Classic Auto Mall - #234 - Stewart Howden with Guests Rupert Banner and Keith Martin

This is the Classic Automall Show.

Broadcast from the studios inside the Classic Automall in Morgantown, Pennsylvania.

Just one hour west of Philadelphia at Pennsylvania Turnpike Exit 298.

Featuring nearly 1,000 classic vintage and barred fight vehicles for sale under one climate controlled roof.

Now, here's your host, Classic Automall president and the man with all the toys, Stuart Howden.

And here we are, show number 234 from the Classic Automall studio here in lovely Morgantown, Pennsylvania,

which actually the weather's nice, you know, I always jokingly say that the weather's not nice.

We're having a fake spring.

Yeah, for the moment.

The flowers are coming.

The flowers are coming up.

They are.

And then it's going to snow tomorrow.

Stupid flowers.

Don't they know better?

Oh, silly flowers.

Anyway, Steve, this week can go first this week.

How many cars in inventory right this moment?

I'm going to say, I forget where it was last week.

I'm going to say nine.

Where were we?

I'm going to say 902.

Okay, Jared.

I'm going to pull a Steve 904.

Ah, 882.

We're down.

You both overbid.

Yeah, both overbid there.

So, we're down a little bit.

So, again, we've said bring us your tired, your hunger, your poor, your consignments, please.

Yes.

In the meantime, let's get to our guests joining us via Zoom.

Rupert Manor joining us.

So, where are you this morning?

Are you in Florida or New York or where?

Yeah, I'm beginning to wonder where I am.

Today, I'm back from Florida, back from Paris, and sitting at home, actually.

Oh, are there many times that you get to sit at home much anymore?

I know you're on the road all the time, it seems like.

No, there are moments.

It sort of peaks and troughs within the air.

And, you know, I always want to see what we're offering.

So, we're always kind of on the road.

As you well know, the spread of value is all in condition, and if you don't see them,

you just don't know.

Yeah, absolutely.

You have to get out there.

Yeah, it's hard to tell a guy what his car is worth if you haven't laid your hands and

eyes on it in person.

I mean, I know that that's kind of counterintuitive to us the way we sell cars online and, you

know, through online platforms.

But, you know, having at least yourself or at least somebody put their hands on it and

look at it in person makes all the difference in the world.

100%.

And you also get a sort of sixth sense of whether something's going to work on.

So, I always like to see them.

Do you know when you look at a car, can you tell pretty quickly what it's worth within,

you know, I mean, you've done this for, you've been a car specialist and auctioneer with

Bonham's, Christie's, Sotheby's, now Gooding Christie's.

You got to just have a good innate sense of what value is on a car.

Well, you do, but there's market cycles.

I mean, I come back from Amelia and I have to get to wonder if I know anything at all

It's kind of funny like that.

Yeah.

Well, you know, that's the great thing about a market and it's a great thing about auctions

as well.

You know, auctions, they can read, you know, the market can reprice itself right in front

of you.

So, you know, I think your best instinct, so to have a gut instinct on a car, feel where

you think it should be and then, you know, the process can do the rest.

Sure.

I think that there are lots of people who do this for a living, whether it's in the

auction business or the retail side of it like us or various other ways.

And I think all of us, because we've done it for so long, you do kind of get a gut

feeling of where it should be priced, not necessarily where it will end up.

I always think it's funny that these, you know, trying to predict these prices on these

different auction houses and how people predict it when two guys just go at it and

say, I'm not giving up and the other guy says he's not giving up.

100 percent.

And, you know, the auction from time to time, the auction is really about that.

It's about a one-on-one situation and both of them recognizing that and just having to

own that particular car.

What determines value for you guys?

Well, the ones we struggle with are the ones that are the outliers, the one of, like you

said, the one-of-one, that are just so oddball that there's none in the world.

Is it a gut feeling to know what a price point is on something like that or is it experience-based

and very similar cars or how do you factor that in?

I think your points are exactly right.

I mean, it's all that.

And then it's actually just knowing your own client base and knowing the people that you

know and saying, I'm pretty sure that Joe Schmoes is just going to love that car and

that's going to be for him.

And, you know, maybe the seller wants a little bit more than you thought it was or, you know,

and so you take an instinct and you take a gamble on some of the stuff.

And, you know, these days it can beat both ways.

I mean, it depends, you know, there's rare within something that isn't rare, like a particular

example that's low mileage or special color or something.

And then there's rare, there's really rare where the car was so obscure and they only

built one and your only precedent for it is when the guy bought it.

And then you've got to sit there and say, well, look, you know, is that the same audience

as it was once, you know, when the guy bought it?

So it's a balance.

Well, and you educate your buyers as well, too.

I mean, you let them know why that you particularly think this particular car is more valuable

than maybe what they were thinking and your knowledge base helps them make a determination

of what they were planning on spending, too, right?

100%.

I mean, we just, we just had a 1750, a six cylinder seat, 1750 alpha from 1932 in a sale.

And, you know, I could hand on heart, although the price is not where it once was, I could,

I said to a number of people, this car's always been the most valuable one amongst its breed.

So whatever the price today is, it will be ahead of all the others.

And, you know, you're probably getting a deal today compared with where it was, but it's

still the best one.

Sure.

Yeah.

And buying the best is always, as our friend Bruce Myers says, buy the best and he'll only

cry once.

Which I love that.

It's true.

But I mean, if you buy a car that has got, checks all the right boxes, I mean, I know it matters

what you pay, but does it, you know, you get too finite on, oh, I don't want to pay more

than, you know, I'm not going to pay more than a million two and you have to pay a million

three.

I mean, at the end of the day, it doesn't seem like that really matters as much, especially

in the long term.

When you look at the way the values go up on these cars that have, you know, ironclad

provenance.

Totally.

I mean, I think if you're stepping up and buying the best, you rarely regret it.

And even if all markets take a huge downturn, you're still at the peak of that and you'd

be surprised the people that come out of the woodwork for the best when it's offered in

any market.

So it's kind of the best, you know, by the best that you can afford, you know, within

your budget.

Sure.

Yeah.

I think that's a good advice for anybody is just, you know, buy what you can afford

and also leave a little extra for things you might want to do or need to do with it

as well too.

We always sometimes guys forget that and guys says, I spent every penny I got on this car.

Well, I hope you don't want to change the wheels or, you know, there's always something

that somebody wants to do different to a car.

But the market is so strong right now and we keep thinking the bottom is going to fall

out and, you know, all this and 1989 is coming back and it doesn't seem to be happening.

I mean, yes, things have corrected a little bit, but my goodness, I mean, you watch what

happened in Amelia Island and some of these other events lately, I wouldn't venture to

guess that it seems like there's any downturn at all.

I think I know.

I don't think there's a downturn.

I think you've got to, you've got to look at a few of the cars and say, well, look,

that really was a one on one opportunity that probably won't present itself for a little

while.

So there are reasons why people chase them.

It doesn't.

It will probably make the tide rise a little.

It won't necessarily mean that they're all up there, but you'll see a bit of that.

