Mercury Montego + Valiant VF Ambulance + Rolls Royce Mulliner - Ones That Got Away 418
Uncle Cliff takes a look back through the Unique Cars classifieds...
Mercury Montego 428CJ - Advertised November 2004
Back in 1969 when Nascar raced real cars the Mercury Montego and Ford Torino Talledega were dominant in their nation’s major production-based championship. The competition version of the Montego Cobra-Jet was called the Spoiler - due to the dinky little adjustable wing bolted to the boot - and it came with a 429 cubic inch engine. Only 3200 of the street-spec Cobra-Jet were made and while values spiked about a decade ago, recent sales have seen CJ428 Montegos bumping along in the US$50-55,000 range. Landing one here will cost considerable more.
Then: $65,000. Now: $85-90,000
VF Valiant Ambulance - Advertised December 1999
With the greatest respect towards the many fine people who participated in Endeavour and various other fund-raising automotive events we do hope this rare Valiant ambulance did not wind up sign-written and wearing dust lights. There is a strong support network for those devoted to preserving historic emergency vehicles and survivors normally are documented. However, some in-depth delving revealed not one VF, just a Queensland-registered VG with a different roof and window design. Hopefully this classic ambo does survive somewhere.
Then: $4000. Now: $18-22,000
Rolls-Royce Mulliner Park Ward Saloon - Advertised May 2004
Not even serious celebrity ownership in the person of the late Lord Louis plus a period in the keeping of The Batty Bhagwan has done much to enhance the value of this very elegant Rolls-Royce. We suspect that the asking price back in 2004 was ambitious, however it should have been moved along for somewhere in the $40,000s. A decade later when offered for auction in Melbourne the very same car achieved an estimate of $38-48K and any mention of Indian mystical ownership had disappeared from its history file. Is it still in Australia?
Then: $55,000. Now: $45-55,000
Reader's One That Got Away:
1974 Ferrari 365 GT4
My local Caltex service station mechanic always had a red 365 GT4 on the hoist, my mate at the time worked there and always said parts to maintain the car were always hard to get hence it was continually living on the hoist.
The owner was getting sick of it but I loved that car, I wished I had bought it!
Tony Trifaldo - Warrandyte, Vic
Unique Cars magazine Value Guides
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