Photos courtesy Ames Automotive Enterprises.
Curiosity drew spectators in droves to last year’s Lambrecht Chevrolet auction in Pierce, Nebraska, but it also attracted plenty of buyers looking for low-mileage cars and trucks, some of them never titled. One of those buyers was New Hampshire collector Steve Ames, who came away from the weekend’s auction with perhaps the top prize – the 1.3-mile $140,000 1958 Chevrolet Cameo that headlined the auction.
Steve is best known in Pontiac circles as the founder of Pontiac restoration parts house Ames Performance Engineering in 1976. He has since sold the retail business and is concentrating on producing reproduction parts via Ames Automotive Enterprises. Additionally, Steve has been recognized for his efforts to advance the collector-car hobby through the Specialty Equipment Market Association’s (SEMA) Automotive Restoration Market Organization (ARMO) council, which named him the 2007 Person of the Year and inducted him into the ARMO Hall of Fame in 2008.
Over the last 32 years, Steve also has assembled a private collection of about 65 highly desirable, low-mileage, original muscle cars and classic cars and many restored low-production muscle cars. Not surprisingly, the hype emanating from Pierce in the summer of 2013 piqued his interest.
In his opinion, the most important vehicle offered at the auction was the Tartan Turquoise and Jet Black 1958 Chevrolet half-ton, two-wheel-drive Cameo pickup truck with a six-cylinder engine, three-speed manual transmission, black and silver interior. It had been stored indoors, which kept the elements at bay. However, the building’s roof had collapsed years prior and damaged the roof of the truck and cracked its windshield, so Ray Lambrecht had it moved back into the dealership for safekeeping. Feeling that the circumstance enhanced rather than detracted from the Cameo’s history, Steve paid more for it than any vehicle offered at the auction: $140,000 when the hammer fell, $147,000 with buyer’s premium.
In October 2013, the Cameo arrived in New Hampshire. Steve carefully rolled it off of the transporter.
Then came the media rush to tell the story of how and why Steve purchased this Cameo truck. Now that the furor has subsided, we caught up with Steve to learn more about what has happened since the auction, how his new acquisition is doing in its new home, the goals of his collection, remembrances of the auction and his insights for the future of the collector car hobby.
Hemmings Daily: Why did you choose the 1958 Cameo truck over the other candidates at the auction? For example, why not the 1965 Impala SS 396 with 12 miles?
Steve Ames: There were five vehicles that I was interested in initially: the 1963 and 1964 Impalas, the two 1965 396-cu.in. Impalas and the 1958 Cameo truck. On Friday, I heard about the storage building across from the dealership that had housed many of these cars and felt it was an important step in their history. When the roof caved in, Ray immediately brought the truck back and put it in the dealership, but the others went to outside storage for some time.
During the observation day, I noticed no one was looking under the vehicles. When I was under the truck, I realized the worst it had was slight surface rust. Though the Impalas appeared to be in nearly the same condition on top as the Cameo, underneath they had heavy New England-style scale rust, so I scratched them off my list because they needed work and, consequently, would no longer be original. The basis of my collection is to always look for the best available – this Cameo was it.
Everyone was clustered around it, they had to touch it. The truck must have had 10,000 fingerprints on it. The FBI would have loved it! I’ll bet 1,000 people knocked on the bed’s sides just to see if they were really fiberglass. People kept opening the driver’s door to photograph the odometer mileage. Half of the dirt on the truck got rubbed off and went home on people’s sleeves. As I watched it all unfold, it struck me that this truck was making history right in front of me.
HD: What was it like when the hammer came down for the Cameo and you won it?
SA: All of a sudden, I had cameras in my face and the local news people running up to interview me. On the way home, a stranger came up to me in the airport and said, “You bought that truck!” I replied, “Yes I did. Were you at the auction, too?” “No,” he said, and then he showed me the Sunday morning newspaper in his hand, with my picture in it.
From one trailer straight into another, the truck was briefly outside for the last time for many years to come.
HD: Were there any issues regarding getting the Cameo home?
SA: I was very rushed to make my flight out of Omaha, so I had a flatbed truck take the Cameo a few towns over for safekeeping until the transporter arrived to ship it home to New Hampshire. The driver called while I was on my way to the airport and said, “I brought the truck to the holding area and there are a lot of people looking at it and the other cars. I suggest we put it inside, but it’ll cost a little bit more.” I agreed. Soon after, I got another call. “The people are looking through the windows with flashlights, now. I can store it in my garage at my house and my wife can watch it, but it’ll cost a little bit more.” I said, “Please do.” The remainder of its trek to the Northeast was much less eventful.
