AUTOMOBILES

Collector Car Sales: The annual Newport Beach Collector Car Auction drew nearly 14,000 people to the Hyatt Newporter resort July 8-10, and bidders in the crowd spent a total of $2.4 million buying cars, the event’s organizers reported Thursday.

More than 60% of the 250 vehicles offered at the auction were sold, with prices ranging from a low of $175 for an unrestored 1962 Ford F100 pickup truck to $310,000 for a 1927 Rolls-Royce touring car.

In what looks like good news for the local economy and for auto investors, sales at the Newport auction were up 15% and the crowd count was up 30% from 1993, said Don Williams, president of World Classic Auction & Exposition Co., the Northern California company that stages the event each year.

In a related event at the auction, the Shelby Historic Garage Sale, one bidder paid $10,000 for Carroll Shelby’s autographed racing helmet. One of the race car driver and designer’s trademark black cowboy hats went for $5,000.

Shelby, a Texan best known as the designer of the Shelby Cobra sports car, raised nearly $150,000 in the auction, a portion of it earmarked for the Shelby Heart Fund to provide heart transplants and cardiac care for indigent children.