Valuing a race car

[EdLeake]

Valuing a race car is a particularly tricky subject, is there any metric or guides to follow or is it a case of taking a judgment based on the current market and other similar metal?

I was asked to put a value on a car recently, a rather nice capable machine at that, but after a ball-park figure came to mind I did struggle to really warrant any of the figure manipulation.

Just a general subject of your ideas on the subject.

[Al Weyman]

Dunno but from past experience as this credit crisis does not appear to be going away stand by for values to plummet.

[GORDON STREETER]

The value can only be what somebody is prepared to pay for it. If its for race insurance purposes then it can only be an agreed price with the insurers, and obviously the more you say it is then the more the premium.
Lets face it a race car resale value will only be a small amount compared with what it cost to build , as most of us have found over the years !

[EdLeake]

Originally Posted by GORDON STREETER

The value can only be what somebody is prepared to pay for it. If its for race insurance purposes then it can only be an agreed price with the insurers, and obviously the more you say it is then the more the premium.
Lets face it a race car resale value will only be a small amount compared with what it cost to build , as most of us have found over the years !

Yeah I think we'd all agree that producing race cars to sell on is a fruitless game!

It's the old cliche of "whatever someone is willing to pay for it", it's understandable but also very hard to fathom. I mean just look at racecarsdirect right now, seems a lot of ex touring spec cars selling for £45+ so I think/guess they've all taken the same tactic and used each other as price guides.

[EdLeake]

Originally Posted by Al Weyman

Dunno but from past experience as this credit crisis does not appear to be going away stand by for values to plummet.

Indeed Al, there's no denying the long term impact of such an economic forecast i.e. doom and gloom.

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by EdLeake

Indeed Al, there's no denying the long term impact of such an economic forecast i.e. doom and gloom.

Which is why I'll wait a bit longer before putting in an offer for a Gp2 Capri.

That said I do wonder where some people get their prices from. As Gordon says the cost of building and developing a car is massive compared to what it may be worth. Although if SWMBO is reading this my car has only cost £2.50 in the last three years.

[GORDON STREETER]

Actually my car cost next to nothing to build. That's what I told my wife and she knows I would never lie !

[terence]

Anyone want an MGB racer,on the button and ready to go.Only £100k +.
[Never know whos reading this]

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by terence bower

Anyone want an MGB racer,on the button and ready to go.Only £100
[Never know whos reading this]

A hundred quid Terry, that's pushing it a bit !

[terence]

Originally Posted by GORDON STREETER

A hundred quid Terry, that's pushing it a bit !

Well,it is a risky business.

[Adam43]

It is probably about 25% less that whatever you come up with!

[terence]

Originally Posted by AdamAshmore

It is probably about 25% less that whatever you come up with!

OK,done,I'll accept £75k for it.

[AU N EGL]

Originally Posted by GORDON STREETER

Actually my car cost next to nothing to build. That's what I told my wife and she knows I would never lie !

And so were her Diamond ear rings she purchased and told you about. or did she say they were Zircon?

[R59]

How much is it worth - less than your horses my dear!

Yes, a difficult one. Going on the prices that some people expect for some tired has-been touring cars, my Thundersaloon Belmont must be worth £500,000 due to it's unique qualities, and my ASCAR is worth £2.4M
My rusting Nova GSi Mod-Prod is worth more than the remaining oil reserves on planet earth.

What I can say though, my motorhome is worth ten-bob less than stuff all thanks to the tax we have to pay to fill it up and keep that lovely little big block gurgling.

Terence, now, what was that, you'd pay me £75 to take that MG away from you. Only if it's a V8, and Malcolm Beer built it to the same spec as Peter Cox's BGT-V8 - and as clean.

Gordon hit the nail on the head - it's worth what someone wants to pay for it. Eventually, the price will have to fall to meet the money available.

[greenamex2]

Work out what it would cost to build from scratch using all new parts then divide that figure by 4.

If it's won a championship they you might be able to get another 25% for it if you sold it straight away.

[Al Weyman]

Yes but lets be honest our cars are also our hobby and no matter what hobby you have you are going to do good money on it at least with our sport you do actually have something tangable at the end of it that you can cash in, if you were into horses for example you could spend the same sort of money and have an old nag left at the end of the day and a clapped out horse box. Golf is another one, at the end of your golf playing days what would you have for all the years of green fees and membership fees, sod all but maybe a set of old clubs, 100 quid on ebay.

[AU N EGL]

Not sure what I could sell my car for, or all the extra equipment?

But any time on a track is priceless to me.

[terence]

It really is a very tricky business,one that will sometimes catch out the professionals,I was involved in the auctioning of a particular Aston,the auction house had valued it 50k under what it went for!
The moral of the story is to have as much history on the car as possible,the very reason this Aston made the money it did was down to the fact it was ex Salvadori might have influenced the hammer price.

[Stuart H]

No amount of money would be able to split me from my little car.

I'll take the money however!!

[AU N EGL]

Originally Posted by Stuart H

No amount of money would be able to split me from my little car.

I'll take the money however!!

There is an old Jack Benny joke that went something like that.

A mugger came up to Jack Benny and said

"Your Money or your life."


Benny put his hand to his chin and thought for a while.

the Mugger was getting impatient and said.

come on man. Your money or your life?"

Benny said, " OH, I though you said my money or my WIFE?"

[Adam43]

There is an interesting article on old Group C cars in Octane this month (or was it motorsport?). These have increased in value due to the race series taking off. While a Richard Lloyd Porsche failed to meet its £250K reserve it is generally considered that these cars are worth more than that. Apparently most are sold privately rather than through the auction.

The article split the Group C cars into a few categories which went something like this (this is from memory, please correct if you see a mistake):
1. Works Cars (Jags, Saubers, works Porsches) >£1m
2. Decent Porsche 956/962 customer cars £500-750K
3. Decent Privateer cars (Richard Llyod Racing, Kremer, ...) £400
4. Other Useable Group C cars £250K

Not too long ago these were worth little. However the active racing scene has increased the values. Support races at Le Mans can't have hurt either.