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Virtual Garage

What do they have in the garage?

The Wealthy, the Sober and the Cautious

13 February 2021

Photo credit: Mecum, RM Sotheby’s, Gooding, Bonhams

The Wealthy, the Sober and the Cautious. We could call them the three main characters of our story that we’ve commissioned to create three collections of cars purchased at auctions in 2021from scratch, each one with a different budget. We mentioned Sergio Leone’s famous film, The Good, the Ugly and the Bad, not because our three characters have to fight each other but, in a market that’s becoming quite robust, hunting down a great deal requires talent. How do we intend to build these collections? Simple, each one of our three characters has a large garage to store the cars in. The style of the three garages is different though: the Cautious one, who is very careful about spending his money and who only chooses cars below the one hundred thousand euro mark, has a beautiful painted wooden garage attached to a country farm. The Sober collector, who directs his purchase choices towards cars that fall within the one- to six- or even seven-hundred thousand euro bracket (once again with tolerances in line with the capital he’s prepared to invest), has found himself an abandoned industrial warehouse from the 40’s out in the suburbs. Our Wealthy collector is in another league, with his large storage space in Gstaad, in the Swiss Alps. Our three collectors began their collections at Mecum in Kissimmee, Florida, RM, Bonhams and Gooding in Scottsdale, Arizona. Then they moved to Artcurial’s in Paris, and are already getting ready for RM Sotheby’s, the other Parisian auction scheduled to be held in the next few days. Their “virtual garages” continue to grow. We will follow their adventures to discover the three ideal collections from 2021, assembled over the course of one year. A story worth sharing to better understand some of the reasons behind their decisions to buy, in terms of: market, car use and available events.

The Cautious

1968. The Corvette, in its various versions, will always epitomise the American dream. Having one in the garage for $24,640 (€20,308) is a sure bet
1972. Important for the historical value of the Lancia brand, harmonious and fun to drive, the Fulvia 1600 HF “Fanalino”, at this price, $33,600 (€27,693), it’s a great way to enter the world of series-production sportscars
1990. A convertible British V12 wearing a Jaguar badge is a really special treat, especially if the car had just one owner, very few miles on the clock and costs $14,000 (€11,539)

The Sober

1939. A symbol of the pure sportsmanship of pre-war BMWs. A car that evokes forgotten emotions. This 328 Roadster was sold for $500,000 (€412,100)
1985. The 037 is one of the symbols of Lancia’s epic run in rallies. The very last two-wheel drive World Champion in Martini livery is an official dream car. Sold for $665,275 (€548,320)
2004. Light and essential like a true race car should be, with a unique sound and truly exhilarating performance, the Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale is also valuable because very few of them were produced. Sold for $209,000 (€172,257) it went for the equivalent of its brand new price

The Wealthy

1954. Aston Martin has always had a connection with Italy, but this DB2/4, one of just two built, bears the unusual signature of Bertone that was proposed once again in 1961 with the unique DB4 GT “Jet”. The attractive price, $968,000 (€797,825) and total originality justify its presence in a large collection
1965. An important price, $5,940,000 (€4,895,748), for a symbolic 427 Cobra Roadster: this particular model was the personal car of its creator, Carroll Shelby
1985. An authentic wild card from Peugeot, born to race and to launch the road-going model, the 205 Turbo 16 passed all kinds of tests from rallies to raids such as the Paris-Dakar bringing home countless successes. An icon worth $1,185,925 (€977,440)

Editor’s choice

1958 Lister-Jaguar ‘Knobbly’ sold for $802,500 (€661,420)