The legendary Russo and Steele auction in Scottsdale, Arizona suffered an unprecedented catastrophe at just after 6:00 pm, January 22. Violent storms have been wreaking havoc at both Barrett-Jackson and Russo and Steele this year, with torrential rain and extremely fierce winds. The storms got the better of Russo and Steele Thursday night and chaos reigns at the moment.
With somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 people inside the gates and the auction underway, rain and straight line winds in excess of fifty mph struck the sight, tearing apart two of the approximately 800 foot long exhibition tents that the collector cars are kept in prior to, and after, going across the auction block. The largest of the exhibition tents tore, then collapsed, across hundreds of valuable collector cars, followed by a second huge tent covering hundreds more cars. One of the tents actually ripped in two and most of it flew over a hundred feet away and landed on a nearby freeway, blocking traffic well into Friday morning. Meanwhile, hundreds of magnificent cars sat exposed to the raging storm, almost all of them with their windows down, and just about every convertible on site had its top down as well.
Due to the ferocity of the storm and flying debris, Scottsdale and Phoenix police evacuated the crowd right away, uncertain the main auction tent could withstand the storm. Thankfully, no injuries have been reported. As of this writing, the whole Russo and Steele complex is still under lock down by the police and fire departments, and car owners have not been allowed onto the grounds to assess the damage to their cars or even cover their cars in some way. Whether or not the auction will continue this year is still in doubt, as Russo and Steele themselves cannot allow people back in the compound until all the damage is cleared. It is unlikely the sale will continue this week.
Over the next few days the extent of the damage to the cars at Russo will be worked out, but what will be done about this is likely to be a long-term dilemma. To our knowledge, nothing like this has ever occurred at any major collector car auction, let alone the second largest car auction in the world. If you've been watching Barrett-Jackson on television, you might be wondering where all the Mopars are (and all the high dollar cars for that matter). Well, they're over at Russo and Steele in huge numbers, with their owners opting for that venue's rules of not allowing owner buy backs and allowing owners to place reserves on their cars. As such, a very large number of high-end Mopars are at Russo and Steele, including a significant number of Hemi cars, Max Wedges, Superbirds, E-body convertibles, and at least two factory '68 Hemi Super Stockers. Right now, we’re all waiting to see how many suffered damage, and to what extent. We'll keep you posted.
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