Muscle Car Madness !

[AtomicGT]

So you think you have a unique car in the GT? And the Ford GT is definitely an awesome and unique race car. My GT to me is the best looking car on the road, and would never trade it for anything. But just to enlighten us all on the current trend in "Muscle Car Madness", take a look at the website below. The Hemi 'Cuda was a car that probably 90% of muscle car enthusiasts in the late 60s-early 70s, would not buy, let alone be seen in one. People were either Chevy-Pontiac-Oldsmobile-GM or they were Ford men in those days. Look what has happened since then? Not a bad investiment, eh! :willy

http://vintagecars.about.com/od/historygreatmoments/ss/hemicuda_rw.htm

 

[cudacharlie]

You ain't kidding! My '70 'Cuda ragtop: I paid $13,500 and have been offered $75k. My '70 Charger R/T? Paid $3500, put $6k into the motor, insured for $50k. But let's be real, those cars drive like hippos on rollerskates, and my Magnum SRT8 easily beats a stock hemicuda in ther 1/4 mile, and can actually go around a curve!

So the muscle looks great and is fun to cruise, but I sure wouldn't put my retirement fund there, since that bubble will burst sooner or later...

Hemicudas are the Beanie Babies of this decade, and the fallout is going to be brutal. The guys buying clone cars as "investments" for $150k are gonna get a sobering reality check in a few years. Rare cars ("real" ones) will always change hands for big $$$, but those cars don't get driven, so they are not cars anymore, but more like Faberge eggs.

Go to Wikipedia and search for "tulipmania" for a great historical perspective. Just substitute "hemicuda" for "tulip bulb" in the story, and have a laugh!

Anyway, the GT is a driver's car. The muscle is a collector's car. (he said confidently, with two muscle cars and no GT in the driveway....)

BTW: The "rare" muscle cars that are worth so much were not widely produced: (only 11 1971 hemicuda converts, ~500 Superbirds), so a car like the GT, of which they are going to make around 4,000 examples, will never be as rare as the rare old musclecars, so I wouldn't expect its value to go to 1,000 times its MSRP, like it did with the Cudas...

(Cuda MSRP = $4,000. 4,000 x 1,000 = 4,000,000 which is the last hi-priced Cuda sale I heard of...)

Now that's just ri-donk-ulous. Bonkers. Nutz. :banana

Oh, and the price of hemicuda converts is driven basically by one man, Bill Weimann, who paid $2m for the white convert that he sold for $4.1m. He also bought the "turdball" (blue 4.10 car) for $500k and sold it for $2m. This one guy working his way through all 11 '71 hemicuda converts, has singelhandedly driven the "market price" for hemicudas through the roof. Bill Weimann is known as "the hemicuda owners best friend" because he's the guy what will pay ANY amount for the car he wants. Money means NOTHING to this man, and he pays zillions for these cars and then drives them to the local cruise night. (I love that!).

 

[PL510*Jeff]

Mu$$cle Car Madne$$

Just got the latest black book in the mail today.

My '69 z/28 is now worth slightly more than my sister's '67 Camaro Indy Pace Car. #'s matching, high 2-low one, documented. $25k in 1996. $105k + in 2006.
Lot's fun - except I don't drive it much at all now- that's why the GT has 8,500 on the o.d. :biggrin

Thank you world economy and Barrett Jackson.

 

[Jason Watt]

So the muscle looks great and is fun to cruise, but I sure wouldn't put my retirement fund there, since that bubble will burst sooner or later...

I also got a little muscle car in the garage...
Not that I'm afraid the bubble will burst for a car like THIS one, but I'm selling her anyway...

 

[B O N Y]

Guys that bought their Hemi Cudas and GT350's a couple of years ago have nothing to worry about....
...I buy cars for pleasure, not investments.
...guys that bought this year at B-J Phoenix and Mecum for investments may have reason for concern.
...the market is at a silly height, we have watched it crash before, lots of the big buck cars as as phony as $3 bills.
---but what do I know?? :wink

 

[cudacharlie]

Jeff - Schweeeet vintage rides! Nice choices, and with #'s and docs you are all set. My 'Cuda is a clone, so I don't feel bad beating on it, and my Charger's original engine was toasted in the '80s, so it's NOM... I never got into the #'s cars in time, but I definitely rack up the miles on the clones!

