Barrett-Jackson in the USA claims to hold the world’s greatest collector car auctions, and it’s tough to argue, given the quality and quantity of metal up for grabs at its recent Scottsdale, Arizona auction. World-famous actors, rock stars and NASCAR drivers were among the huge crowd of punters to attend, with millions upon millions of dollars’ worth of classic, performance and collector cars changing hands. Here are some of our favourites.

Bringing some Aussie flavour to the Barrett-Jackson auction was Street Machine feature car, Mark Jones’s FATGTO. (Mark is the owner of Fat57 Customs in Sydney). Built Down Under in left-hand-drive configuration and shipped Stateside, the car runs a blown, EFI 427ci big block and sold for $33,000

Remember when you couldn’t give an old VW bus away? Times have certainly changed, with this 1965 Volkswagen Type II 21-Window Deluxe Bus fetching a record-shattering sum of $302,500 at the Scottsdale auction

This steel-bodied ’34 Ford is a killer hot rod with a blown small-block Chev, Turbo 700 auto and Jag rear end, but at the centre of its appeal is that it was once owned by world-famous axeman Eddie Van Halen

As the star of Smokey and the Bandit, it’s only fitting that Burt Reynolds owns a bad-arse Pontiac Firebird, running a Butler Performance-built 8.2L engine with alloy heads and EFI. Except he doesn’t anymore, because he sold it at Scottsdale for the record-setting sum of US$275,000

Arguably the most intriguing car at the auction, this one-off 1960 Chevrolet Engineering Research Vehicle (CERV) 1 went for US$1,320,000. A prototype race car powered by a 283ci small-block, it served as an engineering development tool for the Corvette

In certain parts of America, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is practically Jesus. Selling as a job lot, a ’70 Chevelle pro tourer he had a hand in designing, together with his #88 race car, fetched a combined US$400,000. The really great part is that every cent will benefit sick kids via the Nationwide Children’s Hospital

One of rock’s most iconic frontmen, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, put his 2012 Hennessey Venom GT Spyder up for grabs at Scottsdale. It sold for a neat US$800,000, all of which will be tipped into Tyler’s charity, which assists at-risk girls

At the baller end of the market, this ’64 Aston Martin DB5 fetched a monumental US$1,485,000 – the highest sale price of the auction

We’re no fans of Justin Bieber’s music here at Street Machine HQ, but his 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia, finished in Frozen Blue, is a stunner. It fetched US$434,500, with The Biebs sweetening the deal with some backstage passes to an upcoming gig. We’d keep the Fezza and bin the concert tickets

This heavily customised ’71 Camaro was put together by Jared Zimmerman on the TV show Car Fix. Featuring a Mast Motorsports stroker LS3, six-speed Viper transmission, huge Baer anchors and Detroit Speed suspension, it’s a work of pro touring art