June 2006Market Latest

Hardly a day passes without someone calling and telling me about the record price so-and-so has just achieved- or more likely turned down- for his pride and joy. Usually it’s a rare Ferrari, perhaps with racing history, but equally the same story might relate to a sports-racing Maserati or Aston, a special Porsche, or maybe a spectacular pre-war coachbuilt car. If the (inevitably lower) price that the last comparable example of this model achieved comes into the conversation, the other party will be quick to respond (this is usually the seller to the buyer): “Ah, but that was six months ago". It’s hard not to wonder how long such a state of affairs can last. After all, no market of which I’m aware moves upwards year after year in a straight line, and although we’ve had both fairly good and very good years, the classic car market has effectively risen uninterrupted since 1993, when it finally started to recover from the 1990 crash.

Every market insider has his or her own pet theory, and I’ve listened to many peers who believe that the influx of new buyers, including those that are expected from emerging markets such as Russia, China and the Middle East, will more than outweigh any economic ups and downs in Europe and the USA. Add to this the fact that many cars have still not overtaken their 1989 values (whilst most other assets passed that point long ago) and that many ‘investors’ prefer tangible assets which can be enjoyed to traditional ones which cannot, and all this, they say, ensures that collectors car values can only continue to rise. Personally I'd suggest that although in the long term most cars will continue to appreciate, buyers who are motivated largely by speculation should not expect it to be an uninterrupted rise in value, and nor should they expect items of average quality (ie most of what one sees for sale) to keep pace with the very best, truly 'blue chip' collectibles which are few and far between.

Looking at recent results in the public domain, both Bonhams and Coys held auctions during the Monaco Historic Grand Prix Weekend. Bonhams had a bumper catalogue with some 115 cars, headed by the cover Lot, a 1963 Ferrari 250GT Lusso which had seen competition action in period and had spent most of its life in France. It sold for €420,000 plus premium, this price limited by the last minute discovery that its engine had been replaced (a fact that had escaped the last well-known dealer who handled it). The other highlight, a diminutive 1935 Maserati 4CS sports car with slightly later coachwork which came from the recently sold Rosso Bianco collection, broke the €600,000 barrier to yet again prove that cars with good provenance offered on the open market for the first time always command serious interest. The most surprising prices included €426,500 achieved by a right-hand drive, short nose Ferrari 275GTB/6C restored to a decent but not concours standard in France; €357,000 paid for an alloy-bodied Ferrari 250GT Boano with some hill climb history, and €214,000 for a 750cc 1955 Moretti barchetta with Mille Miglia history, probably the most expensive car of the sale in terms of Euros per horsepower. By the end of the evening Bonhams had turned over in excess of €5 million, a little less than expected but a very respectable total considering the scarcity of good quality cars generally available.

Down the road at Coys, whose sale took place in their habitual circus tent, the catalogue made entertaining reading and contained a number of familiar faces (the cars, not the attendees). A beautifully restored Mercedes-Benz 540K with Cabriolet C coachwork, said to have been a gift from Hitler to King Farouk, was knocked down for a staggering €850,000 plus premium. For a car which is not really in fashion and has a limited market this should be considered a remarkable result, although as Coys didn’t publish an estimate one can’t be sure if they were hoping for even more. Even more surprising was the €820,000 (plus premium) which was claimed for the familiar Maserati 150S, a fine little car but one which had failed at Poulain’s sale as recently as three months earlier, having been on the market previously for almost two years. It’s surprising that a buyer with that kind of spending power was not aware of this (or ignored it). From the same ownership, the rebodied Ferrari 166 Barchetta which will be familiar to Ferrari Market Letter subscribers, stalled at a telephone bid in excess of €1.3 million which the auction house say the vendor chose to decline...

In the UK a few days later, up-and-coming provincial firm H&H succeeded in dispatching both the imposing Duesenberg Model J Murphy convertible coupe and the 1935 Mercedes-Benz 500K ‘Kombination Roadster’ by Windovers, both entered by the same colourful owner, for £330,000 and £265,000 respectively, the latter great value compared to the aforementioned 540K at Coys although the Windovers car had been for sale more recently (full credit to H&H for their cataloguing which included a number of period shots authenticating the car’s coachwork, which no other vendor seems to have unearthed). Both are headed across the Atlantic, to the same buyer as it happens, confirming that the market for this style of motorcar is still very much wider in the US than here.

In the private market, the biggest recent deal is the sale of an important 1960s sports-racing Ferrari from France to North America, whilst further down the price scale activity has also been centered around post-war European sports cars. Daytonas are ‘what’s hot’, likewise Miuras and 275GTBs (yes, still), and good 300SLs are selling well. There’s a steady demand from more experienced collectors for the best pre-war cars, especially Grand Prix Bugattis and blown Alfas, whilst the market for formal cars remains relatively quiet.

All eyes now begin to focus on the all-important Pebble Beach sales this August, where the big guns go head to head although this year the initial impression is that the pickings are rather slimmer than in the past. RM, which has recently led the turnover tables, headlines its new ‘Kustom Night’ sale with the bubble-top 1955 Ford ‘Beatnik’ estimated at $350-450,00, confirming how even modern customs now command serious prices across the Atlantic. Rather more sombre but arguably the ultimate in one-upmanship (who else can boast an in-car throne?) is the 1964 Lincoln Continental ‘Popemobile’ built for the US visit of His Excellency Pope Paul VI. RM also promises an important Duesenberg, Delage and Bentley.

David Gooding has secured the fascinating collection of the late steel tycoon James Conant, including his 1914 Stutz Bearcat, 1935 Auburn Boattail Speedster, 1929 Duesenberg Model J Murphy Convertible Coupe, and a slice of pure Americana, the wood-panelled 1948 Chrysler Town and Country. All are to be offered without reserve and should do well: these are the type of cars which David knows intimately.

Remarkably this year it looks like Bonhams have the most valuable individual cars on offer, thanks to the second instalment of the former Rosso Bianco collection, sold ‘en bloc’ in March to a Dutch consortium. Highlights include the ex-Rob Walker Talbot Lago ‘Goutte d’Eau’, a superb original Jaguar D-type, a Ford GT40 and a matching numbers Ferrari 750 Monza. All are fresh and very much ‘of the moment’ so should generate strong interest and bidding.

Back to the recent past now, though, and the latest record price has been paid for the dusty Porsche 904 which small French auction house Osenat sold this weekend for a whopping €430,314. Forgotten in storage in the centre of Marseille since 1973, this ‘barn find’ project belonged to the same plumber who bought the handsome Gangloff-bodied 1930 Rolls-Royce Phantom II at a government auction in the 1950s for £250 and sold it for three times its €40,000 pre-sale estimate in Osenat’s previous Parisian auction.

The successful bidder at that sale, incidentally, was Russian.