Complete Monterey Coverage 209 Cars Rated SportsKeith Martin’s Car Market The Insider’s Guide to Collecting, Investing, Values, and Trends Scruffy Talbot Miles Collier on history, patina, and $4.8m of charm ►► Ferrari,Ferrari, aa marketmarket inin transitiontransition ►► Gooding’sGooding’s BugattiBugatti bonanzabonanza ►► PhilPhil HillHill 1927–20081927–2008 November 2008 www.sportscarmarket.com SportsKeith Martin’s Car Market The Insider’s Guide to Collecting, Investing, Values, and Trends November 2008 . Volume 20 . Number 11 50 McQueen’s Porsche 52 Tucker—A million-dollar car 46 Talbot-Lago—preservation is the key IN-DEPTH PROFILES GLOBAL AUCTION COVERAGE What You Need To Know 209 Cars Examined and Rated at Five Sales FERRARI BONHAMS & BUTTERFIELDS 38 1973 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Spyder—$1.5m 68 Carmel Valley, CA: B&B pulls out all the stops with a $21m result A damn fine Daytona cruises to top Spyder at Quail Lodge. price of the weekend. Donald Osborne Steve Ahlgrim RM AUCTIONS ENGLISH 86 Monterey, CA: 19 Ferraris lead the way to a $44m weekend at 42 1936 Lagonda LG45R Rapide—$1.4m the Portola Plaza. Care and feeding of a septuagenarian. Carl Bomstead Paul Hardiman RUSSO AND STEELE ETCETERINI 102 Monterey, CA: Drew and company top $9.1m with the usual 46 1939 Talbot-Lago T150C SS Aerocoupe—$4.8m mix of sports and muscle. Pourtout’s elegant racer, a story in every dent. Raymond Nierlich Miles Collier GOODING & COMPANY 48 1966 Bizzarrini Strada 5300 GT Coupe—$572k 114 Pebble Beach, CA: $7.9m Bugatti Type 57SC sets a record on the way to a record-setting $64.8m sale. Another Italo-American comes correct on the block. Jérôme Hardy Donald Osborne EBAY MOTORS GERMAN / PORSCHE GESPRÄCH 128 Limousines from the DIY crowd. 50 1976 Porsche 930 Turbo—$138k Geoff Archer McQueen’s boosted Carrera sets the pace. Jim Schrager AMERICAN 52 1948 Tucker Torpedo Sedan—$1m The ABCs of buying a Tucker a bit too soon. John Apen RACE 56 1960 Jaguar E2A Le Mans Sports Racer—$4.9m Not quite D, not yet E, the “in-between” Jag. On the Cover: “Pagnibon” celebrating his victory in the Coupe du Salon at Monthléry, 1947. Photo courtesy of R et B Editions. Thor Thorson 34 A Bugatti for all occasions 30 Phil Hill, 1927–2008 Rafael Montaño caption caption 32 Meadow Brook COLUMNS FEATURES 12 Shifting Gears 30 Phil Hill: A champion remembered Making sense of tomorrow’s market 32 Meadow Brook: An elite concours turns 30 Keith Martin 34 Bugatti Roundup: Twelve cars dissected 26 Affordable Classic 58 Monterey Recap: Tales from the peninsula What $50,000 could buy in Monterey Rob Sass DEPARTMENTS 28 Legal Files Recourse when red mist turns to regret 14 Crossing the Block / Auction Calendar John Draneas 16 The Inside Line 40 Sheehan Speaks 18 Contributors Interpreting prancing pony tracks 20 You Write, We Read Michael Sheehan 22 Display Advertisers Index 44 English Patient 24 Neat Stuff Champagne racing on a beer budget 72 Alfa Bits Gary Anderson 84 Our Rides: 2007 Kawasaki Ninja 250R, 2004 Yamaha FZ6, 54 Domestic Affairs 2007 Triumph Thruxton Back to the future, by Challenger 123 Glovebox Notes: 2008 Aston Martin DBS V12, Colin Comer 2008 Toyota Seqouia Limited 134 Bike Buys 129 Fresh Meat: 2008 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640, BMW’s “flying brick” house 2008 BMW X6, 2000 Ferrari 360 Modena F1 Ed Milich 130 By The Numbers: Monterey Sales Results 146 eWatch 136 Mystery Photo This Ferrari book’s a page-turner 136 Comments with Your Renewal Carl Bomstead 138 Showcase Gallery 142 Resource Directory Shifting Gears Keith Martin Gazing Into the Crystal Piston The continued buoyancy of the market at the top end is proof that America has the largest number of wealthy people of any nation in the world he Monterey vintage week takes wealth, and have decided to spend some up about four months of every of it on cars. year. There are two months of Chances are you’ll find the same type T preparation for it, which at SCM of guys buying art and antiques, boats means poring over each auction catalog and planes, and maybe a racehorse here as it arrives, and placing our bets in the and there. And compared to a 200-foot office pool concerning what the grand yacht, the cost of most collector cars is total for the weekend will be. Then there chump change. is the actual week of activities, with Most high-end collectors are from so many things going on that it takes a the Baby Boomer generation, and along month of energy to absorb them all. Gooding & Company with reading glasses, hair transplants, Finally, there’s