[DeTomaso] Vallelunga Sells for
mikeldrew at aol.com
mikeldrew at aol.com
Fri Jan 1 14:11:25 EST 2010
In a message dated 1/1/10 10 28 58, detomasoregistry at gmail.com writes:
> A Vallelunga sold in Australia for around $108,585 (Aussie Dollars I
> suspect).
>
> Car is VL1611 (This is the "short VIN" used in the Registry if you want to
> see pics).
>
> This is a RHD car, I believe the only RHD Vallelunga.
>
Pretty well-bought, as the Aussie dollar is a bit smaller than ours, about
90 US cents to the Aussie dollar. That car was converted to RHD however,
as the only one that the factory originally built was VL1601D.
VL1601D was originally ordered by Col Ronnie Hoare, of Maranello
Concessionaires, who was the 1960s UK distributor for Ferrari and other Italian
marques. (Curiously, Hoare also owed F. English Ltd, a Ford main dealer, who was
the very first customer to receive a racing Ford GT40. He campaigned
three Ferraris (250 GT0/64, 250 LM, etc.) alongside the GT40 at all the major
races all over Europe, making for very strange bedfellows. The Ferraris are
easily recognized, as they were all painted red with baby blue noses and
stripes, while the GT40s (two of them, originally P/1002 and later P/1017) were
all baby blue with white stripes--but I digress!)
VL1601D was the only RHD car built. He originally planned to import them
and/or build them in England under license, but the project never went
anywhere and it was the only one he ever sold. It rattled around and was passed
from one hand to another, and at one point it was tested by Classic Cars
magazine (that article was reprinted in Profiles). They absolutely loved the
car.
It was owned by a very well-known British car collector (whose name escapes
me at the moment, I'm a bit fuzzy with a bad head cold), and it went up for
auction in London at the Brooks auction in 1998. It was sold for a
giveaway price of $24,093 (the UK pounds price converted to dollars of the day).
Even then, that was substantially less than what Vallelungas were selling
for elsewhere; some said the value was hurt by the fact that the car had lost
its original engine as it had originally been equipped with a Ford/Lotus
Twin-Cam engine, but when it sold it just had a standard Cortina engine (which
is what Vallelungas normally came with, although they were supposedly
hot-rodded by De Tomaso first).
I don't know what happened to the car after it was auctioned off.
I also don't know any of the history of this Austrialian Vallelunga.
Could it be that there's a typo, and that the VIN of the Aussie car is VL1601D
and not VL1611? I suppose it's possible, and it's certainly easier to goof
up typing the VIN than it is to convert a car from LHD to RHD?
Hmm.
Ah. More research done. The internet is a wonderful thing.
The car was originally delivered with the Cortina engine, but the 150 hp
Lotus Twin Cam was slotted in immediately upon its arrival in the UK. It was
then sold to Gunnar Brisman in Sweden, who replaced the engine with an
original type. In 1992 it was sold to Duncan Rabagliati, the British collector
whose name I couldn't remember. It was tested by Classic & Sports Car
magazine in 1983, and in Classic Cars magazine in 1997, just ahead of its
appearance at auction.
It was sold for £16,906 to an Australian buyer.
So, I'm convinced that this is the same car, and that the auction company
just mistyped a single digit. In that case, the owner did extremely well
for himself, watching his car increase in value fivefold in just 12 years.
It was extremely well-bought last time, and fairly well-bought this time, as
these are very easily six-figure cars in Europe now.
Mike (okay, time for another hit of my Tylenol cold medicine...)
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