ACCELERATIVE ASSETS

With the resumption of physical auctions and money in the pockets of potential buyers, classic car investment looks increasingly attractive, reports Jon Wall from Hong Kong.

- Jon Wall

A few weeks ago, I was invited to the inaugural event of the official Ferrari Owners’ Club of Hong Kong. It was a petrolhead jamboree attended by a host of local ferraristi, many of whom turned up with at least one of their cars. Lined up outside The Repulse Bay were a Dino 246, 308, 430, 458 and 488, not to mention the current Roma, F8, SF90 and 296 GHTB – all gorgeous automobiles, though not a patch on the true stars of this get-together: a GTB/4 and 330 GT from the 1960s, an F40 and F50 from the 1980s and ’90s respectively, a LaFerrari from the last decade and, all three pretty much factory-fresh, a pair of limited-edition Monzas (an SP1 and an SP2) and an 812 Competizione. Most exalted in this pantheon of Ferraristic greatness, however, was Hong Kong racing driver Jonathan Hui’s 1962 250 GT Berlinetta SWB – a machine so perfectly proportioned, it must surely be counted among the loveliest sportscars ever built.

Along with a friend, I began totting up the cumulative value of the machinery arrayed before us, but after counting just seven of them and already reaching a figure in excess of US$21 million (S$29 million; and we agreed our total was likely conservative in the extreme, especially as no Ferrari Monza has yet been offered at auction), we stopped. We needed no further evidence that not only is the appeal of collecting exotic cars as compelling as it’s ever been, but that even in a place as small as Hong Kong, serious money is tied up in investible autos, both old and new.