110 replies to this topic

[lamo]

About 20 years ago some chap bought a Coloni for £30k.  Not a wealthy collector or suchlike but an enthusiast who wanted a Formula 1 car.

 

And now?  A EuroBrun ER188 was sold in August for north of £230k...

 

A Eurobrun for $300k.  They made a grand total of 21 F1 starts, never scored a single point and had a best ever finish of 11th. That's a lot for that car.

 

It would make a Brabham, any Brabham for $20k even more of a bargain.  Brabham only have 400 starts and 6 F1 world championships in comparison. 

Edited by lamo, 13 December 2024 - 00:35.

[djr900]

I don't think any of these cars will sell for as little as 20k, at least not while mr Ecclestone is alive.

I don't think he would be happy thinking someone got something cheap from him.
unless perhaps a car went to a friend or a museum/charity he likes.

He and his family don't need the money or the space, the cars will stay where they are till they sell for a price they are happy with

[Sterzo]

He and his family don't need the money or the space, the cars will stay where they are till they sell for a price they are happy with

That's probably true, though his £652,000,000 tax bill might influence the need to sell a car or two.

[djr900]

That's probably true, though his £652,000,000 tax bill might influence the need to sell a car or two.

The thing is, to have a £652,000,000 tax bill, how many billions of profits did he earn to get that sort of tax bill ?
So I am sure he has a few billion left.

People always moan about tax, but personally, I would love to pay £1million income tax a year, because you need to be earning around £2million at least to get a £1million tax bill

[ensign14]

That's probably true, though his £652,000,000 tax bill might influence the need to sell a car or two.

 

You would think that someone with nous would suggest to Mr E that HMG could take the car collection in lieu of payment, and set up a museum somewhere like, I dunno, Donington, nice and central.  And generate income for decades to come.

[BRG]

You would think that someone with nous would suggest to Mr E that HMG could take the car collection in lieu of payment, and set up a museum somewhere like, I dunno, Donington, nice and central.  And generate income for decades to come.

I rather doubt that suggestion would impress Rachel Reeves in her never-ending quest to plug the non-existent "black hole" in the government's accounts.  She would rather wait for BCE to pass on and scoop it all up in inheritance tax.  She has already put an end to that iniquitous £200 fuel payment that Bernie has been getting.

[Risil]

Let's not go there!

 

There is a Paddock Club thread on the subject though.

[Nemo1965]

This thread’s title is slightly misleading. Or the subject has veered off in another direction. So here goes nothing: has something concrete come up about Bernie’s trustworthiness as a car salesman? I’m not taking about the Great Train Robbery-rumors, which have always struck me as a marketing ploy by Bernie himself.

Edited by Nemo1965, 13 December 2024 - 20:55.

[FLB]

I suspect it's like stamp collecting. The value lies in having the complete set.

 

Bernie's own explanation why he has cars from the era after he sold the team: 'Probably because somebody forgot to pay me!'

 

[TMC44]

This thread’s title is slightly misleading. Or the subject has veered off in another direction. So here goes nothing: has something concrete come up about Bernie’s trustworthiness as a car salesman? I’m not taking about the Great Train Robbery-rumors, which have always struck me as a marketing ploy by Bernie himself.

I have lived and worked near Bexleyheath, which is where he sold cars. I knew a few people who bought cars from him and none had a good word to say about him. One day my dad was getting a lift home from a chap  he worked with. On the way home the chap said to my dad do mind if we stop at the this car sales as I want to have a word with the bloke who owns it. The chap is met outside by this littke bloke and within a few seconds there is much swearing and pointing, the chap gets back into the car, and spends the rest of the journey refering to the little bloke using every swear word you can think of. Only years later did my dad reconise who that bloke was, and by then he was team manager of Brabham.

To balance things out. I was lucky to enough  get to know the late Colin Seeley who was team manager of Brabham for a while. Although Coliin was more known for his two wheel exploits. Colin did not have a bad word to say about him, other than Bernie was tight.. Likewise a chap who I helped run a car had Bernies phone number, I never asked why he had it, but he only said good things a bout Bernie. He told me that Bernie was generous to old friends who fallen on hard times.

One thing I learnt from working on industrial estates in nearby Welling, and Erith is that you have to be a certain type of person to be a car dealer, and thats being polite. Also Nemo that area is notorious for having some of the biggest criminals in the UK. And over  time I have met most of them.

[Nemo1965]

I have lived and worked near Bexleyheath, which is where he sold cars. I knew a few people who bought cars from him and none had a good word to say about him. One day my dad was getting a lift home from a chap he worked with. On the way home the chap said to my dad do mind if we stop at the this car sales as I want to have a word with the bloke who owns it. The chap is met outside by this littke bloke and within a few seconds there is much swearing and pointing, the chap gets back into the car, and spends the rest of the journey refering to the little bloke using every swear word you can think of. Only years later did my dad reconise who that bloke was, and by then he was team manager of Brabham.
To balance things out. I was lucky to enough get to know the late Colin Seeley who was team manager of Brabham for a while. Although Coliin was more known for his two wheel exploits. Colin did not have a bad word to say about him, other than Bernie was tight.. Likewise a chap who I helped run a car had Bernies phone number, I never asked why he had it, but he only said good things a bout Bernie. He told me that Bernie was generous to old friends who fallen on hard times.
One thing I learnt from working on industrial estates in nearby Welling, and Erith is that you have to be a certain type of person to be a car dealer, and thats being polite. Also Nemo that area is notorious for having some of the biggest criminals in the UK. And over time I have met most of them.

Thank you. Very interesting. I knew that Bernie was tight. As as I recall Gordon Murray held a grudge against him. First, in his view, he let Piquet go because he did not want to pay him a salary fitting a double champion. Secondly, according to Murray, Bernie had promised him a bonus when he sold Braham. And he never did.

Then again, Bernie has saved a lot of Formula One teams from the brink with personal loans. And I know that he once talked a Dutch acquaintance of mine out of investing in Simtek, when Jos Verstappen drove there, because Bernie knew it was going down.