Got to know when to fold them...
 

Hope I am not giving away any secrets but...this is a philosophical discussion.

I visited a guy the other day who owns an original Shelby American race car.
I guess the age of the guy is about 70. People are beating down his door to buy it but I kept thinking as I was talking to him--this guy's youth has gone, he's had medical problems lately, he's not in the crazy-old-man stage but could get there in the near future.

Offers are over $3 million, he says.

I wonder why he didn't sell it when it was only a million and get help with his medical problems and enjoy life a little while he still looked middle aged instead of like the crazy professor in Back to the Future?

Of course you could argue "Hell, these race cars didn't go through major appreciation until the last couple years" but my argument is--is $5 million that he could get a year or two from now as good as a lesser amount now?

I'm only in my early sixties and have nothing valuable to my name but as I look at these geezers who want to take their treasure to their graveyard, I can only think of that Kenny Rogers' song, can't remember the exact words but something like "You gotta know when to fold 'em."

Of course I folded a little early when I sold my first 300SL gullwing for $2500, but that was when I was a callow youth...I think they're about $500,000 now...but I hafta think there's a happy medium there someplace.

Sounds to me like the gentleman is just not ready to sell for whatever reason. He probably doesn't need the cash anyway.

Some people enjoy the hunt.....not the kill. This might be his last pride and joy and when it's gone, there is nothing to look forward to.Hope we's having the time of this life.

In retrospect, being somewhat over 60 myself and never thinking in my youth that I would live to be 40, I can understand his reluctance to part with something that would be worth, not in $$ but in memories associated with youth and life, as much as an original Shelby race car. Even now, I look at the car I just bought and think "It's a Cobra and it's mine!" I've realized a 40 years dream. It all makes sense to me.

I concur with Dan, sometimes it just aint about the money. Especially true when you get older, quality of life issues become much more important. Now IF the money could help preserve a better quality of life, I'd sell in a heart beat.

'to their graveyard', exactly what I said about a fella living in Stone Mountain, Ga.. He's setting on '5' cammer motors and tons of new parts, a 68 conv. stang w/cammer and only 30,000 mi. plus, a mahogany drag boat w/high riser. He did me a great favor some time back and I don't mean this as a criticism, I just wish he would get 'something running'.

The Unfinished vs. the Virtues of Being Flight Ready
 

That last comment sparks another tangent, I know so many friends who have an interesting car but just never get it finished. One guy has a Safir Mk. V Ford GT, accidentlaly left the rear decklid unfastnened, it blew off and got damaged but that was five years ago and never been fixed and I wonder
"How many great times & events has he missed by not pushing the body shop guy to fix it?"

Another friend has two great Lussos, a matched set except for color, and at one time when he was about 55 had a young german girlifrienda bout 25 and since he was a pilot could have gotten a Ferrari airfreighted to Europe for free and made a grand toru with this babe but he didn't and now he's 75; she's married to someone else and I wonder "Did he miss one of life's great opportunities"

So all I'm saying is that if you've got an interesting car, get it running ("flight ready" is I think the Air Force [hrase) and get it out there to the events you want to go to because you never know what nasty surprises may curtail your activities down the road. I remember I had a Ferrari 365GTC/4 that never ran on all 12 cylinders but at least I got it up to Monterey, to Palm Springs, to several concours (where I always avoided judging) , all on a shoestring and sold it for twice what I bought it for. I was lucky the $25,000 engine never blew--but at least I have great memories of the places I went. Other project cars that never got finished are just a searing boring memory. I will never have another sports car that isn't ready to run at any time, even when in the body shop. Life's too short to wait.

