Quote Originally Posted by Normb666 View Post
Jim - interesting stuff regarding Ultimas...I know they're high-end and proper stuff (ex-Lee Noble, aren't they, and used by Gordon Murray as mules when he was developing the McLaren F1) so I get why they hold their values. Interesting point about Stratos reps being perhaps even more desirable because of the heritage of their inspiration car, and so potentially being worth even more - hadn't thought of that. I think with "our" cars having been around for 30+ years, there's still a tendency for us to think of them as "merely" kit cars, and not the high-end items that some of them really are, which is how the Great Unwashed out there seem to be viewing them now.
The thing is tho Norm, that with Ultimas the secret is that it's all perceived value. It costs a lot for the kit because... err... the factory charges a lot for the kit. A factory build car costs an even bigger lot because... the factory charge a lot more to build it. They hold their values well as 2nd hand cars because.. err.. they cost a lot to buy and that in itself supports the value of 2nd hand cars. It doesn't matter what the new cost is at the moment because... there's enough folk wanting to order one than there are folk deciding it's too long to wait or it's too expensive.

To relate it back to Stratos replicas, perhaps the best thing that could happen on the 2nd hand market for current owners would be if they stopped making new ones or whacked the price up by £10k or more for new kits. My bold prediction is that the 1st LB listed in the classifieds of Pistonheads or the like at over £70k will have cost less than that to buy**

** won't be mine. I intend keeping it for a while but if £55/60k is becoming the new norm for what's out there at the moment then it's not a great leap to guess where the latest ones will end up when the time comes, albeit they will have cost a bit more to start with.

All IMHO of course