Golden Sahara sells for $1,265.000 Long version

[Mike 1017]

The Golden Sahara II Custom Sells for $1,265,000 at 2025 Mecum Auction

[Dragline]

Gotta be honest. First time I am ever hearing of or seeing this machine. Pretty killer though. It's no Hirohata Merc. But then, what is?

[Ace-Garageguy]

Horrible gaudy thing, but I'm glad it survived.

The recent paint doesn't look as 'pearl' in photos as some earlier photos of the car, though the effort to reproduce the appearance of the illuminated tires seems to have worked well.

In its heyday, below.

Pre-restoration, below.

Now, light-up tires and all, below.

 

[JollySipper]

I kinda like the VooDoo Sahara a bit better! It's obviously an homage build, it's just not as gaudy as the original........

 

[Dragline]

Back on the day when custom cars were the wild West, many builders were shooting for the stars I think. No holds barred, customize every inch and so forth. Today we look at the car and it's lines and move forward from there. There were a few that approached in this manner, but they were the few. Putting doodads everywhere passed for custom. It lives on today in the ricer type cars and the stance scene. Even we of the middle era had our foibles. Guys looking through catalogs and buying one of each. I wonder how many sets of chrome small block Chevy valve covers have been sold just in the 80s alone. 

The JR Whitney catalog was yesterday's Internet. All in one.place shopping and free shipping over 50.00 bucks. I myself ordered engine kits from PAW as well as Jegs back then. I had the good fortune to have a modicum of taste. My cars tended to be understated. That remains my style to this very day. But others went all out, looks before performance. My cars got paint last. When they were done they were proven haulers. I remember rolling my Vega out for the first time.. I had spent a week tuning and trouble shooting every last bit. It was in half primer, half bondo and sheet metal. But that night I pulled the front wheels off the ground and all there knew it was a runner. Midnight blue metallic and no graphics was the end result. It ended up with a few stickers on the rear windows and an NHRA decal on the back. I knew I would run it on the street, but Dave Baptiste gave me the racing bug and that's were I was ultimately headed.

Customs like the above are a bookmark in time. A place you can point at and say for certain where some Hot Rodding thinking was. It's wonderful to still have these cars. Line em up and you can look at the evolution of hot rodding and custom cars. I mentioned the Hirohata Merc. That's a car that is low key, yet is custom in every way. It doesn't yell at you. It sorta nudges you and says "Some of us think this is what a hot rod truly is. No hitting you over the head with a club. But sliding one between the ribs and quietly walking away". To me, that's Hot Rodding.

[Brian Austin]

Not really different from the show rods of the 1970s, or perhaps from today's Ridler award builds.  🙂

[Ace-Garageguy]

7 hours ago, Brian Austin said:

Not really different from the show rods of the 1970s, or perhaps from today's Ridler award builds.  🙂

Depending on whether you have any taste or design sense...or not.

[stitchdup]

This car was the first to have many features we get today. It has a lot of old electronics that were custom mad for it. The styling isn't to my taste but i think it looks like this