Evaluation: Engine disassembled at some point in anticipation of a rebuild, but the work stopped there and the car has sat ever since. In barn find condition, dust and all. Complete but dirty interior. The dash paint and steering wheel rim are heavily cracked. Old repaint cracking, flaking, and scratched all over with surface rust visible underneath. Tattered original top but complete frame. Drivetrain is disassembled and not in the car but reportedly all the crucial parts are here. A never finished project not for the faint of heart, especially in an online auction.
Bottom Line: Then again, there’s no mystery here and no misrepresentation from Gooding. The car is clearly a mess and in need of everything, which should have been obvious to the keyboard bidders watching it throughout AZ Auction Week.
At this price the new owner is already in deep, so hopefully that doesn’t deter them from finishing a car that deserves to be saved and put back on the road. As always with high-profile project cars at auction like this, it would make more financial sense to buy a Speedster that’s already done and driving, but this hobby is never about what makes purely financial sense, is it?