And then you see some repricing as well on both ends.

Yeah.

I mean, and of course we all kick ourselves when we see prices of a certain thing that

goes from, was a million dollars two years ago and it's five million today.

Do you think, why didn't, could I have seen that or, you know, maybe I don't have the

money to do it.

So it doesn't really matter.

But, you know, there are opportunities that people hit home runs and especially it seems

like in the later model Ferrari's and Porsche world, definitely.

I mean, I actually, the last one of these talks that I did was about three weeks ago

and I was, I was being quizzed very heavily about what the Carrera GT and our sale would

make down in Amelia and they were, you know, the photo of the car was on the screen and

the estimate and, and, you know, almost every single person in the audience was, your estimate

is ridiculous.

Right.

You know, it's one, one five to one eight, that's, that's, that's so crazy.

And I said, well, you know, we priced that car in October.

Right.

I didn't price it, I didn't price it 10 years ago.

I didn't, you know, we, we looked at last, last summer sales, we said, you know, this

is an estate we should be fair with the pricing.

And let's not just, you know, if it's a one eight car, let's call it one five.

Yeah.

Yeah. Of course it romped away, but it genuinely was last, last October's price.

Yeah. I mean, and that, you used to say, you know, you say that tongue in cheek, but

I mean, it's so true anymore.

And that thing ended up with the after fees, like 3.1 million or something for that, which

was a big, big number.

Yeah. And, and, and those were a little bit unloved in the initial, right?

I mean, were they a little bit, I don't remember if they were unloved or something about the

Carrera GTs that maybe they were hard to drive or something that at first kind of held them

back, it seemed like.

And then all of a sudden, no different than the Ford GT, they just went crazy.

They've, they've gained, they definitely, they, they, they did, you know, as most new

cars were, were doing, they would sort of bottom out a little bit, but there was a,

there was a time when there were plenty for sale and they sort of, they were off list.

And yeah, I remember that.

And then I remember people buying them at that point.

And then when they, they took a little bit of a rise getting out because they thought

that they'd, they'd got there, you know, they'd got their bumps.

So, you know, they tick a lot of boxes there.

They're an analogue car, the brand is strong.

They build enough of them so you can, you can usually see them on the market, which helps.

And, and they, they, you know, they could get away from you.

You know, the people did, did have a few moments in them.

And for that reason, if you find a good one with low miles and that really has, has not

had any incidents, that's why people are particularly serious.

Well, and the Ford GT was the same way.

It was kind of a little bit of a handful, relatively speaking, to other cars of its

same generation, you know, there was lots of traction control and handling this and all

that and all of a sudden that Ford GT came out and was raw and crude.

And the guy did a 360 and it, you know, going up the on-ramp of Interstate and said,

okay, I'm going to go back to my whatever latest model, you know what, right?

Yeah, no, it's true.

I mean, you know, these, and these things, you know, their supply and demand, right?

I mean, as the demand sort of creeps up and you know, those brands have definitely got

stronger in the last few years.

So, yeah, I think the thing that surprises me the most in the market overall is that

an AC Cobra with a 427 can bring less money than a, you know, a 2006 Porsche 911

oddball variant, you know, it's funny to see cars that are bringing a million,

six million, eight that were production cars within the past 25, 30 years to just

eclipse an AC Cobra, the 427 Cobra.

It just always surprises me.

I guess maybe I'm nostalgic about a day at Cobra, but I would have always thought

that they would have kept climbing in value and it seems like they don't do it

as much as others.

Yeah, I think I think the Cobra market, there are two things that influence the

Cobra market. I mean, it's all about the car for a start.

I mean, you know, it's got to be good in the registry.

It's got to be it's got to be pure and and we all know that there are plenty that

aren't. I think that there are one of the probably the greatest challenge to them

is actually that there are plenty of replicas around and, you know, so you know,

I think if you're driving a 911, people know you own a 911.

I think if you're driving a Cobra, you know, yeah, if I depending where I'm

driving one guy might say to me, is that a replica?

And I might answer yes or I might answer no.

It just depends where you're on.

And that you are really.

Well, that's true. I never thought the replicas.

There's so many of them out there.

Most people when they see a real one don't know that that's a real Cobra

because they're so used to seeing a replica and there's some really,

really good ones out there. You know, there's some of the manufacturers

that manufacture these bodies do a great job of it.

So it's probably hard to tell unless you really know what you're looking at.

Yeah, I think that's there's an element to that that probably probably

holds it back a little. Sure.

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.

So you've been with Gooding and Christie's now back for a couple of years now.

Is it? Well, I don't know.

Time goes so short.

About 18 months. God, it just seems like yesterday, right?

And what an amazing company that David Gooding has built.

I tell you, just it's it's so impressive to watch that operation

and how it's I say it's grown.

It just started out good.

You know, I mean, it was like day one.

It was like they were here and everybody else was going, what the heck?

You know, what an amazing, amazing legacy that he's already built

with many more years to come.

Yeah, definitely. I mean, he built with the heart.

He built a business that was based on integrity,

a sheer love of collectible cars and a love of the auction process.

And, you know, it's it's it's been a great, you know,

it's a 22, 23 year old business that, you know, set the bar very high.

It reinvented things in many ways.

I think that I don't know that any of the houses would look after clients

in the same way without that.

I don't think that the the visuals, the aesthetics, the marketing

and just sheer sheer how fashionable was the element of cars brought into it.

So, you know, it's and and then it stayed true to itself all the way along.

And ultimately, you know, the match with Christie's is that they're a very

similar business. Yeah, absolutely.

And so it's it's a good team.

I think my favorite part of it is when somebody will buy a car,

a particular car, Ferrari, for example, and David Gooding, the the president,

CEO of the company, will point to the guy and say, that'll go nicely

with your whatever else is in the garage.

He I mean, he know these are his buddies.

He knows these people 100 percent.

And he knows that when when he says it's going to a good home, he means it.

You know, it's it's for all of us.

It's nice to be in the middle of a transaction where you know that you've

you've found the best home for it.

The seller's got the best price.

You know, that's that's a win all around.

Yeah, I love those win wins.

And, you know, we were talking about valuation a little while ago.

What are your thoughts on the pre-war V12 and V16s, the Cadillacs

and the Packards and Duesenberg?

You know, I'm not Duesenberg, but, you know, these type of cars,

are are they going to wane or are they going to always remain collectible?

I think for the majority of it, it's really about application.

It's what you can do with them.

And it's I think that there are obviously not as many people coming

into the market that the first thing they say is I need a V16 Cadillac,

right, as perhaps there were once.

But as long as there are things for you to do with them, I've always found

that people I might, you know, one of my phrases I've known for saying

is that there's a 70 year old born every minute.

For some reason, you know, from years of doing Scottsdale sales

and things like that, I noticed that people would arrive in Scottsdale

who we'd never seen before, who literally arrived at a certain age.

And that that was the sort of things that they migrated towards.

So, you know, as long as that as long as I keep being 70 year olds born,

you know, as long as I mean, it's it's usability.

