kiwi 911

No I don't know the car - a bargain at $40K and accordingly sold in min's.

There are still a few uneducated owners like the person with the red 964 last month, but these must be few and far between now??

I will watch the 3.2 @ $85K and GT3 @ $120K on TM with great interest having some skin in the game..........

Walt - really enjoyed your post on driver-less cars timeline. I was talking to a PCNZ member on the flight home this avo and we where talking about this very subject. The question/concern concluded with what happens to driver cars - there must come a time where they are deemed too dangerous and the only place you can take your air-cooled or water pumper is to a track?

Then what time comes, that does that do to values given they become statues??

One for you to ponder Walter.......

996tnz

At the rate health and safety is becoming the new black, I don't know how much longer us amateurs will be allowed to play race driver either. If we can't be trusted with skyrockets (gone), thunderbolts (gone), double-happies (gone) or even tom thumbs (gone) etc, why imagine we'll be trusted with co-ordinating a ballet of high-speed bombs around an obstacle course for much longer once their everyday road relevance has been lost?

Hemingway saw motor racing, bullfighting and mountain climbing as the only true sports, which was perhaps some early warning of how endangered these 'aberrant' death defying activities either are, or likely will soon be.

Commodity, formerly utilitarian, cars will be worth less than zip, probably even if a driverless system might perhaps be able to be retrofitted (probably pretty expensive to do on older cars, at least initially?) Like old copiers and fax machines, you may end up having to pay a recycling charge to get rid of them.

Cars with exceptional character or history will have a softer descent, with all but the best examples dropping out of contention as the generations that lusted after them as teenagers shuffle off towards their nursing homes.

I mean, how many kiwis still have a gig or four-in-hand parked up somewhere? Though it was perhaps easier to let go when you could recycle your outmoded transport to petfood and firewood on the spot I suppose.

Even many of today's more desirable cars will mostly be cheap and initially plentiful, but garaging, repairs, and above all road, usage or even holding taxes will soon shoot up for older metal. So for a while they'll be cheap disposables, then expensive oddities, then rare museum pieces.

Just off the cuff musings though, and timeframes are probably a human generation or two. A more rose-tinted assessment would marry cheap robotic or remote mechanical labour with super cheap customised on-demand parts fabrication, and a cheap and ubiquitous upgrade route to autonomy, safety and clean fueling for older cars. But I think that newer modes of personal transportation, car or otherwise, will rob their raison d'etre within not too many decades. But still just room for one or two more speculative cycles first probably.

Talking of cheap cars, it will be interesting to see what VW do with all their buybacks in the US. Not sure if they can maybe resell them in Central or South America at a big loss, or else export them to China where VW is huge and US spec cars should eclipse most local builds.

996tnz

Just watched the Giulia 7:32 ring vid Macca. Don't think I've ever seen one where the tyres were worked quite as hard - and driven in a T-shirt and 3 point seatbelt at that. Impressively commited driving!

Macca

Love your musings Walt. You make some excellent points. Someone should cut and paste these all into a book one day.

On the subject of the future I wonder how difficult it would be for someone to offer an exact replica one day. i.e. a company that purchase a Miura SV, tear it down, 3D scan and print all parts and construct based on running a "kick-starter" type funding program where a few hundred people around put in say 100K each to have an example. The tech isnt there yet to print metallurgy for stress or heated components but one day this may be viable. Imagine being able to drive a 1972 Miura brand new in 2022...

Isnt that Ring lap fab. Im in Taupo after an epic back road blast from the big A #donttelltania# and Matt B and I just watched it through to the end. One of the most "committed" factory laps Ive seen. Red Bella needs a bit of bullying to make 7.32 and shes not the tidiest car pushing a bit and a bit bouncy in the rear (lack of downforce and its a saloon after all), but you cant deny its a magic lap to watch. The car seem pretty progressive on the limit. 283kmp on the last straight with the right kink is a gonad constricting moment. Fabio Francia is actually considered a Ring Grommet with this only being his second year driving there...what he lacks in experience he makes up for in young bravery!

964X33

Where the wind blows. Heading out around the first of Jan for a week then maybe a week after that with the rug rats. Keep me posted on your whereabouts. The memsaab might be keen on a hot water shower.
And you'll be pleased to see; New mainsail, headsail, dodger, sail cover and cockpit squabs for sundowners. Just need the full hull and decks paint and she'll be like new.

gt38088

I agree with you Walt. Mass transport is going to be very hard to individually brand and differentiate. If you have the same amount of direct interaction with a car as sitting in a taxi do you care much?

So a few more car companies will go out of business, get merged/taken over.

Where will we drive our recreational cars? Track/Targa type events only. I think the "collectables" will still carry a premium for a while but in 2 generations there may be a lot fewer ppl who have been bought up in a car culture - they won't have owned a car or driven a car so the buyer market for our classics may narrow a lot.

Spokes

Never seen this car in Queenstown, if only!

Macca

Alfa's new 510 bhp SUV breaks cover at the LA autoshow. CF roof, hood etc with plenty of Alloy, low 4.0s dash to 100, sexy beast...

Chris_chch

Sold pretty much immediately so you probably never will! haha!

It had only done about 5000 miles since 1995, so would of been a rare sight no doubt.

Interestingly, for awhile, its number plate was 1

996tnz

Thanks Macca. Cars, words, and (IIRC - hi honey) women are good for a rev every now and again.

With you on the Miura. I'd be patriotic and put forward the most Kiwi version for Kickstarter: chief factory test driver Bob Wallace's own 440HP dry-sumped Miura SV Jota, but I'd have to have the original too, just for its perfect lines. His Jota was a one-off car, and also the hottest of course. Copying Wallace's would be a bit hard though as a (non-lambo) mechanic took it out and totalled it, though some have tried: http://www.lambocars.com/miura/miura_jota.html

Absolutely. Right up there with the sub-7 Aventador lap in terms of guts and hustling the car in my book.

May also be interesting to see how long it will be before even 'travelling or riding as a passenger in or on a human-controlled vehicle' becomes a standard exclusion from life and health cover. There is precedent already in the travel policies that exclude mopeds in certain asian countries.

I suppose we could all take some comfort from being promoted though - from managing a vehicle ourselves, to directing self-managed vehicles.

kiwi 911

Hummm - likley to be my Dad's old SC (cant' be many SC with No:1 on them - in the late 80's), started life as silver and then he painted blue (but a different blue to now), as the car got ropey from racing.

Just check if it had RS911 as the rego at some stage?

OK - that explains where another of his old cars went?

Pic of car in Wellington Street Race when silver and then 92 Parade when blue......

Pel

Awesome pics Paul

Chris_chch

The history starts in 1986... WHere the records say it was first registered. It also hints at it being a re-registration? So could of been taken off the road for some reason (racing) and then put back on the road in 86?

Plates History

Plate Effective Date
GCN53 10-Nov-2011
CMC140 09-Mar-2005
PI5397 05-Sep-1990
HOT9II 07-Aug-1990
1 14-Jun-1989
HOT9II 21-Oct-1988
MK9846 31-Jan-1986

Chris_chch

Also, if anyone is Tauranga on Friday morning, maybe stay off the roads in the morning ;p


http://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/news...tration-begins

kiwi 911

He owned between 1990-1993 - ish, so not the same car, but the car he owned was a 78 SC was owned by the person who purchased the plate "1".

Edit - just thinking about it, maybe the RS911 plate wasn't actually registered to the car at the time?? :-) - dodgy.........