The Dingman Collection Goes Up for Auction

By Sharon Mullen
Thursday 8th June 2006

Former Ford Motor Company Director and Racer Offers Collectors Cars from his lifetime collection of Historic Fords Plus Hundreds of Lots of Important Neon, Porcelain, and Tin Signs, and other Advertising Art.

BLENHEIM, Ontario, Canada (March 17, 2006) – One of the world’s most comprehensive Ford Flathead V8 car collections will be offered for sale by RM Auctions, when The Dingman Ford Collection goes on the block June 9-11, 2006. This important sale represents the lifelong collecting passion of Michael Dingman, who served as a Ford Motor Company director for 21 years. Dingman, also an experienced race driver, personally competed in Fords, driving Roush-prepared Mustangs in the SCCA’s Trans-Am Series in the early 1990s.

Dingman, who served as chief executive officer of several companies, including Allied Signal and Fisher Scientific, as well as a member of the board of directors of Mellon Bank Corporation, Time, Inc., and Time Warner, Inc., has nurtured a lifelong passion for all things automotive. Through his close personal association with Ford racing mogul Jack Roush, Dingman was been able to acquire many of his collection’s premier pieces, as well as continuing his racing efforts in recent years in the vintage racing arena.

The Dingman Collection Fords are exactly what collectors seek – high-point cars, many purchased right off the championship field, or restored by Dingman’s personal specialists, each representing quality of the highest standard. Nearly every year and every open or sporting body style is represented, including what must be one of the world’s finest and most extensive collections of Ford woodie wagons.

“He set out to build the world’s best flathead Ford V8 collection, and most Ford enthusiasts feel he’s more than succeeded,” says Mike Fairbairn, co-founder of RM Auctions. “Mike is a cancer survivor, and that experience has lead to his decision that it’s time to pass his cars on to others, to simplify his life a little, and to make room for possibly one or two really interesting Fords that’s he has yet to own.”

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