When Alan Melchior turned 12, his parents gave him a clock radio for his birthday.

The next week, he traded the radio and $20 for a 1930 Ford Model A 5-window coupe.

His love of cars has only escalated since then, and on Saturday he brought his $700,000 1933 Chrysler Custom Imperial dual windshield phaeton to the UVSC Auto Expo & Swap Meet. The tan-green convertible, one of 17 known to exist, is not even the favorite car in his collection of over a dozen, nor the costliest, he said.

He also displayed a $300,000 1934 Packard Super 8 convertible coupe in dark red, which he is a half-owner of with Barry Keating, an expert auto restorer.

The 1933 Chrysler was believed to be the most expensive car at Saturday's show, which may explain why Melchior displayed it in a secluded area that some of the 15,000 to 20,000 visitors at the show seemed to miss. Those who came by crawled under it, poked their heads inside it and leaned on it with abandon as Melchior watched.

Only those visitors with belt buckles or other metal on their clothes made him nervous that the car might be damaged, he said, noting he believed very few of those who saw it had any idea how much it cost.

Melchior was quick to point out that the car was not his alone but belonged to both him and his wife, Lydia. The couple have an agreement about his expensive hobby.

"Every time I get a car, she gets jewelry," he said with a laugh.

Doug Liechty, owner of Doug's Auto Inc., brought four high-end cars to the show, including a white 2005 Ford GT Supercar with blue stripes. At $195,000, Liechty said he had to convince his wife to let him mortgage their home to make the purchase. His face lit up when he got in the car to rev the ear-splitting engine for visitors.

"I think its the best-looking car ever made," he said. "It has the best racing heritage of any Ford, and at 140 mph it feels like 60 mph. At 85 mph it gets 24 miles per gallon."

After he and his wife picked up the car in Texas, police pulled him over to ask him to take the car for a 180 mph spin at a local airport runway, he said. He also showed a yellow 2007 Shelby GT 500, a 2003 Saleen Cobra and a 1970 Mustang Mach 1.

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the 1957 Chevy, Ardell Brown of Draper brought five cars, a fraction of his collection of 165 cars that he valued at $6 million. Those on display Saturday included an orange Corvette, a brown BelAir hardtop and two BelAir convertibles, one blue and one orange-red. The convertibles are each worth $125,000, he said.

Scott Christofferson was guarding a sleek black 1932 Auburn 8-100 A Speedster owned by DeWayne Ashmead, who employees Christofferson as an auto technician. Working on the car is more fun than work, especially because "I get to build cars I could never afford," he said. "I don't have to pay for them."

There was no shortage of car lovers at the show. Amberlee Morehouse came with her two sons and her father, Tom Ostler. Both said they liked the show, but Morehouse was disappointed to find there were no Oldsmobile 442s on display. Her father drove that model when she was a child and teen, and her dream is to own one like it, she said.

Ostler said he sold the car as a down payment for a home. In total, he sold four collectible cars, one for each of his children "and I'd give them all up again for my kids. You can always get another car."

Wayne and Sheila Ericksen of Provo said they have owned a few classic cars including a 1957 retractable Ford, a Mustang, and a Model A. They have sold them all, but Saturday's car show made them want to buy a new collectible.

"I think he goes back into his youth," Sheila Ericksen said of her husband's response to the cars at the show.

Ray Campbell, volunteer chairman of the show for the past 15 years, said the event raises about $20,000 annually toward scholarships for auto trades students at UVSC, and helps build the auto trades department endowment.

Caleb Warnock can be reached at 443-3263 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it