On this particular weekend, probably more than at any other time of the year, there’s a whole heap of dreamy eyed classic car enthusiasts whose greatest wish in life would be to participate at next year’s Goodwood Revival. And no, I don’t mean as a spectator. They want to be in the midst of the action!
But how does one achieve that? After all, a Goodwood eligible E-type Lightweight, AC Cobra or Ferrari 250 of any kind, rarely sell for pocket money. Luckily though, there are cheaper ways of living out that dream. Now let’s be clear – I said “cheaper”, not “cheap”. Participating at Goodwood is always going to be a bit of a rich man’s game, but the good news is, you don’t have to be filthy rich. You could probably buy a fully prepared and eligible Austin A35 or A40 for somewhere between £ 30 – 40,000. Granted, that’s still out of my budget, but it does none the less seem like something that might one day be just about achievable, if one were to truly prioritize this dream over just about everything else.
But while this Swedish Revival candidate is dearer still, I simply think you get a whole lot more bang-for-your-buck here. Paying up towards £ 40,000 for a tiny A35 does seem rather heavy doesn’t it? Arguably, once you’re into those kind of figures anyway, there really isn’t that far to the £ 55,000 asking price for this very cool Volvo PV544. It does seem a lot more substantial than those diminutive Austins, and while there is always a healthy scattering of small A35’s and A40’s at most British Historic Motorsport events, a fully-prepped PV544 is indeed a much rarer bird.
What’s more, this PV544 has a hugely interesting background, as it’s got period race history as a hillclimb racer in Pennsylvania, USA. It was apparently campaigned with quite some success too, and is now being sold with memorabilia from its early racing career. In 2007 it was imported into the UK and recommissioned as a historic touring car. Also here is it claimed to be quite competitive, and at Goodwood Revival 2008 the PV544 even achieved an overall third in the St. Mary’s Trophy.
So if racing at the Goodwood Revival is something you simply must achieve, then follow this link to the selling dealer:
http://www.cckhistoric.com/sale-1958-volvo-pv544-historic-race-car-poa/
Or find the Volvo on Race Cars Direct where the dealer has included his asking price:
https://racecarsdirect.com/Advert/Details/83069/volvo-pv544-historic-race-car
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us inspire by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk