Two weddings and a Flavia

The Aesthete's Fleet
Squint a little and imagine your Aesthete as Hugh Grant while he ferries yet another beaming couple off to their nuptial ceremony in the Flavia. It takes nerve to place everything at risk by accepting rides in fifty year old Italian classics with uncertain reliability records and no rear seat room. All credit to the bride then who, when the groom's own Lancia Gamma coupe failed to start, did not cancel the whole day. 

1978 Fiat 128. One hesitates to speculate where the husband is while his partner is holding a fire sale of his Fiat 128 racing equipe but ask no questions and carefully read the list of parts. Someone has taken his hobby awfully seriously so for another 5K you could be out on the track harassing those nasty Toyota Starlets.

For: With a Fiat you get the engine and the box it came in.
Against: He may be under the patio. Best not ask.
Investment potential: 5/10. Surely the engine of the yellow car must be worth that alone?

1968 Ferrari GTO. The owner is hoping that the stratospheric rise in the prices of real GTOs may drag up the values of replicas even though 1.2M would be more than sufficient to cover the cost of building a new one from scratch. One wonders at the economic sense of it although if I had that sort of money it would go on this rather than a Bugatti. The vendor clearly agrees and has done thirty-odd  thousand KMs in it. Good man.

For: Sublime.
Against: Owning a copy of the most expensive car in the world does not come cheap.
Investment potential: Who knows what rules apply at this end of the market?

1957 Rover 90. The car is a pleasant enough but the vendor's pitch is marvellous. Never in my experience has a Rover 90 been proffered as a powerful aphrodisiac or a desirable adjunct to a Tinder profile, most owners having long given up on vigorous intercourse for more seemly pursuits.  He even calls up the Greek pantheon to reinforce the notion that owning a Rover 90 will render you into a love god. " I am Hephaestus. Hear. Me. Roar!!" indeed.

For: Best pitch of the year, without a doubt.
Against: How can I put this?
Investment potential: It looks okay so there may be some hope. It will not help you get lucky though.

1929 Hillman Vortic. The poor fellow trying to sell this Hillman could not lay hands on a decent picture of it so I did it for him. The Vortic was another failed English effort to take otherwise sensible brands into the superior end of the market. When Humber swooped on the distressed maker in 1928, unused eight cylinder engines were slung into their chassis and shipped off to the distant colonies where they all broke down and were shoved into the back of the barn. This is now reckoned to be one of only three left in the world.

For: Fascinating.
Against: Tragic.
Investment potential: I suspect that there is not a great market for Hillman Vortics but don't let that stop you.

1987 Citroen CX25 Familiale.  It certainly looks like there is a lot of useful life left in this CX Break and you could  take grim satisfaction in acquiring it for such a miserly amount. Few cars delivered the long distance touring pleasure of a CX so if you have cause to carry eight people, engine blocks or rear axles around the countryside, here is your vehicle.

For: Gallic mechanical ingenuity put to good use.
Against: More awful mysteries than the Da Vinci Code.
Investment potential: 3/10. Surely running well and registered it must recoup the purchase price.


On some faraway beach...

1969 Lotus Europa 62R. This period adaptation of a near new 1969 Europa will save you a cool 1.175M on the ersatz GTO so I leave it to you to do the necessary calculations on the fun to money ratio. Competition Europas were typical Lotus productions with an evolving specification that ended up sharing nothing with the standard road car.  Who cares that it has a Toyota engine when the looks shout Circuit de la Sarthe so loudly?

For: Steve McQueen would understand.
Against: But would anyone else?
Investment potential: 2/10. It is a bit of a mongrel it has to be said.