the mad dash back to and Sansabelt pants comes the realiza- SCM world headquarters in Portland, tion that it will probably be more fun to Oregon, and the inputting and analysis own a Gullwing when you are 60 than of the data, culminating with this issue. when you are 80—after all, at the latter And all the while the friends of SCM I’m done with them, your turn now age, where will you put the walker? continue to clamor for more information, and everyone wants to know, “What’s it all mean?” Looking forward to January It’s no secret that the collector car market is now in a mature phase. The next epicenter of the collector car world is Scottsdale in January, We have seen a tremendous run-up over the past five years, especially with Bonhams’s pathfinder Gstaad event in December. with A-grade, blue-chip collectibles, but that appears to be leveling off. Here’s what we will be watching for: By having best-in-weekend re- Simply put, there were no shocking prices made; the $10m Cal Spyder sults two years in a row in Monterey, Gooding has earned its place next to sale wasn’t replicated, as some thought it might be. RM in Scottsdale; even as this is being written, they are duking it out to At each auction, the buyers seemed thoughtful, without the “irratio- confirm the most mouth-watering consignments for their Arizona events. nal exuberance” that typified 1989 and 1990. Auction houses across the RM snagging Corvette Grand Sport s/n 002 is just the opening salvo. board worked hard to get cars with reasonable reserves, and most every- Both companies will present their typically first-rate catalogs (which thing was sold at reasonable prices. The overall total, $139 million this get better in their attention to detail with every event). It wouldn’t sur- year versus $134 million last year, represents a modest increase, although prise me to see their sales totals about the same this year as last, but the it was accomplished without the presence of Christie’s. average price per car sold will go up, with perhaps fewer sales. This will be a reflection of the continued strength of the upper end of the market. The forensics of the future Barrett-Jackson will continue as the $80 million gorilla in the desert, But really, what everyone wants to know is what’s ahead. This is what and its challenge will be to maintain the quality of the no-reserve con- we believe: signments that attract the majority of the 4,000 registered bidders, and There continue to be three significant forces driving the market. First, keep the interest of millions of viewers on Speed Channel. on the selling side, the market is being pushed by collectors who have Unless Barrett-Jackson institutes some type of reserve option for reached a certain age, realize their families have little interest in their expensive cars—those over $500,000—they could have a difficult time cars or in maintaining their collection, and consequently have decided attracting such consignments in this uncertain economy. However, B-J’s it’s time to turn machinery into money. We’ll see more of this in the fu- numbers should stay solid, as their inventory is likely to be similar this ture, either with collections consigned to auctions en masse, or auctions year to what it was last. with all of the merchandise coming from a single owner. Russo and Steele will continue to play an important part in the mar- Second, we’ll see a rush to market by those who think it’s simply time ket, by having a good variety of mid-range high-quality muscle cars and to cash in their collector car, before the inevitable market correction. If a smattering of sub-$250,000 European exotics. Wisely, Russo has not you bought your 4-cam in 1991 for $300,000, and the $1.7 million it could tried to compete with RM/Gooding as a high-end catalog event, nor has add to your coffers might change your life, then it’s a good time to pull it tried to replicate the gigantic scale of Barrett-Jackson. The company the trigger. has created its own niche, with its own style of consignments and clien- The caveat today is that it might be getting a bit late in the game to tele. Again, we don’t see much change in the overall numbers. anticipate top dollar. As you might expect, it seems like nearly every 4- Silver will further its own successful strategy as well. Almost 95% of cam, Daytona Spyder, or Miura SV ever built is suddenly coming up for its Arizona consignments sell for less than $50,000, an attractive market sale, and having lots of merchandise from which to choose isn’t always segment for collectors on a budget.