“…When I bought my first ‘Lambo’…” That should have been my first clue that I was in a different socioeconomic stratosphere. And it started with a parking lot full of exotics: ‘Lambos’ (Lamborghinis for us mere mortals), Ferraris, McLarens, Aston Martins to name a few.
The occasion? A weekend to preview the newly designed Area 27 track in Oliver, B.C.; a track designed by Jacques Villeneuve and built by Trevor Siebert and made for 300 exclusive members to drive their exotics to the limit. I couldn’t tell how beautiful it was but Allan could recognize at least 6 Formula One turns incorporated into this one fast ride.
It shouldn’t have been a surprise when the frenzied bidding started. Silent bidding all of Friday and Saturday led up to the Saturday night gala. Tantalizing memorabilia was up for grabs including the membership numbers “12” and “27”, two numbers made famous by Gilles Villeneuve and his son Jacques in both of their racing careers. The silent bids were few but ended with number 12 fetching $1600 and 27 $600 at the end of the silent auction. But that’s when the action was just heating up.
Live auction bidding started where these silent bids ended and when you get a room full of people who love fast cars, have a little extra cash and a few drinks under their belt, it can really get rocking! Just to clarify, this auction for the two numbers was for members only and they were bidding to change their membership number to one of these. Bidding for number 12 started at $1600 and quickly climbed to $1800, $2000, $3000 and finally to $4500. Number 27 started lower at $600 but just as quickly rocketed to $3000, $5000, $8000 and finally $12,500. Wow! I couldn’t believe it, $12,500 just to change a number.
Allan got in the game too. He donated a one-off portrait of Gilles signed by Gilles. All proceeds over the reserve would be given to a local charity for indigenous kids. It started with a reserve of $2500 and climbed to $3000, $4000 and sold at $4700.
He didn’t stop there. He had sold limited edition print #10 of “Four Into Four” already for $500 but he donated the other 3 limited edition numbers #11, 4 and 5. Bidding started at the reserve of $500 and all sold for between $2500-3500. It was a feeding frenzy.
And when people found out that he had books too, well let’s just say that I couldn’t stuff the money into my purse fast enough. We sold out. This was my first taste of making money so quickly and I was enjoying it! I had to remember that Allan had spent many years building this collection of his work and it was paying off. I’m still not able to buy my first ‘Lambo’ yet but it was sure fun being around people who had.
