Large Scale Central

Vintage Ferrari: better investemtn than stocks?

My cousin is really into the stock market–not day trading, just investing, mostly for the long haul. He’s done very well for himself and so every time I brag about how much some muscle or vinatge car fetched at auction, he tells me that these guys would have done better if they put their money in stocks. I still wasn’t convinced, so when I heard that a rare Ferrari 275GTB N.A.R.T. Spyder, which cost about $14, 400 new back in the early '70s, was expected to go for for between $10 and 14 million in Monterey this past weekend, I told him to run the numbers. He did and told me the market would’ve beat that price.

Now I’m gonna send him back to his abacus. That there Ferrari sold for a world record $27.5 million. How now, Dow?!

Yes, I know I misspelled Investment. I’m tired.

An amazing price to be sure…But I “discount” prices paid for charity auctions as they always appear to be so much higher than the cars “street price”. Still, nothing but winners in that auction!

Back in the good old days of Road & Track, prolly 1975 or so, the ad director of Cycle World was selling his Ferrari 275 GTB longnose coupe for $8 grand. I’m not sure if I could’ve come up with the money, but my rationalization for not buying it was that I didn’t like the color, which was like Baby Potty Yellow. If only I’d known. While that model isn’t a top seller, I’ll bet it’s over a million bucks today. Also, at about that time, Ferrari GTOs were going for around $12 thou. Years later at the height of the Japanese buying frenzy, those cars were in the $4 million range. I’ll bet that given the current craziness, they’re way more than that now. Fun cars. Got a ride in one that was owned by Steve Earle, the fella who started the Monterey Historic Races at Laguna Seca.

I have two friends who sold cars for over a million, but the best story is about a car called an Edsel. Not the road car that was a black mark on the Ford image, but a two-seat roadster that resembled a 1930s Indy racer. It was called an Edsel because it was built for Edsel Ford. Anyway, despite the fact that Bill Warner, my Florida buddy, who started the Amelia Island Concours, paid not a lot of money for the car, we chided him for buying such an ugly, stupid car. Well sir, none of us were laughing when Bill sold the car about three years ago for a million and change. One of Bill’s buddies said, “Aren’t you gonna miss owning that car?” And Bill said, “Miss it?! Heck, I just made a million dollars!” BTW, he bought himself a Ferrari Daytona and let his wife remodel their house.

The Daytona is likely my favorite Ferrari. I have no idea why, I just love it.

I am done buying/repairing classic cars…Never again.

…Though there is this really sweet Fiat Dino Spider in town I have been eyeing…

:slight_smile:

My pal has a 1966 Selby GT350 in his garage which he has had since the early 70s, and when he showed it to me it was original but dusty and faded. After I finished salivating, I asked if it ran, and he said he sorted it out every 5 years or so.

Anyway, I must have given him the nudge, because he’s had it totally refurbished to showroom stock (the paint just needed a polish) and it came back from CT a few weeks ago. He reckons it is now worth a lot more than he put in to it! Let’s see if I can embed the video…

[Youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbCevZ8mIH8&feature=share&list=UUyiyM2wbRgTnKZg7LoESYAQ[/Youtube]

Nope - still doesn’t work for me. . . Ah yes - got it:

[Youtube]http://youtu.be/KbCevZ8mIH8[/Youtube]

Very cool Pete!

I am so torn on this. I simply love the classics like the Shelby, 1st gen Camaro, Challenger, MG’s, Fiats, etc. But I still have vivid nightmares about being left on the side of the road by an old Jag or Alpha.

Some of the new Mustangs, Camaros, even Miatas offer so much of the fun with greater reliability, higher horsepower, and increased safety that I feel I would rather drive a newer version to a car show to see my old one!

Beautiful Shelby indeed!

When V’dubs are going for 5 figures you know that the world is going wacky…

True dat, Vic. Pete and all, yeah, I love the Shelby Mustangs. And the latest Mustangs of every type too. Sometimes I think I should buy one just to have because once the Black Box Brigade takes over, ya won’t be able to do anything fun or go anywhere without getting into trouble 'cause they’ll be able to track your every move. That’s why them old cars (like mine) are great. Zero controls. Of course, they run like crap, but hey…

I read all about the new Vette and agree with most reviews that at $56,000 base, it’s a helluva deal for a 450-horsepower car. Of course, when you start adding all the must haves (limited slip, performance exhaust, etc), you’re bumping up against 100 grand. And for that, I’d have to go with my all-time favorite and honey bunch, the new Porsche 911S Carrera. There was a two-page full-color ad in today’s LA Times for a black one and it looks bitchin,’ as they used to say in So Cal. Oh well…

BTW, my smart-ass cousin, MR Stockmarket, got back to me on the question of where that $14 thou would have appreciated more. Despite the Ferrari fetching $27.5 million, he says that Peter Lynch (Fidelity) and Warren Buffet (just, Warren Buffet) would have beat that rate of appreciation, which he said was 19 percent. Yeah, but could they have had any fun driving around in their portfolios?