You don’t get much for $20m these days.
A quarter share in Everydays: The First 5000 Days, a digital product by the artist known as Beeple or Beeple Crap (aka Mike Winkelmann, a graphic designer from Charleston, South Carolina) that sold as a non-fungible token for $84m. Christie’s sold it in March to Metakovan (aka Mr Vignesh Sundaresan, lately a resident of Little India in Singapore but originally from Tamil Nadu – pop: 72 mill – in India). Christies said they would accept ether (the cryptocurrency generated by the Ethereum protocol) as payment. Mr Metakovan/ Sundaresan is the proprietor of Metapurse, a crypto-exclusive fund that specialises in identifying early-stage projects across blockchain infrastructure, finance, art, unique collectibles, and virtual estate, so knows a thing or two about ether and non-fungible tokens.
Look I am just a humble motoring writer who lives at the motel of lost companions with heated pool and bar at number 42 Struggle Street, so I can’t offer you an opinion on the value of Mr Beeple Crap’s work, but I can point out that plenty of weird things go on in the art caper. Take Italian Piero Manzoni, who like Brisbane (doesn’t that say it all?) reader No. 16, Peter Matthews, was an Alfa driver (doesn’t that say it all again?). A few years back, well the year Phil Hill won the F1, Piero created 90 cans that he called artist’s poo and sold for $40 each. Last sale was $330k. And I thought they were having a lend of me when I paid $5 a can for the limited-edition Coopers Australian IPA. To put in perspective, just three hours drive from Adelaide you can buy 200 houses in the former hissing, steaming hub of mighty locomotives that sat the crossroads of a growing nation, Peterborough (pop: 1419). As part of our new series, towns on the road to nowhere but that you should go to, today we’ll look at both Peterborough and Kangaloon (just 14 hours drive from Adelaide).
But our recommendation for the $20m that’s burning a lack of interest in your bank account is the 1995 McLaren F1 Dave Gooding will be auctioning off at Pebble Beach in two weeks. One of only 64 built (this is the only one in this colour, Creighton Brown), three-owner but only 390km from new, it comes with the complimentary Facom tool chest containing the tool roll with its original gold-plated titanium tools, full four piece luggage set still in factory protective wrapping, spare keys plus the ultra-rare commemorative TAG Heuer watch with the chassis number engraved on the face.
But wait there’s more.
Of course, for $20m you also get the free deluxe edition of Driving Ambition: The Official Inside Story of the McLaren F1; not one but two sets of keys; McLaren mechanic’s gloves; car cover; and wait for it: roadside accessories, such as an emergency triangle, first aid kit, and miscellaneous fuses. Miscellaneous fuses: be still my beating heart. That certainly puts off the trip to Supercheap on the weekend. And there’s membership of the 64-person club where you can rub (pre-Covid) shoulders or other parts with Ralph Lauren, Jay Leno, Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason and quite a few Japanese collectors who never got their Macca out of the box. Now I don’t want to put you off but this Macca has the equivalent of a Holden EJ front bench seat. The driver sits in the middle of the car in a raised carbon fibre seat or throne and the two peasant passengers sit either side in the lower leather and faux leather couches.
Hamo and Mad Max will be going wheel to wheel tomorrow at the quaintly named Hungaroring despite a last minute challenge by the Ginger Spice’s husband Chris Horner to have a review of the 10-second penalty Hamo copped for colliding with Maxie. The aim was forcing Lou to skip a race. F1 officials dismissed the challenge. But greedy buyers didn’t dismiss Hamo’s old Macca at Sotheby’s auction at the British Grand Prix. Yup the two driver, two owner, V8 2010 Macca F1 brought $9m after a resto by Macca’s heritage department. Yes, it was a soap dodger’s dream: a British car raced by a British driver sold at the British GP.
And in the real middle class fantasy department, three cars to have a quick squiz at during the Dave Gooding Pebble beach classic carathon. Two Masers. The achingly beautiful 1957 red Maserati 200 SI with coachwork by Fantuzzi suitable for road or track, a snip at around $3m, and the highly original (the paintwork looks like it’s been done over by Mr Beeple Crap and Mr Manzoni using acid and bird poo) 1956 Maserati A6G/54 coupe with coachwork by Frua. One of six. What Dave Gooding calls its captivating patina makes it worth $3.5m.
OK. My favourite things in Peterborough are the multi-award winning Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre museum with a three gauge turntable (the only one left in the world) and the Duck Duck Goose Café which unfortunately closed today. so head to The Railway Hotel, the third oldest hotel in Peterborough, where it’s hard to go past Macca’s Home-Made Rissoles with Savoury Mash, Gravy & Garden Salad for $16.50. Lots to see in Kangaloon, the Point Piper/Dalkeith/Toorak/etc of NSW Southern Highlands apart from the masters and mistresses of the universe, dressed in neo pretentious RM Williams/Gucci/Pucci farming clobber haemorrhaging money into needy pseudo antique shops spotted around the verdant green highly trimmed and flowered billionaire’s holdings.
This weekend the major attraction will be the simmering battle between traditional old money stalwart and original owner of the Kangaloon farmland, legendary Master of the Universe and green world finance, Mark Burrows, and 2019 arriviste Mike Cannon-Brookes who paid Mark $14.5m for part of his farm. Like Hamo and Maxie, Markie and Mikie are going mano to mano about MB’s insistence on towing his horses behind a BMW X-5 diesel rather than something electric like MCB’s gulf wing Tesla. Teslas and horse floats don’t mix.
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