Buy What You Love, Pay What You Should
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Buy, Sell or Bubble?
The collector car market is steamrolling along with the largest price increases we’ve ever seen. From 2009 to 2013, combined sales of all the auctions in Monterey jumped from $120m to $308m. That $188m increase in four years represents a 157% change, and a return of 26.6% per year. For Scottsdale, from 2010 to 2014,…
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Where’s the Crime?
We thought it was odd that our client’s Mercedes-Benz dealer was threatening to sue him for wrongfully exporting his car in violation of his agreement that he would not do so, exposing him to substantial liquidated damages. As we got into the case, we learned that this was a really big deal across the United…
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Porsche’s No-Frills Performance Bargain
There’s nothing more fun than buying, driving and enjoying a bargain sports car. Today, in our red-hot collector car market, most hope — and perhaps pray — that our purchases will continue to appreciate. Yet the prospect of price appreciation someday is different than a bargain today. The 911SC is that rarity which represents…
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1971 Mercedes-Benz 600 6-door Pullman Landaulet
This Mercedes-Benz 600 is powered by the distinctive M100 6,332-cc overhead-valve V8 engine developed specifically for the Grand 600s. The engine produces 245 horsepower. The car is equipped with a 4-speed automatic transmission; double-wishbone air-spring independent front suspension; swing-axle rear suspension with air springs; and four-wheel, power-assisted hydraulic disc brakes. The car is built on…
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1952 Cunningham C-3 Coupe
Cunningham C-3s have picked up a bit of a tail wind recently, as seen during the Gooding sale at Pebble Beach in 2012, where a yellow coupe sold for $341,000 with commissions. Our subject car, a 1952 Cunningham C-3 Vignale coupe, s/n 5210, sold at Gooding & Company’s Scottsdale auction on January 17, 2014, for…
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1980 Renault 5 Turbo Group 4
In 1979, the modest Renault Sport division, responsible for the R5 Turbo rally program led by engineers François Bernard and Michel Têtu, only had the Group 5 prototype that had appeared on the Tour of Italy, the famous “Black” R5, assembled from specific Renault and Alpine parts. Gérard Larrousse and his team had to wait…
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1955 Ferrari 750 Monza Spyder
This car is equipped with a 260-hp, 2,999-cc DOHC inline 4-cylinder engine with two Weber 45 DCO/A3 carburetors, a 5-speed manual transaxle, independent front suspension with transverse leaf springs, De Dion rear axle with parallel trailing arms and semi-elliptic leaf springs, four-wheel drum brakes, and a tubular steel frame. This car finished 5th overall at…
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1955 MG TF 1500 Roadster
As popular now among enthusiasts of traditional British sports cars as it was in its heyday, the TF was mechanically little different from the outgoing TD II. The TF kept its predecessor’s body center section, while featuring a changed front end with shortened, sloping, radiator grille and headlamps faired into the wings — plus an…
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1969 Mazda Cosmo L10B Coupe
Although founded in the 1920s, the company that would become Mazda Motor Corporation did not commence series production of passenger cars until 1960. Only four years later, the Japanese firm exhibited its first rotary-engined prototype, having acquired the rights to produce NSU’s Wankel-designed engines. In 1966, Mazda launched its first rotary engine, the Cosmo L10A,…
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Acceptable Imperfection?
Many years ago, I was considering buying a Mercedes 230SL and called Mercedes guru, SCM contributor and collector Alex Dearborn to ask for his advice. I told him the car was straight enough, a little scruffy in and out, would need a torn swing-axle boot replaced, had a 4-speed and both tops. At that…
