The Market

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Mecum at Kissimmee 2025: The bid goes on... and on and on

Mecum at Kissimmee 2025: The bid goes on... and on and on 20th January 2025

Kissimmee, the largest city and county seat of Osceola County, Florida, does not have the ritzy associations of Pebble Beach, Monaco, Paris or Lake Como. It’s the current home of Tupperware, not Hermès or Loro Piana.

Every January, though, 100s of mostly American classic cars find new owners there at one of Dana Mecum’s headline events. Last Saturday evening, a Porsche 917K that featured in the 1971 Steve McQueen movie Le Mans was not one of them.

The Gulf-liveried car’s USP was its role in the motion picture; it never ran in period as a JW Automotive entry and after filming in 1970 was sold to German privateer Reinhold Joest who campaigned it in yellow/green Team Auto Usdau livery in 1971 with some success (4th at the Spa 1000km). Works driver Brian Redman purchased it a few years later, selling it to 1970 Le Mans winner Richard Attwood, from whom it passed first to Frank Gallogly of New Jersey – who also owned the grey 911 S from Le Mans – and then to comedian and Porsche fanatic Jerry Seinfeld, who consigned it to Mecum.

Unlike many other 917s, it has always carried closed bodywork and never run as a Spyder in Can-Am or Interserie races – a definite plus.

Who knows the ins and outs of the deal, but when bidding stopped at $25m – a figure, if genuine, that should have bought the car – it was pushed away by Mecum’s familiar, black-uniformed staff to join the ranks of almost all the other expensive catalogue entries that failed to find buyers on Saturday, the headlining day of an event that spanned almost a fortnight.


Other non-sellers included all the big Ferraris other than the white/black 1965 275 GTS chassis 06809 not sold by RM at Amelia in 2022 when non-original red. The Canadians asked $1,600,000 to $2,000,000 then. It was fifth time lucky for the car offered at various Mecum sales over the last two years and it finally went for $1,320,000 all-in.

Top-selling car in Kissimmee was the 1966 Ford GT40 road car, one billed as the first example delivered and, after a life travelling the world in all sorts of configurations, now back ‘as built’ in Pine Green. Well sold for $7,040,00 on a weekend not noted for big-ticket lots finding new owners. What looked like a slightly modded Mercedes-Benz 300 SL ‘Gullwing’ went for $1,485,000. The other Gullwing and Roadster did not sell, nor did the Schuppan Porsche 962.

The actual ‘Shaguar’ E-type Roadster used in the Mike Myers Austin Powers films was bought for $880,000. Really? Yeah baby!

Two Miuras made it to Florida, in identical liveries of green with fantasy bright blue leather interiors turned out by the same West Coast shop. Neither sold.

Expect to see all these non-sellers – many of which owned by the company – to return to the Mecum merry-go-round again this year. With cattle-auction-style chanting and all lots, however valuable, afforded only a few minutes of fame in front of the rostrum, it’s a world away from the rarefied tones of British auctioneers used by the international firms.

But Dana Mecum knows how to run a business and is one of the most effective operators out there; his ability to write big, $20m+ cheques for collections and Blue Riband Ferraris is legendary. Having a multi-million-dollar Ferrari on the bill raises the profile of the event and brings the mostly blue-collar punters in to buy sub-$250k US Muscle. It clearly works, so each to their own.