RM Auctions Celebrates its 25th Anniversary with Amazing Classic Auto Show

Back in Chatham that afternoon, Formula One championship driver Phil Hill made a presentation recounting his winning victories at

1937 Cord 812 Supercharged Boattail Speedster unrestored, still running and still stunning This design which debuted for 1936 pioneered hidden headlights, a body without running boards and unit-body construction. (Photo: Paul Fleet, Canadian Auto Press)

LeMans, Daytona and Sebring. Other celebrities included emcee Ed Herrman, the Emmy Award-winning actor from "Gilmore Girls," and the "King of the Kustomizers" George Barris who designed custom cars for the television and movies including the Batmobile. Both new and old versions of it were on display on Saturday along with the Batcycle and Batplane.

Those stars and cars joined a crowd that was believed to be over 10,000 in human terms, and over 1,000 in mechanical terms, for an all-day open show at the RM Classic Cars shop beside the Trans-Canada highway. The line-up of vehicles waiting to get in stretched along Highway 40, up and over the MacDonald-Cartier Freeway overpass, and beyond for another two kilometers - a queue that lasted all day long.

The field of automotive dreams, juxtaposed vehicles of differing years, styles and values right beside each other. A classic,

The original Batmobile from the television series Batman. Designer George Barris, the "King of the Kustomizers," brought the entire fleet of Bat-vehicles to the car show at the 25th Anniversary of RM Classic Cars. (Photo: Paul Fleet, Canadian Auto Press)

million dollar Duesy from the 1930s was parked beside a little old, cheap Type I Volkswagen from the 1960s. An upright, Canadian military WWII-vintage Willys Jeep with a trailer stood behind a string of sleek, modern Chevrolet Corvettes, the quintessential American sports car.

From this hodgepodge field and RM's own restorations, 100 cars were selected as the cream of the crop and displayed on Sunday at Chatham's Tecumseh Park. They dated as far back as 1904, in the case of one Cadillac, and were valued as high as $4-million, for a freshly-rebuilt Mercedes SSK. The make widely considered the pinnacle of automotive design, Duesenberg, was represented by ten copies. Of the 50 Tuckers ever built, there were four present. Perhaps the most noteworthy one-of-a-kind was Edsel Ford's personal 1938 V8 special roadster, complete with a Florida license plate from where he vacationed.