OZ & USA MUSCLE CAR 2020-21 VALUE GUIDES
SCREEECHHH!!! Did you ever experience that awful noise then glance in panic at a threatening shape filling your mirror? Nowhere to go, nothing to you can do, just brace for the inevitable crash. Then, by some miracle, catastrophe is avoided and your precious classic leaves the scene unscathed.
To those who own special interest vehicles and/or work in the vast industry that supports this movement, 2020 was shaping as the worst year of our collective lives.
Back in April, every automotive event of any consequence had been cancelled. In some places you couldn’t get a tyre fitted, and across major markets the dealer yards and parts suppliers ran down their shutters while the finance industry closed its books.
Owners enduring lockdown sometimes could not work on their vehicle because freight channels relied on for parts shipments had ceased to operate.
New car sales brought no encouragement at all, with some of the worst results in living memory being recorded. Those in the market for a classic model couldn’t travel to view cars for sale and those selling were left wondering how far the values of their vehicles would fall. But then, like the sudden end to a bad dream, the worst of it was over. Unless of course you lived in Victoria.
Auction sales were the first to report the ‘green shoots’ of a receptive market. Even though their salerooms were empty and the thump of the gavel was replaced by electronic pings as online bids were registered, cars were selling again.
Once a couple of local online-only auctions had been conducted, the trends were becoming pretty clear and the news was better than anyone might have contemplated. Clearance rates mirrored those achieved when vehicles and bidders were all in the same place and prices were matching those from 2019 sales. On the international market, the records began to tumble.
Despite a terrif ying human toll being taken by Covid
19, European and US auction houses were reporting quite staggering results. Most were for very high-end lots as people whose wealth was unaffected by lockdowns - or perhaps bolstered - showed a determination to invest in automotive rarities, perhaps before the world as they knew it came to an end.
Cars that entered territor y where their ilk had never sold before included a stunning Lamborghini Miura SV that topped A$5.2 million and several Bugattis which found new owners after multi-million dollar internet battles.
Local vendors did well too, albeit with some quirky results. One high point in a memorable auction year did not belong to a restored car with competition histor y - although several fitting that description did sell.
Instead the car that headlined national television news broadcasts was a ratty (literally), rusty and faded X A Falcon GT that made a staggering $303,000 (thanks to its RPO83 performance additions) and overshadowed the $750,000 spent on an ex-HDT Monaro GTS350 in pristine condition.
With no mainstream motor industry any more, Australia might seem a forlorn automotive outpost. Not true. Locally and globally we are affiliated to a movement with many millions of participants which generates billions in revenue and provides employment for vast numbers of people.
Many inf luential people own and appreciate specialist motor vehicles. The next President of the United States is a long-term Corvette owner and Prince Charles still has an Aston-Martin that runs on cask wine. Even without their patronage, the importance of our hobby socially and economically is immense and it will remain strong even when confronted by politicians who under-estimate its inf luence.
(Ed’snote:this guidecovers Australian andAmerican muscle cars,plusAmericanfamilycars.)