This just in: a black 1961 Ferrari California Spyder sold for $10.8m today. It used to be owned by James Coburn.
Yeh by British radio and TV personality Chris Evans.
Wheels of fortuneBy Simon de Burton
Published: July 12 2008 04:02 | Last updated: July 12 2008 04:02
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/63cff508-4faa-11dd-b050-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1Anyone who remembers how the rusty bottom dropped out of the classic car market during the early 1990s might have offered the British radio and television presenter Chris Evans a word of warning as he drooled over the late actor James Coburn’s 250 GT California Spyder at a Ferrari auction in Maranello, Italy, in May.
It probably would not have done any good: Evans wanted the gloss black, 1961 car “real bad”, as Coburn might have said. So bad, that he ended up paying a jaw-dropping $10.9m for it, a price that RM, the auction house, says is a world record for “any motor car to be sold in auction history”.
That claim is debatable because 18 years earlier – almost to the day and just before the deflation of the last classic car bubble – Sotheby’s hammered down an even more desirable Ferrari 250 GTO in Monaco for FFr59,940,000, equivalent at the exchange rate of the time to $12.6m. The fact that the bidder failed to produce the money, however, probably entitles RM to claim its record.
But what is a million dollars here or there? The answer, in the current classic car world, is “not much”. The top end of the market is on fire, and low seven-figure sums that not long ago would have caused gasps and loud applause in the auction room barely merit a murmur these days.
Although Evans’ purchase marked a high point in the “Ferrari Leggenda e Passione” sale, the general atmosphere was somewhat flat. It was almost as if the assembled crowd – everyone from a brain surgeon with a stable full of Ferrari Formula One cars to a collector who had recently benefited from the $1bn sale of a shoe business – found the sums changing hands rather piffling.
Just for the record, however, the 33 cars sold realised a total just short of $43m. This is the sort of money that would once have been racked up only at a high-end art sale, but – quite rightly in many people’s opinion – classic cars have now been afforded the status of rolling art and buyers are demonstrating this in the extraordinary prices they are willing to pay.
The day before the Ferrari sale, Bonhams held its annual auction of Aston Martin cars and memorabilia at Aston’s “spiritual home”, the Works Service building in Newport Pagnell, south-east England. A 1969 DB4GT established a record for the model when it sold for £1.08m ($2.1m) and a decidedly rough 1957 DB2/4 MkII that had been dragged from a barn fetched a six-times estimate £89,500, despite needing total restoration.
It is no coincidence that makes such as Aston Martin and Ferrari, which are fetching the top money, had their heyday in the 1950s and 1960s. That was when many of the now-moneyed people buying them for huge sums were just car-crazy kids who dreamt of being able to get behind the wheel of such exotica. The modern-day revival of their favourite marques, together with the publicity that accompanies it, has also thrown the spotlight on the classic models and given values a fillip.
Another reason for the surge in popularity of old cars is that there are so many events being organised for them across the world. These range from the usual owner’s club gatherings to international tours organised by luxury goods companies (the Louis Vuitton China run took place in May), trans-continental rallies, such as last year’s “Peking to Paris”, and recreations of historic road races, with Italy’s annual Mille Miglia being among the best.
Martin Chisholm, who runs an international business selling classic and historic motor vehicles in Gloucestershire, England, says there is an unprecedented demand across the board for all classics – competition cars in particular.
“Cars with a competition pedigree are highly sought after because they are incredibly exhilarating to drive and because, during the past 10 years, the number of historic events available to enthusiasts has at least quadrupled,” says Chisholm. “You can do anything from a hill climb to a trans-global rally and, as a result, the value of cars deemed appropriate for such events has risen accordingly.”
But if all this enthusiasm is making you think that a classic car will make a cast-iron receptacle for your money, beware. Almost without exception, the cars that are currently selling for huge sums – and would appear to have provided those who sold them with a good return – are relatively rare, particularly sought after and invariably in excellent, original condition or have been superbly restored. Many, too, boast important competition history.
At the lower end, poor quality restorations and unoriginal or just plain uninteresting cars are proving harder to shift as buyers become more discerning and more willing and able to pay for the best. And, particularly with more run-of-the-mill models such as Jaguar E-Types, Triumph TRs and MGs, a properly rebuilt car can often be bought for considerably less than the cost of the work that went into it – meaning that there is little point in opting for an inferior example to “do up”.
The acid test of the classic car market will come next month during the most prestigious car event of the year, the annual Pebble Beach Concours on California’s Monterey peninsular. This gathering of 175 of the world’s best, rarest and most valuable collector’s cars, attracts thousands of enthusiasts as well as four separate auction houses that stage sales in and around the area in order to take advantage of the captive audience the Pebble event provides.
Among them will be Bonhams, which holds its regular sale at Quail Lodge in Carmel. Offerings will include: a $7m 1960 Jaguar E2A, a rare works car that marks the transition from the D Type to the E Type; a “barn find” Talbot Lago estimated at $3m–$4m; and a $2m racing Porsche 908 that once belonged to Steve McQueen.
In spite of the uncertainty in financial markets, Rupert Banner of Bonhams’ US motor car department is quietly confident that this year’s Quail auction will be one of the best yet.
“With some time to go before we stop accepting cars for the sale we have already signed more than $25m worth,” he says. “I think it is fair to say that, while buyers are being more particular than ever in the light of the present financial situation, sales of collector’s cars seem to be holding up very well. There will always be buyers for genuine offerings that are interesting and fresh to the market, so that is what we tend to concentrate on.”
