One of kind car comes to auction

Shannon LeClair
Times Reporter

 

The Screaming Eagle, a one-of-a-kind car created by Jack Holt, is selling unreserved this weekend through Wheatland Auctions. The vehicle is perfect for the collector of the unique.
“The Screaming Eagle was a project of his and it’s quite the unique piece,” said Cody Hayes, co-owner of Wheatland Auctions.
The vehicle features quarter-inch armour plated steel; the front axle is out of a coach bus, the rear axle from a freightliner truck. It weighs around 18,000 pounds and gets a stunning eight miles a gallon, approximately. It has a hydraulic hatch for the engine compartment, and rear sleeping quarters.
“It’s a one-of-a-kind piece, there’s no other Screaming Eagle in the world, so that’s cool,” said Hayes.
Holt, a Red Deer man who created Holt Tree Spade, had been contracted by a stuntman to make the vehicle in ’99. The stuntman had wanted a bulletproof car that he would be able to drive through just about anything. After Holt designed the vehicle, did the engineering and looked into parts and supplies, the stuntman wasn’t able to come up with the money to build it. And so, a few years later, Holt decided to build it himself. Before selling, Holt had the Screaming Eagle appraised at $166,000.
Since that time the buyer has put additional money into it, and now in his 70s has decided to get rid of a few of his toys.
Another one of the toys the consigner is looking to re-home is a Port City Race Car built for NASCAR racing. It’s an ASA regulation race car – ASA is a division of NASCAR – has a $25,000 engine in it right now, which is currently set at 600HP and could go up to 2,000 HP.
“If a person wants to start racing all they would need to do is buy that outfit,” said Hayes.
The cars aren’t the only things that will be for sale at the Cheadle location this Saturday.
‘The fun thing about the consignment sale is it literally has something for everyone, we have log cabins we have trees, we have tools, we have antiques, there’s big construction equipment, there’s farm equipment, there’s skid steer attachments, horse shelters and tack, there’s quite a variety,” said Hayes.
The spring sale is generally the largest of the year for Wheatland Auctions, and Hayes anticipates 3,500 people to be there the day of. The action begins at 10 a.m.