Top classic models to invest in
CLASSIC CARS/ Thinking of buying a classic car? Check out these movers and shakers, writes Stuart Johnston
This year has been marked by a drop-off in classic-car prices, especially the highend cars, which were subject to huge price inflation as the collector wave came on full stream from 2014 to 2016.
This tendency has not been true at the lower end of the market, where so-called “normal” cars of the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s have suddenly come into vogue.
Ferraris, Porsches, Lamborghinis and the rare upperlevel Mercedes models will always fetch premium prices in the long term, so our feedback on these is that it’s a good time to buy now after the price dip.
Recently a friend sold a fourpack collection of Mk I and Mk II Ford Escorts, built between 1968 and 1975, for R800,000. Just a decade ago a Mk II Ford Escort 1600 Sport was selling at between R20,000 to R25,000. Now if you find a good one at under R150,000 you are doing well, and the special version RS2000 with the sharper nose fetches twice that at least.
The reason these somewhat mundane classics are so sought after is that they have huge cachet in the UK as motorsport icons. And SA rust-free cars are seen as very desirable.
Of course one of the great lures of getting into the classic car scene is that these machines are investments that you can take out and enjoy. Club meetings and shows happen just about every weekend.
Our advice is to buy the best example you can afford. Don’t go the fixer-upper route if you are new to the game. Originality and the presence of all trim items is key to buying a classic, as sourcing parts can be expensive.
Here’s our Christmas Stocking Classic Top 10 for 2018:
Older Ferraris remain blue-chip investments and cars like Daytonas from 1969 to 1973 fetch huge money. Paul Kennard, a Ferrari expert, says that the car to buy now is the previously unloved Ferrari 308 GT4, a 2+2 design styled by Bertone, rather than Pininfarina, the coach-builder responsible for most Ferraris. This car is interesting in that it is a predecessor of the 308 GTS two-seater, (the so-called Magnum Ferrari) and it was the first Ferrari to use a V8 engine. Prices range between R1.1m and R1.4m.
It is wondrous to think that Porsche was intent on killing off the 911 in the 1980s so that customers would be enticed to buy the 944 and 928 models that they promoted as the “future of Porsche”.
Tim Abbot of Abbot Porsche in Kyalami says that good investments in the 911 range now are the 3.0-litre SC models built from 1978 to 1983 and the later 964-series 911 built from 1989 to 1994. Abbot says prices are still reasonable in the R600,000 to R1m range. The once-derided 964 shape has now come into its own because of rarity value here, and actually looks very cool because it is so different from other 911s.
“I bought you a brand new Mustang 1965”. The lyrics from Mustang Sally still sound fresh today, and thanks to movies like The Fast and the Furious, early Mustangs are prized collectables. But prices have softened from the heavyhitting amounts fetched between 2013 and 2015, and you should be able to pick up a cool, mint-condition Mustang from the 1965-69 era for R500,000R800,000.
The year 2018 was when a first-generation VW Beetle really made inroads as a bona fide collectable. Early Beetles from the 1950s and 1960s have long been sought after, but now even the mid- to late-1970s models are in hot demand. Pristine late ’70s examples are fetching upwards of R50,000. Pre-1966 Beetles in good nick are now fetching over R100,000. Pick-up trucks have been cult heroes on the hot-rodding scene for the past five years and at every show you visit you will see new items appear. The cool thing about restoring a pick-up truck is that they are so simple: no rear seats, a painted dashboard with one gauge, and a bench seat that you can recover for a few hundred bucks.
There are parts available from US companies specialising in the Chevys, Fords and Dodges from this era.
ONE OF THE GREAT
The so-called R107 model was a two-seater sports car and 2+2 coupe built between 1971 and 1989. These cars were popular in SA and until a couple of years ago they sold for low prices as people worried about the cost of engine rebuilds and the like.
Now prices of the SL model (the two-seater convertible) have risen to well above R250,000 for examples in good condition, and the less-desirable SLC 2+2 model is following suit, but at lower prices. Go for the best example you can find as restoration parts are not cheap.
This was a rather marginal car when introduced here in the early 1970s. It was a high-style coupe, but with only moderate performance, so it appealed more to well-heeled wives and hairdressers. Now its miniature-Camaro looks make it highly prized among General Motors fans, for indeed this was a German GM rendition of the American Chev Camaro! In this