If big things are in store for our area and Osceola Heritage Park in 2022, there’s no better way to start the year than the Kissimmee Mecum Auction that starts on Jan. 6.
Mecum Auctions has been coming to Kissimmee annually since 2007, but with over 3,500 cars already registered for sale, it’s primed to be “this is going to be the largest and most prestigious auction ever” according to Mecum’s John Kraman, director of company relations and the company spokesperson.
“We are also excited that 2022 will be our first-year broadcasting with MotorTrendTV, which gets us right to our core audience,” said Kraman said, who is also the supervisor of Mecum’s on-air broadcast talent and has been a commentator and analyst for the televised coverage of Mecum auctions since 2008.
Mecum can always be counted on to have at least one, if not several “headliner” autos up for auction in Kissimmee each year. Last year a 1965 Shelby 427 Cobra Roadster sold for $5.9 million. Past years have featured the green Mustang made famous in the car chase from the Steve McQueen movie “Bullitt”, and any number of classic American muscle cars and European exotics, each selling for $1 million or more.
This year, at least three headliners have been announced. A 1965 Shelby Mustang GT350R Prototype, which last sold for $3.8 million, is featured this year, plus a bevy of high pedigree classic Corvettes and the museumquality 1951 Hirohata Mercury Custom.
“The market is white-hot now,” said Kraman. “The average age of bidders is coming down because a new generation is discovering these cars are a tangible asset that can be enjoyed by the individual and family while prices keep appreciating.”
1965 Shelby Mustang GT350R Prototype is also known as the “Flying Mustang”, partly because of the car’s ten first-place finishes in the 1965 race season. Carroll Shelby, a retired racer driver, began a legacy of pairing and modifying existing chassis and engines to produce race cars. As hard as it may be to believe, the 1965 Shelby Mustang GT350R Prototype was commissioned by Ford partly to overcome the affordable Mustang’s image of a “ladies’ sports car” when it was first introduced in 1964.
According to Carroll Shelby’s grandson Aaron Shelby, current Shelby American and Shelby Foundation board member, “the Mustang GT350R was the first racing Mustang and is iconic in Shelby and American racing history.”
The Mecum Auction has a high economic impact among recurring events at Osceola Heritage Park, with 48 percent of 2019 attendees coming from outside of Florida. Several automotive-related organizations, such as car clubs, use the occasion of the Mecum Auction to hold their own nationallevel events at the same time, multiplying the economic effects of the auction. At this time, the Embassy Suites is already sold out on several days during the auction, and all full RV hookup spaces reserved for the event are sold out.
More information on the Mecum 2022 Kissimmee Auto Auction can be found at: https:// www.mecum.com/ auctions/kissimmee-2022.
