A reader contacted me a while back and asked quite shyly about the eligibility of his car for our Orange Blossom Tour. He explained that while he didn’t have a “real classic” sports car, he wanted to enter our event with his BMW Z3 M Roadster.
I was stunned and quickly replied, “Sir, you absolutely have a real classic sports car. In fact, you have what many will come to lust after, much as we seek out cars today like the Alfa Giulietta and Shelby Mustang.”
Part of our job here at Classic Motorsports is spotting the next great thing. Fortunately, that job is getting easier all the time. The future looked pretty bleak in the ’70s and ’80s, but now there’s a whole generation of incredible sports cars just waiting to become old enough to get the respect they are due.
And if you get in before the rest of the world finds out, you can scoop up a low-mileage creampuff for used-car money.
Along with the aforementioned M Roadster, which is super cool and highly entertaining, I’m talking about vehicles like the Porsche Boxster, Mazda Miata, Audi TT and Mercedes-Benz SLK of the ’90s.
Need proof that these deserve to be called modern classics? Just look at the facts. These cars were blazingly fast by classic sports car standards, refined, sexy as hell, and even practical, with reasonable fuel economy and effective emissions controls.
Yes, they’re much more complicated than the classic little British car, but they still have dedicated fans who aren’t afraid to work on and improve them.
A lot of pristine versions of these near-classics are showing up for sale on specialty sites like Bring a Trailer. Prices are going up, and they’re selling fast. Still, I’ve seen several nice–really nice– early, low-mileage Miatas sell just recently for less than $10,000.
Of course, the ones to get are the creampuffs. There’s no reason to buy a rat unless you like the anguish and expense that restoration brings. Having restored far more than my share of cars, I’m not suggesting that restoration is a bad thing, but there’s still an ample supply of solid cars out there. May as well buy the best one you can find.
As with any collector car, special editions, first- and final-year models, and rare color and option combinations are your best bet.
If I were a wiser man, I’d sell just one of my old cars and put that money into a small fleet of future classics.
Let’s take a budget of $50,000, which is probably a reasonable amount to get for a nice, mid-level classic sports car. I would start by buying a 1991 Miata in British Racing Green with tan leather. This was the first real Miata special edition, and $12,000 should get me a perfect, unmolested example with less than 50,000 miles.
Next I’d go Porsche shopping: An iconic, silver-with-red, first-year ’97 Boxster that needs nothing would cost about $10,000. Let’s make it a first-year ’99 Boxster S for another $5000; for that money I’d get more motor, bigger brakes, and one heck of a performance car.
The final car on my list would be that M Roadster. Make mine Estoril Blue with the two-tone dark- and light-blue interior. And again, I don’t want to work on it, so I’ll spend all the money and get a loaded, low-mileage car with heated seats and all the toys for about $18,000.
So for $40,000 to $45,000 (depending on whether I spring for that Boxster S), I’ll have three of the coolest, most drivable, purest sports cars ever made. That leaves enough in my budget to pick up a 1989 BMW 325is, one of the best daily drivers ever made. I may just bank that money instead, as it’s enough to keep my new collection running well for the next decade or longer.
You know, this is starting to sound like a great story for a future issue. Maybe I’ll sell one of my cars and invest in these three near-classics. If I do, in another 10 years (once the world wakes up and realizes what the car gods gave us in the ’90s) I’ll be laughing all the way to the bank.
In the meantime, I’ll be grinning ear to ear while enjoying these great cars on back roads for pennies on the dollar.
"In defense of the near classic" sums up a number of recent past cars that I find classic because of looks or the driving experience or whatever but that are exceedingly affordable. I would say one of those has to be Jaguar's first generation XK8/XKR X100 series. Both in convertible and the much rarer coupe forms, they are simply gorgeous, classic looking offerings that are available for well under $10,000.00, pristine examples at maybe $15000.00. While the 4.0L cars had some issues that have to be dealt with (plastic secondary tensioners replacements), most of the cars still on the road have already had it done. Several weeks ago, I inspected one for a jaguarforum member who lives on the east coast, and it needed a little love as the paint was scratched in several places, but it ran fine, the convertible top worked as intended, and the car was a whopping $4000 here in Los Angeles! I also think the X150 (second generation XK/XKR), especially in 5.0L supercharged guise is a terrificly fine automobile, quicker and more nimble than its German brethren of the era, certainly more beautiful, and available now in the low to mid $20K range for nice examples. While the X150 might not have the outright sexiness of the X100, it's a much more modern, drivable, better handling, better ride, better everything than it's older sibling, and that 5.0L supercharged engine will shock you the first time you step on the happy pedal.
