Harry's Garage - YouTube

[Zad]

There are quite a few younger people getting into "ordinary" older cars these days. YouTubers like Ed @Twin-Cam and Steph @Idriveaclassic They don't have all the mental baggage of what the cars were like in the 70s/80s that many of us do, and they see a car that is something different to the ones their peers have, and can be run on classic insurance. They are willing to learn and to spend time and effort maintaining and restoring their cars. In retrospect, not much different to many of us a few years ago, so we shouldn't be surprised!

£50K(...ish) for a car that makes you (and your son) feel good just when you look at it, let alone drive. That is an investment in itself with a good return, never mind the financial aspect. Heck, a BMW 320d m sport with non-white paint and a decent stereo will cost £45k, and be worth £15K in not many years.

I'm just glad we have owners like you and YouTube to let us share in that enjoyment.

[ettore]

craigjm said:

Oi...... whats wrong with my sheep skin jacket and cigar?

In these rather tediously straight-laced times, the sheepskin /cigar image seems rather appealing!

[RSTurboPaul]

Zad said:

Heck, a BMW 320d m sport with non-white paint and a decent stereo will cost £45k, and be worth £15K in not many years.

I am as far from buying a new car as Boris is for paying for his own refurbishment works, so I really haven't kept up with what new stuff costs - but is that correct?

£45grand for what would 'traditionally' have been classed as a repmobile?

[Leithen]

Whatever Harry ends up spending on both Jag and Lancia, both will return home in better nick than when they originally left their respective factories.

As a bonus, the specialist restoration skills and knowledge involved will be kept alive through whatever man-math financial juggling he deploys.

Win-win.

[DonkeyApple]

RSTurboPaul said:

Zad said:

Heck, a BMW 320d m sport with non-white paint and a decent stereo will cost £45k, and be worth £15K in not many years.

I am as far from buying a new car as Boris is for paying for his own refurbishment works, so I really haven't kept up with what new stuff costs - but is that correct?

£45grand for what would 'traditionally' have been classed as a repmobile?

It's bizarre isn't it that a boggo diesel utility wagon has a sticker price of £40k + But that number is actually just a wheeze to steer punters into very expensive 'house' finance via the old illusion of offering a massive discount from that imaginary number if you buy their 5%+ secured debt instead of sourcing it in the open and competitive market.

I keep ending up with BMWs as I think they're excellent runabouts but Incant even begin to find them fair value until they are off their first lease deal and free of the 'house' lending mucking about. £20k for a low mileage 340i last year struck me as good value for something that will last years but when you look at their RRP number you have to laugh at the Tom Foolery.

[craigjm]

Leithen said:

Whatever Harry ends up spending on both Jag and Lancia, both will return home in better nick than when they originally left their respective factories.

Exactly. When I started mine people asked me if I was going to have it put back to original condition and I was like hell no

[Zad]

RSTurboPaul said:

I am as far from buying a new car as Boris is for paying for his own refurbishment works, so I really haven't kept up with what new stuff costs - but is that correct?

I just bunged 'BMW 3 Series 320D price' into Google, it gave me:

BMW 3 Series > 320 d > RRP £35,180 to £45,780.

Obviously, as above, they want to steer you to finance, plans, contracts, blah blah, and I doubt you'd pay the headline price anyway. But that is BMW's official RRP.

[Pistom]

When entering into a proper restoration like this, it should be viewed on the basis of the pleasure one is going to get in owning and driving a car which not only have you had restored to perfection, it's to the specification you want it to be.

A new car will lose 30% in no time all so using that as a baseline, what's wrong with losing a similar amount on a restoration?

The key thing, is getting the use and enjoyment out of it.

[DonkeyApple]

Pistom said:

When entering into a proper restoration like this, it should be viewed on the basis of the pleasure one is going to get in owning and driving a car which not only have you had restored to perfection, it's to the specification you want it to be.

A new car will lose 30% in no time all so using that as a baseline, what's wrong with losing a similar amount on a restoration?

The key thing, is getting the use and enjoyment out of it.

I agree completely.

Bothe the Lancia and the Jaguar were already a lovely pair of cars to have in a collection but knowing that they are 100% solid, that the mechanicals are top notch and that you've tailored them slightly to be bespoke to you gives an entirely new and valuable perspective.

When I set about restoring a Suffix A Range Rover the planning made it pretty clear that the end product was going to have cost as much as just buying a new one and more than it would be worth but now it's sitting there in the garage, fully galvanised with 100% refurbed drivetrain, mechanicals and electrics it was worth every penny and gets used most days for doing most things.

[M4SER]

DonkeyApple said:

I agree completely.

Bothe the Lancia and the Jaguar were already a lovely pair of cars to have in a collection but knowing that they are 100% solid, that the mechanicals are top notch and that you've tailored them slightly to be bespoke to you gives an entirely new and valuable perspective.

