Aperta, GTO, F1, and Manual Value Perspective

It's a sellers market allright! Since the high profile auction last month all manual 612's have disappeared, I know they rarely came to market before, but now finding one is going to be impossible!

 

I'm sorry but my opinion is that things with Ferraris and other cars have gotten ridiculous. There may be a lot of people with a lot of money but for me that doesn't really mean much. I love manuals but this idea that a car with a manual should cost many times its F1 counterpart when nobody wanted it when new is ridiculous. To me it's the same as a 1970 Dodge with a Hemi engine costing $500k when the same silly car with a 340 or 440 engine is a fraction of the price. Nobody wanted the Hemis back in 1970. But somehow today they're rare and desirable? Nonsense. They're all cars. Drive them. Enjoy them. But a successful guy who wants a nice old V12 Ferrari today has to pay millions to own and drive one when the same cars 10 years ago were $250k? What changed? Now they're $3 million dollar cars and nobody wants to drive them. It's stupid.

Keep driving.

Gary
Car fan

 

It's not nonsense and it's not stupid. It's the market dictating the next price for a finite commodity...just like any other dynamic market...

 

I think you will find that most Fchatters are "drivers" despite the deleterious affect on their prized possessions.

 

I'm grateful for this. My concern are the buyers who are hoarding these cars who are afraid to have a speck of dust or a drop of water come in contact with them. Unfortunately I've been meeting more and more of these people lately.

I personally see no point in collecting cars that are 15-20 years old that have only 1200 miles on them. Those cars are definitely not being driven and the more this happens the crazier the prices will get. That is until it all ends and prices get readjusted. It's happened before and it'll happen again. Stock markets don't go up forever and cheap money doesn't get printed forever either. But meanwhile warehouses are getting filled with cars that never see the light of day. And somehow we are celebrating this trend.

 

I concur but it's not your money. I'd rather drive my GTO than use it as a paperweight but that's just me.

 

Also, what about dog-leg gearboxes? I'm a big fan of those, they are much more convenient to change 2nd to 3rd and vice versa, as these are the main gears one is using in b-roads or the racetrack. 348TS/B, I'm looking at you.. Prices haven't really gone up and as far as I'm aware it's the last Ferrari to use such gearbox setup (except the 512M perhaps, but it's quite rare to begin with).

 

At the base level, I think most agree with you with the exception of "somehow we are celebrating this trend." It's been my observation in my short time being a member of this forum that the vast majority of F-chatters drive and enjoy their cars. This thread, and several others on this subject have primarily been a debate about the credibility of this auction sale being a bellwether or an anomaly.

 

I took my 599 6spd for a solid rip on Saturday! Heaven! And I'm waiting for someone on Fchat to find me a buyer and collect their commision!

 

Walt- No idea on the split by country on the three pedals. Always difficult getting any info out of FNA. Most of the good data we get comes from the UK, who have very good relations with the factory.