by Mike –
This past week I received the latest issue of Sports Car Market Magazine which included the 2016 Print Edition Sports Car Market Pocket Price Guide.
I value the Sports Car Market Pocket Price Guide not because of the accuracy of the price listings in the past but because of the other valuable information they provide for each of the collector car models they list. Such as: the number made of each model, the years of each model, their opinion on investment grade ranking of A, B, C, D or F and median percent change.
As I have written before I would not want to be responsible for creating and publishing a list of current values for a few thousand models of collector cars. This is one of the most difficult jobs I can think of – and it is always guaranteed to be wrong in many collector’s eyes.
I think this difficult challenge motivated a change to their format. As publisher Keith Martin writes in the introduction,
The guide is now in a data-driven format that reports the median price and high sale of each listed car.
Starting with this issue they do not opine on car values they just report the facts, mam, like Joe Friday in the old Dragnet TV series, which is not a bad idea because the readers can come to their own conclusions about value, of course, taking into account the details of any particular car of interest in addition to the information in this price guide.
Their challenge now is to keep their sales price database accurate because the numbers they report are the median price and the high price of real sales. I wonder why they did not choose to report the low price?
I like what they have done and I recommend any serious collector get access to this price guide.
I do have a few more comments, below.
Iso Lele and Lamborghini Jarama
In looking over their investment grade ranking it is clear there are far more A than F grades – so they must grade on a curve?
It is sad for an Iso lover that in the definition of investment grade ranking they choose to list the Iso Lele as one of the examples of a grade F car. I know many people who would strongly disagree with this assessment. I also disagreed with the grade given to me by my highschool French teacher but it did me no good.
The Lamborghini Jarama is graded a D and I suspect many Lamborghini lovers would disagree with that. When comparing the Iso Lele to the Lamborghini Jarama it is clear they are both the offspring of Marcello Gandini of Bertone. Just look at the photos below, from a distance it would be difficult to tell them apart and they both have those half covered headlights.
The Jarama is powered by the Lamborghini V12 engine that motivated so many other Lamborghini models. The Lele is powered by a Chevy Corvette 327 or a Ford 351 Cleveland depending on the year.
There were 327 Jaramas made and 317 Leles produced – essentially the same. I know this because the price guide says so.
Iso Lele
Lamborghini Jarama
Apollo GT
At least the Iso Lele is listed in the price guide. For some reason the Apollo GT is no where to be found in this price guide (I could not find it).
Apollo GT Coupe
The Apollo GT deserves to be listed doesn’t it?
Iso Grifo – Two Distinct Flavors
Wow, the Iso Grifo had a high sale price of $1,186,220 USD according to this guide with a median price of $440,000 USD!
Iso Grifo A3/C
Iso Grifo GL
That is quite a huge price range from median price to high price and it is because the high priced “Iso Grifo” was really an Iso Grifo A3/C (Bizzarrini) – quite a different car than the Iso Grifo GL which is the model this category is intended to represent.
I know that the Iso company confused everyone by naming two different cars Iso Grifo and Giotto Bizzarrini made it worse by his seemingly random choice of model names until he and Renzo Rivolta separated.
The Iso Grifo A3/C became the Bizzarrini GT 5300 and the Iso Grifo A3/L became the Iso Grifo GL. Both styled by Giugiaro of Bertone, both hand made and both powered by the Corvette 327.
But one is a Le Mans class winning racecar made of aluminum alloy (at least most of them) and suitable mainly for racing while the other is an elegant GT made of steel (with an aluminum hood) sitting several inches higher providing a very comfortable and fast drive for two anywhere. They are cousins for sure, sharing the same chassis design features with all the same brilliant people involved with both. But they are not the same model.
See the photos above and below for a visual comparison between the Iso Grifo A3/C and the Iso Grifo GL. The green example is the high price car reported in the price guide and the dark blue Iso Grifo GL is my humble, yet perfect, Iso Grifo GL.
The difference between the two is like the difference between the Ferrari 250 GTO and the Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta. Giotto Bizzarrini was involved with both Ferrari cars as well but no one confuses these Ferrari models.
It helps that Ferrari did not give them the same model name and introduce them at the Turin auto show on the same day as Iso did with the Iso Grifo A3/C (Bizzarrini) and the Iso Grifo A3/L (Iso Grifo GL).
Auto journalists have been confused about the Iso Grifo ever since.
Iso Grifo A3/C
Iso Grifo GL
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
Excellent article mike, nice comparison on the Lambo to the Lele! Thanks, I enjoyed it.
How are the other Iso’s doing according to scm?
Rivolta gets a C
Grifo gets a B
Fidia is not listed
Bizzarrini GT 5300 gets a B
Mike,
I am a long time car collector since 1965 – Maserati, Lancia, Jaguar, etc. I have also driven AC 428s, Montaverdes. etc (coulda, shouda). I once visited Fantasy Junction in Berkley CA specifically to look at the Bizzanni they had for sale. Nice lines but with the high threshold below the door once I got in (5′ 9″ 150 #) I could not get out except by lifting my dierre up by pulling up on the top of the steering wheel. End of sale.
William,
I was a long time owner of a beautiful Bizzarrini GT 5300 (the silver car at the top of the My Car Quest page). I am 6′ 1″ tall and it was a challenge to get in and out but I managed and was comfortable once in.
The door sills are a few inches wide and they are a few inches higher than the seats because the door sills on both sides are gas tanks. The steering wheel sits low and is not adjustable, naturally. The ability to move my right leg under the steering wheel is the key.
More here – https://mycarquest.com/2011/03/getting-in-and-out-of-the-bizzarrini-gt.html
Price guides are a strange beast, and should IMO be an electronic database (APP), paper is passé. I recently had my car re-evaluated and the well recommended appraiser basically said well the average Hagerty number “is” and the market has tanked, so here is my number. Cute report, No historical review, no explanation of what is on current market. I do understand that a BJ, R&S, Sotherby or Gooding car are mostly 110+ point cars but as you state rarity and originality should have some bearing as the market for a 250GTO or Bugatti57 is in a category by itself and we are not talking Mustang / Camaro / Mopar here.
My 2c
The Hagerty Price Guide is on line and it is free – https://www.hagerty.com/apps/valuationtools/search/auto