If you’ve ever lamented that there is nowhere left in the world to find “dry”, good value, classic cars, then take heart…I think I may have just accidentally stumbled across just such a utopia.
The world works in strange ways and the classic car world, in particular, is both strikingly strange and remarkably small. For the past 12 days, I’ve been in Cape Town, South Africa. I didn’t come here for cars at all (I came to race surfskis of all things!), but somehow cars seem to find me regardless of how remote the location. As luck would have it, I learned while here that renowned car broker and friend of the magazine Marc Devis was also in Cape Town, so we agreed to have breakfast before I flew home. Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, Marc walks into mine… so that was the first small world coincidence.
Then, what were the odds that right next door to the hotel that I randomly chose, there would be a classic car showroom? Laude Classic cars (www.laudeclassics.com) was not only next door, but in what has to be one of the great, genius moves of the ages, the owners have built out a full, sit down coffee bar in part of the showroom that serves breakfast and lunch! Is it a coffee bar with cars as decorations or a classic car showroom that serves coffee? Doesn’t matter. What a brilliant way to amortize the cost of the space and guarantee regular showroom traffic.
So, Marc and I sit there enjoying our breakfast and coffee, BS-ing about cars and having a generally grand ol’ time, when the owner, Dean Knoop, recognizes Marc and stops by to say hi. The three of us chat for a while about cars and the market, before I ask Dean if the current state of the exchange rate has hurt his business. What he said, kind of floored me, “No, it’s the opposite! Because the Rand is so devalued against the Dollar, Euro and Pound, we are selling cars like crazy. All exports. The prices are low, and like you in California, all of our cars are dry because they never see snow or bad weather.” Damn! It makes perfect sense once I hear it, but it just never really occurred to me that there could be both good cars and currency leverage here.
So, if you’re looking for good value, Africa may be the last great frontier for inexpensive, dry cars. Of course, a lot of what’s here are British classics, and right-hand drive at that, but Laude had a Ferrari and a Maserati in the showroom, so you never know what treasures you’ll discover here at the bottom of what is apparently an ever-smaller car world.
