Increasing value through fame
06/02/2019
A great idol of many contemporaries and certainly one of the most famous Austrians ever was laid to rest last Wednesday. What remains at the end are memories of a person who will never be repeated and the cars with which he made his great career.
They outlive all racing drivers and usually increase in value after the death of their famous chauffeur. If a driver enjoys such fame as a Lauda or a Senna, then even the less important cars such as Niki's March from 1972 or Ayrton's Toleman from 1984 suddenly become big sellers. Not to mention the racing cars with which they won their world championship titles. Good for those who secured their cars before they became famous.
They don't even have to be F1 cars, even an F2 or F3 of a Lauda or Senna can fetch different prices to the identical car of a nobody.
In my eyes, this also makes much more sense than spending X times more money on a car from a famous previous owner that nobody recognizes if nobody names the known previous owner. An example of this is David Bowie's ex-Volvo 262 C, which fetched ten times its actual value at auction .
I would much rather have a Jimi Hendrix guitar than his Cadillac, or whatever he drove. In the end, he achieved his fame with the side instrument and not with the car. After all, only exceptional racing drivers achieve absolute immortality with an automobile.
