by Mike –
There has been much speculation lately about the health and future prospects of the collector car market. We have seen many records broken consistently over the past few years.
The market is not homogenous, however, the very high end where Ferraris, Mercedes and Ford GT40s trade for $10 million USD and more is quite different that the other segments of the market.
This is because the buyer of a single car that costs $10 million USD or more is likely not concerned about the market ups and downs, weather it is the stock market or the collector car market, because their personal financial situation is solid. This purchase is probably not their first in the collector car market so they likely have many tens of millions of USD in collector cars.
Ferrari 275 GTB/4 NART Spider At The RM Auction In Monterey – August 2013
They are probably not looking at the purchase of this collector car as an investment but the purchase of a part of their lifestyle or an addition to the art collection – paid for by their other successful investments, businesses or inheritances.
They also have different time horizons than people in other segments of the collector car market; they are not planning to sell soon or maybe ever. They may be planning this car to be a part of their estate and passed down to the next generation to deal with or to keep as they see fit.
Maybe the social status adds to their motivation and the other people they may meet as a result of owning these special collector cars.
Ferrari 250 GTO At The Bonhams Auction In Carmel – August 2014
They are not trying to time the market to buy low and sell high. The buyers of the Ferrari NART Spider for $27.5 million USD last year or the Ferrari 250 GTO for $38 million USD this year are not thinking about their future profits but instead the thrill of owning something so special is the motivation.
If you want a real NART Spider or a real 250 GTO you have to buy when they are for sale – waiting usually does not get the job done.
Having attended and video-captured the informal exotic car gatherings at the Old Brogue in Great Falls,Va for over 4 years and currently , with Terabites of HD video to show for it awaiting publishing on my website , I’m surprised that the author did not see fit to mention the standard that the now world famous car collection of Ralph Lauren who referred to his cars as *works of art*. And why not when 17 select models were actually exhibited at,first,the Boston Museum of art that gave rise to both the book on the exhibition , but also the Discovery Channel documentary in 2007and sharing the same title of “Speed,Style,and Beauty: The Ralph Lauren Collection”which, for some strange reason , the Discovery Channel has failed to offer as a DVD nor does Amazon,but it can be viewed episodically on YouTube. That not being enough as a declaration of classic sports cars to be viewed as works of art, a select number form his collection was also chosen to be exhibited at the almighty Louvre in 2011 which is world famous for having the last word on what is art.
So if you cast your shift of perception in that direction then it makes infinitely more sense. To quote Citizen Ralph from my website’s commentary on ” So Where’s Ralph Laurens’ GT40? “:
“…Most of ‘em were designed for racing and they were not designed to be shown at a gallery and they were not designed for the art,They were designed for function , to race fast and win races and accidentally they turned out to be the most beautiful cars in the world”. It just doesn’t get more beautifully to the point than that .