Everett man sold rare ’67 race car to aid Providence hospital

Larry Jubie had this amazing car, a 1967 Mercury Comet Caliente hardtop. It’s an R-code, Ford lingo meaning its motor was designed for racing. The Caspian Blue beauty is one of just four ever made.

The Everett man owned it 15 years — but doesn’t have it anymore. It sold Thursday for $80,640, according to Bonhams, an international auction house. More than 100 stunning cars fetched oh-wow prices at the Bonhams Auction last week in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Jubie, a 72-year-old philanthropist who has worked in the construction business, isn’t pocketing proceeds from his speedy blue Mercury. Like his older brother, Harv Jubie, he’ll donate the money from selling a vintage car to the Providence General Foundation.

“Larry is an amazing board member,” said Lori Kloes, the foundation’s chief development officer. Larry and Harv Jubie have served many years on the foundation’s board of directors, and both are past board chairmen.

The charitable organization helps support Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, with an emphasis on children’s services, low-income patients and technology.

When Harv Jubie’s rare 1953 Oldsmobile Fiesta sold at a 2008 auction in Pebble Beach, California, for $165,000, the foundation received $150,000.

From Arizona, where temperatures were in the 70s, Larry Jubie said his rare Mercury has mostly been in his north Everett garage since he bought it for $92,000 at a collector car business in Florida 15 years ago.

“It had 1,350 miles on it, like it rolled off the assembly line,” he said. “It was a race car, a factory race car. It raced quarter-miles, so it doesn’t have a lot of miles.” Photos on the Bonham website show that before its sale Thursday, it had 2,240 miles on the odometer.

“The guy who originally bought it brand new in Ohio, after he quit racing it, he stored it and left it alone,” Jubie said. “It runs like a top.”

Racing wasn’t for Jubie, one of 12 siblings raised in Lake Stevens.

“I drove it about once a year, uptown in Everett,” he said. “I parked, walked into a restaurant and had lunch.”

In 2017, Harv Jubie and his wife, Jan, and Larry Jubie and his wife, Linda, received a Spirit of Festival Award at the Festival of Trees, a holiday gala that benefits Providence Children’s Services. Their volunteerism also has been a boon to the Marysville Community Food Bank, the Marysville Rotary Club, and an organization that helps villagers in Guatemala.

Larry Jubie’s car didn’t go for as much as some — one buyer Thursday paid $368,000 for a 1924 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost roadster, and others were priced far higher.

But in parting with that ’67 Mercury, Jubie will help drive a construction project at the Providence Colby Campus. That project, adding beds and two operating rooms to the hospital’s ninth floor, will improve the experience of cancer patients, Kloes said.

In 2011, Providence opened its 12-story addition to the Colby Campus. The tower is named for Marshall and Katherine Cymbaluk, a local couple who donated $5 million to the Providence General Foundation. At the time, Kloes said, “the ninth floor was left shelled.”

Now, with a greater need for space, 32 beds have been added in the ninth floor’s north wing, she said, and another 32 are due to be ready in March. Until now, oncology patients have been in the hospital’s older section, some in semi-private rooms, she said.

The additional space means oncology patients will all have private rooms. “They tend to be our longest stays in the hospital,” Kloes said.

Jubie’s gift will help with the foundation’s commitment of $4.5 million to the construction, said Kloes, adding that in all the project will cost about $40 million.

“I’ve been thinking about this for some time,” Jubie said. “I remember when Harv sold his car, they got a lot of money. I can do that. I’ve had the car 15 years. Maybe it’s time for someone else to have that car.”

Not to worry though, Larry Jubie still has a fabulous old automobile, one he bought in southern Oregon.

“It’s a 1954 Chev, a two-door sedan Chev with a Corvette engine,” he said. “This one is rebuilt from the ground up. It’s bright yellow, with bucket seats, a tilt steering wheel and air conditioning.”

At the Arizona auction, he thought a bit about adding one more to his Everett garage — a 1992 Dodge Viper.

“This particular Dodge Viper,” the first one off the production line and carrying number 001, was “Lee Iacocca’s personal car,” according to Bonhams. Iacocca, who died last July, was once the high-profile CEO of the Chrysler Corporation.

“It’s really nice to sit through the auction and watch the cars go,” Larry Jubie said.

And that Viper? It sold for $285,500.

“So I didn’t buy it,” he said.

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3560; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.