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Instant Vintage

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By STEVE KORNACKI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 1, 2007

TARPON SPRINGS - One of the vintage cars attracting plenty of attention Friday at the auction of the Al Wiseman Collection was the 1958 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz. It's known as the Raindrop Car because of the sensor that closes its convertible roof at the first detectable raindrops.

It once belonged to Harley Earl, the General Motors designer known as the father of the Corvette and other dream cars. He invented fender tail fins and pushed for chrome and big engines.

The red Caddy with white top, white leather bucket seats and all kinds of bells and whistles is one of 80 vintage autos on the block today. They're joined by 50 motorcycles and scooters, all being sold at Wiseman's property outside of town. RM Auctions of Blenheim, Ontario, estimates nearly 1,500 people will attend the two-day event that began Friday with memorabilia up for bidding.

"Have you seen everything in here?" asked Bartow Chevrolet President Robin Wickman as he thumbed through the 252-page catalogue detailing the items. "Can you believe one man collected all of this?

"We've been to auctions all over the country - including some pretty big ones in California - and have never seen one man with this many cars and things. There's nobody like Al."

Wiseman, 69, a retired president of Airborne Express who made his fortune developing sound-suppression devices for jets, says it's time to pare down his collection. He's keeping only about 15 vehicles with sentimental value.

The estimated value of the items being auctioned is $10 million. An auctioneer and two bid spotters coordinate the process. Two big TV screens beam the action, including escalating bids in dollars, euros and pounds. Participants can also bid online and by phone.

Wiseman sat in the back row during Friday's auction in one of his three massive garages, recording the amount each item brought in a copy of the catalogue.

"Dad is pretty reserved, but after tomorrow he'll be all smiles," said his son, Kevin Wiseman. "And we'll get to clean and mop the garages, and finally have some room again."

A 1931 Rolls-Royce Phantom II Merlin (late-night talk-show host Jay Leno owns the only other one), President Eisenhower's 1957 Lincoln Continental Mark II, Jack Benny's 1922 Maxwell touring car, and the Batmobile Val Kilmer drove in the 1995 movie "Batman Forever" are among the highlights.

"We're interested in a couple of old Chevys," said Wickman, accompanied by his wife, Janet. "But some of the cars here are just amazing. Did you see that Raindrop Caddy? You know, it's one of a kind."

Will Wedge, a 74-year-old used-car dealer from Lima, Ohio, can attest to that.

The Raindrop Caddy that once belonged to Earl, also once was his. He found it in bad shape in 1990 with numerous repair needs. But he knew it was special and bought it for $20,000 from a Dayton, Ohio, auto dealer.

He found a partner interested in restoring the car, and they put $150,000 into it over the next four years. "Reassembling the dashboard with the chrome-plating cost $2,000 alone," Wedge said.

But when it went to auction in 1994, it only brought $97,500 and the two took a bath. He always wondered what happened to his special car until a friend told him this year that he saw it at Wiseman's Classic Corvettes and Collectables showroom in Tarpon Springs.

Wedge learned of the auction, and initially had hopes of again catching the big one that got away. But he couldn't locate a partner with enough cash; bids for the car are estimated to go from $500,000 to $700,000. It was featured in a car magazine and a Public Broadcasting Service special on the history of automobiles, driving up the price by promoting it as a one-of-a-kind.

"They made 815 of these, but only five were modified like this with the rain sensor," Wedge said. "And this is the only one of the five that still has a sensor.

"I want to see how this thing goes onto its next owner. We all want to try to recapture our youth. You do it with cars like this."

Visit www.rmauctions.com for information on the auction from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today. Reporter Steve Kornacki can be reached at skornacki@tampatrib.com or (813) 731-8170.

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