TCG Stories

I recently bought a 1999 Porsche 911 sight unseen out of Georgia, off of the Porsche Classifieds of America classifieds. Now, I've done this enough to know that when it comes to cars that either cost a certain amount or have a reputation for being potentially needy that a pre-purchase inspection is absolutely necessary. What blows my mind is how many people still don't know this - and how often they spend crazy money on a notoriously needy vehicle with no PPI completed. 

Recently, a vehicle popped up on Facebook in the hands of a shop in Maine specializing in high-end conversions of Volkswagen Westfalias and Transporters. They'll take your plain-jane Vanagon and swap in a TDI powerplant and a 4WD chassis to create the van of your dreams. They were disassembling a mid-90s European-spec Vanagon Westfalia known as a "Club Joker" edition that came with Syncro 4WD and a high-roof fixed top in place of the favored pop-top. Now, I don't know what the new owner's plans are, but the Vanagon was sufficiently deconstructed despite it selling for a healthy $55,000 on Bring A Trailer in September. 

Among some of the issues disclosed by the shop, known as Foreign Auto & Supply, included "....silicone and POR15 trying to cover up a ton of cancer and shoddy previous workmanship." The shop owner goes on to note "Water was pouring in from three locations and the rear cabinets, interior panels, and bed cushions are ruined." Photos show the van with at least several hours' worth of labor to remove panels and dig deep into the bodywork, and it was also transported from the west to the east coast as part of the transaction. All told, this has to now be a $75,000 purchase, and one that needs far more labor before it's "done." 

The worst part about this is it could have all been avoided. Records were limited in the description on Bring A Trailer and the only reference to the hidden rust was that there was evidence of prior bodywork and zero photos to that effect. The broker who represented the Vanagon had the balls to show up on the Facebook post talking about how glad he was to see the VW in the capable hands of the shop to take it to the next level. Uh, what about your buyer who spent $55K thinking it already was at the next level?

I am happy to report that the findings of the $350 PPI I had performed on the 911 were accurate, as my shop laid hands on the car this week and found very little in the way of concerns. It's cheap insurance and a very small line item in the budget of a car that, like the Vanagon shown here, can go wrong in a big way if due diligence isn't performed. 

The last few years have been incredibly stupid. And for a lot of folks, they were hard. But the worst part about this is the rampant price gouging implemented by everyone, from the donut shop on the corner to the too-big-to-fail airlines. Forget the prices of 2019; the pandemic may be out of the headlines, but high prices are here to stay. 

And you know what else? Tires are just too goddamn expensive. And this burns my ass because tires are one of the most rapidly depreciating features on a car or truck that unfortunately do have a very real shelf life and also are incredibly important to both the safe operation of a motor vehicle and your enjoyment of it. Great tires can transform a mediocre driver into an entertaining commuter far quicker than throwing $1000s at suspension improvements. In effect, you have to pay the piper with tires if you're a car enthusiast, and I'm guessing the manufacturers know this. They jacked the prices during COVID and they ain't never coming back. 

Recently, it became obvious that among the 1,002 things wrong with the Dakota R/T, it also had four mismatched tires that were all bald. This fucking thing - I mean, there is nothing these bozos before me didn't cheap the hell out on. My priority was to find four, matching performance tires that were 275s to give the super wide OEM alloy wheels some much-needed meat. Except, these days, four of those tires cost $730. Seven hundred and thirty bucks! For something that is worth half that after you drive four feet. 

Because my logic knows no bounds, I found a set of lightly-used (summer only) General Grabbers in the desired 275/55/17 size on craigslist in a convenient location 90 miles west of Minneapolis (I live in Rhode Island). I called my friend Scott and paid him $68 for gas and packing materials to drive out there, pay the guy $330 for his used for three months tires, and then I generated two labels @ $89 each to ship them eastward. So, $576 all in. I saved $150. It's not a lot, I get it, and I put poor Scott out on a Sunday morning wherein he likely had 382 other things he'd rather be doing. 

