Yesterday’s racecars are today’s collector cars; they come at prices ranging from very expensive to off-the-chart.
I'd like you to conduct an experiment. Go to your local racetrack this weekend. Makes no difference if it's a drag strip, oval or road course, big or small. Just go.
Look around, estimate the average age of the fans and let me know what you find. Did you see a lot of kids there? Not likely. Racing fans are aging and there aren't enough new, young fans to take their place. At the Mecum Monterey auction last weekend, someone coughed up $5.5 million to purchase the L&M Porsche 917/10, above, that won the Can-Am championship more than forty years ago. And it wasn’t the highest price paid for a vintage racecar at auction during Monterey Madness. The highest went for a whopping $11 million!
But look into the future. In 2052, who will want to buy Dario Franchitti's 2012 Indy 500-winning Dallara and other historic racecars? I don't see enough young people at races nowadays to believe that the same market will exist. And I go to a lot of auto races to compete and spectate. Like 100 a year!
Attendance at most major races is down. Local tracks are closing left and right. The auto racing demographic is aging quickly and I really wonder about the future market for racecars. I really like seeing a lot of racecars cross the block, but we’ve had very few this year.That's why I was so excited to see all the competition machines entered in this year's Mecum auction at Monterey. These were great racecars with rich histories, especially in Can-Am racing. Cars that really deserved the recognition and truly represented the heritage of the sport.
Vic Elford's Shadow DN4, above, was there. Elford had crashed it badly in 1974 before it was rebuilt for vintage racing. The car is nearly identical to the Shadow that carried Jackie Oliver to victory in the 1974 Can-Am championship. Better still was the fact that the Shadow's creator, Don Nichols, was at the auction to greet race enthusiasts. It did not sell.
A '74 Porsche IROC 911 RSR, above, driven by Emerson Fittipaldi, sold for $875,000! An original McLaren M8 racecar was also on hand. Denny Hulme, Pete Revson and Bruce McLaren drove M8s to four consecutive Can-Am titles in the late 1960's. The example that crossed the Mecum block had a long, documented pedigree of privateer racing to increase its value.
And of course, the L&M Porsche 917/10 was the biggest draw of all. We also saw a ‘72 Eagle Offy Indy car, a Saleen Le Mans racer, and nearly a dozen major Porsche racecars. Plus a spectacular Scaglietti-bodied ‘54 Ferrari 750 Monza Spyder, below, that went off at $1.9 million!
So the market is there and it is strong. And it was a rare treat to see so many historic racecars in the same place at the same time. But I wonder how many race fans will be around over the next half century to buy more of them. Hope to see you at the Mecum auction at the Dallas Convention Center in a few weeks.
Words by Stephen Cox; photos by David Newhardt/Mecum Auctions.
For more information about Mecum auctions, please visit http://mecum.com/
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