Today: is a Ford Falcon worth a mill? (Hint: we don't think so); Say Tata to petrol Jags; Hullo to a $3mill Audi and your correspondent and the Sultan are forced to flee Danland, running (separately) for the SA and NSW borders in the Weekend Australian Rally Team (WART) Beemer and the mine-equipped diesel Ford Ranger Dual Cab Ute with canopy.
Last Monday at Slattery's Auctions someone, who is presumably a Ford freak, allegedly paid $1.1m for an electric blue 1971 Ford Falcon GT-HO. The Ford was from the muscle car collection of well-known Perth businessman Chris Marco.
But while any car is worth what someone will pay for it and some used-car prices have been soaring and some rarish Holdens, Fords, Chryslers, Toyotas and Nissans have been going relatively wild, buying a high-priced Australian classic is no game for amateurs. As James Nicholls says, "most Australian muscle cars are not international currency. They are only worth that money in Australia." James is a world expert on classic cars, advising auction houses and buyers on collecting and authenticity.
That's nothing to do with Indian car maker Tata waving goodbye to petrol cars. Struggling luxury car brand Jaguar says it will phase out internal combustion engines in a plan to go fully electric by 2025. In one kiss of death, UK PM Boris Johnson welcomed the move.
Look, for the price of an old Falcon and Holden V8 ute you could have bought Michele Mouton's (the last of the top women rally drivers) 1988 Audi Sport Quattro S1 in Paris two weeks ago. French rally gun Bruno Saby called the Audi Quattro "the greatest monster of them all!". It was a noise monster, a performance monster and it looks like a brutal monster. Artcurial Motorcars sold the Audi for $3.1m, or more than double its lower estimate and the highest price ever paid at auction for a rally car.
Last Friday your rally team were 2km from the summit of Mt Baw Baw when we heard Dan say: "full lockdown at 11.59pm". So, we headed for our respective borders. Mine was a five-hour-plus dash to the nearest NSW town where I could safely stay the night. Unfortunately, every Victorian had the same idea and I had to drive 20km off the highway to the old town of Fairvale to find a room. The choices were the Royal Fairvale Hotel, the haunt of serial killing bicycle gangs or the Fairvale B&B&Spa. Norman and Norma welcomed me at the B&B. I was the only guest. My room had stuffed birds on every available surface. The bathroom had a tub with a shower and a plastic curtain. The same set-up as the Bates Motel. I went dirty, stayed awake all night and left before dawn.