The biggest classic car collectors
06/01/2018
A few days ago, we had the pleasure of leafing through a comprehensive book that analyzes the world of classic car collectors from a bird's eye view. The 100 most important collectors are listed, 50 of them with a detailed characterization.
Together, these top 100 collectors own 3,500 of the world's most important classic cars, and the vehicles are worth over eight billion USD. On average, the collectors are around 72 years old, a fifth are over 80 years old.
Some of the collectors are well known from their appearances at concours or on television, for example Miles Collier (#1), Evert Louwman (#3), Peter Mullin (#4), Ralph Lauren (#5), Corrado Lopresto (#24) or Jay Leno (#33) are certainly well known internationally, others such as Albert Spiess (#9, picture above) or Andreas Möhringer (#39) like to keep a more discreet profile.
Of course, we immediately set about analyzing the information in the book further, using the top 50 as a basis. Here, the average age of the collectors is almost 74 years, the youngest appears to be 59 years old.
32 of the 50 most important collectors are American, plus four Italians, three Britons, three Swiss and two Hong Kong Chinese. Only one Japanese, one German and one Austrian made it onto the list. So the USA dominates here too.
The most important vehicle owned by each of the most important collectors is listed. In 21 cases this is a Ferrari, in 4 cases an Alfa Romeo, Mercedes-Benz or Porsche. 3 Maserati appear and 2 each Aston Martin, Bugatti and Delahaye. There is also one car each from Avio, Delage, Duesenberg, Isotta Fraschini, Jaguar, Lamborghini, Lancia and Marmon.
If you go into a little more detail, there is one car in particular that the biggest collectors obviously want to own: the Ferrari 250 GTO. This is named seven times as the most important vehicle. Only the Porsche 917 and the Ferrari 290 MM Spyder Scaglietti make it to more than one mention, the rest are often one-offs or vehicles that have only been crossed off once. Because the list is interesting, we are listing the individual cars with the number of entries here:
| Vehicle | Entries |
|---|---|
| Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Gran Sport Aprile Spider Corsa | 1 |
| Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Spider | 1 |
| Alfa Romeo 8C 2900A | 1 |
| Alfa Romeo Canguro | 1 |
| Aston Martin DB2 4 Bertone Roadster | 1 |
| Aston Martin DBR-2 | 1 |
| Auto Avio AAC 815 | 1 |
| Bugatti Type 51 Dubos Coupé | 1 |
| Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic | 1 |
| Delage D8-120 S Pourtout Aéro Coupé | 1 |
| Delahaye 135M Figoni & Falaschi | 1 |
| Delahaye Type 165 Convertible | 1 |
| Duesenberg SJ "Mormon Meteor" | 1 |
| Ferrari 166 MM Touring Barchetta Lusso | 1 |
| Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione | 1 |
| Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder | 1 |
| Ferrari 250 GTO | 7 |
| Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa | 1 |
| Ferrari 250 TR 58 | 1 |
| Ferrari 250 TR Spyder Scaglietti, "Lucybelle II" | 1 |
| Ferrari 250 TR59/60 Fantuzzi Spyder | 1 |
| Ferrari 250 TRI/61 | 1 |
| Ferrari 275 GTS/4 NART Spider | 1 |
| Ferrari 290 MM Spyder Scaglietti | 2 |
| Ferrari 315 S | 1 |
| Ferrari 375 MM | 1 |
| Ferrari 412 P Competizione | 1 |
| Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A Fleetwood Roadster | 1 |
| Jaguar D-Type | 1 |
| Lamborghini Marzal | 1 |
| Lancia D23 Spider Pininfarina | 1 |
| Marmon V16 Victoria | 1 |
| Maserati A6G 2000 Zagato Coupé | 1 |
| Maserati Tipo 60/61 Allegretti | 1 |
| Maserati V4 Sport 16 Cylinder Zagato | 1 |
| Mercedes-Benz 680S Sports Tourer | 1 |
| Mercedes-Benz SS Erdmann & Rossi | 1 |
| Mercedes-Benz SSK "Count Trossi | 1 |
| Mercedes-Benz Type 194 Coupé | 1 |
| Porsche Type 356B 1600 Carrera GTL Abarth Coupe | 1 |
| Porsche 935 K3 | 1 |
| Porsche 917 | 2 |
Incidentally, the vehicles listed are on average more than 66 years old, no car is younger than 1979. The new classics have not yet arrived, at least not here.
The book "The Key - Top of the Classic Car World", published by the Classic Car Trust, founded by Fritz Kaiser, himself a great collector, contains not only the rankings, but also some portraits and reports from the world of top collectors that are well worth reading. Here you can find out the background to the passion for collecting and gain a small insight into the sometimes huge collections.
If you would like to find out more about the book, which is published in English together with the Swiss Balance Sheet and will be published annually in future, or would like to buy it as an e-book for CHF 20 or as a softcover for CHF 30, please visit the Classic Car Trust website .
