CNN Hummer could fetch big bucks for charity

Story Highlights

• Auction house expects Hummer will bring six figures
• CNN crew used vehicle to cover Iraq war
• Learning Channel show overhauled the Hummer
• Sale benefits the Fisher House Foundation

By Taylor Gandossy

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(CNN) -- After a renovation on "The Learning Channel," and a nationwide tour of military bases and medical centers, a Hummer that CNN used to cover the war in Iraq will be sold Saturday for charity.

"It is an absolute privilege and an honor for Barrett-Jackson to be involved in what I will go on the record to say is a historical sell," Steve Davis, president of Barrett-Jackson Co., the auction house selling the vehicle, said Thursday in a phone interview.

"We're looking forward to selling a world-class vehicle for a world-class amount of money and bringing awareness to the Fisher House," Davis said.

Proceeds of the sale of Warrior One will be donated to the Fisher House Foundation, an organization that temporarily houses families of patients receiving major medical care in military hospitals and Veterans Administration centers.

Asked how much he thought the vehicle would sell for, Davis said he was "optimistically thinking multiples of six figures." The auction is a "no-reserve," meaning no beginning bid is set.

"I don't know what that number is going to be, but I will guarantee you this: It will be the most expensive Hummer ever sold in the history of mankind, by a lot," he said.

H1 Hummers, like Warrior One, typically sold for $129,000 for an open-top model and $140,000 for a hard-top model, according to General Motors. The automobile company discontinued the model in June 2006.

Davis didn't say who he thinks will bid on Warrior One, but said the future owner of the vehicle will have a "very big heart and an even bigger checkbook, and can write a check for a lot of zeroes."

He would neither confirm nor deny whether CNN founder Ted Turner plans on bidding.

"I can say that there are a lot of people expressing interest who have the ability to write a very large check," he said. Saturday's auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, will feature more than 1,200 automobiles and likely attract more than 225,000 visitors, according to the company.

A spokesman for the Fisher House Foundation said the organization has reaped the benefits of enhanced publicity because of the foundation's connection to Warrior One and the auction.

"The attention that CNN has given to the Fisher House Foundation has greatly assisted us in making the public aware of the wounded and injured service members and their families," Jim Weiskopf, a spokesman for the organization, said Friday.

Of the auction, he said, "We look forward to shaking the hand of the new owner of Warrior One tomorrow."

CNN used the Hummer in Iraq in 2003, while a news team was embedded with a Marine unit. That four-man team -- and the Hummer -- came under heavy fire in April of that year, when coalition forces took Baghdad.

In November 2006, the vehicle appeared on TLC's "Overhaulin' " show. Crews replaced the engine, raised the vehicle's body and airbrushed images of CNN correspondents and troops along its exterior. They also added a DVD player, four televisions and a state-of-the-art sound system.

After the renovation, the Hummer toured military bases and medical centers from Texas to Washington, D.C.