THE CURATED ONES: Volume 3

With a blend of passion, investment, design admiration, and technical -enthusiasm, car collecting unfolds as a pursuit with countless dimensions. The Curated Ones by THE COLLECTIVE explores extraordinary collections globally. Distinguished collectors share their curated treasures and reveal the unique qualities of their collections. Through the lens of photographers, we delve into the essence of this lifelong dedication.

The Collective: What turned you into a collector? Was there a particular car that sparked your passion?

Collector: I was born with a love for cars, thanks to my parents. They were devoted Porsche enthusiasts when I was born, so it is no surprise I developed a fascination for cars from an early age. My father used to take me along on drives in my car seat when I was just a toddler. As I grew older, my passion deepened, particularly for the fastest models in the family garage, including the Porsche 993 RS, the 996 GT2 Clubsport, and a tuned 1995 Porsche 911 Turbo Cabrio with over 500 horsepower, which was quite extreme at the time. I also have many fond memories of the Ferrari F355 Spider.

Some automobiles make a bigger statement than others. You own an Aston Martin Valkyrie, and its sheer expression of force and power certainly qualifies. What features of that car put a smile on your face?

Quite a few. The design of the cockpit, for instance. The amount of room and the sense of space are closer to a fighter jet than a car, but you can still drive longer distances, even with two people, thanks to a very comfortable, practically recumbent seating position. Unfortunately, the luggage has to stay at home. What truly sets the car apart is, of course, its extreme performance. I’ve never experienced another road-legal car that can corner at these kinds of speeds. It’s pure bliss how directly it drives and how much confidence it gives you even at high speeds. The engine develops more power than you can call up and the gearbox is more reminiscent of a racing car than a hypercar. And yet: you can also drive it through road traffic with ease – and it gets over every obstacle thanks to the lift system, and the suspension is also relatively comfortable. The cockpit also provides an extremely good view to the front and the rest is nicely covered by cameras. Aston Martin and Adrian Newey really made the impossible possible by homologating such an extreme car for road use – and also making it genuinely drivable for a mere mortal. I have the highest respect for that.

Aston Martin rightly says that the Valkyrie is the closest you can get to a Formula 1 car on the road. That said, Formula 1 drivers have a handful of engineers around them to help them launch the car. You are probably by yourself in your garage when you start the car. How does that feel?

That is quite special. You first have to learn how to drive the car, and especially how to start it. Once it’s rolling, everything becomes very intuitive. But the starting procedure is much more complicated and takes longer than with a normal car, another aspect that resembles a jet. It takes a number of steps, several intervals – quite a few things to familiarize yourself with. But I don’t need a checklist.

The almost sculptural expression, its aerodynamic design are truly unique. Do you find high-tech elements such as perfectly engineered aerodynamics more inspiring than a traditional, perfectly contoured design language?

Both are important. It’s incredible how much high-tech is packed into so little space in this car. But design is also fundamentally one of the most important aspects of a car. No matter how fast a car may be, if it’s not intuitively beautiful or emotionally appealing in the eye of the beholder, nobody will buy it. The Aston Martin Valkyrie is proof that both can be achieved in one car. Aston Martin kept us up to date on how the project was developing over a long period of time after the order was placed. It quickly became clear that Adrian Newey was not particularly willing to compromise on his vision for the project. He strictly adhered to “form follows function.” But still, I have yet to meet anyone who doesn’t find the car immediately beautiful and fascinating. And it’s obvious why: The aerodynamic, flowing lines of the vehicle prove that it’s possible to achieve a combination of elegant design with aero efficiency and performance, even in times of ever larger rear spoilers.

Where does your enthusiasm for Aston Martin come from?

It started when I was a child. James Bond certainly contributed to this, but even more so the fact that my father drove Astons back then and took me to many Aston Martin Club events. For me, the brand has always been the epitome of a perfect combination of elegance, sportiness, and comfort. A car that stylishly combines all those desires. My first car was an Aston Martin V8 Volante from 1987. It was also my father’s first Aston, but he had sold it many years earlier but was able to buy it back from a former business partner. And so it rejoined the family.

Are there any other brands that captivate you in the same way?

I would describe my love of cars as product-dependent, rather than brand-dependent. I’m inspired by individual vehicles – and yet there are certainly some brands that consistently manage to build cars that fascinate me. These include Porsche, Bugatti, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Koenigsegg, Pagani and Zagato as a coachbuilder.

