“Oh yes,” says Graham Weir, marketing manager at The Cultivated Collector. “We are buying Lamborghini.” In fact, the modest showroom in the hamlet of New Canaan, Connecticut, at the end of the train line, is full of them. Countaches bookend a Diablo, with the scissor door raised, giving a clear view of the manual transmission closed inside. For years, Lamborghinis of this era were little more than symbols of the excess of white lines of the eighties and nineties. Now enthusiasts are starting to appreciate them for what they are: low-volume boutique supercars from a prestigious Italian automaker. From them the value is skyrocketing.
Just five years ago, the most expensive Diablo to sell on online auction house Bring a Trailer cost around a quarter of a million dollars. Today, this is the track for at least expensive Diablo on the market, and good examples will be worth twice that.
More from the Robb Report
Understanding these changing tastes and choosing undervalued cars that are about to break out requires an experienced eye and refined taste. The name of the Cultivated Collector, in this sense, works.
There is difficulty, however, in getting these cars right. Diablos, in particular, are difficult to keep in good shape. Lamborghini had several different owners throughout the production of this model. The last of these was the Audi, but parent company Volkswagen doesn’t keep parts for anything other than the Murcielago, explains Weir. Still, it’s doubtful.
“These are extremely expensive cars sold to very demanding individuals”, says founder Matthew Ivanhoe, in a telephone conversation with Robb Report, from Europe. “Delivering a high-quality product is essential. It comes with a lot of pressure.” Ivanhoe is in Europe to not only get leads on some possible cars to buy, but also to check out some restoration projects and make sure everything is running smoothly.
Best of Robb Report
Sign up for Robb Report Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, TwitterIt is Instagram.
Click here to read the full article.
Ivanhoe estimates that The Cultivated Collector’s average transaction now hovers around $750,000. But it’s Ivanhoe’s eclectic taste that keeps the showroom diverse. “The reality is I don’t believe in just having your head in the clouds for 7 to 8 figures. I have a lot of customers who have the horsepower for 7- to 8-figure cars, but really love the ones that cost $100,000.” If he picked up the keys to anything in the showroom right now, of course it would be a Diablo, but the coolest car he’s traded in lately might be a peppy 1970. Mini Cooper S police car, one of 22 handed over to the Liverpool Police Department. “For me, cool is cool. I don’t care what the price is.”
Of course, millions and millions of dollars worth of cars pass through The Cultivated Collector’s showroom, although sales can be rare. One of Ivanhoe’s private treasures, a Jaguar XJR-15, sunbathes near the window. It is one of the few dozen ever produced, built by TWR, Jaguar’s motorsport partner at the time. It’s the closest we’ve come to a road-legal version of the XJR-9s-12s that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans before the economic collapse of the early ’90s wiped out Jag’s budget. Ivanhoe is specific about every detail of this car, the racing transmission and various motorsport-specific parts in its massive naturally aspirated V12, packed into its carbon fiber chassis. The XJR-15 combines motorsport technology with road legality in a way not seen since the top-tier classics of the 1950s and 1960s. Recent auction listings place its value at well over a million. There’s no doubt that number is rising, as a new generation appreciates it for the classic that it is.
In front of the yellow Jag is a black 962, undoubtedly the greatest sports racing car of all time, with a run of overall victories at Le Mans stretching back more than a decade. “This is the last of the six 962 CR/LMs that Vern Schuppan produced before bankruptcy,” explains Ivanhoe. “It was purchased by one of VSL’s sponsors, an executive from a UK glass manufacturer, as an invoice. He stayed in his office on the third floor for 15 years.” The car eventually made its way to America, where, in 2018, Ivanhoe acquired it. This is a car that reaches 230 mph, faster on the Mulsanne Straight than anything else racing today. “Besides being very low and the steering being very heavy at parking speeds, it is very easy to drive,” says Ivanhoe. “The clutch is easy. It’s not very high.
No other dealership in America, perhaps the world, stores cars like this in a showroom. Certainly none stores so many of them together. These are iconic cars for a new generation, many of them homologation specials, as good on the track as they are on the road. There may not be a faster dealership anywhere on the planet.
Finding those perfect cars – the thrill of the hunt – makes the business interesting. But it’s complicated work. Everyone knows Lamborghini, but The Cultivated Collector also sells more obscure or marginal machines. Some may enter at the right time and then walk out the door, like This is the case of a Saleen S7, pictured here on its last day before being sent to its new owner. Others, like an inky-black late-model DeTomaso Pantera, may take much longer for the right buyer to come along. The last Pantera in the showroom ended up being shipped to the Netherlands, where its mid-engine Ford V8 is much more exotic than its Italian bodywork. These cars give the showroom a serene quality. They are all patiently waiting for their moment.
Many of these sales never end up on the website. “I compare us to an iceberg,” says Ivanhoe. For The Cultivated Collector’s entire online presence – his Instagram handle hangs at the entrance in neon – much of his business is done quietly and privately, without ever touching the internet. “For a large part of our clientele,” says Ivanhoe, “it has to be this way.” He has his buyers, who tell him to let them know when some particular rare thing arrives. When that happens, it disappears in an instant.
