SUPERCAR SPECIAL Bloomberg Pursuits March 8, 2021a one-off made for three years, rather
than part of the lineup. Crucially, only
499 of them came out of the factory.
As time goes on, those numbers inev-
itably drop, buttressing value further.
“People always want what they can’t
have,” Wilson says.
Production volume can be tricky,
though. At the end of a model’s life,
automakers often crank out “lim-
ited editions” with extra options and
supersize sticker prices. The brand’s
faithful—dubbed “pet buyers” by auc-
tion savants—gobble them up, but their
production runs are often far greater
than earlier iterations. “It’s a constant
gerbil wheel,” Serio says. “If they’re
making something to be collectible,
you can pretty much be sure it’s not
going to be.”
Michael Prichinello has bought about
350 vehicles since he co-founded the
Classic Car Club Manhattan in 2005.
His recipe for a good investment is a
car that “has played or will play a mean-
ingful story in the arc of automotive
history.” All-wheel drive, torque vec-
toring, carbon-fiber chassis, and electricmotors all represent crucial chapters in
supercar evolution, each tied to a break-
through machine.
Cars tend to attract a cult following
when a company gets out of character,
after an executive gives a green light
(and a billion-dollar budget) to a vehi-
cle they maybe shouldn’t have. Buyers
realize they are getting something that
might never have been. This is why
Ford GTs are so coveted; the car was
incongruous with the company when
it showed up at Le Mans in 1964.
Prichinello puts the early Teslas in
this category, as well as the first of the
midengine Corvettes and the hybrid
Porsche 918. “There’s a big quotient on
quirkiness, the things that don’t make
sense,” he says. “There has to be some
weirdness, and the weirdness can’t be
a detraction.”
Even some of the best supercars, the
ones that check every box, don’t have
that special something. They end up as
the automotive equivalent of a dividend
stock. Still, if you’re looking for a dubious
high-risk investment that goes 200 mph,
here are some general guidelines.BE FIRST ...
OR LAST
▶ Seminal versions
tend to hold their value,
as do those in the final
year of production.
Collectors have
recently purchased
Corvettes that act
as bookends, betting
on the last versions
with the engine up front
in the 2019 model year,
and the first iterations
with the engine in the
middle of the car out
last year.SWEAT THE
SMALL STUFF
▶ Imperfect
maintenance or shabby
condition can chew up
almost half the value.
When a particular
market turns south,
pristine examples tend
to hold their value
for at least a little
while. What’s more, a
supercar with unsual
configurations, say, a
manual transmission
or racing components,
can move to the top
of its class. Even an
uncommon color can
make a huge difference.CONSIDER
THE COST OF
OWNERSHIP
▶ Changing the fluids
on a Ferrari F40 runs
about $1,000. The
fuel tanks should be
replaced every 10 years,
which is generally a
$12,000 job. In short,
there’s no such thing
as a buy-and-hold
supercar. These days
serious collectors rent
purpose-built climate-
controlled garages
where professionals
handle security
and maintenance
logistics. Insurance
specialist Hagerty
Group LLC has four
such facilities, dubbedGarage + Social, and
charges $500 per
month per car. On a
$300,000 car, that’s
essentially a 2%
expense ratio before
insurance and five-
figure brake jobs.MAKE SURE
IT’S LIQUID
▶ Some of the rarest
supercars sputter on
the resale market.
Often the manufacturer
is out of business,
making maintenance
a pain. More critically,
the vehicles that keep
momentum have a
crowd of fanboys.
Active owners’ clubs
and driving events
act as a sort of
flywheel effect, driving
transactions, boosting
prices, and pulling in
new acolytes. There’s
a case to be made that
the supercar market
is due for a bit of a
bull run. For one thing,
valuations have slowly
and steadily swooned
since 2015. Then
came Covid-19, which
crimped production,
making 2020 somewhat
of a standout vintage.BUY LOW-ISH
▶ Generally, there’s
the one-generation
rule: When teenagers
get to a place where
they can afford the car
that was a poster on
their childhood wall, the
vehicle’s price will spike.
Consider the ’70s-era
Lamborghini Countach.
For 40 years, its price
was pedestrian; from
2014 to 2016, its value
surged sixfold. On
newer cars, the nadir
tends to come about
eight years out: The
vehicle has lost its
shine among those
looking for the new
new thing, and yet, it’s
too fresh to be deemed
a “classic.”THE ROAD
TO A
RETURN
DATA: HAGERTY GROUP LLC AND J.D. POWER
Taken for a Ride?
Average annualized return of cars since release, by pairs of comparable models Current value$1m0% 10% 20% 30%1954
Mercedes 180
sedan ▶ $1.4m1954
Mercedes
◀ 300 SL(^1992) $21.5m
Dodge Viper
▼^1992
McLaren F1
2014
McLaren P1
2017
Ford GT
1987
Ferrari Mondial
▼ Ferrari F40^1987
1966
Lamborghini
◀ Miura
1966
Lamborghini
400 GT ▶
2003
Ferrari Enzo
2006
Bugatti Veyron
1974
Lamborghini
◀ Countach LP400
1974
Lamborghini
Urraco ▶