COVID CLASSIC CRUNCH
> AUCTION RECORDS CONTINUE TO BE SMASHED, INCLUDING PETER BROCK’S PERSONAL VK SELLING FOR OVER $1 MILLION!
IT’S a phrase sellers are loving and keen buyers are dreading: COVID tax. It’s hit all areas of the car market pretty hard in the past 12 months or so, but the worst by far has been the skyrocketing classic market. The recent results from a Grays classic car auction are stone-cold proof of this, the major headline being Peter Brock’s personal HDT VK Group A road car, which sold for $1,057,509 before buyer’s premium.
It was joined by a V8 XE Fairmont, which was not only the last XE fitted with a V8 before Ford canned them, but had also never been sold privately. With just 60km on the ticker, it went for $354,759, along with a shed-find RPO 83-spec XA GT hardtop, which reached $276,009 – both those prices before BP.
Other results from the same auction included a genuine 351-powered XC Falcon Cobra that sold for $268,759 (plus BP), as well as a super-rare Leyland Force 7 which was passed in at a smidge over $100,000.
Now granted, many of you will be saying that those cars are rarified one-offs that would’ve commanded good coin in any climate. However, just weeks before the Grays auction, a genuine LJ GTR XU-1 smashed the auction record for a road-going XU-1 by over $100K when it sold for $295,000 at Burns & Co Auctions. It had just 24,847 miles on the clock and was in superb condition, but still outsold the previous record-holder XU-1, which was far more historically significant given it was painted in the infamous Strike Me Pink and was the first-ever road-going LJ XU-1 to roll off the production line.
If you thought shopping new would make life easier, then we’ve also got bad news for you. More auction headlines include one of four HSV GTSR W1 Maloos, which sold at auction to the guys at LMCT+ for $1 million – the same mob who won the aforementioned Peter Brock VK Group A. Prices for everything from worn-out BA XR6 Turbos to CV8 Monaros and VF SS Commodores have jumped substantially. As we went to press, we were unable to find a decent VF II SS for sale online for less than $70K, well above the original sticker price Holden asked for them only a few years ago. That’s not to say that is the price they end up selling for, of course.
Unique Cars editor Guy Allen has been carefully watching the market change for over 12 months now, and says this is more than just a quick Covid-induced pricing bubble. “While so-called COVID tax has had an effect on the market, I think it’s a much bigger thing than that,” he says. “I highly doubt it’s a shortterm trend, and I’m not entirely sure when or how it’ll burst.”