Readers and friends, the full impact of the pandemic Which-Must-Not-Be-Named has only just become apparent. Last Friday night the Sultan left the I. M. Pei-designed Global HQ of Michael McMichael Motors to walk along lonely street to the hotel of lost companions with heated pool and bar.
As he strolled down Thorton Street to Regent Street his spirits lifted when the bright, welcoming lights of the Kensi Corner Bar came into view. He strode straight up to door with a saunter suited only to the King of Kensi, went to push the gateway to heaven open, when a rather large laddy with a six-pack like a cobbled city street stood between Mick and the door. "Sorry mate," the giant said. "We've reached the Corona limit and there's a queue running all the way down to the parking lot. You can't come in."
Naturally, unlike Jorge (who is definitely not a petrol head and whose personal motor is a 30-year-old 1984 Renault 4 which Dog & Lemon Guide's Clive Matthew Wilson describes as dreadful and dodgy and chronically unreliable), Mick used words only suitable for the emails to your correspondent from the normal run of misogynists.
So, sober as a priest on Sunday, the old bloke headed home but he did ring me to question what effect the pandemic has had on classic car values and is now a good time to sell part of a collection.
Well, for a change, that's not a bad question and one that many of you have been asking as the virus has forced auctions online and the postponement of showcases like the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance for only the second time in its 70-year history. The short answer is that great cars are still bringing great prices but as with the last financial pandemic, the GFC, prices held but jumped. So, if you don't have to sell, hold off; if you do have to sell you should probably do it now.
Our friend Hagerty appraisal specialist, Dave Kinney, says: "High-end automobiles have finally been accepted as both art and as an asset class and are increasingly being recognised as collateral for loans and even as legitimate elements of an investment portfolio."
On Thursday, RM Sotheby's final day of its first-ever European online auction saw a two-day sell-through rate of 91 per cent with the limited-edition, delivery mileage 2020 Porker 935 Martini going to a rich and I hope happy punter at $2.1m.