Vintage Car Boom

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30822, 6 August 1965, Page 9

Vintage Car Boom

(From “The Times” London. Reprinted by Arrangement)

"ROLLS ■ ROYCE Silver • Ghost wanted. Tourer preferred. More than £2OOO offered for right car. . . WANTED: Open Phantom Rolls-Royce. Large sum will be offered and any information reading to purchase will be generously acknowledged. . . VETERAN CAR required, any make considered...

ROLLS-ROYCE wanted —the older the better. . .

Daily, weekly, monthly, the motoring magazines’ advertising columns carry the message—Britain is undergoing a veteran and vintage boom. Collectors arrive from all parts of the world. Auction sales draw gasps. . . Prices climb, connoisseurs vie with investors.

A few days ago, 37 cars out of a total of 52, all built before 1939, were sold for £15,000 at the annual veteran and vintage car auction at Beaulieu, Hampshire. The highest price, £1950, was paid for a 1914 21 h.p. 16/20 Sunbeam. A 1929 44 litre Bentley went for £l2OO, a 1907 French Delahaye for £l2OO, and a 1907 Rolls-Royce “Twenty” for £1125. Mr Michael Sedgwick, curator of the Montagu Motor Museum, saw this surg-

ing interest in rare cars as an investment—“like paintings or antiques”—helping to unearth many more than the 8000 pre-1930 cars in running or restorable condition known to exist in Britain. At the same sale a 1925 30/98 Vauxhall was bought for £925, a 1900 Century 6 h.p. Tricar for £950, a 1928 Morris fire engine for £2OO, and a bull-nosed Morris for £4oo—about £175 more than it cost new.

But this was a comparatively meagre realisation alongside auction prices seen at the disposal of the J. C. Sword collection at Irvine, Ayrshire, in March. Then a crowd of 2000 went to East Balgray Farm and paid £88,050 for 59 old cars. A 1908 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost went for £7200 to a collector, who arrived by private heli- | copter, and seven other ; veterans were bought for ; more than £16,000 by a ; farmer who looked on them i as “an investment, in the ! same way as pictures, ; antiques, and old gold.” A ; 1906 Rover, once owned by ■ Nurse Cavell, fetched £9OO, ! and a 1910 Standard £1620. ! A month ago, Lord Mon- ! tagu of Beaulieu succeeded in i getting veteran and vintage ; cars excluded from the jaws ; of the Finance Bill’s capital

gains tax provisions. “You cannot fairly compare them with pictures and works of art,” he said. “With a veteran car you must spend money on it—for a Rolls it could cost you £lOO a year on maintenance—and you must have garage space. It is not like collecting postage stamps or pictures. If you do not maintain your investment it rapidly depreciates.” What would a professional collector regard as a top find in the old car world? “I am extremely . internationally minded,” he said. “I would dearly like to find a Duesenberg, J-type, about 1933-34. But there is not one in the country—they are all in America. The price? Somewhere about £5OOO or £6OOO.

Thief Foiler A British firm has produced a device which, when wired into the electrical circuit of a car and switched on, will cut the engine off eight seconds after it has been started. Thus a thief will be able to start the engine, but will not be able to keep it going. The device costs less than £2 in Britain. Some types of anti-theft device are available on the New Zealand market, and any person who leaves his car on the street at night might find such devices well worth considering. Many cars are converted in New Zealand each year. Most are damaged and some are destroyed. Unsightly Posts As you drive along suburban streets, what is the most unsightly thing you see? Almost certainly the many ugly lamp-posts, with their overhead network of wires. One comes to accept the presence of these posts and wires, but when one really takes a look at them it becomes obvious just how unsightly they are. When the “best street" competition was held not long ago, it was suggested that part of the prize for the winner, Kenwyn avenue, should be underground wiring. There could be few better prizes for this or any street.

Perhaps the siting of poles near country roads should also be considered. Whenever a car goes off the road for any reason it seems to head straight for the nearest pole. One driver explained this simply. Look along a road, he said, and you would see the poles almost form a fence along either side of the road. As a vehicle usually went off the road at a comparatively slight angle and rarely at a 90-degree angle, its trajectory made it almost certain to hit one of the poles. Could poles be placed further back from the road? I wonder how many lives have been lost unnecessarily because of them. Ventilation Good ventilation is essential in any car, and a fresh-air heater is by far the best. But even when a fresh-air heater!