Guess the Value Auto Auction Game!

Welcome to our new NMS Blog Game: Guess the Auto Auction Price! I'll give you just a little info on each of these cars and trucks, and ask you to guess what price they went for at auction. This is a quarterly auction on a Naval Base in Norfolk VA, and these autos have been abandoned on the base. There is no guarantee that they run or have all their parts, so let's get started! Enter your best guess on any of these in the comments section below, and in a future blog I'll reveal the prices if you want to see how close you came.

87 JEEP WRANGLER

First  up, a jacked up 87 Jeep Wrangler. It looked to be in well worn condition, but the seats are filled with all kinds of odds and ends, auto parts and miscellaneous "stuff".

Just the big ol' wheels and tires, big rack on top, and lack of a roof has "fun" written all over this thing! Just the wheels are probably worth something, so my estimate is that someone will buy it.

93 SUBARU IMPREZA

On the right of this photo, in front of the Jeep is a 93 Subaru Impreza. I didn't look too closely at this one, but it looked to have been sitting outdoors for a good amount of time.

If it runs, then maybe someone will take a chance on it, and get into some four wheel drive goodness.

Probably not me though!

03 PT CRUISER

OK, now we're talking here, a 2003 PT Cruiser! You can tell that at least the hood works!

Might have upgraded wheels, and the body seems to be OK.

But seriously, do you know how many used PT Cruisers are out there on car lots today? According to the latest survey, there are exactly "One Giant Boat Load" of these things for sale all over the place. No idea if it will sell.

05 PONTIAC GRAND PRIX

Clearly we have a little bit of front end damage on this one, which I think is the 2005 Pontiac Grand Prix. Now if it was damaged in the back, and the front engine and drive train were OK, then you'd be in business with a good car...as long as you found another one that was damaged in the front, so that between the two cars you could do some repairs and end up with maybe 1 that was in good shape! Unless there's a couple of hundred dollar bills in the glove box, I don't see this one selling for more than 100 bucks if at all.

98 FORD MUSTANG

Sorry for the sunshine, but this 1998 Ford Mustang was worthy of a photo.

It's a six cylinder, and old enough that I could see the odometer (non electronic) which read 172,000 miles. Other than being 17 years old, it looked to be OK under the hood, wheels and tires OK, so it will probably attract some bidders.

98 FORD MUSTANG

Who wouldn't want a beater Mustang for a couple hundred bucks? Speaking of Mustangs, I've been reading about the Factory Five cars that you can build in your garage. They come with a fiberglass body, and then you just have to add the running gear from a Mustang. Hmmmm.

I noticed some missing piece of cowl around the windshield wipers, but would estimate the wheels alone are worth 200 bucks, so we'll just have to see how this one goes.

00 DODGE NEON

 Ah, the classic Neon. This one is a 2000 Dodge version, and I can tell you from my experience with owning a 1995 Plymouth Neon, that these were not too bad cars when new. Mine even survived three years driving on the Autobahn in Germany, so honestly, a perfectly OK small car.

No interest from me on this one, but I'll guess someone buys it for maybe a thousand bucks.

03 JAGUAR S TYPE

Perhaps a more luxurious brand sparks your imagination! If so you are in luck, because the auction has a 2003 Jaguar S Type, which I believe is from the days that Ford owned Jag, and these cars were suddenly a common every day sight in the US.

This one looked to be in good shape, but I don't know the mileage. The engine fluids all seemed OK to me, so I'm thinking this goes for several thousand. The driver's door has a very solid "THUNK" when you close it too, no extra charge!

03 CHEVY AVALANCHE

Maybe you're a truck person, and would like a used 2003 Chevy Avalanche. This one seemed to be in good shape, no apparent body damage, so this might be going for a lot of dollars.

Not in the market for a tow vehicle at NMS at this time, but who knows, someone will likely walk away buying this one.

90 MERCURY GRAND MARQUIS

I didn't look around the 1990 Mercury GRAND Marquis very much, but I'll guarantee you that it has some awesome looking fake wood grain all OVER the dash!

It will be interesting to see if this tank sells at all, but I'm thinking someone will take it for 300.
 Better view of the Mustang. Maybe a little bit of the cowl around the wipers was missing, but again, for a 98 Mustang, looked OK. If you want more Mercury Grand Marquis info, check out this recent letter from a listener to the Car Talk radio show: Grand Marquis on Car Talk LINK

08 HONDA CIVIC Si

No kidding, this might be the best car in the auction, a 2008 Honda Civic Si. The body and everything under the hood looked to be in good shape, it still had the owner's manual in the glove box, and as an Si it has more horsepower than the base model.

Honda has a great reputation for building dependable cars, and if this car needs any repairs the parts will be easily available.

This will go for thousands is my thought.

PLYMOUTH ROAD RUNNER

Not for sale, but outside the auction lot we spotted this nicely refinished Plymouth Road Runner.

Beep Beep!

We'll be back soon with the results of the auction.

Tidewater Sports Car Club 2015 Awards Dinner Report

FIAT 500 Abarth posing in front of the Curtiss P-40E

The members of the Tidewater Sports Car Club TSCC LINK held their annual dinner at the Military Aviation Museum LINK on a lovely evening (find your own link for Weather.com) recently, and your NMS-North team was there to capture all the happenings and report on the latest autocross news in Virginia Beach. Or maybe we were there for the delicious dinner! OK, we also were there to stroll around a bit and see some awesome WWII aircraft in the museum. Maybe we were there to win a door prize too! If YOU are near the Virginia Beach area and are looking for an interesting way to spend some time, we can highly recommend this small aviation museum. You'll probably see something you've never seen before!