I think the brand brand is important.

You know, if they're brands that people can relate to, like, you know,

the Cadillac brand is strong.

So, you know, there will always be Cadillacs around.

You can relate to that.

A more obscure brand, perhaps not.

Right. You know, the other thing with the V16,

it's got great physical presence, right?

You know, it looks like a Cadillac, right?

It takes physical road presence.

It has, you know, it has good performance for its day.

So I think things that you could still use and tool around in and take

to shows and that are appreciated for those reasons, you know, they

they may not sort of get the column inches these days.

But as long as there are things that you can do with them,

I think they'll be a follow. Sure.

And same with the brass cars and and and maybe that, you know, a lot of it,

I mean, not all of it, but a lot of it falls back to London,

to Brighton. Everybody wants to do that.

That's on everybody's bucket list.

And you got to have a 1904 or older car to do that.

And, you know, so that that keeps the rest of the hobby, I think,

you know, going well in that segment.

And then the newer brass cars, I say newer, the 16 through the 20s,

they seem to be still doing well, too.

And I'm always surprised at that.

I always keep thinking that the market's going to turn on me when I'm

least expecting it.

Yeah, I think that one strong component of the whole of the whole hobby

is actual interest in engineering.

Once you get inside the hobby and you start sort of looking at the heritage

and where inventions came from and, you know, the sort of jannous of the car,

it gets more and more fascinating.

And I find when I I'm a London to Brighton, you know, for a very, you know,

I've done at least 30 of them. Wow.

So I, you know, I've been I've been surrounded by that.

And, you know, since the late 80s.

And I've watched, you know, I've watched that interest grow.

And there are and every time we find someone new and we say, well,

you should come and do that by a car, come along.

They come along and they're like, this is great.

They go home, they tell their friends and then the friends want one.

So there's, you know, there's a bit of, you know, as with any event,

if you, you know, they're sort of self marketing themselves,

as long as you can get people out there using them, enjoying it.

Yeah, I mean, it's a it's a real test of a lot of things.

It's a test of power and it's a test of, you know, bearing the elements

when it, you know, could be a little bit colder or rainy.

Never, never like that over there, is it? Right.

Yeah, I've had some wet ones and sunny ones.

I've also, you know, from time to time, I've taken people who've never been out

on these things and we go flying up the road and they say, make it stop.

Stopping is not it's 40.

Please slow down because you're quite high up and you suddenly you've got nothing.

Suddenly they realized that, you know, speed is all relative.

Yeah, we watch the ragtime racers, Corky Coker and those guys

and they're racing those cars that are sitting on barrels.

You know, there's no, there's no protection.

Yeah, yeah, no, they're brave and they were in the day.

You know, these guys who bounced around Brooklyn's or whatever,

they really were brave.

You watch those guys coming through the corkscrew at Laguna Seca

and I don't know how they stayed in the seat.

You just figured that one guy was just going to go fly the cars.

You did.

Yeah, I think that they did and we hope they were all OK.

And that's that's wonderful.

So as we mentioned, you just finished up Amelia, some remarkable results there.

And even on not necessarily the highest end of the highest end,

I mean, the Ferrari Dino in signal orange, which I don't think I'd ever seen one.

I guess it was the only one ever delivered in signal orange.

It's a Porsche color, really, really.

The guy had his car painted that orange and it's it's a beautiful car,

regardless, right, you know, it does look good.

And it just it was like a magnet, that car.

Yeah, and one point three million for that thing was that's got it.

Was that a world record or it is the world record?

Yeah, it's just amazing.

And then, of course, you know, what's interesting, I love the fact

that at a good auction, there's always a few American either Corvettes

or in palas or things like that that are thrown in.

But that's 63 split window coupe that brought two hundred and fifty seven

thousand dollars was just wow, that must have been a spectacular car.

It's a beautiful car and actually a car I had a relationship with.

I sold it to my friend, Wayne Carini, found the car about twelve,

thirteen years ago. Right.

We took it to a Greenwich sale and the car owner or the previous owner bought it

then he bought it because he wanted to restore one.

He spent a number of years restoring it and it really was very, very nice.

You know, and there's there's no substitute these days

for sort of instant gratification. Eggs. Oh, exactly.

Right out of the box.

Well, they are they're a landmark car.

There's when, you know, they're practical or not, but they they they look great.

Yeah. And that sebring silver is a beautiful color.

And people will tell you that back in 1963, when these when they tore

the paper off the windows of the showrooms and people saw 63 Corvette,

it was like a spaceship.

It was like the coolest thing people had ever seen at the time.

Sure, absolutely.

You know, and the other thing that's always interesting to me,

especially in this upper end world, is the the late 40s, early 50s,

Ferraris that don't always seem to get quite as much love as you would expect

to see as the 60s or a 57 Testerosa or, you know, a Lusso or some of these other things.

But they still bring pretty darn good money.

I mean, the 51 to 12 export three point four million dollars.

Was that was that a surprising number?

Or was that out in line where you all thought it would be?

It's one of those cars with where the price was just just.

I I think probably man for man on our team.

It was a car that we all loved.

It's you know, we we priced it in today's market.

I mean, we were very, very conservative at two million as a low estimate on the car.

But it just had such a great ingredients.

The Rossellini history is fantastic.

The condition was out of this world.

I mean, it just you do you do not find cars of that era

that are completely fresh to market in just totally unspoiled condition.

The interior was original.

The details on on the car and it had lots of it had its audience

actually was broader than you imagine, because there were plenty of people.

I think you would like to leave it as it is.

And at the same time, if you restore it, I think you, you know,

you do you will do very, very well at concourse.

Sure, it will it will be an absolute jewel.

That car either sensitively restored or however it's done.

Right. It really is a little jewel and it was a magnet.

And, you know, with a one of one car, we had, you know,

and with two or three different applications, potentially,

we had a broader audience and they all chased it.

And the guy who loved it most took it home.

How gratifying is it, though, for a guy to, you know,

be thinking he's going to get two million and you, you know,

you guys get to write him a check for three and a half million.

That's got to be a good feeling on your part

and a good feeling on his part as well, too.

Yeah, I've always been a huge believer in the process.

And, you know, that's that's testament to the process.

If you've got the right thing, you know, we top quality cars.

We really, you know, we work very, very hard to make sure

that that's that we delivered for our seller.

And, you know, it's a nice experience.

Yeah, it's a great start.

Kind of like nice to under promise and over deliver sometimes, too.

Right. It always makes you feel a little better.

Yeah. And I think, I mean, there's definitely been an adjustment

in the pricing of those cars.

So it's nice to do it the right way around.

I think for the last few years, it's probably been, you know,

you hope that you could get these sort of numbers for one of them.

And you were you were stopping a bit short.

So just sort of starts, you know, to be able to be in a market

situation where you can say, look, this is probably the right number

to run with this car and then and then over deliver.

And of course, that the one that surprised me, maybe the most was the 92

Mercedes Benz 500 E that was crazy.

