"People don't care if they have to pay $1m for a piece that's priced to sell for $60,000," Alex Rotter, chairman of Christie's art department, told the Wall Street Journal. "They're making up their own rules."

Alex is on the money there and not just about paintings. From real art (in the last two weeks Christie's, Sotheby's and Philips sold $3.6bn of oil on canvas), NFT art, crypto, sandshoes (Michael Jordan's used size-13 1984 Air Ships sold last month for $2m), guitars (this week someone paid nearly $1m for Eric Clapton's used 1968 Martin D-45) to watches (a week ago a used 1923 Patek Phillipe desk sold at a Geneva auction for $14m), prices of everything vaguely collectable are going up faster than Tesla shares ($1578k vs $40 five years ago). Of course, car prices, classic, used and new are going the same way. All of this is driven by POMO: Panic Of Missing Out.

And surprise, surprise, the country with the highest median wealth in the world was, you never guessed it, Australia. And in the stop whingeing about how tough things are department: Australia has the highest rate of millionaire density behind Switzerland.

One of the secrets to the good life is connection to a tribe. Most cars at most prices will give you entry to meeting and enjoying great groups of people. Just about every brand has a car club. Then there's non-competitive, very safe adventures like James Freeman's Shitbox Rallies. Who doesn't want to spend six days driving 3500km with 400 other persons dressed as peas and carrots.

OK. That brings us nicely to the start of this year's Shannons Adelaide Rally last Thursday. We don't finish till Sunday arvo but already things are looking a bit grim. A big thank you to all those readers who came up and said hello but then asked the wrong question. "Where is the Sultan?" doesn't get you a pass mark.

Rather than waiting around I rented a 2021 Ford Mustang GT from Hertz and did a recce of the rally course through the Adelaide Hills, the Barossa Valley and Regency Park. The GT is not a car for everyone. Wusses, electric car fans, soccer supporters and soap dodgers need not apply. This is the last of the new muscle cars.

Under a very long bonnet is eight cylinders putting out 350KW and, at the other end, quad exhausts that you can program to normal (waste of time), sport (most of Adelaide knew I was coming) and racing (Joe Biden even knew I was on the road). Bottom line: the Mustang will put more fun into your post-Covid life than just about anything else. And at $75k it's a snip.