When RM Auctions opens the Toronto International Centre's doors for its fall event I'll be reminded of an indoor aircraft show held there in the 1980s. It was organised by a pair of entrepreneurs who thought they'd spotted a business opportunity. I was hired to help with public relations, based on my background as an ad writer and enthusiasm as a private pilot. I'm actually a lousy pr person so my only real accomplishment was to organise TV coverage of one of the oddest parades the area had ever seen. Several of the aircraft had to be brought in from the airport next door; with help from the local police I arranged to have them taxi, all in a row, along the streets in the evening, landing lights ablaze. It was an extraordinary sight.

No such movie-like apparition will appear outside the RM auction on Oct. 19-21 but inside the building Canadian and visiting Americans will be treated to a number of rare and fashionable automobiles. Among them will be a delectable 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350 supercharged fastback. It is loaded with performance options including supercharger gauges, supercharger oil cooler, and Holley carburetor. It spent 30 years in a disassembled state in dry storage, first stored in a private collection from 1974 to 1988 before being sold to its current owner, who kept it unassembled until 2002. He then spent the next two years restoring it to its present condition.

Incidentally, most RM auctions take place in attractive, even exotic, locations. The Toronto International Centre is a faceless box surrounded by busy access roads and ugly industrial architecture, its only assets being access to the airport and airport hotels and ample parking. If ever RM's Canadian auction is to achieve the status it deserves, it should move downtown. If that were to happen even I, now an affirmed west-coaster, would make the trip.