Tastes change (impression from the Rétromobile) ...
02/09/2017
Anyone who attended classic car auctions in the 1970s or remembers the results from back then will know that the most expensive vehicles at auction back then usually had an "Emily" on the hood. Limousines and special bodies based on Rolls-Royce chassis were "en vogue" and many collectors considered them to be the most important vehicles in their collection. Prices were even lower back then. If they actually reached six figures (let's leave the currency aside), then Rolls-Royce vehicles were certainly usually involved.
Today, some 40 years later, prices are often still (or again) at a similar level. Yesterday, a beautiful Rolls-Royce 20/25 Three-Position-Window Drophead Coupé from 1930 was knocked down at RM/Sotheby's in Paris for EUR 125,000 (picture above, left half).
At the same time, the bids for a 1952 VW Beetle barn find reached EUR 52,000 and a 1995 Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet (top picture, right half) went for EUR 1.2 million, almost ten times the Rolls-Royce price. To be fair, only 14 examples of this particular Porsche Cabriolet were built, but in principle it is "simply a 911".
The change in the classic car scene and its values is impressively documented here, as are the changing tastes. This is nothing new, but it doesn't happen every day to such an extreme extent as at the RM/Sotheby's auction.
Anyone drawing the conclusion that interest in pre-war cars is simply lacking must, however, also take into account that the 1934 Alfa Romeo P3 was bid up to EUR 3.5 million.
In any case, prices generally settled at a high level on the first day of the auction in Paris and there was no lack of interest from buyers. We will certainly be keeping a close eye on the other two auctions and will of course report on all three in detail.
