Classic cars which were previously owned by Rush drummer Neil Peart were sold for $3.9 million at a weekend auction.
Named the “Silver Surfers” by the late drummer, the cars were put up for auction as part of the Gooding & Company’s 17th annual Pebble Beach Auctions.
Explaining the title, Peart said, “The title … occurred to me while driving the DB5 up and down the Pacific Ocean”.
“Because it felt right to me, I guess – the idea that I was just one of the wave riders”.
“In search of natural piece”
Seven of Peart’s cars from this collection went up for sale.
These included, a 1964 Aston Martin DB5, a 1964 Shelby Cobra 289, a 1970 Lamborghini Miura P400 S, a 1965 Maserati Mistral Spider, a 1964 Jaguar E-Type Series I 3.8-Litre Coupe, a 1973 Maserati Ghibli 4.9 SS Coupe and a 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Split-Window Coupe.
The 1970 Lamborghini sold for the most amount at $1.325 million. The only car from the collection which did not sell was the 1964 Aston Martin. It did not reach its reserve price and will now be sold at a later date.
Peart had had gradually added to his collection over time, starting with the ’64 Aston Martin before eventually assembling his collection of “Silver Surfers”.
“I had moved from Toronto to Los Angeles in 2000 (cherchez la femme), and in search of natural peace I often drove out that way and up into the Santa Monica Mountains”, he said.
“Out past Malibu to Ventura County, I’d weave along barren ridges of rock and vegetation, the ocean always on one big side. Some days would be misted by the marine layer, while other days the sun blared through a clear sky. The waves were slow and gentle, or churned out a powerful, rolling rhythm … .”.
“It was during one of these drives when out of nowhere, it just occurred to me that the color of the ocean had influenced the silver palette of the collection. What other color looks as good in a blue photo? Not black, not white – silver. And a fortunate risk for the framers’ art, too: silver frames”.
Before his death in January 2020, Peart had been working on a coffee table book about his collection.
Gooding & Company posted photos of the car collection on their Twitter feed. See here.
