Discussion
There is a blue,1972 rally prepped 911 for sale on carclassic.com located in Cannes. I went to see it yesterday, and although it looked nice and drove well, there are no receipts for the work done or documented history of any kind for the car, the reason given being that it was all paid for in cash under the table as the vendor is a mate of the Porsche specialist concerned. Needless to say I walked away, but I can't get rid of that niggling feeling that I may be passing up a good car. Did I do the right thing or am I missing out?
Depends on what you want to do with it? If it's just for you to enjoy and you will keep it for a few years, you'll be able to build up a recent history which will help you move it on in the future and not be out of pocket. If you buy it purely as an investment, I guess this probably isn't the right car.
I'm looking to rally the car, not to keep it in a garage as an investment. The other thing that worries me is that i'ts not the first time he's tried to sell it. A bit of time on the internet revealed it for sale back in 2010, yet the current owner has had it since 2005. He obviously can't shift it for a reason, which I suspect is the lack of provenance.
truck71 said:
Can you not contact the restorer and ask pertinent questions? No guarantee the answers will be truthful if they're mates but worth persuing for not much effort?
That is what I was doing yesterday when I went to see the car. Lots of assurances that the car was good but then they would say that I guess.Russwhitehouse said:
I'm looking to rally the car, not to keep it in a garage as an investment. He obviously can't shift it for a reason, which I suspect is the lack of provenance.
If you're planning to rally it, is it in a competitive spec and to relevant regs? I suspect this might be a bigger issue than history, especially if it might need rebuilding to conform. Depending how hard you rally it, the history could become rather academic after a future (documented) rebuild.Race/rally cars also have a pretty small market, and Cannes isn't somewhere I associate with the bobble-hat brigade, so maybe you've struck lucky being local?
Is there a local specialist (other than the owners buddy) who could inspect it?
The car conforms to all the necessary regs for classic and historic rallying over here and has it's official "passport historique". The current owner has rallied it lightly since converting it to classic group three spec in about 2005/6 and apparently not at all for a couple of years whilst it has languished in his garage.
By the way, I'm not local but an eight hour drive away, which made it all the more infuriating to turn up only to find no bills of any sort to corroborate work done. Cannes is a bit of a hotbed for rally cars as it is the home of garage Caruso et fils. Google them and you'll see what I mean. They are the people who have done the mechanicals on the car apparently.
Russwhitehouse said:
. Cannes is a bit of a hotbed for rally cars as it is the home of garage Caruso et fils. They are the people who have done the mechanicals on the car apparently.
Every day's a school day! Yes def heard of Caruso, they've built some mega-looking cars. With their reputation, why not speak to them as others advised, as it seems unlikely they'd risk damaging their rep.At the least they should be able to document the spec and if it was built up as a bitsa as most competition cars are, that may explain the lack of any meaningful history pre-build
I would walk, Russ.
At 20-30k it may be worth a punt, but at 55 bags it's a bit too much of a risk.
For the same cash you could have this Tuthill: http://www.rally24.com/rally-cars-for-sale/porsche...
At 20-30k it may be worth a punt, but at 55 bags it's a bit too much of a risk.
For the same cash you could have this Tuthill: http://www.rally24.com/rally-cars-for-sale/porsche...
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