Exotic cars not just for the rich and famous
By Garth Gullekson For CanWest News Service
OTTAWA — A typical participant at a car show for exotic German and Italian cars is usually a lottery winner, an overpaid executive or a spoiled fritterer of inherited wealth with a car wax fetish. However, if the recent Rennsport Region Porsche Club of America charity car show at Ottawa’s Canada Aviation Museum is typical, you are more likely to meet hardworking “ordinary” people who own extraordinary cars.
David Wilson will never be profiled on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. He has an important but low-paying job as an early childhood educator at an Ottawa community college day-care centre.
He describes being in a Canadian Tire parking lot and overhearing a father muttering to his sons: “Who would leave the top off a $50,000 car like that? You’re just asking to have it stolen.” The car was Wilson’s 1974 Porsche 914 that, even with a full tank of gas, is worth under $10,000. Its unique styling, rarity and immaculate condition are why it commands so much attention.
The car may be low-budget, but the fun factor is first-class. As Wilson relates: “The price difference between my car and a new Boxster is huge, but there’s not a huge difference in driving enjoyment or the range of club activities you can participate in with the car.”
A typical 62-year-old retired school teacher should be driving a sensible Toyota Camry, but Rob Martin is far from typical. He owns a 1972 Porsche 911 T, painstakingly upgraded to 911 RSR factory race car specifications. “It just dances on the race track. It’s a joy to drive — it’s a challenge to drive,” Martin says proudly.
Track-prepared cars are seldom cheap. “I’m not a man of infinite means,” Martin laughs. “On the contrary, I’m definitely not in the high-roller class.” How does Martin afford it? He and his wife, Barbara, who shares his passion, “have scrimped and saved and adjusted our priorities.”
Charity, not vanity, motivated Martin to exhibit his car at the show, which supported the Fondation Charles-Bruneau. The charity treats child cancer patients and conducts cancer research. Martin had previously given the children rides in his car. “Seeing the look of joy on their faces,” he relates, “moves you so much that sometimes you have a hard time seeing the road for the tears in your eyes.”
Does the old stock car racing adage — “Race on Sunday, sell on Monday” — apply to Italian exotics? You bet!
Carm Scaffidi is a member of the Ottawa chapter of the Ferrari Club of America and participated in the show. He is a cubicle-dwelling software developer for Adobe who owns a 1995 Ferrari 355 GTS.
“Co-owns with the bank is more accurate,” Scaffidi says. “If it wasn’t for the bank, I wouldn’t have that car. They are allowing me to live my dream.” The full support of his wife and daughter, both confirmed car fanatics, is just as critical.
His dream of owning one was fuelled by years of following Ferrari in Formula One. Scaffidi says: “I finally sat in a Ferrari and tried it, and there was no looking back. I had to buy one.”
But this wasn’t an impulse buy. He had researched Ferraris for years. The modern-era cars are reliable, driveable in street traffic and not too expensive to maintain. After 10 to 15 years of depreciation, they tend to hold their value. “Many people don’t take into consideration that you can buy an exceptional car for little more than some high-end SUV and still sell it several years later for what you paid for it. Long-term cost of ownership is less than you might think,” Scaffidi explains.
Does he have any regrets about stretching his finances to purchase the car? He answers emphatically: “No. I have a big smile on my face every time I drive it.”
Karen Branston, a single mother from Chelsea, Que., organized the show. A confirmed motorhead who first started driving dune buggies at age 12, she loves Porsches. “I see beauty where most women see a piece of metal that is leaking oil,” Branston says.
Her 1983 Porsche 911 SC Cabriolet is a rare European model. It marked Porsche’s reintroduction of convertibles after an absence of more than a decade. Yet she purchased the car for under $30,000 and, with its rear seats, it allows the whole family to enjoy top-down motoring. “You can buy an awful lot of fun for the same price as most typical family cars,” she says.
