01-02-2019, 05:41 PM
A PART ARTICLE IN THE JANUARY 2019 AUTOMOBILE BY DAVID BURGESS-WISE
We've seen some pretty stratospheric prices for collectible cars recently, which seem to emphasise my thought that it's not just cynics, as Oscar Wilde famously characterised them, who know the price of everything and the value of nothing. The sale in August of a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, admittedly with a distinguished racing career, for more than $48.4m - that's around £37 million for a car of limited usability - makes me ask what seems an obvious question, 'Which would you rather have: a Ferrari 250 GTO or, for the same money, a Lutyens house and a 300-car garage full to the brim with top-notch pre-1940 cars?" Or, indeed, a Lutyens house, half-a-dozen top-notch pre-1940 cars and many millions left over to do with as you wished? I certainly know what I would rather have, given that unlikely opportunity and it wouldn't be a raucous, barely street-legal '60s sports- racer. I know who would have most fun with his car on a regular basis, too, if it came to a choice between the Ferrari and an Austin Chummy...
We've seen some pretty stratospheric prices for collectible cars recently, which seem to emphasise my thought that it's not just cynics, as Oscar Wilde famously characterised them, who know the price of everything and the value of nothing. The sale in August of a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, admittedly with a distinguished racing career, for more than $48.4m - that's around £37 million for a car of limited usability - makes me ask what seems an obvious question, 'Which would you rather have: a Ferrari 250 GTO or, for the same money, a Lutyens house and a 300-car garage full to the brim with top-notch pre-1940 cars?" Or, indeed, a Lutyens house, half-a-dozen top-notch pre-1940 cars and many millions left over to do with as you wished? I certainly know what I would rather have, given that unlikely opportunity and it wouldn't be a raucous, barely street-legal '60s sports- racer. I know who would have most fun with his car on a regular basis, too, if it came to a choice between the Ferrari and an Austin Chummy...