Hagerty International's John Mayhead rounds up the top movers in the classic market, according to the insurer's valuation guide.
Twelve months ago a lot of people in the classic car world were expecting a ‘correction’ to a market that was frankly going crazy. At the top end, auction prices were going through the roof. Bonhams alone broke nearly a dozen marque records in 2013, and at Goodwood in July sold a Mercedes-Benz W196 Grand Prix car for £19.6m, smashing the highest figure ever achieved at a public auction.
Last year the values of really special vehicles continued their upward trend. At the very top, Bonhams broke its own record by selling a Ferrari 250GTO for £22.85m. Elsewhere, the story has been the same – collectors are still more than willing to part with huge sums of money for the right car, while investors are fuelling a mid-market, in which the values of some models more than doubled over the past 12 months. Even at the lower end, enthusiasts are seeing their cars rise in value as more people are attracted to classic ownership.
Keeping tabs on such a highly charged market is not easy, but specialist insurer Hagerty International says its online price guide is as good as it gets. Auction and private sales data – combined with insured values and input from dealers and owners’ clubs – is manually analysed and the resulting guide of over 1300 different models updated quarterly.
We’ve been given a sneak preview of the top five cars that experienced the greatest increase in value in 2014.