When I set about restoring a Suffix A Range Rover the planning made it pretty clear that the end product was going to have cost as much as just buying a new one and more than it would be worth but now it's sitting there in the garage, fully galvanised with 100% refurbed drivetrain, mechanicals and electrics it was worth every penny and gets used most days for doing most things.

This..

I think the current trend for multiple TV shows along the lines of Wheelers Dealers has led many people to think you only restore a car for profit, when I'm actually doing this restoration for pleasure. I want to experience my perfect XJC V12, in manual form and in a colour of my liking. I know the cost will be circa £40k to get there but in the great scheme of things, that's still not a lot for a very rare and elegant V12 Jaguar Coupe, in as new condition.

I'd much rather spend this sort of money on an XJC than an XJS, for example and £40k doesn't get you very far if I were to restore a Jaguar E-Type and there's thousands of those available anyway. Go find me another fully restored V12 XJC..

[thegreenhell]

I agree, and it's still far cheaper than an equivalent (if there is one) new car from Jaguar's current range. What you are effectively doing is building a new old car to your specs, and it will probably outlast most current new cars as well.

[Hippea]

Harry, do you still plan doing a video on YouTube analytics? I’d be very interested to see how it all works.

[DonkeyApple]

M4SER said:

This..

I think the current trend for multiple TV shows along the lines of Wheelers Dealers has led many people to think you only restore a car for profit, when I'm actually doing this restoration for pleasure. I want to experience my perfect XJC V12, in manual form and in a colour of my liking. I know the cost will be circa £40k to get there but in the great scheme of things, that's still not a lot for a very rare and elegant V12 Jaguar Coupe, in as new condition.

I'd much rather spend this sort of money on an XJC than an XJS, for example and £40k doesn't get you very far if I were to restore a Jaguar E-Type and there's thousands of those available anyway. Go find me another fully restored V12 XJC..

I think the market is going to come you over the next few years anyway as the Series 2 shape has been much underrated for a long time. The Etype has almost become a cliche by contrast and there is certainly a dull ubiquity to them regardless of how lovely they are.

I suspect that olive colour is going to look lovely and manage to carry that 70s feel while also look ver up to date.

Also, I don't know what it is about the suspension of the Series 2 but I don't think there is a better car available today for modern B roads in its ability to waft one minute and then press on the next.

My father used to campaign Jaguars against Marshall and Lanfranchi but as a child I have memories of sitting on a cushion in the front of a Series 2 as they all departed in rapid convoy from the Sunday pub and even with the old slush pump box and standard suspension they were good cars. Or hurtling from the top of London to the south coast in the days before the M25. Later we did some tulip map rallying in Bordeaux using my garandfather's old 74 Daimler and I did a few Le Mans runs in it and it was just a great car to be cruising a rough motorway surface to the Chunnel and then being silly on those French roads. And after the Avengers, who wouldn't want the coupe version.

I hope you're able to do a video on the engine as well as the body resto. And are you going to retrim the interior, if so have you decided on colours or is that to be another cliffhanger?

[Quickmoose]

Not sure there is anything dull or ubiquitous about an E-type to be honest, sure it gets the limelight and sure the XJs of this era are an almost equally glamorous thing, but this doesn't detract from the elegance of an E-type, for me. Here in Devon, I see maybe 3 a year?

Absolutely on board with getting the cars you love into the best condition you afford though, for your own benefit, as opposed to speculation.

[DonkeyApple]

Quickmoose said:

Not sure there is anything dull or ubiquitous about an E-type to be honest, sure it gets the limelight and sure the XJs of this era are an almost equally glamorous thing, but this doesn't detract from the elegance of an E-type, for me. Here in Devon, I see maybe 3 a year?

.

Dullness and ubiquity being specifically relative here, it's more to do with that you can't go to an event without there being an etype, view a collection without one and maybe geographical context plays a role but from the top of London, through the Home Counties to Oxfordshire it's the classic car that you're most likely to see on a sunny Sunday. It's nothing at all against the car but just that there are literally thousands of them and seeing one is no surprise but almost a given.

[Sway]

Meanwhile, GvE have apparently been able to sell this for somewhere around £150k...

https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/9763981?ut...

[DonkeyApple]

Sway said:

Meanwhile, GvE have apparently been able to sell this for somewhere around £150k...

https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/9763981?ut...

And the award for 'Best first attempt at trimming by a blind man after a bottle of White Lightening' goes to.....

[Sway]

DonkeyApple said:

Sway said:

Meanwhile, GvE have apparently been able to sell this for somewhere around £150k...

https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/9763981?ut...

And the award for 'Best first attempt at trimming by a blind man after a bottle of White Lightening' goes to.....

It was the 'beefed up seat frames' that really screamed value for money to me...

[SydneyBridge]

How much does the spitfire starting button add to the value?

[Mr. White]

SydneyBridge said:

How much does the spitfire starting button add to the value?

Circa £65 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ww2-raf-spitfire-hurric...