Page 7 - Wayne Carini's Guide to Affordable Classics

Foreword
Many of the cars profiled in this book are great entry points No Aston Martin, Ferrari or Porsche is likely to ever be “cheap,”
into the hobby. Driving a slow car fast is always more fun than driving a fast car slow. Toss around an MGA or Fiat 124 through a twisty country road and you’ll know what I mean. The same holds true for sitting behind the wheel of a Lamborghini Gallardo in rush-hour traffic – not much fun at all. Think of this book as the spiritual successor to Road & Track’s Used Car Classics, containing Wayne’s valuable advice and insightful profiles that are sure to expand your automotive horizons. I know that some might question including several models from Aston Martin, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche among a gathering of “affordable” automobiles. Well, I could say that affordability is relative and that the examples selected are at the lower end of the price scale for these famously expensive automobiles, but remember that affordable and inexpensive are not the same thing.
A few years ago, I passed on a Ferrari 308 that I found on Craigslist in Palm Springs, California. The seller wanted $40,000 and I countered with an offer that was a few thousand dollars light of the mark. I walked away, hoping that we would reach an agreement in the coming days, but the call never came. Over the next year, prices increased dramatically and that $40,000 price would have been pretty attractive. It was the closest that I would come to owning a Ferrari until this past summer when I bought a tattered 308 for $16,000. It sat in the paint shop at F40 Motorsports for a few months until Wayne advised me that the cost to get it running and driving would exceed what the car would be worth after the work was done. I managed to sell it for the same price that I had paid a few months earlier, which I consider a small victory.
but there are examples out there that regular people can afford, even if it takes stretching the budget to make it happen. As a friend once told me, “You can sleep in your car, but you can’t drive around in a house.” Depending on the car, it might be worth the back pain and lack of closet space. I hope that you enjoy this first volume of Wayne Carini’s Affordable Classic Cars and all the future editions in this series. With so much valuable information inside, this is a book that should educate and entertain you for years to come.
Read about the cars that interest you and then read about the ones that you would never have previously considered owning. Think of this book as a tool to expand your automotive horizons, using it to provide you with a base of knowledge from which to delve deeper into the examples that capture your interest. With the information available on the internet changing at a rapid pace, we have provided QR codes in “The Facts” section that will direct you to a special landing page on Hemmings.com that will provide you with links to past articles, service and parts providers and other valuable resources. Long considered “The Bible” of the collector car hobby, Hemmings has done a great job of curating some really valuable content in one place to help you find the right classic car to add to your collection.
After all, what’s the point of driving the same car every day?
John Nikas,
Editor
A Ferrari 308 for less than $20,000 in 2020. What’s not to like? According to Wayne, too many things to count. Sometimes the price you pay for the car is just the top of the iceberg when it comes to what it will really cost at the end of the day.
Wayne Carini  Affordable Classics  5