hondas, Cadillacs, Lincolns, etc. One-year-old cars selling for that much was truly car history in the making.

I am excited for the smarts that Ford put together to promote their 2007 Mustang Shelby GT500. They had the GT500 concept car there at the auction, driven onto the auction block by Carroll Shelby himself and Edsel Ford. The winner of the auction doesn’t actually get that car, but they will own the first GT500 to roll off the assembly line later this year. That means their VIN will be XXXXXXXX0000001. For most people, this doesn’t mean anything. But for car collectors, this is the pedigree of your vehicle.

2007 Ford Shelby GT500 Coupe

The other cool parts of the auction package is that you get a matching tool chest with the same VIN. Carroll Shelby added that he would autograph the visor of the concept vehicle that was there at the auction, and then they would install it on your new car. You get a trip up to the Ford Special Vehicles Team to actually watch your car be put together. To top it all off, the money made from the auction goes to charity. For a car guy, that is one heck of an experience!

My guess is that once they hit the showrooms later this year, the GT-500 will have a sticker price of $65,000 and because of demand, people will pay of $80,000 for them. That’s how it’s gone for other retro-inspired cars like the Chrysler PT Cruiser, the Ford GT40, and the Ford Thunderbird.

Given the excitement of the auction package (especially the VIN), I expected the bidding to top out at $180,000. I was shocked when the auction closed at at $600,000. That is 10 times the sticker price of the new car!

This is a phenomenal way to begin the Ford’s story of the re-introduction of the GT500 to their lineup. They will have a full year of fanatic buzz increasing the value of their cars before they even come out. Realistically, this could mean that every GT500 sold in 2007 is worth twice as much today than they were yesterday. Every car collecting expert had to change their their speculation after that gavel hit at yesterday’s auction. This will generate tens of millions of dollars in extra profit for Ford and for Mustang car owners.

I believe that I watched history in the making yesterday–all in the course of a ten minute auction. I know that millions of dollars of development and years of hard work and ingenuity went into crafting that storied ten minute auction. I truly admire the people at Ford and what they managed to pull off. There are executives at every other auto maker on earth who are green with envy this morning.

What Ford pulled off yesterday shows that although they may not make cars as reliable as the Japanese do, the American’s know how to WIN the game they can play. Toyota has no heritage, but Ford does have heritage. Ford created a stellar plan to bring value back to their name. Brilliant people made the plan, executed the plan, and American auto history shifted because of it. Bravo.

I don’t know what’s going on at GM. My guess is that they are taking drastic action to re-order their company. The SUV craze brought in a lot of money and helped GM hold off the inevitable, but now it’s time for them to start over–just like the airlines are doing.

I think the same thing is coming for the youth ministry that I work for. I don’t know what it’s going to look like, but over the course of the next two years, we will have to restructure our whole organization in order to stay alive.