Auto Auction for Collectors : Bhagwan’s Cars Still in Spotlight

It’s a car for the driver who has everything:

A psychedelic-hued, flora-and-fauna-motif Rolls-Royce formerly owned by the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who often wore a matching kimono.

That vehicle and eight other cars from the bhagwan’s fleet of 85 custom Rolls-Royces have been going to the highest bidders at the Newport Beach Collector car auction at the Newporter Resort Hotel this weekend.

Tucked between the aisles of more than 500 antique and speciality cars--ranging from a 1925 Chevrolet Superior to a shiny black 1966 Mustang convertible--the Bhagwan’s two-tone metal flake and multicolored “Kimono” and “Autumn” cars drew crowds and enthusiastic bidding.

Two of the cars were sold Saturday for approximately $70,000 each, according to Mickey Reiser, who bought the entire fleet when the bhagwan was forced to flee Oregon last year.

Reiser declined to identify the buyers, saying only that one was local and the other from Boston

According to Reiser, the cars are attractive to collectors as “modern classics,” valued for both novel appearance and the status of their previous owners.

The bhagwan had about 30 of the “Kimono” cars, which each required 720 man-hours for their $30,000 paint jobs. The interiors of the cars are “stock,” with no custom work.

Not all of the cars at the auction were so exotic, and not all shoppers were there to buy a bhagwan-mobile.

A 1929 silver and maroon Packard Phateon was sold for a record $230,000 to an unidentified Corona del Mar businessman. Gene Autry showed up to auction off his 1981 white Rolls-Royce sedan, and a black 1966 Thunderbird formerly owned by Frank Sinatra went for $23,000.

For the more practical collector, a fire-engine-red ’62 four-door Chevy Impala with a furry steering wheel and new shocks and mufflers was on the auction block for under $30,000.

Richard Thumen of San Francisco said he came down to find a car for his home in Laguna Beach.

“I’m hoping to bid on a couple of different cars,” Thumen said. “There’s a 1960 Mercedes convertible that looks good, and I’m also interested in a couple of Jags (Jaguars), or the ’55 through ’57 Thunderbirds.”