Three hundred and fifty seven thousand dollars.

I was just floored and I know that they're, you know, they're amazing cars.

I mean, they have they check a lot of right boxes.

There's no question about it, especially this one with low miles.

It was collaboration with Porsche, nice three hundred and twenty plus horsepower

V eight, you know, a lot of good things going for it.

The car was absolutely beautiful and everything works.

I had a guy who couldn't be there.

And he said to me, you know, just check everything with me.

And I sat in there and there's so many buttons in that car.

And I was like, this works, this works, this works.

So I turned the air on the air blue.

You know, I turned the heat.

Right.

See it warmer.

It worked.

It turned the headrest thing, you know, it was actually a really great example.

And then, you know, I think sometimes you'll say, well, you know,

that was just two people, they had a war and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

The reality on a car like that and with some of the more modern cars

that we we offered on that day, as with the Carrera GT, is that the depth of

fitting was huge.

So there was a list of people that was eight or ten long, you know,

comfortably into the two hundreds on that car and, you know, in fact,

actually over three and, you know, a couple of guys took it the last way.

But it just shows that, you know, to my point of repricing, you know,

some stuff is literally repricing.

Sure.

Well, and under half a million and over half a million are almost

two different, completely different worlds.

I mean, there's guys who can spend under half a million dollars and, you know,

it's in their comfort zone.

Anything above five hundred and they start to get a little, you know,

it takes a different level of income, right?

You know, I think we all have our paint threshold.

It doesn't matter if it's a tequila or a beer or whatever it is.

We all, you know, or a house or a car, we'll have a paint threshold.

Well, and we also have our significant others paint threshold as well.

So we have to be careful with that, too.

We get that all the time where the guy comes, puts a deposit on a car here

and he comes back the next day and he goes, I'm not going to be able to buy

that car. And I said, why not? I'm just curious. I'm not mad.

I just want to know why. He goes, well, first of all, my wife said,

we have two kids in college.

We have no space in the garage and we don't have any money.

So, yeah, so I get that.

So I always, I always ask the question to all my buddies is that, you know,

if you're at Walmart looking for a rake, do you buy the five dollar rake,

the ten dollar rake or the fifteen dollar rake?

And I always buy the fifteen dollar rake because I think it's going to be

the best one out there and it never is.

I guess the ten dollar rake is the right answer.

Yeah, I think, you know, this you look carefully.

The it is interesting, though, when you see something like the Mercedes

and you actually you look at those cars and you look at the quality of the product.

And then it seems great.

And it actually seems great.

You know, it seems great compared to a modern car today.

And then you put it in the context of what it was competing with in that day.

And this, you know, it was so far ahead of it.

You really were paying for quality then and the quality of the remit.

Well, and last but not least on your Amelia Island stuff was the Subaru Impreza 22B STI.

Holy mackerel, that was great.

One of four hundred built for Japan.

It was a 40th anniversary or fourth anniversary edition or 40th anniversary.

Flat four, two hundred seventy six horsepower, eighty two hundred kilometers, three hundred

twenty nine thousand dollars.

That's got to be a world record.

Yeah, well, the GDM is is it's really been it's been moving forward, hasn't it?

Yeah, ever since they could come into the country.

You're getting you're getting that sort of uptick in it.

It's we all have a right.

You know, we all have the sort of poster cars and, you know, to to certain people,

that's exactly what that was.

Sure.

We I guess we all wanted to be in a four wheel drift going around to happen

and in the lakes in the UK or whatever it was.

You know, we are they resonate.

Yeah.

And that's in the grand scheme.

Maybe it isn't such a whole lot of money.

These things to us.

But over time, that may that may look like a bargain.

Yeah, I think so as well.

I mean, I'm I'm a big fan of those JDM cars.

I'm a big fan of, you know, nineties eleven eight fifty CSI BMW three pedals.

I love the nine twenty eight GTS.

Well, we see more of those at Gooding.

Do you think those type of cars or is it still going to be a little limited market for you guys?

You will always see in a Gooding sale the best of the best.

We you know, we will definitely follow the market conditions and what people what are

appealing to people as long as we can we can get our hands on quality.

You know, that's that's the most important thing.

You know, you're not you're not going to see a sort of ratty one that nobody knows the history of.

But you'll you'll see you'll see, you know, an investment grade one.

Sure.

Yeah, I think that, you know, there's and there's also, you know,

there's so many segments in the market that that we all love.

And, you know, I'm not in any one particular category of any car.

I like a lot of different cars for a lot of different reasons.

I know that when we were in Monterey this year, the cars that, you know, the five

sixty SEC comes to mind.

That was that wide body six liter, you know, almost six hundred grand for that car.

And that was man, that was an amazing car when it was new and it's still an amazing car.

Yeah, definitely, definitely, definitely when they're there.

And that that has just it's a sector of the market really has come into its own in the

last few years and we can see why.

I think my favorite car, though, at Monterey this year was the the Volvo 1800 that Cyan

that thing was crazy.

Talk about engineering and effort.

It's great.

You know, and sometimes you see these things on videos and you or whatever,

but there's no substitute for actually looking at the thing in the flash from here.

Really, it really was very interesting.

Sure.

It's just beautifully done.

And sure enough, though, you know, the people, people, you know, although there

weren't really any precedents for that.

Right.

There it goes.

It did did fantastic.

And so you guys also hold an auction at Retromobile in Paris, right?

And yeah, absolutely.

We just done that.

Yeah.

And then here comes another one in New York.

So what's going to be is this going to be Retromobile West or how is this going to be?

Is it going to be the same type of event or?

Very much so.

I mean, they, you know, this Retromobile itself celebrated the 50th year of doing their event.

I think they've looked at how they would branch out with that in over a number of years.

And they've decided to come to New York City and do that actually in a similar time of year.

I mean, the great thing about going to Retromobile in Paris is there's not a lot of

complete competing events at the time of year.

And it's a great gathering for people.

And I think towards the end of the year and the draw of New York City, I think were great.

It's the same organizers.

It's not somebody who just borrowed the brand and is hoping that they can do the same thing.

I mean, it's got all the genes inside that.

And the following is already great.

A lot of people who have traditionally supported the European version are supporting this here.

And it's really a special, it has always been a special event with its own character.

So it's very exciting.

And, you know, we're delighted that we were able to be part of that and to

it's something that works for both sides, really.

They wanted an auction partner.

And as we grow with Christie's, we also wanted to do some more things.

It was just a nice fit.

I think a lot of people don't realize that just because there's a successful automobile event

of any type doesn't mean that an auction is going to go hand in hand with it.

And Retromobile has proven that it does work in that particular instance.

But there's other times that we've seen auctions try to latch on to another event

and unlimited success.

And so it's, you know, somewhat of a crapshoot, I guess, to figure out what's next.

I mean, I'm sure you guys are looking at doing more auctions.

Or are you?

Maybe I'm not.

Maybe I'm wrong about that.

We look at opportunities all the time.

The reason we're able to make this choice and go with this is that it was a good match.

