Absolute classics!
This years hottest ‘new’ models? The remade versions of iconic cars from half a century ago that are still...
ONE of 2018’s hottest new cars was unveiled in Paris this month, and it’s just about to go into production. You won’t be able to drive it on the road; at least not at first. Its emissions and safety systems are from the 1950s because that’s when it was designed. It costs £1.5million. It doesn’t seem like a bargain – and yet Jaguar’s ‘new’ D-Type had sold out before it was officially revealed.
The D-Type is just the latest example of the new trend for ‘continuation’ models, in which carmakers reissue some of their greatest hits from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s; either building them from scratch, or restoring them so completely that they’re factory-fresh.
Jaguar started the trend in 2014 with six brand-new ‘Lightweight’ racing E-Types, completing the run of 18 that it planned but didn’t finish in 1963. Even at £1million each, the car sold out before it was officially announced. Jaguar is currently finishing nine XKSS roadsters to replace those lost in a factory fire in 1957. The price for each car is ‘well in excess’ of £1million, and they’re all sold.
And now Aston Martin is getting in on the act with a run of 25 DB4GTs from 1959, as raced by Sir Stirling Moss, built from scratch at its Newport Pagnell factory in Buckinghamshire. The price? £1.5million, and they’ve sold out too. ‘Some of the customers for this car have never driven an “old” car before,’ says Paul Spires, managing director of Aston Martin Works, which makes the DB4GT. ‘Just like flying a Spitfire, it’s an incredible, physical experience, but one you need to learn.’
Five customers, including two from the UK, will receive their DB4GTs at Silverstone this Friday – and each will have a dedicated instructor to show them how to handle their new car.
‘We would never divulge the identity of our customers,’ says Spires. ‘But when we went to our VIP clients in secret and said that we were thinking about doing this we were deluged with interest.
‘It meant that we could choose who got a car. And we’ve chosen clients who will use their cars. We don’t want them to be garage queens.’
The only acknowledged customer for one of Jaguar’s ‘continuation’ models is the Stratstone dealership, led by car enthusiast CEO Trevor Finn. It has already loaned its £1million car to Top Gear presenter Chris Harris to compete in a historic race.
‘The cars are sold for use on private roads or circuits only,’ says a Jaguar spokesman. ‘You would need to consult the DVLA on whether they can be road-registered after purchase by the owners. But we understand that it may be possible, and that some customers may intend to do that.’
The carmakers often get asked why they don’t just put their iconic cars back into production. The answer used to be that half-century old designs could never be made to meet the modern safety and emissions standards for ‘new’ cars, meaning they couldn’t be sold for road use. Laboriously building them by hand would just be a distraction from the high-tech business of building modern cars, and the price required to cover the costs would have been prohibitive.
But the recent super-inflation of classic car prices has solved all those problems. The value of the most collectible classics has trebled in the past ten years. With an original Lightweight E-Type or Aston DB4GT now valued at about £4million, and an XKSS at around £8million, even £1.5million for a ‘continuation’ car starts to look like good value.
Factory-fresh treasures
Jaguar says that the XKSS takes 10,000 man-hours to make. The original drawings for most of the major components still exist, but because the original ‘bucks’ on which the panels were formed have been lost, both Jaguar and Aston Martin digitally scanned the shape of original cars to create 3D virtual models. The new panels were then formed by hand, just as they were half a century ago.
‘We even went back to the parts suppliers that we used for the original DB4GT in 1959,’ says Aston’s
Spires. ‘Borrani, the Italian wheel maker, put the original wheels back into production for us. But that’s one of the few imported components on the car. I think the DB4GT has the highest UK-made content of any vehicle built in this country.”
If you like the idea of a factory-fresh British classic but don’t have a million quid and want to be sure you can drive to the shops, Land Rover is now offering its ‘Reborn’ programme.
The value of collectible Landies has also surged recently, but not by enough to justify million-pound ‘continuation’ versions. Instead, it will source a donor vehicle: either an original, iconic Series 1 Land Rover from the 1940s or 1950s, or a cool two-door 1970s Range Rover.
A Range Rover Reborn will cost about £135,000 and a Land Rover around £80,000: madness perhaps for a simple truck which cost £450 new in 1948. But good early, unrestored Land Rovers now command upwards of £40,000, and rare early Range Rovers sell for six figures.
‘There’s clearly a huge demand for these cars,’ says Spires. ‘I think some people were surprised by the success of the DB4GT .
‘We were hugely oversubscribed and we’re still getting serious enquiries, even though we sold out immediately.’