By a show of hands, how many of you have heard of the British supercar manufacturer Noble Automotive? Not very many. Well then, even less of you have heard of the Noble’s sister car, the Rossion Q1. This is a pretty unusual car that deserves some attention, but before we delve into the Q1, it is necessary to cover a little backstory first.
What is it that makes certain cars more collectible than others? Certainly the car’s condition, its documentation, and any unusual factory options can affect a car’s value. However, I think the most important factor is rarity. The less common a car is, the more valuable it becomes.
Sometimes car manufacturers deliberately make small runs of cars, ensuring that they will become instant collectibles. Take a look at some recently produced exotic cars and their prices:
Lexus LF-A Supercar – 500 units – $375,000 each
Aston Martin One-77 – 77 units – $1,000,000 each
Lamborghini Veneno – 3 units – $3,000,000 each
It boggles my mind that automakers can produce a run of $1 or $3 million dollars cars and have no trouble selling all of them. However, it wasn’t always this way. There was a time when automakers had a hard time finding buyers for hyper-expensive cars. One of the first manufacturers to create a ridiculously high-priced supercar was none other than the Hudson Motor Company.
Okay, I know what you’re thinking: when was the last time you heard the words “Volvo” and “sports car” in the same sentence? Volvos are famous for being some of the safest and most reliable cars on the road, but they’re also quite boring. However, it wasn’t always this way. Volvo did make a sporty little coupe that was introduced back in 1960: the P1800.
There aren’t many cars on the road that I don’t recognize, but this one totally caught me by surprise at Cars and Coffee. I confess that I don’t know much about mid-century French cars, so I hope you will forgive me for not recognizing this one right away. However, I thought it intriguing enough to take some pictures – and boy, am I glad I did!
As it turns out, this gleaming silver beauty is a Facel Vega HK500. One article I read called it “The best car you’ve never heard of” and after doing some research, I can see why the author made that statement.
If you saw my previous post about Buick Century Caballero Wagons, you may remember that they are pretty rare cars. Because they were only produced for two years, they will fetch quite a premium whenever you do see one for sale. You can imagine my excitement when I saw this one at Barrett-Jackson 2013.
There’s more to this ’57 Century Caballero than just low production numbers. This is an award winning custom build by OZ Kustoms in Oroville, California. They have nicknamed the car “Dorothy” after the main character from “The Wizard of OZ.”
When you compare this car with the stock Century Caballero Wagon from the previous post, you will notice some significant changes in the body work.
One phrase that I often overhear at car shows is: “They sure don’t make ’em like that anymore.” In the case of the Buick Century Caballero Estate Wagon, they didn’t make ’em like that then, either!
The Caballero Estate Wagon was produced for two years only in 1957 and 1958. This ultra-rare car features a pillarless 4-door design and was GM’s only hardtop wagon. According to HowStuffWorks, Buick produced 10,186 Caballero Estate Wagons in 1957 and just 4,456 in 1958.
