Michael Jackson, the king of pop and an international icon, passed away today at the age of 50. His life was a mixed bag of headlines, but I’ll always remember him as my first experience with good music. Back in April, Julien’s Auctions hosted a seven-day auction of artwork, games, sculpture and cars from “the life and career of Michael Jackson”. While I wouldn’t consider MJ a car nut by my standards, his collection was not without the flair that made him famous. Here is a sample.

It boils down to this: this Ford RS200 is a rally car you can drive on the street. Plus, it’s not in some dirty European country, it’s in California! If that description doesn’t make your naughty bits tickle, well, we don’t know how to help you. If it does, then click over to Ebay for the ad in question.

Mein Gott in Himmel!

Unlike most elements which have solid, liquid, and gas states, old Mercedes 300SEL 6.3s usually come in two states of matter: (1) concours d’elegance mirror-shine triple-rotisserie restored, or (2) unending misery that smells suspiciously like hydraulic fluid. Like physicists playing around with a particle accelerator, the good gents at Bring-a-Trailer have found a third state of matter: road racer.

1967 Ford Mustang GT500 "Eleanor"

Students enrolled in a unique degree program at a southeastern Michigan community college are building an “Eleanor” tribute car to benefit charity. With the help of Chip Foose, Dynacorn and Roush Performance, students taking automotive restoration and customization coursework at Washtenaw Community College will finish the car in advance of an October drawing to benefit the Salvation Army of Washtenaw County and the National Kidney Foundation of Michigan.

You’re looking at the most expensive car ever to be sold at auction. RM Auctions paired with Sotheby’s for the Ferrari Leggenda e Passione to unload this gem for $12,156,252. And no, we didn’t mess with the decimal points – this Testa Rossa (two words, not Testarossa) was equivalent to 1/10th the gross domestic product of Kiribati.

Apparently Shelby aficionados are tightening their ample belts in this economy, leaving this rare ‘65 Shelby Daytona Coupe stranded on Mecum’s auction floor. A no-sale at $6.8 million having failed to reach the reserve, CSX2601 will likely get another go sometime soon.

Ferrari F430 – Abruzzo Special Edition

Last month, an earthquake caused major damage and claimed nearly 300 lives in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Ferrari has decided to help the cause by auctioning off one of their vehicles.

Later this year, the very last F430 will roll off the line at Maranello. So Ferrari has announced it will be fitting that particular car with two-tone silver and gold, the official colors of Aquila (the city worst hit by the earthquake); some extra equipment from Ferrari’s Carrozzeria Scaglietti customization catalog; and a letter of authenticity from the company’s president, Luca di Montezemolo. Nice.

The car will go up for auction in a few days at the Leggenda e Passione. Considering that a brand new, non-special Ferrari F430 goes for more than $200,000 dollars, and taking into account the fact that this money is going to charity (a charity very big in Italy right now)… this special edition, final F430 could go into the 7 figures.

Check out the press release below:

McQueen and his Lusso.

Peter Orosz over at Jalopnik, bless his heart, wrote a piece today musing on the $2.3 million ex-Steve McQueen Ferrari 250GT Lusso that he caught a glimpse of it at the Concorso d’Eleganza. He does an excellent job doing it justice, but if you haven’t heard of the legendary Ferrari 250 GTO, stop reading this and look it up immediately. Then come back.

Ferrari 250 GTO - in rosso, of course.

Hippies? No problem.

You may not be able to buy a stiff drink in Utah but you can certainly buy the perfect vehicle for the immanent zombie apocalypse.

Get some!

The beast you see before you is the Humber Pig, an armored British assault vehicle powered by a four liter Rolls-Royce straight-six that makes a whopping 120 horsepower. This bastard weighs in at six tons and was a regular sight on the streets of Belfast, Ireland for years. How this thing got to Utah is anybody’s guess. The only thing certain is that Utah has no idea what the hell to do with it anymore.

Public Surplus auction

In a move that illustrates just how deep the economic crisis goes, Satan has put his personal vehicle up for sale on eBay. The dark prince’s very low, very black 2004 Dodge Ram 3500 ‘SRT666′ sports a Cummins diesel pushing 1500 ft lbs of torque, an air-bag suspension setup and a shift knob that would make half of San Francisco blush.

The photos also confirm something we’ve suspected for a long time, Hell is in Texas.
Bidding starts at $40k. Satan’s gotta pay down his Hot Topic credit card.

[Source:eBay via The Car Lounge]