Dear Santa,

It has been a long year filled with hard work. We have travelled across the land, putting in the hours, staying up late to finish our chores. We even managed to exercise restraint when we were in Las Vegas, so we feel that we have been good enough to warrant an item from the consignment list from Mecum’s Kissimmee 2016 list. We would be happy with just about everything on the list…especially when there are cars from no less than nine major collections going up for sale…but we figured that we would make life a little bit easier for you and picked out some of our favorites.

11. 1970 Mercury Cyclone GT 351/4-spd

Picking out just any muscle car is easy at an auction: look for the crowds. Finding a decently priced muscle car at auction that will fly under the radar takes work, but this 1970 Cyclone would be that kind of car. The nose might not be for everyone, but the 351 and four-speed are a good pairing, and the dark blue on silver paint treatment is handsomely restrained.

10. 1969 Chevrolet Impala SS427

Chevrolet’s top-of-the-line offering in 1969 is sitting before you: 427, floor shift automatic with the horseshoe shifter, bucket seats, factory tach, fiber optic light information system, liquid tire chain option, air conditioning, power windows and more. Big, comfortable and powerful, all right here.

9.  1967 Chevrolet Corvette 427

The list says “nut and bolt restoration”, but the list also says “Brodix heads and intake”, too, so we are going to call this Corvette a “day two” car. That’s quite alright, thought, because honestly, forgetting how much it is probably worth, this Corvette was made to do two things: drive and intimidate other drivers. Certainly the bark out of the side pipes should do the trick…

8. 1990 Jeep Comanche

Automatically, this Jeep wins both the Daily Driver award and is in the top three for “Least Expensive Vehicle sold at this auction”. That doesn’t mean we want it any less…in fact, this MJ is freaking awesome and we love it. The lift looks good, the paint is beautiful, the interior is in decent shape and the 4.0L six is present and accounted for.

7. 1971 Ford LTD 429CJ Convertible

There are desert roads calling our name right now just looking at this Ford. The red paint and white interior pair off nicely (the red wheels and dog-dish caps just as tasty) and the small “429 High Performance” badges on the lower front fenders might be the most understated callouts from the era.

6. 1973 Chrysler/Petty Enterprises Challenger Kit Car Prototype

The only known survivor of Chrysler’s Kit Car development mules, this 1973 Challenger is, in fact, one of Chrysler Corporation’s Kit Cars, a made-to-order stock car, complete with a W2-headed 355ci V8, integrated roll cage, and custom chassis. Developed by Petty Enterprises (note the wheels and hubs, both Petty Enterprises pieces and both made of unobtanium today) and tested by a young Dale Earnhardt Sr., the Kit Car was a legitimate performer. Shame they didn’t sell so well…

5. 1970 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS454

Chevrolet didn’t invent the personal luxury coupe, but their new-for-1970 Monte Carlo sure ran with the concept. For the most part a fancy Chevelle, the Monte Carlo quickly gained fans. One aspect of the Chevelle that stuck were the engines: while the LS6 was supposedly in the brochures, the 360 horsepower LS5 was the biggest 454 to make it under the long hood.

4. 1969 Dodge Charger 500

Where to start? The Charger 500 was Chrysler’s first volley into the Aero Wars. Packing the 426 Hemi, a flush-mounted Coronet grille and a reshaped back glass area, the Charger 500 was meant to slip through the air easier. 392 of them left the factory before the insanity that brought about the Dodge Charger Daytona won the day, and this particular four-speed example actually has drag racing ties: it’s coming out of the Don Garlits Museum in Ocala, Florida.

3. 1959 Chrysler 300E

Not many Chrysler products warrant a 150 mile an hour speedometer, but the 1959 Chrysler 300E certainly does. It’s packing a dual-quad 413 good for 380 horsepower and a TorqueFlite, which belied the otherwise formal look of the big car. One of 550 hardtops, this is one of 118 known to still exist. Those Goodyear Silvertown whitewalls wouldn’t stand a chance if the long pedal was pushed down too far…

2. 1970 Shelby GT500 Drag Pack 428

This blue-on-white Shelby was a company car for Shelby American. Think about that for a second…if you worked for the company and had official business to attend to, this GT500, complete with it’s 335 horsepower (HA!) 428 Super Cobra Jet and automatic transmission, was an option in the company motor pool. Twist our arm, please…we only wonder if the rear end has the 3.91 or 4.30 rear gearing. Oh, yeah…it’s unrestored.

1. 1971 Chevrolet Camaro Z-28 with Baldwin-Motion Phase III Package

Bless you, Joel Rosen, for doing what Chevrolet would not do: not only would he shoehorn in the almost-stillborn LS7 454 into the Camaro, he would build the car up to performance potential with the Phase III package and hand over a written guarantee stating just how fast the car would be. If the car performed under that figure, you got your money back, no questions asked. Nobody ever returned their car to Mr. Rosen for the guarantee. They were bad mothers straight off of the showroom lot, and even 44 years later, this Camaro can still threaten most anything it would come across on the street. Based on a standard Z-28 makes this Camaro even better: it has all of the handling goodies too.