Hot Performers

Values can double in as little as 12 months if you choose the right vehicle

- Mark Haybittle

An increasing number of investors are joining the classic car industry in Australia. And it’s not surprising given classic cars have seen a jump in value of 467% over the past 10 years. This performance is highlighted by recent record sales of cars in the Australian classic car market, as well as major acquisitions of important classic car dealerships.

It is a significant marker of this new trend that Champ Private Equity secured the purchase of one of the two main classic car retailers last year, when it acquired Dutton Garage in Melbourne. Champ is now about to purchase the other operation, the well-known Classic Throttle Shop in North Sydney.

Now that there is real momentum in the market, more than $1 million was recently achieved for a 1967 Ford Falcon (GT-HO Phase III), which would not have been worth more than $300,000 two years ago. This is a record for Australia. Several Holden Torana A9Xs have also been sold for well in excess of $300,000 recently, as well as many other muscle cars.

While all of this activity is great for our market, caution is required as Australian muscle cars appeal to only a small percentage of 25 million people, whereas European classics appeal to a percentage of the entire world and so values rise every year.

On the local scene, the Ford Falcon GT-HO Phase III was built in limited numbers and had great performance and reasonable handling, giving it a few of the hallmarks of a true classic, although few people outside Australia even know it exists. By way of contrast, everyone in the industry in Europe and the US knows that a Ferrari 250 GTO changed hands for $70 million earlier this year and that an Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato (2 VEV) was auctioned in July, 2018 for £10.1 million ($18.8 million).