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When I was on Wall Street, I used to
think that I knew a lot of rich guys,"
says New Jersey builder and avid classic
Packard collector David E. Kane. "But
they were all millionaires, and the
longer I am in the car hobby, the more I
find that a lot of [car collectors] are
billionaires. They want to buy the best
of the best of the best, and that’s why
you’re seeing such strong appreciation
in the top collector cars."
The best of the best to which Kane
refers would certainly include Packards–he
owns five models from the 1930s–along
with fine examples of Peerless and
Pierce-Arrow automobiles. Imposing,
innovative, technologically advanced and
produced in relatively small and
sometimes tiny numbers, the Three Ps, as
they are known among collectors, are
perhaps the grandest automobiles ever
built. Today they rank with the most
collectible American cars from the first
40 years of motoring. "They were
extraordinary cars and some of the
finest of their era," says David Gooding,
whose Gooding & Co. in Santa Monica,
Calif., specializes in collectible car
auctions and private treaty sales. "I
think a great Pierce 48 is quite
comparable to a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost,
and the Packard Twelve is one of the
ultimate cars of its era."
Peerless, which stopped making cars
in 1931 and is today a largely forgotten
marque, represents the leader in
opulence from the earliest years of the
20th century. Collector Alan Clendenen,
of Newport Beach, Calif., owns a 1912
Peerless 48 hp, seven-passenger touring
car, one of only two that exist. He
estimates its worth at some $300,000.
Until 1907, Peerless built "far and away
the most advanced American car,"
Clendenen says, one that was also bigger
than Pierce’s until around 1913.
Peerless is so rare today that perhaps
35 examples survive. During World War
II, their high aluminum content made
them valuable in scrap metal drives.
Today, collectors such as Clendenen pay
top dollar for these marques. Thanks to
increasing attention from automobile
aficionados, the market value has soared
for the finest and rarest of the Three P
cars. "The good stuff–the interesting
and rare bodies, the correctly and
well-restored cars–is inherently
collectible and should always have a
market," says Christopher Sanger, a
motorcars specialist for Christie’s in
New York. These include the five
magnificent Silver Arrows produced by
Pierce-Arrow in 1933. Just three survive,
one of which is at The Auto Collections
at the Imperial Palace Hotel in Las
Vegas bearing a $1.45 million price tag.
Another sold privately for $1.3 million,
according to marque aficionado Pat Craig
of Stockton, Calif.
Bold and
Beautiful
The finest Three P examples boast
unassailable design, engineering and
social credentials. Pioneering Peerless
produced cars with the first engine
under the hood, first enclosed body,
first shaft drive and first accelerator
pedal. In 1914, Pierce-Arrow integrated
headlights into front fenders, a
stylistic breakthrough that foreshadowed
future automotive streamlining. Pierce’s
iconic Model 66 sported a massive
825-cubic-inch power plant, reputedly
the largest production automobile engine
ever made. In 1916, Packard put the
world’s first 12-cylinder engine into a
production car.
These were huge automobiles,
frequently weighing in at 3 tons and
more. The wheelbase of the Pierce 66
stretched more than 12 feet, and Packard
and Pierce models in the 1930s regularly
boasted similar dimensions. Not
surprisingly, they were the marques of
choice for the country’s business,
social, cultural, sports and show
business elite. "Their drivability,
sheer size and beauty are outstanding,
and everything about them screamed
quality," says Skip Marketti, curator of
the Nethercutt Collection, a museum with
200 cars in the Los Angeles suburb of
Sylmar. It houses two Peerless cars.
|
VALUE JUDGMENT:
Packard, Peerless and
Pierce-Arrow–known as the Three
Ps–rank among the most desirable
American collector cars of the
20th century. Visually striking,
mechanically groundbreaking and
sumptuous, these automobiles
were among the finest ever built.
Today, mounting interest from
aficionados has driven the
market values for some of the
best examples well into the
seven-figure range. |
They were also breathtakingly expensive,
selling for thousands of dollars when
family cars typically sold for a few
hundred. Peerless sold a 60 hp limousine
for $11,000–in 1903, when the average
American earned 17 cents an hour. The
1905 Peerless touring car cost $6,000.
The Pierce Great Arrow, renowned for
winning several Glidden Tours in
succession, cost as much as $7,750 as a
Model 65-Q in 1907. Ford’s 1908 Model T
cost $750. Even as the country sank into
the depths of the Great Depression,
which helped doom Packard, Peerless and
Pierce-Arrow, these cars continued to be
wildly expensive. In 1933,
Pierce-Arrow’s five original aerodynamic,
V-12 Silver Arrows cost $10,000, making
them the most expensive American car
behind Duesenberg. The 1934 Packard
Twelve 1108 was priced at $6,555, and
the company’s custom-bodied gems of the
1930s often cost more.
Brass With
Class
These days, Packard and Pierce
aficionados square off about which is
the better auto. "The finest American
luxury car was the Pierce-Arrow, and
don’t let anybody tell you different,"
boasts Don Meyer, a collector-dealer in
Lebanon, N.J. "A lot of guys will tell
you the Packards were the greatest cars
in the world, but Pierce was always the
car of the American aristocracy." Craig,
whose 25-car Pierce-Arrow collection
includes 16 made from 1904 to 1918,
agrees. "I call Pierce-Arrow the
Rolls-Royce of American cars," he says.
