HSV GTS-R + Fairmont XY GT + Torana LX - Ones That Got Away 447
Looking back through the Unique Cars classifieds...
HSV GTS-R - Advertised November 2004
People who paid full freight for a VL Walkinshaw probably lined up for a GTS-R as well, only to look shocked when yet another ‘can’t lose’ investment tanked. Some sold up quickly while others held on before consigning their cars to dealers, hence cars like this appearing in the 21st century market at half their new cost. The mid-Noughties boom in older muscle car values did nothing for the GTS-R and only recently have they regularly exceeded $85,000. Then just weeks ago, one exceptional car made $335,000 and while that certainly isn’t typical, it does demonstrate the benefit of hanging onto apparently dud investments.
Was: $41,995. Now: $220,000-250,000
Ford Fairmont XY GT (South African) - Advertised August 2003
Australian enthusiasts at around the time these cars were being advertised had developed a fascination for XY Falcon GTs. It hadn’t reached the fever pitch that would be apparent a few years later when Phase 3s topped $600,000 and basic GTs were generating $200k, but the signs were there. How smart would somebody have been back then to pay the $14k being asked for as many cars as they could accommodate and stash a bunch of these RSA-sourced Fairmont GTs somewhere dark and dry? Had you left them there, untouched and unrestored until now, the current market which remains XY obsessed will be eager to give you at least $45,000 each. Very nice earner.
Was: $14,000. Now: $45,000-50,000
Holden Torana LX A9X hatch - Advertised January 1995
Toss me the keys to that De Lorean somebody, I’m off to 1995 with $25k in my hand. Coincidentally, this issue of Unique Cars magazine appears almost 25 years to the day this Torana was being offered for sale – at around five per cent of current values. No letters please, but the colour looks to be Jasmine Yellow and if so this could be the same hatch as sold by Shannons in March 2018 for $275,000. Values achieved since then by hatchback A9Xs have climbed at a prodigious rate and there’s little doubt that one like this would go close to doubling its 2018 value.
Was: $25,000. Now: $460,000-495,000
Reader's One That Got Away:
Fiat Dino 2000
My local mechanics were a friendly Italian duo in the 90s. Parked inside the workshop covered in dust was a midnight blue Fiat Dino with contrasting tan trim, it was purchased in Italy driven around then shipped to Oz by my mechanic and converted to RHD. It was parked in the workshop for years and never moved until the owner retired. A missed opportunity clearly on my behalf!
Jim Santini - Mitcham, Vic
From Unique Cars #447, December 2020
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