The GT, while maybe not as rare as a hemicuda convert, is ALWAYS going to be regarded as a high-water mark for American production cars, and will ALWAYS be an amazing work of art, so its value will appreciate. Those rare hemicuda converts were almost assembly-line "accidents", built with weird combos for no good reason... nobody serious about drag racing would get a flexy convertible, and nobody who knew what they were doing would put that heavy-a$$ hemi in a convertible, making it drive like a snowplow! (nose-heavy is not the right word, somehow.... 340's are more fun in a convertible IMHO) So, the fact that even 11 of them got built is a miracle, hence the sky-high prices.

In a few years, we will all look at the GT and say, "Just think, at one point you could just walk into a showroom and BUY this thing! Amazing!"

Just like we say now when looking at vintage muscle.....

bony - I agree with you, I meant that I wouldn't put my retirement fund there by buying into the muscle market at TODAY's prices. If you've had the cars for more than a couple of years, you're laughing (and hopefully laughing while you drive...)

oneof101 - Geez, man, nice Daytona! This, of course, will always hold its value to a large degree, being similar (cultural-history-wise) to the GT. Rare, built to race but somehow made street legal, and WILD looking...

Clearly, GT owners have good taste! :thumbsup

 

[Jason Watt]

I still don't think that the '69 Daytonas are overpriced right now....
Well I did see a green one for sale with only 306 mils on the clock - and the asking price was $ 600.000 :usa

 

[AtomicGT]

Great comments, guys. I vote for bony's icon meself! Most excellent! As for the muscle, seems to be riding high right now. Just got the Russo and Steele's internet email flyer announcing the Shelbys for sale this August in Monterey. Prices look to be at least holding this year. In fact, they out pace last year's take by in some cases double! I bought an original 1966 G.T.360, red/white, signed twice by Shelby, with photographs, 4 years ago. It made Mustang Monthly cover Dec 1987, 2nd place in SAAC 12, has 192 miles on it. It has tripled in 4 years and will probably keep going up. So the comments about buying muscle 3-4 years ago are probably true. Buying muscle now is to own the car, it will take a while for these high priced cars to make a profit on today's investment. But 4.1 million for a "Cuda, pinch me, I bet if you were in Vegas, circa 1971, and you offered a bet to Caesar's Palace that a 1971 Barracuda would command that kind of money, the bookies would be lining up to take your money. And even at 1000x the odds, they would take the bet. Still, 4.1 million is way beyond belief! Shows you what hype can do to muscle car hunters! :eek

 

[Jason Watt]

The GT, while maybe not as rare as a hemicuda convert, is ALWAYS going to be regarded as a high-water mark for American production cars, and will ALWAYS be an amazing work of art, so its value will appreciate.

In a few years, we will all look at the GT and say, "Just think, at one point you could just walk into a showroom and BUY this thing! Amazing!"

Clearly, GT owners have good taste! :thumbsup

The big difference from back then and today, is that in the days of the Hemis and Shelbys, nobody had a clue about the number these cars would be worth today, and those cars where molested in ways that would get people locked up for doing the same in 2006. In the year 2050 ALL GT's (expect the few that ends up on wrecked exotics) will still look like they where just driven out of the show room...

What would the Hemi convert, or the Charger Daytona be worth if there was 3000 of them on the market???

Don't expect the GT to be worth millions - drive it and have fun with one of the greatest road cars ever made, is what I say

 

[B O N Y]

I also got a little muscle car in the garage...
Not that I'm afraid the bubble will burst for a car like THIS one, but I'm selling her anyway...

Has Galen authenticated it?? if so, post that document, any serious buyer will expect to see it. :thumbsup Nice Bird!

 

[B O N Y]

Jeff - Schweeeet vintage rides! Nice choices, and with #'s and docs you are all set. My 'Cuda is a clone, so I don't feel bad beating on it, and my Charger's original engine was toasted in the '80s, so it's NOM... I never got into the #'s cars in time, but I definitely rack up the miles on the clones!
Clearly, GT owners have good taste! :thumbsup

what blows me away is how many number matching cars claim to exist. Think about it, is it indeed logical?