Shift gear... and drive off with a classic
Ferrari, Porsche, and Jaguar are some of the car brands we dream about buying when we eventually win Lotto.
But dreamers can now see their reflection in the waxed curves and sculpted wings of some of New Zealand’s best classic cars when they go under the hammer in Auckland today.
Webb’s has 49 lots up for sale at the ASB Showgrounds, including 35 cars, a scooter, a motorbike, a boat, and 11 pieces of memorabilia.
The Auckland auction house estimates the sell-off to make $3 million in total sales, with some cars expected to go for well into six figures. A British racing green 1960 Jaguar XK150 3.8S, for example, is expected to reach around $300,000.
The star of the show is a 1982 Ferrari Berlinetta Boxer 512i in Rosso corsa, classic Ferrari red.
It has a top estimate from Webb’s at $650,000.
French film star Jean-Paul Belmondo, star of the classic film Breathless, owned a silver version and fewer than 1000 were made, according to Webb’s.
Possum Bourne’s 1982 Subaru Leone rally car is also up for grabs.
Bourne drove it during the 1983 Rally of New Zealand where he finished 14th.
Willard Martin is selling his 1986 Citroe¨n 2CV Charleston in the auction. The 78-year-old bought the car in Palmerston North in 1999 but is now downsizing his car collection.
The Citroe¨ n was sold new into New Zealand in 1986, according to Webb’s.
The Charleston has two-way suspension and was designed to drive over a ploughed field with a basket of eggs, said Martin.
Driving it is ‘‘brilliant, totally different than any other car, you go faster over a speed hump,’’ he said.
The car has a sunroof and large windows, but not a lot of safety features. ‘‘The air conditioner is a window, but it does have a heater,’’ he said.
Martin has taken it on rallies around New Zealand with other Citroe¨n owners, including to Napier’s Art Deco festival.
He’s even taken it off-road a few times, and said it could get up a steep gradient and get out of mud.
Webb’s expects the car to reach between $30,000 and $40,000.
Larry Barnett, business development manager of classic car insurance specialists Classic
Cover, said Covid-19 had boosted the market, like much of the luxury leisure market, as people weren’t spending money on travelling.
‘‘People are seeing that collector cars, investment-type cars, are doing very well,’’ he said.
Barnett said many people buying classic cars were doing so as a stable investment, but ‘‘it is the investment you get pleasure out of because you can drive it.’’
‘‘What’s the pleasure in owning shares?
‘‘There is just the pure pleasure of the drive,’’ he said.
Barnett, who owns a 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner 426 Hemi, said value in a classic car came from the history of both the specific vehicle and the type, and the originality of the vehicle.
‘‘For me, I’d be looking at the history of the vehicle, if it has race history,’’ he said.
Other highlights of the auction include a bright blue 1956 Ford F100 expected to reach $80,000, a 1994 Bentley Continental R – which looks like a mob-boss car – and a 1998 Ferrari 550 Maranello in blue which is set to reach $200,000.
A 1973 Porsche 911S Targa 2.4S white convertible is expected to reach $320,000, and Webb’s thinks there are only about nine of them left in the world.
There are also some cheaper cars up for sale including a 1996 Peugeot 306 Turbo Diesel in red.
Dreamers and prospective buyers will be able to go and view the cars in pavilion three between 10am and midday before the auction starts at 2pm.