'LA BESTIONI' TO BE AUCTIONED

'La Bestioni' is a creation of Gary Wales, a former New York stockbroker who has a passion for cars of what he calls the "Heroic Era". We're talking pre-1920s veteran-style machines in most cases, and La Bestioni is the fifth custom roadster he's commissioned in this style.

Most of Gary's past Heroic Era roadsters have been based around American-made Seagrave fire trucks: chosen for their massive chassis, wheels and near unbreakable running gear. La Bestioni is based on a similar, but equally tough American LaFrance fire truck. Keeping the truck's chassis, massive wheels and 14-litre 6-cylinder engine, Gary built a custom body, incorporating both bespoke panels along with some copper elements, like the exposed fuel tank, from a wrecked Seagrave fire truck that was beyond restoring.

Surprisingly, the American LaFrance's almost 100-year old engine needed little work to get it running again. A feature of these engines is dual spark plugs per cylinder, a necessity given the nature of their original purpose, ie. a fire truck that didn't start first time every time had limited value! Wales added that each piston in the massive 900 cubic inch straight six is the size of a coffee tin, while the cylinder heads themselves are cast in pairs, rather than all six in a single piece.

To be auctioned with no reserve, La Bestioni will cross the block on Saturday, January 18 at Barrett-Jackson's Scottsdale auction event, which gets underway on Tuesday, January 14. Further details at www.barrett-jackson.com