Photos of OTS 850107

[Heuer]

If it is at the bottom of the plate it is possibly Hills:

[Paul190H]

David, that's the one, I can now just make out what i thought was an A but is the H. I take you do not need a photo of this as your photo is so much clearer than mine?
Cheers
Paul.

[V12 Epyte]

Now entered in the next Brightwells sale
http://classiccars.brightwells.com/view ... hp?id=4628

[V12 Epyte]

Car auctioned at Brightwells today, bidding reached ?44000, failed to sell, auctioneer wanted offers in excess of ?50,000.
30 minutes later it was announced sold for ?55,000

[Heuer]

Good result!

[MarkE]

Daft result!

At the same sale there was a '67 S1 OTS in Opalescent Dark Blue with a red interior. It was an older restoration, needing some detail fettling but that's all. That sold for ?54k.

It didn't need ?150k - ?200k spending on it, and was roadworthy and looked gorgeous.

There will be nothing original left of the early S1 bodyshell when it has been restored. Indeed, there was precious little left of it at the auction! It's surely only a matter of time before the 'king's new clothes' are recognized for what they really are.

When the full ?250k has been spent will the car be a lovely early RHD flat floor '61 or just another re-creation processed by one of the E Type specialists?

I know where my ?55k would have gone!

[PeterCrespin]

Daft result!

There will be nothing original left of the early S1 bodyshell when it has been restored. Indeed, there was precious little left of it at the auction! It's surely only a matter of time before the 'king's new clothes' are recognized for what they really are.

When the full ?250k has been spent will the car be a lovely early RHD flat floor '61 or just another re-creation processed by one of the E Type specialists?

Oh Mark, you silly sausage. These aren't machines or historical artefacts meant to be used and enjoyed! Whatever gave you that idea? These are investment vehicles to be traded like other exclusive goods. You really will need a soul-ectomy if you are going to keep up in today's bubbly new six figure market.

The fact that all traces of original steel are expunged is to be welcomed, dear heart. You do realise that those Browns Lane shells were put together by a mixture of pensionable dinosaurs and feckless youths, between strikes and tea breaks? 2014 recycled refrigerator steel and a six figure bill from a 'Clasic Specialist' will do much better for you than that old Red Robbo bodywork. We live in a golden age when one need use nothing old or grimy or reconditioned - all can be bright and shiny and new! History is for has-beens and never-hads. These objets d'art belong in air conditioned temples, not dodging cowpats and bicyclists and getting spattered with fly poop.

Contact me off list and I'll give you the name of a good valet and investment chappie.

Piers

[Heuer]

Good result!

That was meant in the context of the Forum member who inherited the car and asked what he should do with it. He was given advice and, it seems, duly followed it with some success. So you had the opportunity to tell Paul the car was worthless, good only for parts or should have been put on eBay with a 'Buy it Now' price of 99p but he should be congratulated on the result he achieved. Someone was prepared to pay and it looks like someone else thought the same hence its final off auction selling price. It would be slightly embarrassing if the new owner comes on the Forum seeking advice or wanting to document the restoration to find he is the subject of ridicule. It is an early UK registered OTS and, if your heart was set on one, where on earth would you find one for sale at the moment under six figures?

[MarkE]

Totally agree that it is a great result for Paul, and I would have done exactly the same as he did if I'd have found the car. My comments are really more about the state of the market currently, which is looking more and more like the hysteria of 1989.

Pete, you can count me in as a has-been and never-had! It just seems so crazy that the exact thing that attracts folks to the early cars, all those little early features, will all have been made between 2014 and 2017 by the time this car gets on the road! It won't have one, original, early feature on it.

I did have an extra dose of reality yesterday as I went with two old friends who don't really subscribe to the motor car as an investment philosophy. One drives an ex-works Dolly Sprint and / or Jimmy McRae's old DTV Chevette HS around rally courses most weekends in the winter, and the other tours Europe on his 1933 Cammy Ariel Square Four between engine re-builds. Both have had all sorts of exotica to play with over the years, but now have their feet quite planted. When the rally driver spotted the '61 E Type at the auction he confessed that he had one when he was 12, and learnt to drive / rallycross in it around his dad's farm. One of the many E Types that died with dignity!

Once they learned of the guide price of the '61 E Type, they spent much of the rest of the day trying to' spot the investor'. They even got chatting to a few blokes eyeing up the car trying to lure them into confession of interest. Statements like 'it's better than money in the bank' didn't work, and most thought they were either poor salesmen or drunk.

For me, it doesn't matter what a car is worth if it has some sort of integrity, provenance and originality. If someone wants to pay ?10 million for a rare Ferrari that still has the paint it left Maranello wearing, then that's fine. I can even understand spending a lot of money on a competition car that's had a lot of work done to it over the years.

But a road car with the only original components being a bulkhead, a few suspension bits, a differential and a propshaft, and maybe some instruments and a few other pieces? I really can't see how that could be described as anything other than a re-creation manufactured whenever it was built...i.e. now.

But hey, if it's only greed that's driving all this daft behavior perhaps I shouldn't worry about it. When the baby boomers start to relinquish their (our) cherished cars in years to come, then provenance, integrity and originality may return as discriminating factors in evaluating a purchase, rather than a date on an old log book driving the decision making process.

[Heuer]

Much as your friends discovered I don't think it is 'investors' who are buying these cars, just enthusiasts who want a project. They don't hanker after a toy to drive immediately every dry Sunday, they simply relish the challenge of taking the un-restorable and making it whole again. Whether this takes the form of managing the process or wielding the welding torch is of no matter. Indeed our Restoration Stories forum is testament to some of the total wrecks that have been resurrected. It is going to cost the same to rebuild an equally tatty S2 2+2 as it will to restore that very early car so it makes more sense to pay ?55k for something that will, when finished, at least be somewhere close to what has been put into it.:

S2 2+2
Cost ?15,000, restoration ?100,000, end value ?40,000

Early production S1 OTS
Cost ?55,000, restoration ?100,000, end value ?150,000+