But screw these guys and their inflated pricing when supply chains are freed up and half the nation still isn't driving anywhere. Tires aren't coming back down ever again, and no one will bat an eye. 

Every time I explore the property in north Georgia with the hundreds of vintage cars and trucks and thousands of motorcycles, I'm constantly amazed at how often I find vehicles I've never seen before despite walking this entire property well over 100 times. 

Before I came home a few weeks ago, I ran over to the property to meet a friend briefly and decided to take a quick run down a path I hadn't spent much time exploring. Upon doing so, I was rewarded with the familiar nose of what looked like a Ford F-150, except this truck was an F-250, and it was a Camper Special truck to boot. 

In addition to sporting an awesome paint job with a period-correct decal stripe, the F-250 C/S also came with a clever storage compartment in the lower part of the bed, ahead of the rear wheel. Up to this point, I had not spotted a truck from this era with this small door that opens up a cavity beneath the bed floor. Turns out, Rivian wasn't so ingenious after all with their much-hyped storage cubby. 

I am not sure if this truck has a 390 or a 351, but given the lack of serious rust and a super clean/dry interior, it absolutely seems worthy of a rescue. 

For the years I've been helping my uncle unload a ton of cars, trucks, and bikes from his property in north Georgia, there's been one item I've been hesitant to list for sale. And given my uncle wasn't eager to part with it, it didn't seem to be hurting any feelings that I deliberately kept it under wraps in all of the listings I've created over the years. 

The bike in question is a Suzuki GT380. I have no meaningful connection to the bike, nor did I grow up wanting one. It was one of the few bikes seemingly parked carefully underneath a roof ledge (this was totally by accident; nothing was parked carefully here) and the "bag of snakes" exhaust still had some flashes of brilliance on top of its pitted chrome tubes. The bike still kicked over if you asked it to, which always gets my project car/bike/truck juices flowing, as if it's saying, "I never gave up." 

Well, a gentleman I've invited to the property in the past owing to his connections in the motorcycle world finally took me up on my offer. And wouldn't you know it, he picked the belle of the ball, the GT380, out of the messy stack of bikes to bring home to his boss, who apparently does a quick servicing on worthy bikes and lists them for sale for a modest profit (it's a GT380 after all, which is hardly a valuable bike.) 

I know it's looked down upon in the enthusiast community, but there's a part of me that wishes it stayed hidden for another 20 years until I was ready to restore it. Then again, in this fast-changing hobby, who knows if the necessary spare parts would even still be in existence by that time? I'm thrilled this bike will run again, but a part of me still wishes it had happened under my care.

This week, a driver-quality BMW Z3 M Roadster sold on Bring A Trailer for nearly $15,000. This was in line with what the market generally commands for the less desirable open-top M car, especially one with average miles and condition. Even so, the price paid may still be too much. 

When we debunk a car's history, there's a tendency to rely on the CarFax, perhaps a bit too much. The CarFax tells us if any maintenance was conducted at local service facilities and dealerships, and more importantly captures whether a vehicle was wrecked beyond repair in the course of its life. Plenty of cars are damaged significantly but not enough to warrant totaling it. 

While bodywork is sometimes a serious blow to the value of a car, it can be a moot point if the work was done to a high standard and documented by the owner and the body shop. However, this work is rarely captured with photos, and the same goes for if a vehicle is neglected for years at a time. Take for instance the M Roadster mentioned above: the seller pointed to gaps in its history as being due to its use as a summer vehicle on Martha's Vineyard. Ironically, I saw this car years ago after being consulted to view another vehicle on the property.

The M Roadster was seriously neglected, with an interior covered in mold due to being stored in an incredibly damp garage with evidence of water ingress. The car did not run; hadn't run in years; and was left idle for months at a time due to the property owners not being on the island full-time. In fact, the property was in foreclosure and it seemed like the residents of the home had very little interest in spending much time there. 

