Is the big cat underestimated or even ignored?
06/14/2015
If only common sense and the laws of numbers or measurable criteria applied in the world of classic car trading, then some old cars would be more expensive or cheaper. A good example of the fact that this is not the case is the Jaguar XJ 220 . It was Jaguar's answer to the Ferrari F40 and the Porsche 959, so to speak, and was originally developed on the basis of the Jaguar XJR-9, a Le Mans winner after all.
But times were difficult, and despite great interest, the final development of the super sports car dragged on. Instead of the Le Mans twelve-cylinder engine, a V6 biturbo engine, which was not lacking in power but in drivability, had to power the car, which was advertised with a seven-figure price tag. This and the fact that series production began much later than announced deterred many buyers, with the result that only 275 units were produced between 1992 and 1994.
It was fast, it looked breathtaking, it wasn't that much worse than a McLaren F1, so why are McLaren cars changing hands for eight million pounds like Ronan Atkinson's twice-crashed and rebuilt car recently, while the almost new Jaguar only elicited a top bid of CHF 325,000 from bidders at the Dolder Classics auction in Zurich yesterday ? The Porsche 959 and Ferrari F40 are also at least twice to three times as expensive.
But then, if car buyers acted purely logically, there would probably be no price excesses at all in the classic car trade ...