You know, Retromobile is, you know, there are events and there are events and there are

time for anything else to sort of compete for their attention.

The great thing about Retromobile is it's always really been about a market and coming together

and a sort of sociable event.

And so I think that that's a good match.

There are other things where if you turn up and you put your tent up,

people will miss you because they're already busy.

They're looking at the race meeting or their car breaks or whatever it is.

There's just too much going on for them to actually pay attention.

And then it proves not to be a good draw for either side.

Yeah.

And I imagine it's a kind of a double-edged sword on having competitors doing an auction

the same weekend you are.

I mean, you can do Scottsdale or you can do Monterey.

You can do Amelia with different events going on.

But I imagine that the rising tide lifts all ships, right?

It's I think it's probably good for everybody when there's multiple auction houses

holding sales on the same weekend.

I think so.

I mean, I think if you take it into the, your example is to look at the art market or something

like that, you know, the big houses, you know, with Christie's included, of course,

they don't go and have a pop-up sale in the middle of nowhere when nobody else is doing this.

They do this, you know, they all, you know, they all do them at the same time.

And when they know that the industry is, you know, and it can be a market sale.

And a market sale is very important because you need the people who are players in that

market to be present in it to decide what things are worth.

And that's super important.

And to have, you know, it's great to have the online and the telephone element of it.

But really, you got to have people in the audience as well, too, I think, in order to

make it a complete auction.

Yeah, I mean, don't forget that the people who are online or indeed the people who are on the

end of the telephone, that doesn't necessarily mean that they haven't seen the car.

It's just that they, on that particular given day, they're not able to actually participate.

Or indeed, that's how they choose to participate.

That's their preferred method of doing it.

But yeah, it's, it's, you know, each to their own.

So some would like to be removed from the process, you know, it's, and, you know, we

all know that we can get carried away in a sale.

And I guess if you could, if you can, if you can stagger it slightly back, perhaps that's

your own way of restraining yourself or, or perhaps, I don't know.

It's, there are lots of reasons, but there are lots of ways to do it now.

And, and it's a, it's a growth in the end.

Sure. Well, and a lot of guys come out on the preview day, see the car that they want to see

and then get on their jet and they go home and then they can bid at home.

And they've, it's like they're still there, but they're not.

They're taking care of business or whatever they're doing.

So. Well, I mean, if I, if I had a, if I had a buck for every time somebody told me,

like, if I, if I cut, you know, it's actually my daughter's wedding or it's that or it's

that. And then I really, I, you know, I, I, I'm going to, I'm going to step out of the

ceremony and I'm going to bid on your car, but I really can't be there this time.

Right. I'd be doing, there'd be quite a, quite a pile of dollar bills.

Yeah. Yeah. Isn't that, isn't that the tree? Well, if everybody that came into our building

could, you know, could afford to buy the cars that they would, would buy,

we wouldn't have any inventory. We'd sell out everything every day.

So, uh, you're also heavily involved with something that's near and dear to our heart.

And we're a sponsor this year of the demo days of the Simeon Museum Foundation Automotive Museum

down in Philly, which is an absolutely amazing place, isn't it?

Yeah, just great. I think probably one of the greatest honors was being down there one day

and Fred saying, you know, I'd really, can you, can you be on the board with us? We, you know,

we'd love to, we'd love to have you part of this. And, uh, it's, um, it helped that he was taking,

we were driving around the car park in a sea type at the time, but, um, it was, uh, you know,

to the, I think it's probably about 10 years now, but it really, it's, it's just a great place. And

it has the, um, it was, Fred's motto was always the spirit of competition. And I think as, as, um,

as we sadly move to the fourth year of post Fred, you know, it's, I always think about the spirit

of Fred really, you know, we want to, we want, uh, and demo days were, were the spirit of Fred.

He loved to see his cars out there being used, um, and people to sort of understand the sounds and

the smiles and the sights and the shapes and, and it's just, it's really everything, you know,

such a cleverly, carefully built collection. Um, and, um, and it's not so far from you guys.

No, it really is very close down the road. Yeah. And what always surprised me is when I first went

to it, I thought, why is he down in downtown Philly? And this is a terrible location. And I

know, and, and in his time has gone on, it has grown on me. It's the perfect location for that

collection. It couldn't be in a better location to put it in a glass marble Taj Mahal would be,

I think a terrible thing. I think it's perfect where it is. Yeah. I think the great thing about

Fred is that, you know, he had, to him, preservation and integrity of cars was, was super important,

which would sort of suggest that you put them in a glass box. But at the same time, you know, by,

by having that space there and being able to get the cars out and use them, he was also saying,

you know, there's these, these are living, breathing objects. And, um, you know, that's,

that's why I want to be able to do that. We like to see that. We hate to go to these collections

that are so static and they haven't driven in 25 years. And it's just, you know, and you know,

good and darn well that it's going to be a lot more work than anybody thinks and a lot more costly

to get things up and going and to be driven on a regular basis and exercised is so important for

anything mechanical, especially an automobile. Oh, definitely. You know, and you know, and as we all

know with our collector car, if you, you know, if you, if you keep using it, if you use it every

weekend or whatever, the day when you really want to use it, it's probably going to work for you,

or the weekend before you find out what's actually wrong with it and you can get it fixed in time

to use it. If you, if you sort of spend nine months banking on a day when you want to use it,

and the chances are it's not going to do what you want to do. Or the car behind it's not going to

start or whatever, fill in the blank. Yeah, there's always something. They are old cars.

We should learn this lesson. It's like when I live in Pennsylvania, people go,

you know that you're going to have bad winters no matter what you think. It's you live in

Pennsylvania. So, and last but not least, I want to ask you, one of my favorite questions I get to

ask everybody is what's your daily driver? Well, I'm going to fudge the answer a bit and say that

my daily driver as soon as the grid is off the road is a plus four Morgan, which I use a lot,

actually. I love using that. I have more mundane cars that I sort of smoke around and I'm certainly

not being British and the car, not me. I'm not about to go and drive it down to Philadelphia or

something. But if there's a good journey within the sort of 50 mile radius, it's getting used

all the time. And yeah, I love that. And so your next auction is coming up when? When are you all,

what's on the calendar next? We'll be at Pebble Beach. As every year since 2004. And

you know, the wheel keeps turning. So we'll be building that and we'll be gathering things for

the fall for the rest of the day. Yeah, no time to rest on your laurels of the past,

you know, yesterday was yesterday, right? Well, the only thing with an auction is you start from

you tear up the sheet of paper and you get on and you build another one from scratch.

Absolutely. That's how it is.

Rupert Banner, everybody. Thanks so much, Rupert, for being on the show today. We really appreciate

glad we finally got to do this. It was so welcome. It's nice to talk. Yeah, take care. We'll be back

in just a couple of minutes with the Classic Auto Mall show. Here's another Classic Auto Mall show

with racing school namesake Skip Barber. So I got to ask what, if any, significant that the

sticker on the Seinfeld refrigerator have with the school and you back in the day?

