Les véhicules de collection, ou comment l'imperfection rend amoureux

250 GTO

À la fin des années 1960 et au début des années 1970, l’attrait pour les performances de la 250 GTO et d’autres Ferrari rares a rapidement fait augmenter leur valeur sur le marché. Comme l’industrie automobile devait se conformer à de nouvelles réglementations et se questionnait sur des décisions marketing, les performances inégalées de la 250 GTO lui conférèrent un nouveau pouvoir d'attraction. Il y avait également un changement dans la façon de considérer cette voiture : au lieu de la considérer comme une ancienne mais attachante voiture de course, des collectionneurs de renom (dont Ralph Lauren) ont commencé à voir dans la 250 GTO une sorte de voiture de grand art.

La mentalité d’investissement a atteint un sommet incroyable à la fin des années 1980. La valeur marchande de voitures de luxe, particulièrement des Ferrari, s'est envolée, la 250 GTO étant l’exemple le plus représentatif de la marque, le prix de ces voitures a atteint des sommets. Ce phénomène de hausse des prix fut particulièrement marqué en 1988, lors du décès d'Enzo Ferrari, fondateur de la marque au cheval cabré. Une de ces 250 GTO, a été vendue aux enchères en 1989 environ 9 millions de dollars, soit environ 57 millions de francs, ce qui était exorbitant à l’époque. En 2008, la côte se situe entre 15 et 20 millions de dollars selon le palmarès et l'historique de l'exemplaire.

Le fort attrait et la rareté de la voiture ont entraîné un nombre important de fausses 250 GTO basées sur des châssis Ferrari plus communes ou sur des Datsun Z. Il y a actuellement beaucoup plus de répliques que d'originales 250 GTO. À un niveau plus bas, des copies d'actes de ventes de voitures d’origine, réalisés par des gens peu scrupuleux mais aussi des copies des voitures d’origines, ont été rapportés. Bien qu’il ne l’ait pas vendue, un exemple flagrant fut celui du Britannique Charles Brocket, qui a fait passer sa 250 GTO pour une originale alors qu’il s’agissait d’une réplique. Cela ne fut révélé que lors d’une fraude à l’assurance en 1996.

Parmi les possesseurs de Ferrari 250 GTO on peut notamment citer le célèbre batteur Nick Mason, du groupe britannique Pink Floyd, le couturier américain Ralph Lauren, le PDG de Wal-Mart S Robson Walton, le PDG coréen de Samsung, Lee Kun-hee, l'acteur de cinéma Nicolas Cage. Un collectionneur japonais en posséda quatre exemplaires entre 1996 et 2000.

Reg number: G134XVX started life in 1989 as a humble Ford Transit. It was acquired by Jaguar to allow them to test the running gear of their new supercar, the XJ220 in secret.

The Transit was transformed by Jaguar into a secret test vehicle for the XJ220’s engine and running gear early on in the development of the XJ220. The van even had a ladder and roof rack fitted as part of its disguise. Unless you noticed the big ZR high speed tyres and XJ220 alloys, there are few clues to the 542bhp engine lurking underneath.
The XJ220 Transit Van has been spotted at Goodwood Festival of Speed and a few other car shows over the years.
Jim Randle designed the original XJ220 show car which was unveiled at the 1988 UK Motor show. The Van was bought and road registered in 1989. Given the 6R4 V6 engine was off the shelf, this could have been fitted to the transit very quickly, the wheels and drive train were probably bespoke so would have taken longer to fit.

The V12 and four wheel drive system of the original show car wasn’t fitted to the XJ220 van, so Jaguar must have made the decision to ditch the V12 quickly.
The XJ220 Transit Van is incredible to see and a great piece of automotive history as well as being very funny!
Surprisingly this is not the only ludicrously fast Transit Van, Ford’s Supervan 3 was based around an F1 engine…

Final Say
The XJ220 powered Transit is a monstrous hybrid of supercar and builders van. Powered by the 542BHP twin turbo V6 engine, this oddball creation will out accelerate most sports cars with ease. 0-60 is estimated at under 5 seconds and sprint to a ton in around 10 seconds.

Along with the fun of the jaw dropping turn of speed the driver can enjoy the faces of shocked motorists, ideal in this image obsessed world!

It was built by TWR in the early 90's as a rolling testbed. It was lighter than the 220 & would hit 60 quicker! Top speed at Millbrook was 170 mph. One lucky engineer (Patrick Walker) used to take it home at weekends for milage accumulation. The van was built to drive in city traffic and was a very important part of the XJ220 development as they had the test track at Millbrook to do the high speed work but nothing would test the car in city traffic,and Jaguar would not like to have bad press with a 220 at the side of the road, so the van was built as a test bed for every day driving in gridlock conditions. It is basically an XJ220 with a Transit Bodyshell stuck on top of it.

‘We look after seven of the pre-production cars,’ says Don,
proudly. ‘The first two were nothing like a 220 and had scissor
doors. The third was the first one to look like a 220.’ And what’s
this? It’s a Ford Transit.
Don explains. ‘We went to TWR to buy the last engine and
some spares. “Is there anything else?” we asked. “Only the
secondhand engine in a van,” they said. I thought they meant an
engine on a pallet that happened to be in the back of a van, but
it’s a complete XJ220 under the Transit shell.
‘It was an XJ220 mule. They were going to scrap it when TWR
was liquidated but I rescued it. It looks just like a twin-wheel
Transit apart from the XJ220 wheels, and it’s road registered.’
The Transit XJ220 once did 179mph around the Millbrook test
track’s bowl, and it made an appearance at last year’s Festival of
Speed in the livery of Goodwood’s usual Transit fleet.

I went to go see this car last Tuesday, the day after the CL ad came out. The car was surprisingly rust free, had a very nice interior, BUT, had a HUGE repair estimate that the owner was reluctant to show me. When she allowed me to see it I had to resist the urge to start running. I politely walked away. The estimate was for 6500-8000 in work, including a rebuilt transmission (2nd gear is gone in this car), suspension rebuild, misc electrical, etc. The shop in the photos is EuroCar, in Portland, their estimate basically provided me with a ppi which I was grateful for. I hope the seller disclosed this to Tony