Cubdriver

Nice music on this one. I loved hiking the back 40 for old cars when I was a kid. Made a '66 Cadillac into my first ride one time.

Ghost 7X7

Is that a Mercedes Benz 300SL Gullwing at 0:36''? Amazing!

Nice post...

Cubdriver

Thanks. Believe it or not, when I was a child my parents had frequent relations with a family that liked nice European cars and had one of these gull wing coupes in their car collection. They were not super rich, but low end rich people I would say, new Porches and other fine cars were always sitting around. I recall like yesterday seeing that gull wing Mercedes sitting, rotting on the car row at their upscale Atlanta home in about 1974. It would have been brought from overseas in the early 60s, as my father's friend was a European. One day the car was gone and my father asked them about it. The owner, my father's friend, said it was off being restored. I never heard anything more about it and I wonder if they just sold it for fine wine, which I know they spent a lot of money on. It was one of those gull wing coupes as shown in this video. The experience made me realize at one time those were just "nice cars", not ultra collectibles they are now.

tomgoodman

For a mere $200k or so, you can have a new Gullwing!

YouTube

GQpilot

Much cheaper than the old ones A family friend sold one about two years ago for $500k, unrestored, but in beautiful shape. I wish I could afford old or new.

G

GQpilot

Yes they used to be waaaay cheaper. My dad has had a number of Italian cars and he always talks about the ones that got away. 330 GTC for $7000, Lamborghini Muira P400S for $30k, and the worst, a 250 GTO for $17k. He passed on all of them and now the GTO is $30 million plus. He says the Southern California Ferrari club used to be mostly upper middle class folks, then in the late 70's early 80's it started to change. Now it's all uber rich and most of them buy for status and can't tell a carburetor from a crankshaft. Oh well.

G

Cubdriver

Yes and it sounds like puffery, but it is the simple truth that cars which now cost fortunes as classics showed at my father's house in the 1970s as ordinary cars. Late model luxury and sport rides from Detroit, muscle cars, exotic Mercedes, Porsche 911s, that sort of thing were all the time affairs. Nice cars were not so expensive then, and having one was not as big a deal as it is now, especially as classic cars.

But taking Tom's point, they were not half the car you get for easy cash nowadays either. I have a 2009 Nissan Frontier with power everything and a 260 hp fuel injected engine that runs flawlessly and cost hardly a few months salary. That's incredible by 70s standards, such a car was hardly available for any price in the 70s. A cheap contemporary Honda sports car like the S2000 turbo roadster, 350Z or even a Hyundai Genesis turbo coupe runs circles around a 70s Porsche 911 or Mercedes roadster for the money. The business has moved far along in terms of overall value, engineering, and quality.

Ghost 7X7

The serious collector, the one who knows what he's looking for and appreciates the beauty of a classic car will always be out there in an RM Auction some place or the occasional December Bonhams Ferrari Sale in Gstaad though.

GQpilot

Good for you for having a more positive few. I however just don't see much in the new class of money/car people. Guys like Ted Buckland who had an amazing collection, including a Bugatti in his living room and Charlie Farnsworth with and incredible collection of Ferraris have passed away. I was luckily enough to know them personally. The guys that have purchased their cars are the investment/status type, not real car guys, and they don't have half the class those gentlemen did. Unfortunately, money and class seem to go together less and less nowadays. Just my two cents.

G