It was a nice surprise. We didn't ask him or pay him. Somebody at work turned on the television

set the night before and there was this, wait a minute. It had to be helpful, but yeah, I can't

measure that. For more of this interesting interview with Skip Barber Motorsports Hall of Famer and

founder of the Skip Barber Racing School, check out episode 179 from February of 2025.

Because if you haven't seen or heard it, it's new to you.

And we're back with the Classic Auto Mall show from the studios here at Morgan.

What a pound. What a production. Yeah, we got air going. We got sound effects. We got all kinds

of stuff. Yeah. Yeah, my bank account number and routing number. It's funny how the auction house,

you know, they put their bank account number and their routing number in their catalogs,

you know, like right there for people to stay with. And the guy will call up and, you know,

I'll ask for his, you know, his bank account number to send him some money. Oh, I can't give

you that. Right. It's like, well, I think that you're okay. Yeah, they're just like, send us your

money. Anyway, what a great guess. Rupert Manor, legend in the business. And when I say legend,

I don't mean he's old and been around forever. He's just been done a lot of cool things. He was

with Bonham's. He was with Christie's. He was with Sotheby's, now back with Gooding Christie's,

and a great guy and well respected and liked in the hobby. He's so knowledgeable. So just,

I love, they're like these race car drivers, these auction, these guys who auction these

high end cars. They're Rolodex in their mind of every car that they've ever sold is there. 100%

he can tell you, you know, the mileage and this and that about it. And it's like a race car driver

who tell you in 1971, I hit the apex of the corner at Sebring and it was a little dusty and I,

you know, my rear end got a little way and I was driving at this and I was,

I had a hot dog for lunch. Yeah. It's just amazing. But so anyway, what are we doing now?

What are we doing? A new inventory. You can do where cars were sold. How about where cars were

sold? Where did they go? Where did they go? Where did they go? Poor things. Let me get my

collective soul here. How about Mesa, Arizona? Salisbury, North Carolina. I like Salisbury

steak. Yeah. Maybe that's where it's from. Could be. When was the last time you had Salisbury

steak? About 12, when I was 12. Oh, macaroni and cheese in Salisbury steak. That was a good little

stoffers side dish. Yeah, TV dinner. Remember the TV dinner that had the brownie in there? Oh, yeah.

Or the apple pie. Oh, the apple pie was pretty good. I like the brownie though. I used to eat it

first and my mom would get mad at me. So anyway, where were we? Chester, Virginia, Palm Bay, Florida,

Douglasville, Pennsylvania, Weaverville, North Carolina, Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, Phoenix, Arizona,

Beerta, Netherlands, Folsom, not California, Pennsylvania. Ah, see, I got you looking there.

Downingtown, Pennsylvania, Rising Sun, Ohio, Hamilton Square, New Jersey, Terry Hill, Pennsylvania,

Hamilton, New Jersey, Barcelona, Texas, no, Spain. Barcelona, Texas, Spain,

Hinton, West Virginia and Pendleton, New York. Where are we sold cars this past? We've had a

real good day and the weather's been nice, been helpful, but we're, we could use inventory,

as we say all the time. We're always tell people we're more in the consignment business

than sales business because if we can be the best sales organization in the world and we don't have

inventory, it really doesn't matter. So when that number starts with an eight, I get a little jittery

and get a little, you know, whatever you call it. You know, as a car dealer that had 45 cars

on the lot, what do you say? I get nervous with 800. I know a lot of people look at me like, you

get over it, but you know, the volume begets the building and the building begets the volume. You

know, we've got to have enough cars to justify having this big building. Well, and the selection

too. You got to have something for every, because there's a butt for every seat. Well, and there's

guys who literally come here and say, I don't know what I'm going to buy, but this is how much I

have to spend. Point me in the right direction on what you think is a good, you know, they're guys

who are into cars, but they're not, you know, dedicated Mustang guy, dedicated Corvette guy,

dedicated Ferrari guy. They're like, you know, when I want something cool,

want something that's got a nice exhaust tone to it and I got 40 to spend, what do you got?

Well, maybe another, maybe another 10,000 to put into it. Yeah, exactly. And we got a lot. So

new arrivals this week, the 1952 Ford F3 pickup, Carnival red over gray, 215 cubic inch inline

six cylinder, stunning presentation, three speed manual ready to show in hall and fully functional.

Good looking truck. It is a nice looking truck. And another nice looking truck that we have is the

next one on our list, 1961 Studebaker champ pickup, patchy red over black and red. This is

a stunning restoration. You want to be the only one at a car show with something this is the one

to buy. It's sharp. Unless you're at the Studebaker show. Unless you're at the Studebaker show,

but there still might only be one another champ. That's true. That is true. My dad may have helped

build that one. Oh, yeah. He worked at Stude. He worked, he was a Stude man, huh? This thing,

great driver, rarely seen, like said, you'll be the the bell of the ball if you show up at any car

show. Next on the list is the 1944 deluxe convertible, dark teal metallic over gray and dark gray,

350 cubic inch, four bare burl v8 with a turbo hydromatic 350 automatic, very well done ride.

I like this. This is a nice car. It is. And you know, hot rods aren't always my top of my

heap things, but there's certain ones that just catch my eye on that one, particularly. So

how about the 1957 Ford Thunderbird convertible, Raven Black over Raven Black and Colonial White,

which is like two Thunderbird colors. Yes. 57,000 actual miles, three owners,

shipper invoice included. So that means that the original paperwork shipping the car to the dealer

is included. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. 312 cubic inch v8, Fordomatic.

Fordomatic. Vegematic. Fordomatic automatic transmission. And this one is very well preserved,

nice car. And these Thunderbirds are reasonably priced nowadays. You know, they spiked up there

pretty high. And of course, still, if you've got an F bird, which is a fuel injective version, or even

the E bird, you know, with the dual quads, you know, they're still pretty valuable, but the

market has softened a little on these. So if you're you're looking for a Thunderbird, a baby bird,

they call them the 55, 6, and 7, and now is the time. Yeah. Really, any Thunderbirds are good.

They're great. They're good. 61 that we talked about last week that we have the convertible.

That's a great car. Even the modern ones that are coming in. Oh, true. Absolutely. We get a lot of

those, you know. Next on the list is the 1967 Pontiac GTO convertible, or hardtop, excuse me,

Starlight black over black. It's got a 428 from 69. Right. It's blasted. Nice. Nice. Retro. It's

Resto mod. Resto. In a sense. In a sense. But I like a Resto mod that's true to the mark. To the

time. Yeah. So it's got a 428 in it, which would have been around that time, 67, 68.

