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SportsKeith Martin’s Car Market The Insider’s Guide to Collecting, Investing, Values, and Trends $2.5M FERRARI 410 SA Super Then, Super Now December 2008 www.sportscarmarket.com SportsKeith Martin’s Car Market The Insider’s Guide to Collecting, Investing, Values, and Trends December 2008 . Volume 20 . Number 12 RS 61—Last and best of the 550s 46 Porsche 904: Wrong engine, who cares? 36 Alfa TZ: Easily faked, but this one’s real 42 Olds L37: Fully classic IN-DEPTH PROFILES GLOBAL AUCTION COVERAGE What You Need To Know 154 Cars Examined and Rated at Eight Sales FERRARI RM AUCTIONS 28 1959 Ferrari 410 Superamerica Series III SWB—$2.5m 50 Anaheim, CA: Art Astor’s 198-car, no-reserve collection If ever there was a Ferrari “Royale,” the SA was it. tallies $14m. John Apen Carl Bomstead ENGLISH SILVER AUCTIONS 32 1945 Mk XVI Supermarine Spitfire—$2.1m 58 Reno, NV: Sales total $13.3m at the Biggest Little City in Rarity and provenance take to the air. the World. Paul Duchene David K. Brunn ETCETERINI WORLDWIDE GROUP 36 1965 Alfa Romeo TZ-1 Berlinetta—$466k 66 Auburn, IN: Fifty-one cars bring $9.7m at Worldwide’s future headquarters. Minor history, major originality. B. Mitchell Carlson Donald Osborne RM AUCTIONS GERMAN 74 Rochester, MI: Classics account for $9.6m at RM’s Meadow 38 1945 NSU Kettenkrad—$124k Brook Hall staple. A war machine you can take to the links. Dale Novak Paul Duchene MECUM AUCTIONS AMERICAN 84 St. Paul, MN and Des Moines, IA: High-end muscle proves to 42 1937 Oldsmobile L37 Convertible Sedan—$110k be a hard sell at two Midwestern Mecum auctions. There’s only one Full Classic Olds, and it’s a bargain. B. Mitchell Carlson Carl Bomstead BONHAMS RACE 92 Chichester, UK: Star cars lead the way at this $5.8m annual 46 1964 Porsche 904 GTS Coupe—$888k Goodwood Revival sale. Needs $100k to be concours correct. Paul Hardiman Thor Thorson EBAY MOTORS 100 Raucous and restored roadsters. Geoff Archer Cover photograph: The Worldwide Group 102 Bike Buys: A giro diary 30 Sheehan: The game has changed 44 Comer: Stay on top of that restoration COLUMNS DEPARTMENTS 10 Shifting Gears 12 Crossing the Block / Auction Calendar An accidental Discovery 14 The Inside Line Keith Martin 16 Contributors 24 Affordable Classic 18 You Write, We Read 308: A common Ferrari for the common man 20 Display Advertisers Index Rob Sass 22 Neat Stuff 26 Legal Files 25 20 Year Picture Who really owns that “stolen” 250 PF? John Draneas 93 Alfa Bits 94 Glovebox Notes: 2008 Chevrolet Corvette Z06; 30 Sheehan Speaks 2008 BMW M3 Sedan How the world financial crisis affects the Ferrari market Michael Sheehan 97 Our Cars: 1966 Ford Mustang 101 Fresh Meat: 2008 Maserati Gran Turismo, 34 English Patient 2009 Porsche Cayenne GTS, 2005 Ford GT 50 years of Bugeye Sprites Gary Anderson 104 Mystery Photo 104 Comments with Your Renewal 40 Porsche Gespräch Living by the rules in up and down markets 106 Showcase Gallery Jim Schrager 110 Resource Directory 44 Domestic Affairs Restoration rules to manage your project Colin Comer 102 Bike Buys Going for broke on Motogiro America #1 Paul Duchene 114 eWatch Photos, posters, and plaques with a story Carl Bomstead Shifting Gears Keith Martin Global Economics and Local Tomfoolery SCM fashion, it was done without any forethought or logic, but with a high degree of entertainment. Silver Auctions had one of its twice-annual sales in Portland recently, and my daughter Alex and I went out to say hi to owner Mitch Silver, and to hang out with the usual SCM suspects who frequent the event, includ- ing Monte Shelton, Dave Stewart, Bob Ames, and Stan the Russian. I was not looking to buy anything. Until we walked by a 1999 Land Rover Discovery I, shining brightly in burgundy metallic over tan leather interior. It had been brought to the auction by longtime SCMer Dave Martindale, who specializes in first-rate presentation of merchandise. What’s “need” got to do with it? Alex had never seen a Disco before (or at least noticed one), and im- mediately fell in love with the inward-facing rear jump seats, along with the Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser-style roof-mounted small windows. “It’s so much smaller and cooler than our Suburban.” (Did I mention we own a Suburban, which up until this instant had been a perfectly acceptable way to deal with our 4WD needs?) A better place to put your money than the stock market? She took a picture with her cell