John Draneas

On April 28, Publisher Martin hosted the Round Fendered Volvo Club at his home for a viewing of the movie “Swedish Auto.” A few days later, a club member who drove his Volvo 122 wagon to the affair wrote this interesting account of the demise of his Volvo. “Legal Files” has added comments — with…

  Last month’s “Legal Files” illustrated how loaning your car to another can wreak havoc at the highest levels. This month, we’ll explore some more mundane situations that can be equally unsatisfying. Let’s start with a pretty common situation — you and your friend enter a rally in your 1957 Porsche Speedster. On the second…

Sports car racing driver David Piper (a former F1 driver who lost a leg below the knee in an accident driving a Porsche 917 during the filming of Steve McQueen’s 1971 film “Le Mans”) recently won an important case in The Royal Courts of Justice in London. The high court awarded damages and legal costs…

Okay, it’s March, but we all know that spring is the real start of the car collecting year. And every new year marks the time for self-improvement resolutions. Here are the top seven for the car collector. I won’t buy a car online without seeing it myself Hands down, the most common complaint I get…

“Jim” thought he had a smoking deal — $3,650,000 for a 1956 Ferrari 500 Testa Rossa. He thought he could easily flip the TR for a quick profit. All he needed was $3,650,000. So, Jim called his stepbrother-in-law, “Bob,” for financial help. Bob thought the TR deal sounded like a good idea, so he contacted…

In the realm of estate planning, 2012 is either a once-in-a-lifetime tax-saving opportunity or the new normal. We won’t know which until after the November 2012 election — and maybe not until next year, after the new Congress has had time to act. Savvy investors aren’t waiting to find out, and they are acting now…

Tim Durham (right) arrives at court in Indianapolis in June to hear the verdict in his trial Tim Durham started out as an attorney, then left practice for far greener pastures. Highly ambitious, he reportedly made millions through leveraged buyouts. He was a well-known fixture at collector car auctions. Arriving on his private jet —…

Finding an auction company that meets your needs is one of the first crucial steps “Legal Files” recently wrote about the 1935 Mercedes-Benz 500K Roadster that German authorities seized on a claim that it had been stolen from Hans Friedrich Prym in 1945 (June 2012, p. 30). The current owners, who bought the car at the…

“Legal Files” has written several times about various techniques that collectors employ to avoid paying sales/use taxes on their collector cars. It’s a big deal, as the sales/use tax rates are typically 6% to 10% of the purchase price of the car. One of the common techniques, which our office uses with many of our…

In late March, Frans van Haren and Tony Paalman, Dutch car collectors and business partners, put their 1935 Mercedes-Benz 500K Roadster on display at the Techno Classica car show in Essen, Germany. The two men had bought the car, Lot 147, for $3,767,500, including buyer’s premium, at RM Auctions’ 2011 sale in Monterey, CA. Life…