And it's and it's a Pontiac engine. Right. Which I don't think anybody else had a 428

besides Pontiac. I don't think so. I don't recall that any other of the brands of the General Motors

or any other for that matter. And a 428, man. And this thing's got sinister good looks. That black

black is amazing. Absolutely. And it's a true GTO. So it's not probably the original motor was

trashed or blown up or whatever. So and that happens. And that's why, you know,

the purists kind of freak out when you see this sometimes and they don't realize that the back

story may be that the car was damaged, it was in a wreck, it was in a fire, it was in whatever and

the original motor is just not available anymore. So what are you going to do? You're going to trash

it or are you going to put something in it and enjoy it? I say the latter. Right. So last but not

least, the 1958 Chevrolet Impala two door hardtop or Sport Coupe, as they might call them, K Coral

over Coral. Beautiful. It looks like a like a shade of rouge. Kind of a pinkish. It's a pinkish.

It's period. Correct. Yeah. Power God, two speed automatic, 348. This got the 348 in it,

which was the big bad boy back then. Power brakes, one year only styling though. And

it's 1958. You imagine the amount of money that General Motors had to spend to tool up for one

year of a body style. Yeah. You know, 57 was completely different and 59 was completely.

Happened a lot. Yeah. And 58 was a one year only. So recouping their investment was probably,

probably didn't. They probably had lost money. And the 58s weren't really well loved. I guess

that's why they changed it. They changed it right away. But the fact that they can change it up so

quickly just based on the market. Yeah. They must have had the stuff in the pipeline. Yeah.

There must have been some, you know. Yeah. I just wrote a 61 Lincoln, the headlights and the

faces completely different from 62. You know, they had to retool the whole thing. And I don't

think I would have known that had you not told me. Thank you. I always love the grills on the 58 GMs.

So sharp. Yeah. They had, especially like the Buick, the Buick, that Electra that had like 160 of

those little square pieces on it or 158. There was a number that was well known. And now, of course,

I don't remember. Well, I was told too, it was a recession year and there was really bad winter

through much of the country. Right. And because of the recession, there weren't a lot sold and

what was out there rusted out. So that's why 58s are rare, especially in really nice condition.

Yeah, absolutely. So that's our list of new items this week and we've got more coming in,

we hope. So bring them on. We're ready. Bring them on. We're ready. We're ready any time. When we

return, we'll be joined by our friend Keith Martin, publisher of Sports Car Market Magazine. We'll

see you in just a couple of minutes. Whether you want to buy or sell a classic, collectible,

or special interest vehicle, you need to visit the Classic Auto Mall website for more information.

If you're looking to buy, you can easily search our inventory of more than 1000 vehicles on the

web at ClassicAutomall.com. And if you'd like to know all the advantages of selling your car

through consignment, the information is available on our website, or you can talk to a classic car

specialist who can answer all your questions. It's easy, safe, and convenient, plus we sell

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Here's a special offer from Sports Car Market Magazine. Get a six month subscription for just

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SportsCarMarket.com slash Test Drive six. That's SportsCarMarket.com slash Test Drive at the

number six. Offers for a limited time. Be in the know with Sports Car Market. Now,

more of the Classic Auto Mall show with your host Stuart Howden from our showcase studio just

inside the Classic Auto Mall, Morgantown, Pennsylvania. Just off Turnpike Exit 298.

And we're back with a Classic Auto Mall show, Classic Auto Mall studio, Morgantown PA with

our good friend Keith Martin joining us from the left coast. Good morning, Keith.

Morning. It's great to be here. It's great to have you here. I'd like to register one complaint.

Oh, here. Oh, great. Right off the bat. Right off the bat. Just put me through.

Okay. I despise daylight saving time. Oh, me too. I am done, done, done, done, done. I hope we never

have to live through it again. Like, what's the point? I don't get it. You know, I'm not a farmer.

I'm not out in the crops. I'm not, you know, sorry, it just doesn't work anymore. I hate

getting home, leaving the office at five o'clock. I have no windows in my office because I don't know

why. But anyway, I have no windows in my office. So I'll walk outside and it's pitch black and it

just makes me mad. I know. And not only that, it always gets cold. Yeah, it's cold and mad. So

great, great, great. So your latest blog is Revenge of the Classic Cars and you sold the

Jaguar. I still got a really good price for it. I'm doing a trailer and I figured out that the

cost of owning that car was $7,000 over five years. Wow. 10,000 miles. That's amazing.

Yeah, it was like free. Yeah, really. I mean, in our world, that is absolutely free.

But what happened is the classic car God was watching this and saying, oh man, Keith is so

way out of Kielter. We owe him. Yeah, because at home, Mercedes was the 250 CE or whatever you

bought. Yeah, where I had the world's best car that nobody cares about. Nobody wanted, right?

And so do you know the buyer? Is it somebody that you knew or is it somebody?

It's not. I don't know who it is yet. Okay, gotcha. The Matt at 911 R knows, but I told him,

I was told by my guy here that they did not make a radio block off plate for a Series 3 Jaguar.

Really? But you know what happens when you put something like that on brand trailer?

Yeah, we know exactly what happens. So I got sent to link to it and I told the guy as the

auction was closing, I said, you know what, just one more bid and I'll buy you the blanking plate.

It's $18. Right. It's important to have these things hinge on big deals.

You know, it's funny about that you mentioned that. There was a gentleman who started an

auction in the Midwest named Mark Trimble and Mark started the Branson auction back in many,

many, many years ago and Mark would sell cars after he had sold the auction to Jim Cox and he

would sell cars at the auction and every auction that Mark would be at, he would come up on the

stage when the bidding got to the flat spot and he'd come up and say, now you know folks,

he said, I just noticed a few minutes ago that the breaks were a little weak in the rear end.

I've got two $100 bills here for whoever the buyer is, so we'll take care of that break issue.

Sold every time, went for more money, people started bidding again. It was,

you know, it's so simple, but sometimes the simple things like that make such a huge impact.

Well, what you're trying to do is you're trying to bond between the buyer and the seller.

Right.

And you're trying to create trust over 3,000 miles.

Right, exactly.

So, what you're looking for is really quick answers that you ask.

Yeah.

I was looking at this car the other day and the guy said, well, it's a black car.

The car fax said it was red twice, but I'm sure it's always been black.

Yeah, and your comfort level just went...

He said, well, if the car's always been red then, or always been black,

why does it say red on the carpet? He said, I don't know.

That's a good answer. That sounds like what my five-year-old would say.

I don't know. I don't know how that got in there.

Hey, I noticed you talked about in your blog about big helis, and I kind of got my eye on a

big heli, and now may be the time to buy one, right?

Well, next year is the 75th anniversary heli tour.

Oh, that'd be a good one.

They expect 600 helis at Lake Tahoe.

Wow.

My guess is, Stuart, I don't want to be a fatalist here,

but my guess is the 100th anniversary won't have as many.

Right. 125th anniversary might be a few less.

Yeah. I'm trying to work on my leg and get it, so I have a clutch leg.

I had a BJ7 that I drove to the 50th anniversary, and I loved it.

Yeah.

When you're in a string of 10 or 15 of those cars, and they drop into overdrive,

and you're in a back road, I mean, the sound is just unbelievable.

And you got to have an overdrive.

I don't think they all came with overdrive, but most of them came with overdrive.

It was, you're saying it right.

They almost, a non-overdrive car, just walk away.

