If you believe in fate, then this story may not seem strange at all. I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time when I bought Speedster #007 about 2 years ago, but the mileage on the car was so low, that I just couldn’t bear to drive it. Each time I took it for a short spin, it got harder and harder to resist the ‘call of the Turbo’.  About 6 months ago I decided I couldn’t stand it any longer, and I started my search for a Callaway Twin Turbo that I could drive and enjoy.

I knew exactly what I wanted. First, it had to be a convertible. It also had to be a 1991 since this was the year of peak power for these cars. A 6 speed was a requirement too. Armed with my ‘must have’ list, I started my search knowing that it was likely to be a pretty long haul since these cars just don’t hit the market all that often.

I learned from a posting on the Callaway Forum that this Callaway was coming to auction in Tulsa, Oklahoma in June of 2008. After checking out some of the background on the car with the auction company, Callaway Cars, and a few forum members, I decided to make the trip to Tulsa to see if I could buy the car.

The trip itself was an event. I flew in through a major storm front that was in OKC area. The flight in was one of the roughest I’ve ever experienced, and it was one of those where you could see lightening popping all around the airplane. However, the airport itself was momentarily in the clear and we were able to land, so I picked up my rental car and headed for Tulsa – driving right back into the thunderstorm that I had just flown through. The rain and wind was so heavy, that what is normally a 90 minute trip, took me almost 3 hours. Oh – did I mention the 3 tornados that touched down in the area along I-44 between OKC and Tulsa?

The auction was the next day, and I headed over early to check out the car – and it looked even better than it did in the photos. The car wasn’t scheduled to hit the block until late afternoon, so I had lots of time to kill. Fortunately, forum member BoostedMaxPSI (Frank) decided to drive up from the DFW area to meet me and check out the auction. Frank and I had a great time catching up and comparing notes, and we were able to locate and talk to the seller of the Callaway and learned quite a bit about the car.

Finally, about 4:00 in the afternoon, the car headed toward the auction block. I made my way in to the ring and grabbed a seat on one side, right in the front row. The bidding started slowly, and stalled at about $47K. At this point I had not bid because the reserve had not been met. Suddenly, the auctioneer started talking directly to the high bidder, who was on the other side of the ring, trying to coax him to go a little higher. Having no luck, the auctioneer said “Look, he wants $50,000 for the car. Will you give him $50,000?” The bidder thought about it for a moment and then said ‘yes’. It was on – or so I thought.

Much to my amazement, the auctioneer looked down at his podium and said “Anybody else?” I raised my hand to bid, and realized that nobody was looking at me. The auctioneer was still looking down, and the bidders assistant on my side of the ring had his back turned looking at the auctioneer and the other bidder. I started waving my hand and shouting a bid, and people around me saw me and started yelling for the assistant too. Then, just as the assistant finally turned and saw me and started to signal my bid, the auctioneer hammered the car and yelled “SOLD”. I had missed the car.

Not being one to give up too easily (plus, Frank was egging me on), I located the buyer and asked him if he had any interest in selling the car for a quick profit. I had nothing to lose, and the guy had seemed a little reluctant to go the reserve price anyway. But, he said ‘no’, he was going to keep it. I wrote down my name, email, and number and asked him to contact me if he changed his mind.

I figured that was pretty much the end of it, when out of nowhere about  a month later, I got a cryptic email from someone saying would sell his Callaway if I was interested it. The funny thing is, I had forgotten the auction buyer’s name, and just assumed it was someone who had heard I was looking for a car. I forwarded the email to Chris Chessnoe to ask if he knew the guy or what car he had. Fortunately, Chris’ memory is better than mine, and he wrote me back saying ‘isn’t that the guy who got the yellow car at the auction?’

It turned out that the buyer had gone to the seller’s house to pick up the original Dymags for the car, and discovered that the seller had another car – a Saleen Extreme – that he wanted way more than the Callaway, and he had to sell the Callaway to get the Saleen. After some negotiation, I was able to purchase the car for just what I was planning to spend at the auction, so it worked out great.

So far I’ve put about 2000 miles on the car, and it has just about 13,000 miles on it today, so I do enjoy driving it just as much as I had planned to.

Jonstr