MIG-3 description

By "see something you've never seen before", how about the ONLY flying MIG-3 in the world! In the first photo above you can also see the only flying Mosquito in the world.

Here's the description (click on the photo for a larger view) and the next photo is the plane in the museum. 

MIG-3

After reading the description above, now I know that "MIG" stands for Mikoyan-Gurevich, the makers of this aircraft!

If you are interested in engines, it has a Mikulin AM35-A that cranks out 1,350 horsepower, and flies up to 39,400 feet.

My math isn't always accurate, but I'm thinking that's about 1,190 more HP than my FIAT.

Back to the dinner! The TSCC put on a great event in a nice location, and threw in the opportunity  to have your picture taken in front of the museum aircraft. There were lots (and I mean LOTS as in "every member won something") of door prizes, a free dinner, and then the awards to the class winners and overall club champion for 2015. Thanks to all the volunteers that make this club the biggest autocross group in the area!

News wise, we are happy to report coming home with the 1st place hardware in the G Street category for the year, and as usual will admit that the NMS FIAT was the only car that ran in enough events to be eligible. Still, as Yogi Berra meant to say, "first place is still first place, especially if you're in it". 

Regardless, we'll note that this is the first class championship for the NMS racing team, and we're looking forward to be driving again in 2016, and promise that we'll be having fun whether it's in first place, last place, or somewhere in between the two at the end of the year.

Overall I stood 29th out of 73 club members in all the classes this year, so in 2016 my goal will be to get into the top 20.

Thanks to the TSCC for providing a great evening and nice prizes. With the GS champ jacket I just need the temperature to cool off so that I can wear it!

Also in the good news department, we walked home with a door prize, a great gift card to OG Racing, so we'll be doing some shopping with them in the near future. You can check them out for all your racing needs at this link: OG RACING LINK

Other door prizes included various gift cards to Tire Rack, tools like some tire pressure gauges, jack stands, wheel guns, and the very popular Go Pro camera. Did I mention the chicken, shrimp, and BBQ were all delicious? Since this is a car blog and not a WWII aircraft blog, here's a few more vehicles you can see in the museum.

1950 JAGUAR XK 120 (because it could go 120mph)

See next photo to see this car in the museum

See previous photo for info on the Hanomag-Kurier Staff Car

British Daimler "Dingo" Scout Car

German BMW R75 motorcycle, sidecar, and trailer

Today's Press Conference at Nixon Motor Sports

As announced on our blog two weeks ago, the Nixon Motor Sports team held a press conference today, so we'll summarize the highlights below. For background on who NMS is and what they've done in the past, you can click on all the other pages of this blog. HINT: It won't take you long to read!

NMS drivers Robert and Brian

--Plans for 2016: NMS categorically denied that they were purchasing the two time defending Mercedes-Petronas F1 team and replacing triple world champion Lewis Hamilton with NMS-South driver Brian Nixon. "That's basically an untruth", stated Brian Nixon when asked point blank if NMS was cashing in some old soda bottles and selling their organs to buy the Mercedes team. He followed that bombshell up with "Next question, genius".

--Latest Car Developments: Brian went on to state that development work on the 99 Miata engine has been "on schedule", and that with a rebuilt motor that NMS will once again be competing at the top of the standings in E Street autocross in 2016. Until the car suffered an engine failure in competition mid-way through the 2015 season, Brian was in the hunt for a class win, and even though he still ended in 3rd place on points, that was in running only half the season before the engine issue. "With a full season on an engine that actually works, we're looking to be competitive for more wins this year, and that should add up to a good battle for 1st overall."

NMS North and South on land, US Navy on water.

--In the other half of the NMS garage, Robert stated that he would continue with the same 2013 model FIAT Abarth, and that he "hopes to repeat" his 2015 championship in the G Street class. The NMS driver said that "I'm keeping things basically the same, but will upgrade the tires, and we're announcing that we want to thank Dunlop and Tire Rack for the past two seasons of great tires, but in 2016 we will be wearing Bridgestones."  When asked to clarify, Nixon went on to say: "Of course, if some other cars with drivers actually enter the GS class then it might be different, but as long as I'm the only car in the class I think I can win it again... probably".  Regardless, holding down "Fastest and Only Italian Car of the Day" at every event is also another goal, again, as long as no other Italian cars show up!

1st place.....(out of 1)!

--New in 2016: NMS-South further stated that they were targeting a trip to Lincoln Nebraska in September for the Sports Car Club of America National Solo (autocross) championship. This event has been attracting somewhere around 2,000 of the best drivers in the country, so this marks a big step forward for the NMS team. Brian will be looking to work with another driver in the number 86 Miata at this event, and with 10 months to go, will be looking to continue to improve the car and upgrade a few more components while competing and gaining more experience.

DODGE CORONET ON TRACK!

--New in 2016:  NMS announced that NMS-South and a team of other drivers have been secretly working on a race prepped 70s Dodge Coronet to enter into future LeMons Endurance Racing. The LeMons series is designed to be low budget and on a race track enduro events. If you have a sense of humor, check out the LeMons website: 24 Hours of LeMons   This car has pretty much everything it needs to race, but will be getting some upgrades during 2016 to ensure it's safe and race ready.