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Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason is helping an investment group that aims to buy $150 million worth of classic cars and make annual returns of 15 per cent.
Mason is an auto enthusiast who has competed five times in the Le Mans 24 Hours race. He is on the advisory board of IGA Automobile LP, which plans to buy the finest models by top marques of the type he collects. Mason’s garage houses cars by Aston Martin, Bentley, Bugatti, Jaguar, Ferrari, such as a 250 GTO, and Porsches including the 962.
“This is the first classic-car fund that’s purely for financial returns, rather than passion,” said Nick Lancaster, a director of the Guernsey-registered fund that began canvassing investors on January 2. “We’re looking for a straightforward in- and-out return on our assets.”
Exceptional sports cars are fetching record prices, encouraging wealthy individuals to buy or sell physical objects while they assess the performance of financial markets, said dealers. Still, some are watching to see if a car fund can avoid the pitfalls of other investment groups such as those that invest in art, wine and whisky, not all of which have succeeded.
The Hagerty’s Cars That Matter “Blue Chip” Index, based on the values of the 25 most collectable postwar vehicles, has increased 67 per cent from September 2006 to the end of 2010, according to the index’s compiler, auto appraiser David Kinney of Great Falls, Virginia. Over the same period, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 5.9 per cent.
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