Mad for automobilia

This 1933 Buick pedal car by American National was restored by
McLaren Classic Restorations and sold for $19 550 (R226 000)
as part of the Pratte Collection. The Buick has leaf spring
suspension, nine working lights, genuine ostrich skin
 tufted upholstered seat and engraved silver step pad.

ONCE the guy who bid the highest prices for old cars, super-rich American developer Ron Pratte last month changed seats when he liquidated his collection of over 1 600 pieces of automobilia at the auction where he bought his “starter collection”.

In the decade since, he has rapidly assembled the biggest single collection of cars and associated
memoribilia known in the 20th century.

Barrett-Jackson’s Scottsdale auction sold the collection last month over a four-day period. Collectors at the famous auction in Arizona paid silly money in part because items were owned by Pratte.

A quart can of Husky Premium Motor Oil fetched $2 300 (R27 000). A 1930s double-sided neon and porcelain Harley-Davidson dealership sign fetched $86 250 (R1 million).

Despite his love for beautiful old bling, Pratte, of Chandler, Arizona, is a very private guy who started out owning a fuel station and then built up a wood frames and concrete business, which he “sold at the right time”.

This restored toy 1950s Caterpillar D-4 Diesel pedal tractor by AMF
sold for $8 970 (R104 000).

Those who met him say he is a humble and a true philathropist. He was certainly not stingy when it came to charity, donating several cars that he had bought at top dollar back to charities.

Pratte is still a recluse by American standards, but a post in 2009 by “Anonymous” to a report on him on the Just a Car Guy blog sums it all up: “Not a lot of words but a lot of action. He took care of dad during his cancer treatments for five years.”

According to Sports Car Digest, Pratte told auctioneer Craig Jackson he decided to sell his collection because his focus has changed.

Pratte now enjoys off-roading on his farm, driving sand rails (pipe cars) and Honda Odysseys, or piloting a plane.

He said he only spent four days in his car collection and museum in Chandler in 2013, which was not enough to justify a permanent facility and staff.

The cars included over 70 toys and pedal cars. The highest priced vintage pedal car, “electralised” or otherwise, prior to the Pratte Collection auction, was a 1927 Auburn Boattail Speedster, which fetched $26 450 (R306 000) in 2012.