These are interesting times in the old car market. Some wealthy buyers, looking to diversify their holdings during the financial downturn, are acquiring rare vintage cars as a hedge against inflation. Others have been forced by the recession to sell theirs, which means occasional rarities are appearing on the market for relatively low prices.
It's a fluctuating financial scenario. Even though a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder was auctioned in Italy last year for a record price of just under US$11m, there are no guarantees. If you don't know what you're doing, you can hit a serious speed wobble.
However, for most collectors of vintage cars (pre-World War 2) and classic cars (1950s, 1960s, 1970s) it's more a question of love than money.
Dave Lyons - An Aston Martin, among other iconic brands
"You've got to be passionate or you won't have the understanding and knowledge you need in this game. It's not like collecting art," says Dave Lyons, who has 28 vintage and classic cars. All are housed in their own vast, dehumidified, air-conditioned building, known as The Motor House, on his 6-acre Hout Bay estate.
Among the iconic brands he's collected are Aston Martin, Ferrari, Bentley, Vauxhall, Packard, Jensen, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, Lancia and Alfa. Only two-door cars. "They're not just a utility tool. More individualistic. More design integrity."
They're all fully roadworthied, licensed, insured and in prime condition. He can drive every one, though with cars like the 1929 Vauxhall and the 1930 Bentley you have to connect the batteries, advance the ignition, enrich the carburettor and so on.
He does all the mechanics himself except panel-beating and spray-painting. Tom, his full-time maintenance man, makes sure they have the shiniest engines you've ever seen. That includes the Pontiac Trans Am, one of Lyons' two American muscle cars, that thunderous breed from the 1960s. "I bought it to do the Cannonball Run coast to coast across America, then fell in love with it and shipped it home."
He belongs to most of the car clubs. "There's always someone who knows someone who will make that little widget you need." And he's driven in most of the international rallies - Monaco, Moscow, Prague and Scotland - usually with the Bentley or the Jensen, a British brand that went under in 1971.
He was 26 when he bought his first old car in 1974. Now 60, he still has that navy blue 1960 Jensen. "The seller wanted R400. I had just started my first company and I could give him only a R25 deposit - two months' salary then. Now the car is worth about R250 000."
Fortunately, considering the financial implications of his passion, he went on to found the blue-chip security company Callguard and sell it to the UK's Group 4 for R155m. Bored in retirement, he's now chairman of Lupo Bakery, SA's biggest supplier of specialist bread.
His cars, he says, are the best hedge against inflation. "They're among my few investments that have held their value." As proof of the strength of the vintage car market he recounts the tale of a banana-yellow Dino Ferrari he tried to buy in 1981. "They wanted R16 000. I didn't have it. Ten years later it came on the market again for R160 000. I still couldn't afford it. Now it's worth �100 000."
"For me the great thing is finding something rare in a neglected state, and returning it to its former glory" - MAREK LETOWT
For Marek Letowt, the 37-year-old GM of Rolls-Royce in SA, his car collection really started when he was three, when he asked his mother what the best car in the world was and she replied, " Rolls-Royce".
He was 21 when he bought his first Rolls at an insolvency auction. "It was a 1984 Silver Spirit, ivory with tan leather." It had been neglected, so the next few months involved hard work, "but having bought it so cheaply, and then adding value by putting in effort, I was able to trade up to a 1989 Bentley Turbo R".
Now he has 34 vintage and classic cars, including some rare items. A 1936 Rolls-Royce Phantom III. An early 1980s Mercedes-Benz 500SLC. And a uniquely South African 1983 BMW 745i manual - only 14 were made.
"What makes cars rare is how many were made, and how many are left. I have one BMW, a 1977 3.0 litre, the predecessor to the 7 Series, of which they made thousands. But now there are only 40 left in the UK and I haven't seen one in SA in reasonable condition. That kind of car becomes irreplaceable.
"You have to buy right, and if you maintain it in its original condition, it will never depreciate. Collectors around the world aren't fussy where they buy from, as long as what they're buying is rare and desirable. Sometimes not even condition is important. People have rebuilt cars from boxes of bits."
He finds cars on the Internet, and through the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts' Club in the UK. He keeps them all in his father's warehouse. "My father is an engineer. Without him there are certain cars I would never even consider owning. He's amazing. He can fix or remanufacture anything. It saves on buying original replacement bits, or trying to find parts for cars that you can't get any more. Trims are particularly difficult.
"You sometimes think only a marginal amount of work is needed on a car, but the more you investigate, the more faults you find. It means more time, more money. A real Pandora's box. I have also overpaid just because I wanted the car badly. You have to balance the desire against the price.
"But for me the great thing is finding something rare in a neglected state, and returning it to its former glory."
Kurt Schoonraad - From Matchbox cars to sexy heavyweights
American cars from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s are what Mitchell's Plain-born and -fled comedian Kurt Schoonraad has always had a soft spot for. So it was no coincidence that these tail-finned, greased-lightning roadsters were the cars with which he made his national debut in the offbeat SABC 3 travel series Going Nowhere Slowly.
Fire engine-red was the colour of the two classics that ferried him and the series' other comics round the back roads of SA. They were a 1972 Chrysler 383 known as Big Red and a 1968 Chev Impala known as Chilli Pepper, and they played such an evocative role in this small-screen road experience that the book that was generated by the series was called Red Car Diaries.
Schoonraad (36) is another vintage car obsessive whose mother started him on his collection. "I was five, and every Friday when she came home from work, she'd bring me a Matchbox car. As I got older I started scrapbooks, cutting and pasting pictures of cars from every magazine I could get my hands on."
At 23 he bought his first classic - a 1955 Chevy Bel Air. It was red, naturally. Four more classics followed. A sunflower-yellow 1970 Chevrolet Camaro. A sleek and shiny black 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air. A dazzling blue 1965 Oldsmobile 44.2 Convertible. And an equally dazzling blue 1969 Ford Mustang. All of them are now stored in garages all over Observatory in Cape Town, and all of them are the kind of sexy heavyweights in retro chrome and gleaming enamel - with wide seats like sofas - that will always have value.
Schoonraad gets his car parts on eBay - "saves me a fortune" - and says the biggest mistake he once made was to not check the oil before trying to start a newly restored engine. "That little slip cost me about R40 000. Ouch!"
In his view his cars are a great investment. "My first Chevy cost me R15 000. After being restored it's worth half a million. Definitely beating inflation."
Not that he's any kind of mover on the vintage car market. "Actually I'm quite bad at selling them, though occasionally when I look at the bills, the thought does cross my mind. But the truth is that when I've had a really bad day I just hop into one of my babies and go for a long cruise. The world disappears, going nowhere slowly... "
No comments:
Post a Comment