Loving cars

Hi,

today we talk about hobbies, the expensive ones. Yes, I have some several expensive ones, like travel, old books, or cars. I will get with the cars today, as this hobby has been turned into a lifestyle.

During my lifetime, I had various cars, some very powerful, some very gorgeous ones and some normal that did not express any emotions, but did the job bringing me from A to B.
Most of the work life was spent in the automotive world, where I could take part in the design, production, and launch of some remarkable mater pieces. Beside the Bugatti's starting with the Cheyron, the most stunning car I worked on was the Porsche 918 Spyder. Only 918 have been made, and it is an engineering perfection. The team we worked with, was also easy going, wanting only to have the engineering challenges worked out.

When I was 19, I was competing in rallies, as I had a race pilot licence done. Managed to crash two cars in one season, one Peugeot 205 GTI, and a Peugeot 106 rallye. Both great cars, that costed a lot of money. After losing that money on repairs, I've decided to turn this hobby into a money generating one. So, starting with 19, I was importing cars from Germany, fixed them up and sold them for a profit, after driving them for some weeks. Always bought a car, that I could rely on as a daily driver. Two cars have been very fun, the BMW Z3, and the Lancia Delta Integrale HF. Both have been very cheap in acquisition, and both have been sold for a good amount, but now, I'm really sorry for selling the Lancia. The price rocketed, and now it is a 10x, compared to back then. It was an insane car, and I've could not take everything out of what that car could offer, as I was afraid of driving it.

Besides this, had several Porsches, BMW, Mercedes and Audi's, some Fords and a couple of Italian cars. Most I like Porsche, but my dream car is an BMW.

The BMW that I will want to own someday, is the 507, where only 220 remained. It is an expensive car, build in 1957, to a technology level that some companies can't do today. It is the car that almost ruined BMW, as it was so expensive to build. Had the chance to be driven in one a couple of years ago, and was impressed from the door handles to the sound of the engine.

Now I'm searching old cars, preferably in bad shape that after I repair them, they will have an increased collector value. Did that since I was 19, but was slowing down the past 7 years, where I flipped only 2 cars, of course, after having them for at least 6 months to enjoy them.

How about you? What would be your expensive hobbies? How do you deal with them?