phone and sent it off to Wendie. It was barely sent before my phone was ringing. “It’s SO cute! Can we buy it?” he headlines have been relentless. “Dow plunges another 600 Now, I’m not the airhead I might appear to be so far in this story, points.” “Consumer confidence slips again.” “Banks in every and am aware that nearly every automotive magazine on the planet had country facing liquidation.” declared the Discovery I to be one of the worst-built trucks on the planet, T Those of us who have been around the collector car market with repair records enough to sink a small country (Iceland comes to for a while can’t help but think of the crash of 1987, which started the mind, but of course its economy has already collapsed). Making things flow of funds into the collector car market. The trillions of dollars even more problematic, the Disco was showing 150,000 miles, which being pulled from stock markets around the world today will be put is about four times around that very same planet, or 500 trips across somewhere, and it’s not unreasonable to think that some portion of it England at its widest point—more than any British car should ever be will go toward old cars. asked to do. But there are some differences from 1987. Then, collector cars were Martindale said he was looking for $5,000. The Disco crossed the just beginning to make their meteoric rise, peaking in 1991. Our situ- block, and a few winks and nods later it was mine at $4,400. A swipe of ation today is that muscle cars peaked two years ago, and the sports, the credit card and we were driving it away. classic, and exotic market has been flat at best for the past several months. So we’re not starting with undervalued cars, but much more Fighting over the jump seats fully valued ones. Will collectors and investors think that a GTO at We’ve had to attend to a few small things, but fundamentally this $28m is only half way to its true potential? Will they start chasing seems like a decent vehicle with some miles left on it. It has become Hemi ’Cudas again, viewing them as undervalued? Wendie’s vehicle of choice to tool around in. Alex loves taking her Also, in the previous run-up, the Japanese and Europeans were the friends out for rides, and they fight over who gets to sit in the jump primary market movers, as their economies were doing quite well, seats. And Wendie’s boys, Tyler and Drew, insist on as much seat time which is not the case at the present time. So we are unlikely to see a as possible—did I mention they like the jump seats? sudden rush of foreign buyers. I won’t say it’s a great vehicle, or even a good one. I won’t say that Each of the SCM pundits has his own opinion, and many of them the purchase makes any fiscal sense, or that I won’t lose money in the are expressed within the pages of this issue. No matter what the overall end. But what I will say is that, for not much money (none at the mo- economic conditions are, collectors will continue to buy and sell cars, ment, as the charge hasn’t come through), my family has yet another some for entertainment, some for investment, and some out of neces- vehicle added to the fleet, one that seems to be offering a lot of automo- sity. We simply counsel that it is a time to be prudent, to buy because a tive swagger to them, in ways that appeal to them. And I’ve discovered car will fulfill a need rather than be a financial instrument. a new excuse to buy something—my wife and the kids think it is cool. In other words, buy a car that will allow you to participate in the For the moment, my car-buying itch has been scratched, and the Colorado Grand or the Muscle Car 1000, or because it will simply RSS feeds that constantly stream old cars to my desktop have been satisfy a longtime yearning. Buying a collector car today, in the belief deleted. For the moment. that it will go up significantly in the next few months, marks someone In keeping with the theme of buying things that we really don’t need, as exceedingly brave and willing to take great risks for what may be did I mention that Executive Editor Duchene believes we need a pair of great returns. pre-1958 Italian motorcycles to have a Team SCM for next year’s Giro retrospective events? If you’d like to be a part of the team, and/or hap- Thinking globally, acting locally pen to have a 125-cc to 175-cc motorcycle or two you think we should Moving from the global to the local, we had our chance to make our own, drop me a note at [email protected].