Mecum’s first auction in Tennessee has done the one thing a debut sale has to do: it has found its buyers. Through Tuesday and the first half of Wednesday at Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Mecum’s online results list 207 lots as sold, 155 vehicles (21 of them motorcycles) and 52 pieces of Road Art, for roughly $3.5 million. Prices include buyer’s premium. And the sale’s headline cars haven’t crossed the block yet.
New stops on the Mecum calendar get judged less by one big number than by whether the middle of the market turns up. In Nashville it has. The top of the early board isn’t a blue-chip exotic. It’s a Coyote-powered Bronco and an LS-swapped K10: six-figure trucks built to be driven. That tells you who is in the room, and it’s a good sign for a venue Mecum hopes to keep on the schedule. For background on the event itself, see our preview, Mecum Rolls Into Music City.
Trucks set the pace
The best result through day two is the 1968 Ford Bronco custom offered as Lot G121, which sold Tuesday for $115,500. Mecum describes a frame-off rotisserie restoration with a powder-coated frame, a 5.0-liter Coyote V-8 and automatic, Restomod Air climate control and a twin-stick transfer case, finished in Cacti Green over Saddle with 10 miles showing. Buyers here are paying for build quality and usability, not originality, and they paid well for it.
Wednesday’s session added a second six-figure truck, the 1978 Chevrolet K10 pickup, Lot W51.1, at $110,000. It’s a short-wheelbase 4×4 with an LS V-8, automatic, Vintage Air, Fox shocks, four-wheel power disc brakes and a custom red interior, with 573 miles showing. Other trucks followed close behind: a 1950 Chevrolet 3800 custom pickup at $69,300, a 1975 Ford Bronco at $66,000 and a 1970 Chevrolet K20 at $63,800. Around 30 of the vehicles sold so far are pickups or Broncos. At this sale they aren’t a side category. They’re the core of it.
Paperwork still pays
The most collector-minded result of the opening session may be the 1969 Chevrolet Camaro RS/SS Pace Car Edition convertible, Lot G130.1, which sold for $71,500. Mecum lists it as a factory Z11 car in Dover White with the orange houndstooth interior: a 350 V-8, a four-speed, factory air, the AIR smog pump still in place and 14,689 miles showing. It comes with the original Protect-O-Plate, sales contract, invoice and delivery checklist, and it was sold new for $4,918.99 at M&O Chevrolet in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Chevrolet built roughly 3,675 Z11 convertibles, and plenty of clones have been built since, so documents like these are what make one worth buying.
Modern power, period style
The restomod theme carried into muscle and prewar-style cars. The 1979 Pontiac Trans Am 10th Anniversary, Lot G104, restored in 2018 and upgraded with an LS3 V-8, a six-speed manual, a lowered suspension and Budnik wheels, sold for $68,200. Buyers were valuing the build rather than the factory drivetrain, which is the right way to read that price.
The same figure bought the 1936 Auburn Boattail Speedster replica, Lot G103. It’s a reminder that Auburn’s 851 shape still carries weight even in tribute form. The genuine article is also in Lebanon this week: Mecum’s catalog includes a 1935 Auburn 851 Boattail Speedster billed as the only known example without the factory supercharger. Elsewhere in the modern ranks, a 2015 Corvette convertible sold for $77,000 and a 2016 Corvette Z06 coupe for $64,900.
Two wheels and Road Art
The motorcycle run favored the Japanese inline-fours that are now firmly established as collectibles. A 1969 Honda CB750 Sandcast, Lot G11, which Mecum describes as one of 7,414 early sandcast examples, sold for $8,800. A 1975 Kawasaki Z1 900 brought $11,000 and a six-cylinder 1980 Honda CBX sold for $9,350. The Road Art tent moved dozens of neon signs, most between $240 and $600, topped by a Corvette grille sign at $1,200. Small money, but it keeps the building busy, and it’s how many new bidders first raise a paddle.
The main event is still ahead
Nashville’s biggest lots come later in the week. Thursday brings the 1969 Dodge Daytona, one of 503 built for 1969, with its broadcast sheet and 440/375-hp V-8. Saturday is set for the 2026 Aston Martin Valhalla, now listed with 236 miles, and the 1968 Shelby GT500KR fastback, Shelby No. 04407, with its matching-numbers 428 Cobra Jet. Consignments from the Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage Collection, the Roush Automotive Collection and cars from the Lane Motor Museum are still to come, as are docket highlights we covered earlier, including the 1966 Shelby GT350H, the “Project Envious” 1973 Camaro RS and the SEMA-debuted 1963 Corvette split-window. ESPN+ coverage runs Thursday through Saturday starting at 11 a.m. ET.
What it means for collectors
The early message from Nashville is encouraging: there is real, paying depth in the Southeast for well-built trucks, documented muscle and turnkey restomods, and Mecum has given that market a home in Middle Tennessee. If Saturday’s headliners perform, the first Mecum Nashville will count as a success. The groundwork for that is already in place.
Figures reflect lots marked sold in Mecum’s online results as of early Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 23. They include buyer’s premium and don’t count “Bid Goes On” lots still under negotiation. Browse the full Mecum Nashville 2026 catalog and live results.
John Lloyd