Market for survivors...

[L78M22Rag]

There is a special uniqueness that goes along with an unrestored survivor. If you envy someone's unrestored survivor, in most cases you can search the world over and never find another like it.

On the other hand, if you like the restored triple black SS/RS Camaro that the guy down the street has, you can build one just like it as a clone... or some will go the extra mile to fake a real one. It's beginning to take a forensic expert to tell the real restored cars from the fakes at first glance.

That's why I think the survivors are getting more and more attention at car events. You know they're real, without looking at them with a critical eye, and you can actually learn something from looking at them.

[Steve Shauger]

Personally I love both correctly restored concours and unrestored, and both are rare and valuable. Just look at the market for a concours or true time capsule. There are so many segments to the hobby that no matter your taste it's there for you from Survivor, Concours restored, Protouring, Drivers, Rat Rods, Barn Finds etc. They are all good and appreciated by some segment of the hobby.

Right now I'm enjoying my drivers. Bruises and all I can take them to a cruise night not worry about someone touching or weather. In fact last week was caught in down pour with my orange RS/Z and waited it out and had a nice dinner. Like I said there's something for everyone in the hobby, and that's what makes it great.....

[NorCam]

Originally Posted by Steve Shauger

Personally I love both correctly restored concours and unrestored, and both are rare and valuable. Just look at the market for a concours or true time capsule. There are so many segments to the hobby that no matter your taste it's there for you from Survivor, Concours restored, Protouring, Drivers, Rat Rods, Barn Finds etc. They are all good and appreciated by some segment of the hobby.

Right now I'm enjoying my drivers. Bruises and all I can take them to a cruise night not worry about someone touching or weather. In fact last week was caught in down pour with my orange RS/Z and waited it out and had a nice dinner. Like I said there's something for everyone in the hobby, and that's what makes it great.....

Totally agreeing with Steve's take on the entire hobby and I can appreciate all segments. In regards to the OP, I would think the market for true "survivor" class muscle cars has been heavy for many years, but the term has become too broadly used. IMHO, a true survivor class car is one that can be measured and weighed as an NCRS judged car, an untouched low mile specimen that remains as was originally sold, an unmolested type of car that can be considered by many as a benchmark piece.

Many of the low mile examples that are discovered over the years are appreciated my many, but are priced and marketed towards the higher end collector who can often pay a staggering amount of money to gain that low mile untouched example for their own personal collection. When a survivor type car is then altered with paint work, engine detailing and other items that have been changed...or even partially restored, that so called survivor diminishes with it's core value to a high end collector and the detraction factors then make it more of a play for the normal hobbyist. Perhaps a guy who doesn't mind that it has blown in paint, a body repair, engine rebuilds or a maybe a simple sub frame restoration. There are many of us who seek original cars with only minor changes or clean up work, but with that being said there are many original cars that would not appeal to the purist when original patina is altered in some way. For some, the word survivor means that nothing can have changed. And opinions do vary of what can be coined as a survivor.

We all know what we are seeing when a survivor car is tabled for discussion or is up for sale, and as the old saying goes, the real cream always floats to the top. For that true benchmark type survivor car; be it super car or muscle car, the market will always being strong and there will always be buyers lined up. As time moves along I think that trend will continue, but I also think that the market will continue to be strong for correctly restored cars too.