Does it make it a bad car? No. But this sort of neglect is a characteristic of the CarFax that is never captured, and as stewards of enthusiast-grade vehicles, it's not difficult to imagine a world where the documentation we already do is channeled into a dedicated account with sufficient access controls and one that is forever associated with the VIN of the car. That's what The Common Gear (TCG) was founded around, the notion that as car nerds who already take more pictures of a vehicle than we do our own children, it's not a difficult reach to lock that data into an account so those perilous gaps never again develop in the history file of an enthusiast-grade car or truck. 

And given the seller of this M Roadster didn't say a word about how he found this car on Chappaquiddick, it sure would have been helpful for the buyer to see exactly what he was buying. 

Hagerty has introduced a segment called "The Appraiser" on YouTube, and a recent episode where the guest brought on his recently restored Plymouth Superbird captured a key detail that we at The Common Gear have long believed in. 

"Chris (the owner) has said he has no original paperwork for the car, which, although it's not the kiss of death on a Mopar, it would be really nice to have a factory broadcast sheet, or some ownership history, original window sticker, something like that. That would help the value." 

What's incredible to me about this is the owner likely paid $50,000 or so for the car as a project, and then paid to have it restored by one of the leading Mopar shops in the country. So, let's say he's $175,000 all in on this car the day he picks it up. It just blows my mind that you'd spend that kind of cash and not even ask the seller to purchase a report that breaks down the VIN plate, or shows its ownership history to the point that he picked it up. It's not always easy but I've done it for $2,000 junkyard cars - why would a six-figure shopper not make the same effort? 

While he's not likely to be unable to sell the car when it comes time, he may be in for a $10,000 - $20,000 hit as a result - and that seems like a huge price to pay in exchange for not making the effort to track down a few pieces of paper. Watch the full episode below. 

For a while now, I've felt the train is leaving the station as it relates to the 996 chassis Porsche 911. More so than any index fund, the Porsche 911 has only gone up in value year over year. I know anyone reading will think I'm just being a spendthrift, but this truly is an investment decision. 

Every chassis of the 911 has eventually become a car with a $50K price of entry. I look at these cars now and feel like there's a door opening on the 996 right now, which has time and again proven itself to be a far better car than it was ever given credit for. 

Right now, my perfect specimen is for sale in Georgia. '99 model year, which is generally thought to be less prone to IMS failure (but this car has had the IMS work done already); traditional cable-operated throttle (no drive-by-wire); a two-wheel drive Carrera, as opposed to the 4WD Carrera 4; has th optional rear wiper (don't ask me why this matters); and just ratty enough to be cheaper than most other 996s for sale right now.

My plan had been in the spring to sell either the E91 or the Dakota and use the funds to buy the 996. But now my plan is to take out a short-term loan, grab this 996, and continue with the plans to sell one of those two cars in 2-3 months. I hate owing banks money but assuming either of those two cars is a fast sale, it's a minor inconvenience to grab this car. If it hasn't sold by Friday, I have a PPI scheduled at a shop near Road Atlanta for Friday morning. 

Letting the universe be my guide on this one. 

One of my favorite rabbit holes tracking down the original selling dealer when I add a new project to the fleet. I have been incredibly successful for the most part, barring a few vehicles that left no trace of where they were sold new. 

The Audi S6 Avant came with the full assortment of original owner's manuals and service stamps from when it was nearly new. The dealership didn't ring any bells to me at first - Holbert's Audi / Porsche / Volkswagen in Warrington, PA - but as I began looking for a dealer plate frame to adorn the rear of the wagon, I realized this was a very cool connection to IMSA and Porsche's factory racing efforts in the U.S. 

