A recent discovery in my parent's basement storage has me giving many thanks to my very dorky past self. During my awkward adolescent period around Y2K, a pimple faced, bowl cut donned, 6 feet tall, 130 pound past version of me was given a small two drawer filing cabinet. I started collecting things I thought were interesting, and continued until around high school graduation in 2005. I moved out for college and my parents moved homes shortly after and I had not seen the file cabinet since.... until today.
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| Found in the Cabinet. My senior photos with my 2001 Dodge Dakota and 1985 Mercedes 500SL, the latter of which I still own. The Ferrari 348 was rented for a few hours during a 2004 Vegas vacation by my slightly drunk father. Don't worry, I drove the whole time, but the only other stick shift vehicle I had driven at the time was a friends Isuzu trooper. |
The cabinet was hidden well, behind other childhood items. Dusty, locked, and the key long gone. I pried it open and found it to be untouched from when I last saw it. To answer the obvious question about what a boy going through puberty would collect, there we NO nude magazines inside, or any pornography of ANY kind. Al Gore had created dial up internet for that. What I did find was a lot better.
Car stuff! Tons and tons and tons of car stuff. Sales Brochures, magazines, and auction catalogs from the early Barrett-Jackson auctions I attended. It brought back lots of memories of those times, along with some depressing and uplifting reflections...
Let's start with the depressing: The first classic car auction I attended was the 2004 Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale. The national headline making top selling car was a 1938 Lincoln Zephyr custom hot rod which sold for $440,000. This is a few years before wall street types started seeing cars as investments, creating the massive bubbles like million dollar Hemi Mopars and 40 million dollar Ferraris.
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| 1938 Lincoln Zephyr. Sold at Barrett Jackson in 2004 for $440,000. |
One of my dream cars has always been the Mercedes 300SL. There happened to be 2 gull wings at that year's event, both were perfectly restored examples. I remember the silver one going across the block and fetching $400,000. I also remember talking to the driver of the car hired by Barrett Jackson. The drivers were usually retirees and car enthusiasts who would get assigned cars at random to bring across the block each day. He was very displeased with the hand he was dealt with the 300SL. Being a muscle car guy, which Barrett Jackson auctions are more typically geared towards, he did not appreciate the car one bit. Hated getting in and out of it, and could not figure out how to start the car after driving off the block, pulling every knob.... which launched every accessory like what would happen if you spilled your soda on a Jaguar's center console. If he only knew my envy!
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| Picture this car with lights flashing, wipers at full speed and an angry old white dude wedged inside cussing up a storm. |
I was shocked by the price, but still adamant that one day, if I worked really really hard, I would own a 300SL. $400,000 was alot of money, but seemed like an attainable number. Jump 10 years to 2015, that same car would easily fetch $2 million. So far in the stratosphere that it's totally unthinkable for anyone who doesn't own a hedge fund. You see this to a lesser degree with air cooled Porsches. In a 2005 Dupont Registry, there's a very depressing ad I found for a low mileage 1979 Porsche 930. Yours for $39,000 or best offer. It's easily $200,000 car today. So you might think unlike previous generations of car guys, there's no hope buying used, low production European supercars on the cheap, but wait! You're dead wrong!
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| What a deal! |
From the year 2001, I kept a brochure from the Mercedes CLK line, which was the year the CLK55 AMG was launched. This was the first AMG production coupe and the fastest Mercedes ever made at the time. I also kept the Car and Driver magazine from that year entitled BLITZEN BURNERS, which pitted the BMW M3 vs the CLK55. Car and Driver picked the M3 as the winner, as did car enthusiasts. As the years ensued an entire religion has been created by gear heads for the E46 and E39 BMW. What's been somewhat forgotten is the CLK55, which was always my favorite. The curvaceous lines of the coupe were very unique. Unlike past Mercedes with a more uniform, conservative design, it was a complete departure into something totally different. With the AMG body kit and monoblock wheels, it was stunning to look at. The Car and Driver reviewers loved looks as well, and its hand built 5.4 liter 342 HP V8, but it seemed no manual transmission option was the determining factor in the BMW's victory.
About a month ago I made cross country car purchase, which I have been patiently waiting to arrive. I knew I was fulfilling an adolescent dream buying this car, but didn't realize until my file cabinet discovery how much I really coveted the AMG back in the day. You guessed it, I bought a 2001 CLK55 AMG. Black on black, 102,000 miles, in really good condition.... and it was only $5400. I don't have any delusions of grandeur thinking it will be a million dollar car someday, but I think it's comforting to know that some low production, super fast and desirable European muscle cars can be bought super cheap. A big thanks to my friend Matt who was local to the car and handled the transaction for me. He had to drive it in blizzard conditions today to meet up with the transporter. As you can imagine, it was quite "useless" as he put it, in the snow.
Look for a full write up on the car when it arrives!
P.S. Another car on my bucket list that's super cheap right now. Some day.
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| Easy to find good examples of the 996 Turbo for around $30,000 |
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