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| Passion Investments: Auto |
Eternal Combustion
Richard John Pietschmann
06/01/2005
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“Color, body design, originality, history, how the car started life—all
these things factor into the value of these cars,” Kelleher explains. “With cars
like this today, it’s the same process as authenticating a van Gogh.”
Private Parking
Unfortunately, it is difficult for an aspiring collector
to actually purchase one of these rare models. Kelleher estimates that while 20
or 30 of these cars change hands privately every year, just five sell publicly.
Getting into that loop might be a matter of acquiring lesser 1930s French cars
that do sell publicly, and restoring them so fully that they gain entry into the
concours circuit.
Another route is the one traveled initially by
Mullin—buying a postwar model. The French custom automobile business never fully
recovered after the war, most collectors agree, and had expired completely by
the early 1950s. Postwar cars can be found at prices in the hundreds of
thousands rather than the millions. Moreover, Hyman predicts that they will come
way up in value.
Whether French collector cars of the 1930s represent
investments to the people who buy and own them is a touchy subject with many of
their owners. Most serious collectors of these cars squirm when asked if their
assemblage is an investment or an indulgence. For most of them, the true answer
lies somewhere between the two—with a dose of stewardship thrown into the mix.
At the very least, Adatto says, these cars represent solid preservation of
capital. At best, they have outstripped most other high-value collectibles as
investments. “There is an inherent value to these cars, and they will always be
valuable, no matter what the stock market does,” Kelleher says. “And if you ever
need money, these cars will sell quickly and so privately that no one will
know.”
The plain fact is that as investment vehicles, the best of these cars
have performed superbly. Adatto says that if you bought one of the 14 teardrop
Talbot-Lagos several years ago, you probably would have paid $1 million for it.
“If you sold it at the next Christie’s Pebble Beach auction, you’d get $3
million for it, without even trying.”
Kelleher is even more bullish. Fifteen
years ago, he says, one of 10 Talbot-Lago 150SS models in existence would have
cost $150,000 to $200,000; today it is worth $2 million to $3.5 million. “It
would be remiss not to think of these cars as investments,” he says. “They are
like Berkshire-Hathaway stock. Over the last 10 years, they have appreciated at
a consistent and almost exponential annual rate of at least 20 percent. I don’t
see them dropping in price anytime soon.”
Richard John Pietschmann, based in Los Angeles, has written for Travel &
Leisure, Departures and Newsweek. pietsch3@aol.com.
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