Dana Mecum
Dana Mecum is the president of Mecum Auctions, which has sold more than 50,000 collector cars in the past 23 years. He has sold some of the rarest Pontiacs on the planet, including Super-Dutys, Ram Air IVs, race-pedigree drag cars, and factory experimentals.
"Interest remains high in collector cars in general, and Pontiacs in particular continue to generate much attention," Dana says. "Although prices have corrected somewhat from the rapid spikes of several years ago, values still remain high compared to the late-'90s through 2000. This is a great time to seek out and purchase the collectible Pontiac of your dreams, as prices may never be lower. We forecast continued demand for these great cars and would like to mention several Pontiacs that we feel are especially worthy of consideration."
'62-'63 Super Duty 389 and 421 Catalinas: "These cars have now emerged from the traditional Pontiac fan base into serious mainstream collections. These Camelot-era track terrors are being acknowledged and appreciated by savvy performance enthusiasts who strive to obtain examples of vehicles that were both innovative and successful in the record books."
'69-'79 Firebird Trans Ams and Formulas: "The First-Gen '69 Trans Am has always been sought after and certainly continues to climb in value. Worth watching and increasing in value are the '70s versions beginning with the '70 1/2 Ram Air III and Ram Air IV, '71-'72 455 H.O., '73-'74 SD-455, and all years through 1979. The mid- to late-70's Trans Ams are currently a great buy in collecting, plus we've seen both demand and values increase recently. A real sleeper now starting to gain attention are the slightly more subtle '70 1/2-and-later Formula models, which are rarer than the Trans Am and could be equipped with the same high-performance engines and equipment."
'64-'72 GTOs: The original musclecar was produced from 1964 through 1974, but the '64-'72 models are collector icons, and are well known and sought after as leading examples of factory horsepower and styling. Tri-Powers, Ram Air, and the 455 H.O. lead the list, while the '69-'71 Judge still rules for the outrageous period appearance. All GTOs of this era are considered desirable, with values very stable and predictable. Quality and rarity also factor in heavily toward what's considered investment level collecting, but collector-car fans have many great choices in all price segments.
Thomas A. Demauro
Thomas A. DeMauro is the editor of High Performance Pontiac. He has been associated with it since 1993 and active in the Pontiac hobby for more than 25 years, having owned myriad collector Pontiacs. As well as conceiving the editorial content of the magazine, providing a portion of it, and assigning and editing the rest, he offers his advice on many topics in Full Throttle each month.
"I concur with the observations of our esteemed contributors regarding the market conditions, so I won't reiterate my opinions here," Tom says. "The reason we chose different people in the hobby to contribute to this story was to see how each one's approach would differ given the same subject-the current state of collector-car market and which Pontiacs could be shrewd picks for the future.
"As a result, Jim Mattison and Don Keefe made very specific recommendations regarding cars that they felt would increase in value over the coming years, thereby providing sound investments to those who have been traumatized by the emasculation of their conventional paper assets. Dana Mecham took a more general approach by specifying the Pontiac lines that historically have performed the best and why they should continue to do so. With those roads already so deftly traveled, I will therefore take the path that I relate to the best.