Al Holbert was the second-generation owner of one of the earliest VW franchises in the U.S. His father, Bob, was an early adopter of air-cooled Porsches as his preferred track car for SCCA events throughout the Northeast. While Bob was a successful racer and driver for none other than Carroll Shelby, it was Al who brought it all together, combining business acumen with true driving talent, making him both a successful dealership owner and championship-winning driver for Porsche. He is still the winningest driver in IMSA history. 

From his efforts to bring segment-busting models like the 959 to the U.S. to convincing Porsche to build an ill-fated Indy car, Al Holbert was a force to be reckoned with. His son Todd runs an outstanding Instagram page with regular updates featuring archival footage from the dealership and the track. Tragically, Al was killed in a plane crash in 1988, but his legacy with some of the most iconic racing cars, including the brutal Porsche 962s, will forever live on.

Enjoy this clip from the 1983 running of LeMans, when Holbert's car blew its engine on the final lap and he popped the clutch, jammed it into first, and crossed the finish line at crawling speeds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWCmNNclG30

For many of us of a certain age, we realize that the world of automobiles and motorsports is incredibly hard to penetrate. Those of us who remember pulling up to our first autocross event, or a track day session, know it's an intimidating crowd (at first, and then mostly friendly) and that you'll soon be picking apart your performance on the course for the rest of the weekend. (Or, if you're like me, finding an excuse to buy a different car as a means to cutting a few seconds off your lap time.)

But let's be real: if you've been introduced to road racing or autocross by a certain age, there's a good chance you already had a toe in the hobby somewhere. Many of the stories you hear about the men and women who shaped auto racing in one form or another grew up in the business, with a family member who owned a car dealership or a father who worked in Dearborn. It's rare that an individual just happens to fall into auto racing and then goes on to become a household name in the sport.

Ken Block was a rule breaker in numerous ways, but the manner in which he made motorsports accessible to all is what stands out the most. Yes, he was a successful entrepreneur with the means to pick any sport he wanted to become competent in. The fact he chose rally racing is a godsend to anyone who wished that more young people showed an interest in competitive motorsports. While we often lament the fact that the internal combustion engine seems to be losing ground to electrified drivetrains, Ken Block showed us what the future could look like, where highly-specialized machines are celebrated and admired on a global motorsports stage. His achievements went beyond just introducing a new audience to the joys of auto racing; he showed us how the gasoline-soaked fantasies of our youth will survive in a world where the traditional means of transportation will likely evolve to electrified fleets at some point in the future. Block's Hoonigan brand created a world where a Subaru Loyale wagon could become a turbocharged street beast capable of jumping over a bridge and the swirling blades of a helicopter. It's the stuff of legends.

If you're a gearhead like me, you likely realize how much we owe Ken Block and the Hoonigan team. He put track cars into the mainstream and showed us that becoming a part of auto racing culture didn't require having a great uncle who worked on Brian Redman's pit crew at Sebring. He made it accessible to all and likely added hundreds of thousands (if not more) of followers to the hobby many of us hold dear. 

Godspeed to Ken Block and may we never forget his culture-shifting achievements. 

In 2022, Bring A Trailer blew past its record year in 2021, recording a 63 percent increase in sales over the prior year. While the winds of change are blowing with recession fears and interest rate hikes moving in, BaT's founders don't foresee a major slow-down in its booming business. 

In addition to recording $1.35 billion in sales, the online auction merchant also saw an increase in its average sale price per vehicle, rising to $54,495, up from $47,500 in 2021. Other notable metrics include BaT selling 145 cars for more than $500,000, a 172% increase in its half-million dollar sales from 2021. 

BaT co-founder Randy Nonnenberg isn't worried about a looming recession, either, noting that BaT's low cost of entry compared to many traditional in-person auction houses will only work to its advantage should the economy take a dive. 

The company's big goal for 2023 is a noble one, and eminently achievable should a slow-down occur: get the auction house's notoriously long listing wait time down from 26 days to 10, which will only work to its advantage in the coming years. 

Read more at MSNBC: Online car market Bring a Trailer closing out year with record $1.35 billion in sales