When a rare American icon, the 1954 Oldsmobile F88 concept car designed by the artist/engineer impresario Harley Earl, sold for over $3 million dollars at auction in January, 2005, many auto hobbyists thought it may have been a fluke. 

Not any more!

Recently, at the January 21, 2006 Barrett-Jackson Auction in Arizona, two more contemporary works of art by Earl sold for a combined $6.8 million. And, the GM Futurliner, directly below, just set three records with a $4 million sale. It set records for biggest sale at Barrett-Jackson, biggest sale for a GM vehicle at auction, and biggest sale for an American-made car at auction. Plus, biggest sale for a damn transporter bus. Read the post auction press releases, click image below:

Even though Harley Earl's original fans are aging, his popularity is still potent. Combined, the Olds F-88, the Futurliner and Pontiac Bonneville Special sold for over $10 million dollars in exactly one year's time. Is this another record? The aftermath and effect of the 2005/06 seasons at Barrett-Jackson are still being felt in the collector car market. The Futurliner's $4,320,000 transaction, came within a breath ($50,000) of the record for a U.S. vehicle at auction.

The Aril 12, 2006 issue of Car Collector's Market Journal magazine put it this way, "Barrett-Jackson 2006 was a milestone for the collector car market. $98,178,850 changed hands on the block with another coupla million in the "Showroom" private sale revenue bringing the total to over $100 million. That's the first time any collector car auction has come even close to such a number and puts Barrett-Jackson right up there with Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips and Bonhams in the fine art and antiques world."