This time of the year the snowbirds always fly south for the winter. They arrive in Scottsdale, Arizona with their Gucci, Pucci and Fiorucci plumage hungry for the Ferraris, Maseratis, Barchettas and Berrettas dotting the home of chartreuse-coloured fire engines, 200 golf courses, spicy Mexican food and bland signs.
Scottsdale is the site of the greatest used car show in the world. Five of this planet’s biggest pre-owned classic car sellers get together with two not so large ones to put on Arizona Auction Week.
If you have a slightly better understanding of economic theory than the Trumpster, then you’ll realise that the big money is chasing old Ferraris. Hagerty, the global leader for collector car and boat insurance, tracks classic car values with an index for the most important brands.
For the 16th month in a row, Hagerty’s Ferrari index hovered around its all-time high. Ferraris that were made in high volume (high is a relative term for a company that aims to sell 9000 cars a year) “suffered the most, but still lost no more than 5 per cent over the last 4 months”.
“Over the past year, eight of the 13 Ferrari index’s component cars have lost value, with five of those dropping more than 10 per cent. These cars may fall further still, but are also likely to be the first to recover. Low production, instant recognition, and tremendous modern day brand presence all but guarantee that,” Hagerty says.
So, if you bought a 10-point 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO S1 in 2006 you would have paid around $13 million. If, like the older person whose photo appears in every real estate agent’s window, you waited for the price to come down, you’d be very sad. In 2014 the same car would have cost you $92m and today you will still have to pay $87m. What’s a lazy $80m between friends, particularly during the Global Financial Crisis? Everyone did well then.
RM Sotheby’s, whose auctions are more like Las Vegas productions minus the water features and Elvis impersonations, are selling twenty-two Ferraris from 11am today at every price point. There’s a nice 1961 Ferrari 400 Superamerica SWB Coupe Aerodinamico by Pininfarina for around $4.5m and because the good folk at RM know plenty of you are doing it tough, there’s at least 15 Fezzers that will walk out the door at under a mill.
And knowing how many of you have kiddies, there’s a 1959 Connetti Ferrari Monza competition junior sports car. Now, it’s true the Connetti is only 190cm long but it’s got a two-horsepower Red Sea Continental AU series engine, competition-style automatic clutch drive and, wait for it, internal expanding brakes made from special linings that are controlled from inside the cockpit by a hand lever. And who said the Trabi was a dog? Certainly more fun than a Tesla. Originally this car sold for $595 but today, just mention The Weekend Australian and it’s yours for $30,000 and a year’s subscription to The Australian print edition and the online version.
If you don’t like auctions, Johnny Collins who runs the Talacrest used Ferrari shop at Ascot (that’s in Britain, at least until Brexit) is selling a blue 250 GTO for $73m (drive away, no more to pay).
Dave Gooding will be selling a few Fezzers at the $4m price point but keep an eye on the 1932 Packard Twin Six 906 Individual Custom Convertible Sedan. This is only one of two and features coachwork by Dietrich (not Marlene, although she had very good taste in Rollers) and was first owned by Al Jolson who was the Bono of his time. Please don’t ask who Bono was.
Bonhams are looking for $12m for a 1952 Ferrari 340 America Spider Competizione, but you should be looking at the Bob Jane, 1963 Australian GT Championship-winning, Jaguar E-Type lightweight competition.
The tenth of the 12 E-Type Lightweights built, it’s only had three owners and has less than 6000 original kms on the clock. Don’t forget Bob Jane raced a D-Type as well as a red E-Type. He won the Bathurst 500 four years in a row and won 38 straight victories in Jags.
Anyway, the car sat around for a long time till Bob, in the worst decision he ever made, sold it to our old friend Peter Briggs for a lousy $80,000. Briggs raced it and drove it to his office during the week. He put in on the blocks in Florida in 1999. Yours today for $12m.
This is a shortened version of the original article. To read the full article, go to:http://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/motoring/ferraris-fetch-millions-at-auction/news-story/379f0183d54291f9c5aea3962d58b948