What is the story behind your Virage? Do you have a personal connection to this particular classic car?

We knew the Zagato brand primarily through our love of Aston Martin. We used to think that cars like the DB7 Zagato and DB AR1 were the most beautiful Aston Martins, especially the DB4 Zagato. We came into direct contact with Zagato in a roundabout way, through a family friend. He had organized a tour of the Zagato factory near Milan for us. During the tour, we fell in love with the design of the Ferrari 599 GTZ Nibbio and were able to secure an allocation shortly after. During the tour, we also noticed the Virage Centennial Shooting Brake. It was on display in the Zagato Museum. We were immediately fascinated by the design and when we inquired about it, it turned out that a Belgian art dealer had paid for this custom example but never picked it up. Thereafter, we kept returning to Zagato to configure our Nibbio. And time and again we found ourselves standing in front of the Virage. Finally, we decided to make an offer for the car owned by the Belgian collector. The rest is history.

Do you think that the demand for classic vehicles will increase or rather decrease in the coming decades?

I assume that the demand for classic vehicles will rise rather than fall. Although currently the economy is somewhat sluggish, global prosperity has increased enormously over the last 50 years thanks to technological advances and there is every indication that this trend will continue to gather momentum over the next 50 years. As a result, the number of collectors who can and want to afford a classic vehicle is likely to grow rather than decline. Especially when normal car traffic becomes increasingly automated, classic cars will continue to offer real driving pleasure. So the number of potential buyers is likely to increase – while the stock of classic vehicles is naturally rather limited. Compounding this is the trend towards limited-edition collector’s vehicles, something that has become increasingly established as an alternative asset class in recent decades. This is why the number of players in the market who view these vehicles purely as a financial investment is also increasing.

What do you expect the collector car market to look like in the future? Are there any specific trends that have caught your attention?

One trend in particular has caught my eye: Asset performance can vary greatly depending on the era of the vehicles. Pre-war cars in particular seem to have fallen out of demand, apart from certain blue chip collectors’ cars. Instead, cars that were considered youngtimers not too long ago are now sought after, even though many of them were produced in large numbers. I can imagine that this trend will continue. Budding collectors who are now coming into money are buying the cars they dreamed of in their youth. This will be less and less often a Bentley Blower – and more and more often a Ferrari Testarossa or Lamborghini Diablo.

Are there any upcoming technologies or innovations that you’re particularly excited about?

While the electrification of vehicles is on everyone’s lips at the moment and is certainly the future, I’m also intrigued by promising technical advances in the development of sustainably produced e-fuels. If these can be offered at a comparable cost to petroleum derivatives in the future, this would have a number of far-reaching benefits. The biggest would certainly be that it would no longer be necessary to completely replace the existing vehicle fleet with alternative drive systems in order to achieve the climate targets. This would ensure that the combustion engine, loved by car enthusiasts in particular, would continue to exist and that we could continue to drive classic vehicles in the future.

What role do you think electric and hybrid vehicles play in the world of collector cars?

Hybrids are now, in my opinion, firmly established after the launch of the La Ferrari, the McLaren P1 and the Porsche 918. I think the appreciation of these vehicles is a clear vote of confidence by the market, and they will continue to be sought-after collectors’ cars in the future. As far as purely electric cars are concerned, it is still a little too early to draw any firm conclusions. I am aware that some purely electric hypercars are currently not selling as well as initially anticipated. But this doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t become more important in the future. The technical development of electric cars and batteries in particular is still in its infancy. Porsche also had difficulties selling all of its 918s for a while. And they are no less in demand today.

How important is the potential appreciation in value of a car to you when deciding to add it to your collection?

The potential for value appreciation is certainly something we keep an eye on. We ensure that the vehicles we purchase are limited in number, giving them a better chance to increase in value. However, we don’t apply this criterion too rigidly. If we particularly like a car, we are open to make exceptions. We don’t see appreciation as the main goal, but rather as a welcome side effect of our passion for cars. And unlike many other collectors, we extensively drive the cars in our collection. Reaching unimagined cornering speeds with the Valkyrie, for example, is an absolute highlight – it’s spectacular. We don’t mind taking the cars out for drives or occasionally putting them on the track. In my view, cars are meant to be driven. Engineers spend thousands of hours creating a perfectly functioning machine. It would be a shame not to use them for what they were built for.