Summer '04
Vintage Race Car Market Grows Up:
We are going through a strange time in the old race car market. At long last, the shift to buying cars newer than the old, "up to 1965" date has shifted. A lot of younger people are getting into vintage/historic racing today (depends on which side of the pond you’re on for this definition - but you know what I’m referring to!)
The first thing to notice is that these "newer folk" aren’t interested in old 1950s Ferraris, Corvettes or Jaguars. They are interested in Porsche RS/RSRs from the 1970s, 935s and Group C and GTP cars from the 1980s.
As an aside, I’ve always held the view that an enthusiast was formed when a teenager saw a car which he (or she) absolutely fell in love with. Later on in life, he may have made some money, now wanted to go racing as a hobby and bought the car he’d seen way back when. Let’s say this occurred when our man was in his early forties. That means that, if he saw the car of his dreams when he was fourteen to sixteen, that car is now some twenty-five to thirty years old. We’re now back in the 70s and this explains the growing popularity of the RS and RSRs of this period. They won the GT class in races when they were new and are still an excellent, hard-wearing, reliable, fast, good-handling race car. The only real problem is that they are now changing hands, in good condition, for some $300,000 plus.
And here’s another anomaly. In the bigger classes/groups, Group C and GTP cars have supplanted the brutish Can Am cars of the 60s/early 70s. These were always driven by the most power-seeking adrenaline junkies amongst the vintage racers. Six hundred horsepower plus, relatively lightweight and - Bingo! - every time you come onto the straight, you’re praying to God after four laps, as your weakened neck muscles once again take a beating when you floor the throttle.
Now you can have that same power, but with ground effects thrown in: You’ve not only got the tremendous braking and acceleration forces, you also have the high sideways G-loading as you go through the corners.
But something odd is happening here. You know what? You can buy a good GTP/Group C race car for less than the price of the RSR. Same goes for the flame-spitting Porsche 934/935 family. Why is it that a car such as the RSR, a GT class winner at best, is so much more popular (and more expensive!) than a car that can win a race outright, as the Group C/GTP cars can?
There are several reasons, not least the fact that, in your author’s opinion, the race sanctioning organizations that run these cars here in the U.S.A. do not really know how to treat the entrants. I mean, they charge a high entry fee and give little thought when they add in other classes/groups, plus give no more track time than if you ran an RSR! To my mind, the GTP/Group C cars are the stars of the meetings and they and their entrants should be treated as such. After all, they cost a lot more to run than any RSR!
Here’s a tip to the sanctioning bodies who cater to this class: Give back a certain portion of the entry fee to the cars that actually START the race proper. Too many cars use the track time, but something breaks in practice, which can’t be fixed and - whoops! - they’re trailer Queens. Incentives are needed!
The situation is slightly different in Europe, where the Group C organization only does about five to six races per year. But what races! Great tracks such as Spa, Monza, Silverstone and this year a race was run on the morning of the 24-hour race at Le Mans.
I predict that these bargain basement prices for some Group C/GTP cars won’t last long. Some Marches can be bought for as little as $150,000 and recently there was a good Lola T600 available on Ebay for under $100,000.
The same comment goes for the Porsche 934s and 935s, just as soon as someone gets around to organizing some proper races for them. Don’t forget that these cars ruled the tracks, both in Europe and the U.S.A. from 1976 to 1982. I know there really wasn’t a choice when someone wanted to buy a Group 5/GTX car to race but they are fast, have tremendous brakes and are just a blast to drive. When is some bright race group going to start a race series for Porsche 935s, 934s and RSRs, each in a different group? You’ll be rewarded with fantastic grids and good racing. Where are you, HSR?