"I know the Packard people disagree with
me, and the early Peerless was a
wonderful car, but Pierce-Arrow was
heads and shoulders above them
mechanically." Yet when asked which is
the most collectible, Bob Turnquist, a
Morristown, N.J., collector and former
president of the Classic Car Club of
America, answers flatly: "Packard."
Another variable
in the value equation is that two
primary collectible eras exist in the
span between the turn of the century and
World War II. The first encompasses the
pioneering "brass" and "nickel" cars
before and just after World War I–demarcated
by the changeover from brass to
nickel-plated radiators and running
gear. The second is the first half of
the 1930s when majestic automobiles with
12-cylinder engines ruled the luxury
marketplace, and custom-made bodies
resulted in the most beautiful American
cars ever made. Many are poster-pretty
examples of automotive styling, such as
the gorgeous 1931 Packard Eight 840
Sport Phaeton.
"Collectors today want sporty cars
and open cars, and there were a lot of
Packards and Pierce-Arrows like that,"
says Mike Fairbairn, cofounder of RM
Auctions in Blenheim, Ontario, which
specializes in the top end of the
collector car market. "In the perfect
world, you buy a brass-era Pierce-Arrow
and a [1930s] Packard."
Stately seminal examples from the
brass period before 1916–Fairbairn
describes them as "almost Edwardian"–exhibit
remarkable sophistication, and they are
so rare that the market for them is
paper-thin and intensely private. Craig
estimates that perhaps 100 brass Pierces
remain. He recently bought a four-car
collection just to get one. "They rarely
get to market," he says. There are even
fewer brass Peerless models.
In fact, brass cars and nickel models up
to the beginning of the 1920s, Fairbairn
says, represent a hot area of collecting
right now. They are outpacing a
generally robust market for collector
cars, with some examples appreciating at
30 percent per year. Pierce collectors
focus primarily on large cars from the
brass and early nickel era, according to
Gooding, who notes that they have
appreciated significantly in the past
decade. Fine examples of large brass
cars, Fairbairn adds, command a market
value of $300,000 and more, and some
could easily bring $1 million.
Prize Packards
Prices, however, are difficult to
document. Not one brass car sold at
auction last year to set the market,
Christie’s Sanger says. Fairbairn says
RM has not had one brass Peerless come
up for sale in the dozen-plus years the
company has conducted auctions. "Brass
cars are always sold over the phone,"
Turnquist explains. Craig values his
nickel-era 1918 Pierce-Arrow Model 66
Roadster at $600,000, based on recently
paying $300,000 for a 1917 model. "I
know my four-passenger roadster is worth
at least twice that," he claims, adding
these figures make prices for most 1930s
brass-era Packards look foolish.
The stunning amounts recently associated
with top collector Packards, however,
hardly seem trivial. A 1934 Packard
Twelve Runabout Speedster with a LeBaron
custom body, sporting pontoon fenders
and a tapered boat tail rear end–"pure
sex on wheels," Fairbairn says–commanded
$3.2 million at RM Auctions’ Arizona
Biltmore sale in January. A 1934 Packard
Twelve Convertible Victoria with a
Dietrich body sold for $1.045 million at
a 2004 RM sale. Custom-bodied Packards,
particularly those made by independent
coachbuilders LeBaron and Dietrich, are
worth between $600,000 and $2 million,
Fairbairn explains. A Dietrich body is
the more formal–"the Brooks Brothers
suit of the automotive world"–while a
LeBaron body is "the Italian suit."
Stories abound, Packard collector Kane
says, of top cars bought 10 to 20 years
ago appreciating markedly. Cars like his
1934 Dietrich-bodied Packard V12
Runabout, one of three built, might have
sold for $80,000 then. He speculates
that its worth today might be $2
million. "The cars that have more than
one strong point–uniqueness, condition,
mileage–are at the top end of the market,"
Kane adds. For Packard, that means cars
like convertible coupes and sport
phaetons. "There seems to be an almost
unlimited amount people will pay for the
most unique cars," he points out.
Whenever one of these cars changes hands,
its selling price almost becomes the
floor, he says, for other top cars. "The
people who can afford these cars don’t
care if [one they want] is a
half-million dollars more [than most
collectors think it is worth]."
In the 1930s, Packard produced
numerous series of Twin Six and Twelve
models with 12-cylinder engines–and a
few with 8-cylinder motors. Those with
custom bodies created both in the
factory and by independent coachbuilders
have become among the priciest of
collectible American cars. Old Cars
Price Guide, the hobby’s bible,
declares "value not estimable" for a
dozen series and models representing
scores of cars from 1930 to 1938. "Some
of the grand, high-quality, high-style,
high-price, high-performance,
low-production Packards from the early
’30s are worth millions," says Leslie
Kendall, curator of the Petersen
Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. "It’s
all in the coachwork." Prices openly
bumped toward record-setting territory,
combined with a relatively plentiful
supply, have created a thriving
marketplace in the custom-bodied
beauties.
"A whole bunch of money is going
after the best stuff," Fairbairn notes.
"You always think they can’t go any
higher, but then they do."
Richard John Pietschmann is a
freelance writer in Los Angeles and a
regular contributor to Worth.
www.worth.com/Editorial/Money-Meaning/Passion-Investments/Wheels-Wings-Water/Passion-Investments-Auto-Insatiable-Drive-2.asp
Peerless A 1903
- Pierce-Arrow A 1917
- Packard 1934 Twelve |
