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Re: Auction Commentary in a College Newspaper: Not too Shabby
Preserving history is the last thing on any of these fkrs minds, 80% wouldnt know a lug nut from thier left nut.
They are mongors, buying OUR precious metal, sticking it hermetic basements and sitting outside the door like Scrooge McDuck counting thier pennies. Go over to YSC and see these baffoons paying $1200 for a correct date oil filter and selling cars that have only gained .8 miles since they bought it 10 years earlier. does any body here have a $5000 garage floor? -
Re: Auction Commentary in a College Newspaper: Not too Shabby
It depends on supply and demand. Certainly as the generations with direct memories of these legendary machines die off, there might be some downward pressure on prices."When you buy a drag [sic], you?re buying a piece of someone else's past and keeping it alive for him or her.
But to be honest, I think buying drag cars for the vast numbers displayed on their price tags is a fad."
On the other hand, as anyone who has ever watched "Antiques Roadshow" can testify, direct memories contemporaneous with the age of the antique is hardly necessary for collector interest. The last Civil War vet has been dead for decades and there are still folks who will pay thousands for rather ordinary artifacts.
Many of these vehicles represent much more than "a piece of someone else's past." They are windows on the first decades of drag racing. They harken back to a time when "Ingenuity in Action" actually described the pursuit of glory on the 1320. They capture some of the spirit of an age shaped by adventurous, skilled, hands-on pioneers who had been hardened by war and economic depression -- An age when adventure required more investment than merely kicking back with the latest game of Playstation 3 or surfing the internet.
I doubt things as culturally iconic and unique as the "Wagon-Master" or the "Little Red Wagon" will ever depreciate so much as to be traded for a pittance on the 22nd Century equivalent of Craig's List.
Market demand causes prices to fluctuate. But as long as there are monied collectors who are captivated by the audacity and reckless abandon of the first generations of drag racers, these vehicles will remain expensive collectibles.
There has been increased pressure on collectors to drive their cars regardles of value or rarity (e.g. the Pebble Beach Tour d'Elegance prior to the Concours; vintage racing). And "cacklefest" and nostalgia drag racing events encourage curators of milestone drag racing machines to "fire'em up.""If I were going to buy a car for a half-million dollars, even if I were just a collector, I'd like to know that I could take it out on the streets and just drive it for awhile."
But there is no shame in static displays. Do we really need to see Mickey Thompson's Challenger I make a full pass at Speed Week every year to appreciate it? Does the Thomas Flyer need to reenact the Great Race of 1908? Is the only value in Bob Glidden's incredible Pro Stock Thunderbird in making exhibition or bracket passes?
Obviously not!
There is no "minimum skills test" necessary for loving these vehicles and preserving them for future generations.Originally posted by FANTASY FACTORY
It's been written that the great Grey Baskerville was no grease monkey. Yet his words inspired generations of hot rodders.
Similarly, those who have the resources to collect and secure these fragile treasures can help enlighten and inspire future generations through their careful stewardship, even if they don't have the first clue about how to assemble a Stromberg 97, or rebuild a V8-60 in an unheated dirt floor garage.
I'd much rather see these cars saved in "hermetic basements" than rotting in a field out behind some "doublewide" meth lab, or (more probably) altered, abused, and neglected in the custody of some well-intentioned but underfunded street/bracket racer . . . .
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