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Interesting article in yesterday's New York Times about the increasing appreciation for (and $ value of) unrestored cars, almost lamenting the numbers of well-preserved original cars that have been needlessly restored. How nice it is to see this trend gaining traction, especially from the venue that so values restoration (dare I say over-restoration?).

Granted the article was aimed at the very high end cars, Ferraris, M-B, etc. One example cited was a pair of M-B 300SL cars at Pebble auction last year - one impeccably restored and the other original and not even carefully preserved. The original sold for a half-million more than the restored example.

The article, by Robert C. Yeager, appears in Section B, page 4, and is titled "A New Class of Ferrari Takes a Bow at Pebble Beach - Unrestored".

If memory serves, your friend Babinsky was one of the people pushing Pebble to give unrestored special status.

Link to the NYT article.

I don't care. Those people are crazy the same way as art collectors. Recently I was at a show where half of the Cadillacs were original and only one of the restored Cadillacs was overdone. Later I was told the overdone car was in a collision that destroyed the original body.

I think a better way to describe what is being done to Packards is customization. They are recreated in the eye of the restorer.

I got a laugh recently when I read some advertisement about some $4.1 million dollar Packard and how is was the best and so on and so forth. I guess I must be the only person in the world who noticed the car is missing parts like the striping. Can't those millionaires afford to get those cars properly striped?

I don't think those people actually like cars at all. I think they like the politics. If you look at who they are talking to in that article it is clear they don't know a wrench from a ratchet. The whole thing is like one of F. Scott Fitzgerald's worst nightmares.