Can the white-glove world of classic car collecting extend a welcoming hand to a juvenile delinquent with a ducktail haircut and a penchant for straight-line speed? Do recent high-dollar sales of retired drag-racing cars suggest a sustainable trend or a passing fancy? Those questions were answered in part at a recent sale organized by RM Auctions, a respected auction house that typically sells investment-grade classics in conjunction with concours events at upscale locales like Pebble Beach, Calif., and Amelia Island, Fla. On Sept. 26, at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, RM ventured outside the bounds of the classic-car world to sell 80 cars from the edge of the automotive universe in its Icons of Speed & Style auction. Among this group, the most extreme were 16 drag-racing cars -- machines that many consider the black sheep of the automotive world. There are clearly some shepherds out there with deep pockets; about half of the quarter-mile sprinters sold for amounts that exceeded RM's estimates. Some came in below estimate, but the group as a whole performed well. Given today's economic climate, the results suggest that there is a market for veterans of the dragstrip. Among the drag cars that failed to sell for their estimated value was a 1970 Chevelle convertible that once dominated the Super Stock category of the National Hot Rod Association. The car had brought $1.2 million in fevered bidding at a 2006 Barrett-Jackson auction; RM estimated its price at the Petersen sale at $500,000 to $700,000. It sold for $264,000, including a 10 percent buyer's premium. Two funny cars that were once raced by a colorful competitor, Jungle Jim Lieberman, sold for about half of their six-figure estimates. Funny cars are specialized machines that carry replica body shells on steel-tube frames and are powered by supercharged, nitromethane-burning engines. These cars were nicely restored and well documented, but one was lacking an engine. Among the cars that exceeded RM's estimates was the Wagon-Master, an insanely designed dragster with four (yes, four) Buick engines and bodywork that conveyed a touch of the Buick Riviera. The tire-smoking Wagon-Master was once owned and driven by Tom Ivo, who had been an early television personality and was known as TV Tommy Ivo at the track. It sold for $209,000, well above the estimate of $125,000 to $175,000. A 1929 Ford Roadster powered by a supercharged Ford flathead V-8, built by a drag-racing pioneer, Tony Nancy, was estimated at $125,000 to $175,000. It sold for $210,000. But the car that outscored them all was the outrageous, wheelstanding Little Red Wagon pickup, which went for more than half a million dollars. Neither the buyer of this offbeat vehicle nor the others who bought drag cars in Los Angeles were typical collectors. Ian Kelleher, president of RM, said the vast majority were new customers, compared with a new-buyer share of less than 40 percent at RM's usual auctions. In almost every way, the drag-car buyers are a different breed. 'I think drag cars will always be a niche segment,' Kelleher said. 'They go to guys who are really involved in the sport.' Greg Mosley, who dug the deepest at the Petersen Museum auction and went home with the Little Red Wagon, is definitely a niche collector. Mosley, who heads a large distribution business for trailer parts, and his wife, Kathy, own a stable of 30 American performance cars with an emphasis on Chrysler products and drag cars. The collection is housed in a spacious private museum they built a few years ago in tiny Coal Valley, Ill. Two days after the RM event, I called to get Mosley's take, not knowing he had bought a car at the auction. 'We own the Little Red Wagon,' he said. 'I didn't know I was going to get that stupid, but I did. It's a fascinating part of the sport I love.' The nature of the sport makes drag-car collecting problematic. Built for maximum acceleration in a 1,320-foot sprint, the vehicles have more in common with skyrockets than passenger cars. Many successful cars from the early years were lost when their day was done, either cannibalized for parts or sold for use in lower-level competition. But today, with a new breed of collectors willing to pay for the old warriors, finding the parts and pieces of historic drag cars has become a specialty. Mike Guffey of Muncie, Ind., is among the nation's pre-eminent locators of lost drag-racing cars. Guffey knows how to authenticate a find and has an uncanny ability to follow a trail. He said he thought that origin confusion and the disappearance of some well-known cars might have led to the counterfeiting of older funny cars and rail-type dragsters -- one reason, he said, that some of these vehicles sell for less than expected. It's also why many drag-car collectors are attracted to factory-backed Super Stock and factory-experimental racecars of the late 1960s and early '70s. These cars were well documented and usually carry a VIN or serial number. Both the problems involved in generating a provenance for some historic drag cars and the bare-knuckle imagery of the sport suggest that most traditional collectors won't soon be parking a funny car next to the Ferrari. But the instinct for preservation is a powerful motivator. 'Kathy and I are trying to keep the heritage of mother Chrysler and drag racing alive,' said Mosley, the buyer of the Little Red Wagon. 'That's what we do. We're caretakers, and this vehicle is deserving of special care.' 