It's funny, I read posts like this and wonder why someone else has the right to think they can (almost) demand (or push) that someone else work on a project in "your" timeframe? It's "their" money, it's their property, and they can do whatever THEY want with it. THEY can let it sit collecting dust, let it slowly rust to dust, or send it to the recycle center for scrap, again it's their property and not anyone elses. I've got a one family owner, rust free, low mileage original 71 BOSS 351 sitting in storage (dry humidity controlled storage no less), been there for over 15 years now, I have people telling me all the time how I should spend my time and money on it and not let it waste away....Well, people, I'm here to tell you that you have no idea what else could be on a persons mind, or what else might be a priority in a persons life that the owner feels is more important than the object you see. To some owners it's not about the money, but about the ownership. All you (as the admirer of whatever item someone elose owns) see is that peice of iron (or aluminum and or fiberglass in this case) wasting away (or at least in "your" mind it is). It might be your priority to get it on the road, or back together if it was yours, but the reality of it is that it is not yours and you just need to take a step back and deal with it. If the current owner does not want to sell it, that is his/her right, if they choose not to work on it in a specific time frame, again, that is their right. Why is it so difficult for some of you to comprehend this right of ownership?


Bill S.

So Bill, why don't you sell that POS instead of letting it rot in storage somewhere? :p

Funny stuff, I have three possessions that people make suggestions about what I should do with them.

1. 1966 Cal 40 sailboat that I bought in 1977 in the Virgin Islands. I raced it for years in the Caribbean and then the on West Coast, LA to Honolulu, Mexico dozens of times, etc. My slip space in SoCal has a 20 year waiting list and although we rarely use the boat, I still like it and and will never sell it! Our son now sails it. We will never sell this boat or give up the slip as people suggest.

2. 1951 Ford Woody wagon, drives great with a hipo 289 under the hood, rack and pinion and disk brakes. The wood is original and flawlessly varnished like my sailboat. The original gray paint is in poor condition. "Why don't you paint it?" I like the no rust body with original paint and will not remove the surfboard wax that has dripped on the roof over the years!

3. Early MK 1 Factory Five Racing Cobra with one of the 10 Carbon bodies. It's been used exclusively by me for open track events and now our son. The black paint wears years of sand and rock chips from race tires as a badge of honor. Just before the last Knotts show, Jeff Miller the Cobra painter added a large skull and cross bones across the bow of the black body. The waxers are shocked and have no clue about the fun of running wide open in 4th gear with a pack of screaming GT 350s, which in my opinion is all a Cobra is good for.

Our road racing friends sound an AARRR of approval.

Roger

In the course of a routine weeks work, I generally travel about 1/5 of my home state, and a large part of that is on back roads........Over the last 13 years, I guess I've about seen it all, everything my old VWs to 57 T-Birds and all sorts of Fords and Chevys, all collector cars......... I used to stop and inquire, but quit that years ago, then I get kinda upset for folks letting them rot away..........

Now I think of my own situation, I have a 65 Mustang road race car that has been on the track for 2 years now and I'm loving every minute of it. I can see myself doing this for another 5 or so years, then selling the car......

I also have a 65 Fastback which I restored in 1994 to be a clone of a 1966 Shelby GT-350..... I drive it monthly and at different times have drag raced it and road raced it and showed it...Since 1994, my daughter and I have only missed 3 forth of July parades in it together in my own home town (I was at the SAAC conventions those years),she's now 21 years old and will be in it together this year again and I'llenjoy the parade with her like I do everytime we do a parade together.... About once a year I get an offer from someone to buy the car and the best offer so far is more than 3 times the money I have in the car and I did not even think for a New York second when I turned it down..........The guy could not beleive I turned him down so quickly..........

You see, the memories of my daughter helping me work on the car all these years and me picking her up at grade school on fridays in the car and us doing a couple of parades every year are worth a lot more than anyone would ever pay me for the car!!!!!!!! Some day when I'm too old to enjoy the car and just not interested in it anymore, I'll drive it over to her house and hand her the title and keys, you see, I know she drive it and enjoy it and maybe even think of her old dad when she gets in it..............

Some things, you just never part with, no matter what..............

David

I hear you David - it is not the money, but rather the years of tinkering
with it and memories gained with family members and friends that give it
a personal value that some other just may not comprehend.

One of life's many pleasures is sharing (that's why I try to finish any automotive project and drive it). Having any tangible piece of art (anything collectible) that is a generational time stamp, either historically or in ones own life experience and not sharing it with those that come after us denies a piece of history to those that will replace us. Selling that piece of 'art' is a personal choice and is not necessary if others are invited to go for a trip down our memory lane admiring it. Sooner or later it will dissolve or it passes to a new caretaker. Having it dissolve is a painful sight.
RB