|
|
 |
|
| Passion Investments: Autos |
Revered Racers
Michael Verdon
11/01/2004
|
Bob Coates races his 1974 Ferrari competition Boxer BBLM on summer weekends,
often coaxing the speedometer past 150 mph. The Ferrari feels at home on the
tracks at Watkins Glen or Pocono Raceway in New York. Coates’ beloved Boxer has
an impressive racing provenance: It achieved fourth in class at the 24 Hours of
Le Mans in 1977 and third in class a year later. “I have friends who think I’m
out of my mind,” says Coates, president of Paramount Wire in East Orange, N.J.,
“but my car friends understand my passion. It’s not something you can explain.
Some people live to go to fancy restaurants. I get excited about wax that makes
my car shinier.”
 | | JACK CROUL shipped his 1951 Ferrari 340 from California to Italy to compete in
the Mille Miglia. |
Jack Croul of Newport Beach, Calif., shares Coates’ zeal.
The retired part-owner of Behr, the paint maker, owns more than 40 racecars. He
bought his first—a 1934 Ford—in 1989 to compete in the two-week coast-to-coast
Great American Race. Since then, Croul has primarily collected cars that ran in
Italy’s most famous road race, the Mille Miglia. The Italian government halted
the original Thousand Mile event in 1957, when a racecar careened off the road,
killing the two drivers and 10 spectators. But in 1982, enthusiasts resurrected
it as a 1,000-mile tour of the countryside, and allowed only authentic Mille
Miglia cars, or the types that originally ran in it, to participate. For the
past 11 years, Croul has shipped a 1951 Ferrari from California to Italy to
compete; his best finish so far has been fifth. “I drive the coupe that won the
race in ’51,” he says. “This year, my son also drove his car in it. It’s the
thrill of a lifetime.”
VALUE JUDGMENT
Vintage racecars that once burned up the tracks of Le Mans and Daytona now command premium prices from avid collectors who value pedigree and speed. Though
some caution that the market for such collector cars is overheated, aficionados
argue that passion, not price, will only drive prices higher. |
Thousands of vintage racecar owners share the
driver’s seat with Coates and Croul. They view their classic cars more as
objects of affection than high-yield investments. “I have stocks and bonds for
that,” says Croul who, like many owners, admits to falling in love with his
vehicles. Such love, however, does not blind them to their cars’ dramatic
appreciation during the latest upturn in the collector racecar market: Coates
believes his Boxer has doubled in value since he purchased it in 1993. “In some
ways, the vintage racecar market is better than it has ever been before,” says
Rupert Banner of Christie’s Motor Car Division in London, which recently held an
auction of Le Mans racers. “Cars with the most colorful racing histories fetch
the highest prices. As the values continue to increase, there is a growing new
interest among noncollectors.”
Banner describes an international market in
which owners, like Coates and Croul, are increasingly racing their collectible
cars, rather than just showing off high-gloss garage queens that have not
rounded a track in decades. “People go from country to country to attend the
best rallies,” Banner says. “It’s a public experience—unlike collecting
paintings and tucking them away in a vault. There may be some vanity involved,
but there is also an element of pure enjoyment and pride that owners get from
the cars.”
Reliving the Past
Before the early 1970s, old racecars held as much value
as last Tuesday’s newspaper. “People used to say there was nothing more useless
than last year’s racecar,” says Gerald Roush, publisher of the Ferrari Market
Letter. “But then vintage racing took hold, and there was suddenly a great
reason to own one.”
 | | THE 1960 Aston Martin DB4 GT that Christie’s recently sold for $793,000 had a
distinguished racing history, significantly adding to the value. (Photograph by James Mann/courtesy of Christie’s Images LTD.) |
In 1974, Steve Earle founded the Monterey Historic
Automobile Races, now considered the country’s premier vintage competition.
“That year we expected a few racers and families,” Earle recalls. When 65 cars
and more than 1,000 spectators showed up, he knew that he was on to something.
Back then, even the most famous racecars were either scavenged for parts or
ignobly relegated to junkyards. “One year after it was campaigned at Indy for
$250,000, you could buy a car for $10,000,” he explains. “A lot of guys couldn’t
do anything with the cars. Our event took the hobby out of the backyard and made
it public.” Hundreds of regional and local clubs across the world now hold
annual races. Earle’s Monterey event, held every August and now sponsored by
Rolex, sells out months in advance. Since the first race, the number of classes
has swelled to 15, from 1904 vintage racers through ’83 Formula One champs.
“Four-hundred cars are about all the paddock can handle,” he says. “Even at
that, we tend to be oversubscribed.”
Earle insists on authenticity; no
replicas are allowed to race Monterey. “Having a real car makes a difference in
how you drive it,” he says. “You will race it hard to a point, then back off.
This is a gentleman’s sport. Nobody wants to wreck the other guy’s
car.”
Certainly not if they intend to sell it at a profit later, says Keith
Martin, editor and publisher of Sports Car Market magazine. Martin, like the
other experts, confirms that values have been skyrocketing over the past three
years. “A Ferrari 250 TR that won Le Mans sold for about $9 million two years
ago,” he says. “It just changed hands for $12 million.” Ironically, the weekend
warriors who race their vehicles in front of their collector peers and thousands
of fans are doing little to drive up the value of their cars. “The fact that
they are used as vintage racing cars now is irrelevant to their overall values,”
he continues. “What’s more crucial is that they were important racecars in their
period.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