HD: We had read about possible issues regarding the MSOs and Nebraska DMV rules. The cars were issued titles per the DMV requirements, but how did the auction house manage to get the original MSOs (now voided) back for the new owners, when normally the DMV doesn’t do that?
SA: Given the special circumstances surrounding this auction and its cars, Marv Spomer of Spomer Classics and Museum in Worthington, Minnesota, was able to negotiate with the Nebraska DMV on behalf of the VanDerBrink auction house to get the MSOs back for the 50 cars that had them. Interestingly, MSOs were not used until 1960 or 1961, so the Cameo’s lineage to the factory is documented via a transport data sheet instead, which was included with it.
HD: Did you perform any prep on the Cameo before displaying it in your collection?
SA: No prep at all. It remains absolutely as-purchased.
Though the walls are stark for now, they will soon be filled with pictures depicting events that took place at the auction.
HD: Given the cars that you have in the collection already, why do you feel that this truck is the cornerstone?
SA: I have other cars that were pretty darn close regarding historical importance, but they have bright original paint. The history of the Cameo is revealed in its patina – the dented roof, the broken windshield, the fingerprints, the partially rubbed-off dirt – all help to tell its story. In fact, we decided to display this one in the entryway, all by itself. We plan to hang pictures around the truck in an attempt to illustrate what happened in that cornfield in Pierce, Nebraska.
HD: What do you hope to achieve through your collection?
SA: We have initiated the difficult task of securing a trust for the collection to ensure that it endures long after we’re gone. The application process requires a mission statement. This is a condensed version of what we provided: “The mission of our trust is to purchase and preserve very low-mileage original, untouched automobiles. These automobiles will illustrate the creativity and craftsmanship of our forefathers and ancestors.” It’s a collection, not a museum, but people will be able to come to see it, eventually.
Steve had this 22,000-sq.ft. climate-controlled facility built in 2012 to house his car collection.
HD: Looking beyond the condition of the cars, what else made this auction unique for you?
SA: You go to other auctions and you know exactly what’s going to happen. At this one, you had no idea what was going to happen – it was like spontaneous combustion. Many people saw it as a ceremonial holiday or a carnival. As I took it all in – the Elvis impersonator, the mobile Subway sandwich shop, the History Channel up on a crane filming – it reminded me of the Buffalo Springfield song “For What It’s Worth.” “There’s somethin’ happenin’ here. What it is ain’t exactly clear.” Add to the mix that Saturday morning rain made the area a mud bog; traffic was backed up for miles all around the site; farm fields became makeshift parking lots; hotels were sold out; restaurants were packed and food stores had depleted shelves, and it appeared to be a mini Woodstock for car guys. There will probably never be another auction like it.
Here are some of the vehicles that comprise the rest of the collection.
HD: Being a collector yourself, what are your thoughts regarding Ray Lambrecht’s collection?
SA: Neither Lambrecht nor his collection can really be categorized. From what I had heard, he wanted to keep the dealership small, he did not negotiate on price, he employed just one mechanic and sold very few used cars. My thought is if he regularly sold used cars, his single mechanic would have had too much work servicing and repairing them, so Ray stuffed them out back. He didn’t accept all trade-ins however. I talked to an older man who accompanied his father to Lambrecht’s to buy a new 1965 Chevy. When Ray found out that he wanted to trade in a Galaxie, he said, “Take that Ford back where you got it!” and then walked away.
HD: What impact do you think the Lambrecht auction has made on the collector car hobby?
SA: Though many of the prices were too high, I still feel that it made a positive impact as an eye-opener that drew attention to the collector car hobby and industry through massive news coverage and the History Channel TV show. The fact that auction attendance ballooned to 15,000 to 16,000 people was a spectacular thing that seemingly came out of nowhere. At one point, I asked the guy at the gate, “How many people are in here?” He replied, “I don’t know, they’re coming from out of the woods, across corn fields, across the golf course – just everywhere.” It was also an economic boon to Pierce and its surrounding communities.
HD: What is your outlook for the future of the collector car hobby?
SA: I have always used the tri-five Chevy market as an indicator for the muscle cars. What’s happening there at any given time is generally where the muscle car market will be 10 years later. The tri-five market has matured and the muscle car market is following that trend. In the broader sense, collector cars that can be considered typical of their respective eras will begin to decline somewhat in value, but those which are historically significant or the best-of-the-best will continue to rise. In many aspects of life, you have to have something different to remain on top, and the same holds true for collector cars.
