ChrisBlair

When I was growing up in the 70s and 80s, the "old cars" of the day were things that are sometimes coveted today. Things that were just old cars. A '66 Comet was a block away. Just past that house, the '71 Le Mans I should have bought. My neighbor had a '68 Fury III. A mile away was the '70 Buick convertible I did buy. A '70 Cyclone GT and a '70 Torino GT were in the next neighborhood and there were wild painted early '70s Vettes here and there. Even cars a few years old like the Monte Carlos of the mid 70s and the miscellaneous VW Bugs everywhere, tired station wagons of the '60s and ancient pickups fro the 50s.

When I got a little older I got books on muscle cars. I was introduced to rarity. 1 of 16 produced with this engine bodystyle and transmission. 1 of 2 made. 1 of 8 in this special color. One of 678 with that engine. I found my own car was one of less than 3700 which turned out to be pretty rare as it goes, they made over 660,000 of them that year. Pretty fun. I read more, talked to more people. Engine trans and bodystyle. that was what we mostly considered for rarity. Sometimes specific options. Like a Stage 1 which wasn't in the VIN, or options for an option, OK, tans Am convertible, Hemi 'Cuda convertible, LS6 rag top, Other cars like Cale Yarborough and Dan Gurney Specials, Swiss Cheese Catalinas. Thunderbolts, or more little known things like K-codes or rent-a-racers.

Today it seems different. I hear 'car guys' telling me about their "rare car" from the 60s. OK, shoot... It has a little used interior color AND a bench seat PLUS it had a rubber mat, no carpet bu also an FM radio! Um, OK, sure maybe not many made that way I guess. Bizarrely optioned, maybe a bit. By all means be proud of it. It's a cool car. But "rare"? Every piece of old iron is today rare! What is "rare" and does it mean the same thing it always did? It seems to not. To me for instance, every say 1965 Corvette is "rare". Not many made at all compared to "normal" car production. Splitting it down to did it have tinted glass or not as a way to set the car apart gets a bit nit-picky. I mean, that's OK but it seems we used to look at a larger picture, overall. Corvettes probably are more polarizing but as a whole the hobby never presented itself to me as being like that and I started in it in 1989. And then too rarity is one thing, dollar value based on raw rarity is another.

Setting the car apart seems to be the need and the goal as if the ancient car surviving to this day isn't rare enough. So is the result it the auctions we see all the time now that makes this? Car TV shows? They seem to play up options and rarity constantly to make it interesting and they seem to speak authoritatively (but are too often mistaken) about the subjects and people just accept it? As the old original owners die off, is it new owners, proud of their cars, who exaggerate or perhaps misunderstand that really, they made over a million of your car in 1965 and to stand out it needs more than a couple options to be actually "rare"? Wishful thinking? Having the old car was always enough for me....then there's the "my 1966 Ford is a sleeper!" thing that boggles my mind, as if that car is flying under the radar in 2024 but I digress.

I guess car culture just changes no matter what I did or do or think or (used to) know and that's probably a good thing, otherwise it would die. But rarity today?

phil2302

Nice post thanks!
Call me cynical but outside of the Ford GT40 I dont see any recent American made autos becoming collector cars.

road pilot

All my life I have been car crazy. All my life I thought rare was a lazy guys excuse for not
modifying his car. Keeping it stock and not having the will,money,or skill to update or
even maintain his rare car. There are exceptions but they are few. Waxing a car is not
enough.

ChrisBlair

That's an interesting point: too many cars are made today to use the same criteria for "rare" as we used to use it.

ChrisBlair

That's also interesting, I never looked at it that way. I suppose what was paid for the car flavors the whole idea of 'rarity' now that you mention this.

Lotsacubes

Sitting here reading my latest Road and Track that showed showed up yesterday with my Saturday morning coffee and Tennessee country view. Well written Chris. It felt almost seamless switching from Peter Egan to Chris Blair. Actually enjoyed how you wrote more than what you wrote. I’ll go back and re-read to get what you wrote. Happy Easter. Larry

ChrisBlair

Thanks, and Happy Easter Larry!

Railroadman

About two more weeks and I'll be enjoying that too.

I don't remember anybody in my circle back then knowing or caring anything about rarity. It was all about how fast it was, and whether it was cool or not.

JF in MI

Like Belloq said to Indiana Jones; 'Look at this (pocket watch). It's worthless, ten dollars from a vendor on the street. Bury it in the sand for a thousand years and it's priceless like the Ark'.

ChrisBlair

Are you trying to say that someday I'll be valuable?

jforb

I don't pay attention to TV auctions, so I don't notice much of the "rarity" talk.

And rarity doesn't equal desirability. My 62 Vette came with the rare Powerglide option, and the even rarer non-Posi lack of option, but I fixed both of those issues. Making the remaining original PG/open rear cars even more rare!

Nowhere Man

my take on all of this is everyone is looking for a tittle for their car to justify their own belief why they own it or why they spent money on it . weather the tittle is rare, one of XX, or resto mod. no matter what old car you look at there is a notation behind it. I am just as guilty of this as many others.

JF in MI

Are you suggesting that, at this point, you're not old enough yet or you're, at this time, worthless?

ChrisBlair

Huh? You forgot what else Belloq said

Belloq: "What a fitting end to your life's pursuits. You're about to become a permanent addition to this archaeological find. Who knows? In a thousand years, even you may be worth something."

SEVNT6

I was an 11 year old kid in '69 when a guy who lived at the bottom of our hill bought a new car.
And even though I was already a complete Corvette freak I thought it was about the coolest car I'd ever seen....

A '69 Trans Am...talk about rare..

Boyan

I have a very rare car, but I rarely talk about it, some could say Holy Grail or 1 of 1….it’s the only one (at this time) with that specific serial number….

kts1962

Sometimes - the Rarity is in the fact that the car is still alive & running after 50+ Years...
Our Corvettes are Fiberglass/on steel frame which doesn't rust out as badly as other, steel bodied cars of the period
So, while my Late '66 Model Year, L79 - HT motor (very few other options) probably began as a Dealer Stock, not a customer order, and wasn't rare then, it kinda is now.
This is partly due to the fact there has been a dedicated group preserving and promoting them all along the way.

Best to all

dplotkin

I bought this not because it is rare (964 built) but because I have wanted one since I first understood what they are. My L78 Convertible is rare too, 1,402 built but I never think of it that way. There are just too many C2's in nature to get that feeling. Now this white finned whale with the toilet seat on the deck lid, that's rare.


Dan

jforb

I guess, but my friend who had the convertible version (with the long ram dual quad intake) of that 300 had a really rare car

dplotkin

238 made, indeed he did.

Dan