Right. Right.

It's just because you want that extra, it's like a four-speed Camaro 69 Z28.

You need that. Where's that fifth gear, damn it.

I need that.

And with the helis, you can get overdrive on second, third, and fourth.

Oh, right.

So you've almost like got down and do the math and the lime and the coconut and 12.

You have a meaningless extra set of gears.

Right. Right.

Because second to second and a half, and to third, to third and a half, to fourth.

So I'm looking at, actually actively looking, maybe even buying a pair and driving them down

with one of my staff and then coming back.

Oh.

You know, we, we did a few years ago, I bought three MGBs and we drove the late Tahoe.

So you were cornering the market or what was that?

I think the market is cornered.

You know, the movie Zulu.

Yeah.

Well, instead of zoos across the hill, there's guys with helis who want me to buy them.

Wow. You know, it's, um, yeah.

So half price.

Half price. And they're great cars to drive.

They sound good and they're sexy looking.

They're the best looking.

You know, and it doesn't matter if it's the 106 or the BJ8 or all.

I mean, the, the BN1 and two, the early cars are different, but the people say,

the 106 doesn't have the right intake manifold and it's not as fast.

Well, it's as, it's as fast as you need to go.

Right. Exactly.

And then, and that says a lot about a car.

Just because you have all this extra horsepower, I've had plenty of cars that

had way more horsepower than I ever used and never needed, never really wanted.

I thought I wanted it until I realized that I'm never going to go that fast.

No, I understand.

I think this is a, I've been watching these helis.

I'm, I'm, I'm trying to come in as a cheapskate for a 100, the unloved 106.

Right.

They were in the 30s and 40s.

They're down in the high 20s, those 30s are really, really good ones.

Yeah. And a driver, driver quality might be, you know, might even be less.

I don't think you'd get in the teens, but you might get close.

You know, the question becomes then with, for me, is it's the distance of the shipping.

Right. Exactly.

That all of a sudden now factors into it.

The cheaper the car, the more that number means something to you.

So to spend $3,000 on shipping a car that you spent $15,000 for,

boy, that's a, that's a tough pill to swallow.

And of course you've been getting some invoices in your mailbox lately, right?

If you, uh, car related, I'm, I'm part of the, uh, client of the month club again.

I love that the cost of the Volvo V 70 that you brought for your son, Bradley,

it was the, the, the first check you wrote was the cheapest check you wrote.

I know. I forgot it was the down payment.

That's right. People, people say, you know, we talk about this, you know, I got,

oh, there's a 1995 Jag, I can buy for $3,000. Okay.

Do you know how much exhaust system is?

I'm going to jump in here because I'm getting a lot of crap because I got a flat tire in my

Porsche C4S. I had to buy new tires for 1500 bucks.

And the number of people telling me what a stupid dumbass I am for buying those tires

and paying that much. And I want to say to them, you weren't by the side of the road with a nail.

Exactly.

Through all of your time at a car shop that says we can put, we can throw new tires on this car.

Now they didn't say, oh, try, try discount tire and see if they'll do a better deal for you.

Yeah. And they'll, and they'll fed exit to you by the side of the road.

And then you can change them yourself.

When you're there with a flat tire and a nail in your tire and you're at a tire shop,

you, it's not the time to go bargain on it.

Yeah, it really isn't. I mean, anytime I am in a desperation situation or a situation where I'm,

I want to get out of as quickly as possible, money at that point in time has no meaning to me.

I want to pay whatever I got to pay to get out of this situation is perfectly okay with me.

That's right.

You know, if I were sitting at home with my phone when I were comparison shopping and reading the

blog and this is the best tire and that's what I wasn't.

Right. I love that you spent 7,000 on the Jag over a 10-year period.

And in the last 30 days, you spent 7,500 on the Alpha Volvo and the Porsche.

I know. It's just classic car math.

It works perfectly, right?

Nobody's surprised. They really owe me seven.

Yeah, that was it. Gosh, you have you got a discount or something?

A multi-user discount or something along the line.

What I have is there's the SCM club. We have a, what are those like a toll booth sticker on all

our cars. Right.

We drive by a shop. They just bill me 500 bucks.

It's just like swiping your card as you're going.

Exactly. It's like, it's the daily, the monthly maintenance.

Yeah. And of course, in talking about maintenance and the new Porsche 996 that you have is the

old bear of the IMS bearing. Have you heard any?

I'm just going to pay to have it done.

Just going to do it whenever it's done.

Are you going to do it before it fails you?

No, I think I'll wait till after.

It's not about everything you read about IMS.

The number one thing you read that says,

it's going to go without warning for us.

Yeah. They're not going to be like, Hey, by the way.

I think I just say, no, I cut my oil filter open every three days and look to see if they're

and if there are any metal filings in there, that means that you're already toast.

You're already toasted. So what's the,

what's the bill going to be for a new IMS bearing? Do we know?

Three to four.

Three to four. So it's just money. You can't, you can't take it with you.

Well, I factored that into the offer I made for the car when I bought it.

There you go. I think a lot of people do that.

I paid 32 for it, I think. And if it had the IMS bearing done, it was probably a $35,000 car.

Right. $35,000, $36.

And it was right. It was in Seattle, so that's no tow bill.

I'd sent my son up on the train to pick it up.

It was a beautiful car. Best of all, it has that, that bad boy, idle exhaust switch.

And you sound like the kind of asshole that you didn't want to live next to.

I realized the other day that my GMC pickup truck has a sport setting that makes the exhaust

louder and when I, and it won't fit in my garage, the car. So when I started,

I think my neighbors are all like, son of a bitch. There he goes, starting that damn thing again.

You have to give it to credit Porsche for even offering something like that.

I love them for that. It's like a cutout switch on a Duesenberg, right?

Yeah, I guess so.

It's exactly like that, right? All right. So I guess we've solved all the weekly world problems

and we'll be looking forward to your blog next week and we'll continue this conversation on

The Classic Automall Show. We'll see you then. Thanks, Keith. All right. Great to be here.

Take care. We'll see you next week on The Classic Automall Show. And thanks for stopping by.

The Classic Automall Show with their host, Stuart Howden, executive producer, Steve Sefair,

produced and engineered by yours truly, JR Russ, video editor, Randy Lamby available on

classicautomall.com, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Music, courtesy of the Pat

Traverse Band, for tour dates, contact and stuff, visit pattraverse.com, produced by CarSmartz Media,

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Classic Auto Mall - #234 - Stewart Howden with Guests Rupert Banner and Keith Martin

About this episode

Porsche 904

Christie's

Sotheby's

Bonhams

auction

market cycles

gut instinct

one-of-one

low mileage

special color

provenance

market downturn

market correction

Amelia Island

Porsche Carrera GT

traction control

AC Cobra 427

Cobra

replica

Packard V12

V8 engine

Mercedes-Benz

Porsche 928 GTS

Retromobile

shipper invoice

Fordomatic automatic transmission

348 engine

two-speed automatic

Carfax

MG BJ8

MG BN1

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