Hamana-hamana-hamana-SOLD! Recession? Ha! There ain't no recession in a Phoenix auction tent.(News)

Byline: MARK VAUGHN

Never mind all that doom and gloom from the financial markets; if the world economy were going to the poor house, it would arrive there in a nice Bugatti Type 57, a Duesenberg Model SJ or, more likely, a wildly overpriced Chevrolet Chevelle SS.

By this time, almost every auction house in America has discovered that Phoenix in January means big collector-car sales, so this year, including the gargantuan Barrett-Jackson, there were six big auctions going on in the sand out among the saguaros.

The big-money sellers this year were still the grand old classics-Packards, Bugattis and Ferraris-but the meat-and-potatoes of the balance of the weekend was made up of hundreds of perfectly shiny muscle cars just like the one you sold in high school for $300 and a fishing pole.

First on our schedule was the RM affair, held for the fourth year in a row at the fabulous Arizona Biltmore-or, rather, in a tent in the Biltmore parking lot. But what a tent! There were acres of white cloth draped from the ceiling, and there were huge chandeliers. This was no canvas Coleman lean-to from Sears. The place was fully carpeted, and there were high-end watches for sale if your car wasn't due on the block for a while.

After we had arrived and made our way down to the front, there was a Maserati Tipo 54 on which bidding had stalled at $1.25 million, apparently just a quarter-mil below reserve.

"I need a drink,'' said Rob Myers, both the R and the M of RM.