A Back-to-Back Classic Car Weekend in the Northeast

A cold morning gave way to bright, warm sunshine at Coker Farm in Bedford, New York, on Saturday. The sun warmed up the hundreds of cars—from beaters to million-dollar trailer queens—assembled in the fields since shortly after dawn for the Bring a Trailer (BaT) Alumni Gathering.

The host was Philip Richter, owner of the 115-acre horse farm, an enthusiastic car collector, writer for Sports Car Market, and the principal in Hollow Brook Wealth Market. BaT President and founder Randy Nonnenberg was also in attendance. The two shared a Pebble Beach panel.

“We’ve all burned up hours we’ll never get back on BaT,” Richter said during a roundtable forum held during the meet. “The listings are very good and very accurate, and the comments that people add often enhance the sale.”

Anthony Serra, a power seller on BaT with 1600 Veloce, said he did his first 200 listings on BaT “by myself with a cell phone, but now we have five people in the photo studio.”

Clearly, many of the people wandering the farm with blissful smiles owned two or more collector cars, whether bought on BaT or not. One fellow sported a T-shirt that read, “Just One More Car, I Promise.”

“We’re doing seven alumni gatherings this year, and the same or more next year,” Nonnenberg told Autoweek. “It’s an evolving model.” Cars and coffee events (like nearby New Canaan’s Caffeine & Carburetors, held the next day) can be just as big, but are less centralized. BaT was firmly in charge of the gathering, and even provided lunch to the attendees.

BaT is now owned by Hearst Autos (which also owns Autoweek), but Nonnenberg remains in charge. “I’m a full-time president, and I’m jamming on BaT every day,” he said, adding that he plans to stay involved. “Hearst has been a good partner—fortifying things behind the scenes—and mostly stays out of the way in how the site is run. They want to be long-term owners.”

BaT is currently listing a 1934 Mercedes-Benz 500 K rebodied as a Special Roadster, and bidding is north of $1 million. It’s one of a number of listings that prove bidders will pay high prices for cars they didn’t actually see in person.

“The online world was seen as scary and mysterious until around 2015,” Nonnenberg said. “There needed to be some oversight applied, and that’s what we brought to the online selling of collector cars. We had to build a reputation for honesty. The used car market is full of sharks and terrible people.”

The BaT listings have a “just the facts” vibe, with no added superlatives. BaT’s volume has increased dramatically, and recently there were 1,060 cars up at the same time. “It’s a lot of work!” Nonnenberg said. BaT has gone from selling 75 to 80 cars per day in early 2024 to 110 to 120 daily this past summer, Sports Car Market reported.

There was no requirement that cars on the field be bought on BaT, and many weren’t. Here are a few stories:

• Billy Denton, a bicycle shop owner in Woodstock, New York, found his 1991 VW Vanagon Westfalia camper locally. He and his wife and two children make extensive use of the camper, which has a pop-up bed, an LP gas refrigerator and stove, available 110-volt current, and more. With the family expanding, they might move on to something bigger.
  

• Chuck White of Warwick, New York, bought his pristine four-speed, tri-carb 1966 Pontiac GTO fully restored four years ago. “The Pennsylvania-based restorer sold the GTO to finance a business he was starting,” White said. “It then went up to Canada. I found it there exactly as it left the restorer. I haven’t had to touch it.” But White has touched plenty of other GTOs. “I don’t do bodywork, but I do a lot of other things,” he said.

• Kevin Hedley did buy his bright red 1968 Porsche 912 on BaT in 2022 and also owns a 1965 Oldsmobile 4-4-2 and 2008 Saturn Sky Redline bought on the site.
  

• Rob Weisstuch of Larchmont, New York, brought his vividly orange 1974 Saab 99 EMS, which he bought from a Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Saab enthusiast a year ago. “That man is a legend in Central Pennsylvania,” he said. The Saab is not restored, but highly original.

• Rick Young of Chappaqua, New York, came in a 1967 Sunbeam Alpine, which was complemented by a V-8-engined Tiger elsewhere on the field. “I bought it as an uncompleted project, and now drive it about 2,000 miles a year,” he said. “The gas tank was missing.”
  

  
  The restorer was on hand, and warned Young to clean the car’s bullet electric connectors regularly if he didn’t want to experience the electric gremlins common to British sports cars.

• Fabian Molina, a fashion designer in New York City, said the 1963½ 260-cubic-inch V-8-powered Ford Falcon Sprint convertible he had on the field has been in his family since 1973—his mother paid all of $100 for it, then gave it to him. The car was caught up in Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and was fully restored after being submerged in a parking garage. It has 80,000 original miles.
  

The BaT reunion was one day before the October 20 running of Caffeine & Carburetors in New Canaan, Connecticut, only a dozen or so miles away. Neither event was judged. The C&C site was the town’s Waveny Park, and the cars—as many as in Bedford—sprawled across the open acreage. A pair of Citroëns (a DS and SM) sat next to a Rolls-Royce. It was very pleasant anarchy, and paradise for car nuts. A few sightings:

• A very nice 1972 Volvo 1800ES wagon with 88,000 miles, Weber carburetion, and a four-speed with overdrive, was for sale at $48,000. The modern retro-looking stereo was “currently not working,” but everything else appeared to be.

• Larry Allen of Stratford, Connecticut, was proud of his 1993 Commemorative Edition Saab 900 Turbo (48 of 325 made). The car had been sitting 10 years in California before he bought it and brought it back to life. It now sports direct ignition, a wood dashboard, reupholstered leather seats, and many other upgrades. Allen quoted the late David E. Davis of Car and Driver as saying that the Saab 900 Turbo is “a Mercedes-Benz that wandered out of the house one night during an acid experience and was never the same again.”

• A rare bird indeed was Peter Sobran of Madison, Connecticut’s, 217-hp 1992 Mercedes-Benz 300TE-24 station wagon. The “24” designation refers to the 24 valves on the inline six-cylinder engine. “They can rev to 7,000 rpm,” Sobran said. “This 24 has a five-speed dogleg Getrag manual transmission, cloth seats, and rollup windows. There are very few in the US.”

Owners at Caffeine and Carburetors wander off to look at the field, so many of the cars had to be admired on their own. They were an exceptionally varied lot.

There were Porsches by the dozens in the park, and one notable example was a 1982 911 outfitted for safari racing with a roof-mounted spare, multiple driving lights, and event dust as an evocative patina. The car, which sported stickers from the 2018 to 2023 Appalachian Adventure and 2021 Safari Southwest, was built by the Keen Project.

An as-found unrestored Maserati 3500 GT with Milan registration was an unusual sight, and how many be-finned NSU Sport Prinz have you seen (only 20,831 were built between 1958 and 1968)?

One of the more valuable cars at C&C was a red 1971 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 “Daytona.” It was mobbed, and parents held their kids up to get a look at the V-12, which sported velocity stacks. Also getting a lot of stares were multiple restomod Broncos, as well as a BMW 3.0 CS that was somehow parked blocking an exit lane.

A fine brass-era car was a Premier built in Indianapolis. A Deluxe Touring model could cost $6,000 in 1913, making the marque on par with Locomobile and Packard in the upper tiers. The company switched to building only taxicabs in 1923—and was gone by 1926. Next to it was a right-hand-drive 1911 Cadillac, but basically cars parked wherever they could find space.

Caffeine & Carburetors held only two events in 2024, with the other one in downtown New Canaan. The event goes back to 1995, when local coffee vendor Doug Zumbach began hosting gatherings in town. It grew from there. There is now a Caffeine & Carburetors Café, which hosts events throughout the year, and the big gathering will be back in 2025.