In brief:

Unique website brings together for the first time online, accurate classic car value tracking and knowledgeable, entertaining insight on the world's 500 most significant classic cars.

K500.com is the brainchild of Geneva-based classic car expert Simon Kidston (photo above) and his experienced team.

K500.com uses City-standard charting to track the average growth of 500 key collectors’ cars since 1994, creating the K500 index.

It also offers straightforward advice, and unprecedented accessibility, backed up by two decades of verifiable auction results, on classic cars that range from a Fiat 500 to a Ferrari 500 Superfast.

For the very first time in the market, every car in the K500 is rated on a scale of 1 to 100 using the 'tasting notes' principle familiar from fine wine rating.

For a monthly fee, each subscriber has access to all data and trending, with features which include tracking their own ‘My Collection’ to see if they can beat the overall index.

K500.com shows that a McLaren F1 is now worth 10 times its original £650,000 list price in 1994. A prime Home Counties house costing the same then has increased by five times in the same period.

Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic is K500.com's highest-rated car, with 99 points.

 

In detail:

K500.com is a website combining unrivalled classic car expertise, insider market knowledge, decades of verifiable auction data and more than 250,000 words of fun but informative content to create the most accurate and intuitive guide yet to appreciating the world of classic cars, written by motoring gurus for collectors and enthusiasts.

Launched in 2014 by Geneva-based classic car expert Simon Kidston and his team, K500 allows subscribers 24/7 access to Kidston’s lifetime of experience - advising top collectors how to best enhance and refine their garages - tracking auction values on easy-to-read and constantly updated graphs for specific marques and models over the past 20 years. Users can track the dizzying world of 1950s Ferraris or find out if now is the time to own that Austin Mini Cooper S or Fiat 500.

Every car in the K500 has been carefully chosen by Kidston and a panel of experts for its intrinsic desirability and significance as a collectible car. Whether it’s a ‘blue chip’ classic eligible for Pebble Beach, or just a fun addition to the holiday home garage suitable for a few days’ depreciation-proof motoring, the K500 team has analysed, valued and rated it, providing subscribers with two decades of verifiable auction data to track its price. Bringing together all this information, each car is given a rating of between one and 100, dictating its place in the K500 hierarchy.

Using City-standard charting, trends in the main market sectors — such as ‘Ferrari (Pre-1958)’ and ‘Affordable Classics’ — are identified and represented as an Index, where 1994 = 100. These are averaged out to produce the overall K500 Index, which stood at 449.9 yesterday.

Some cars, such as the Aston Martin DB5 (rated a ‘65’) have an individual index value of over 3000 – in other words, they have appreciated more than 30-fold in 20 years.

A McLaren F1, the 241mph hypercar that struggled to find buyers for £650,000 when new in 1994, is now worth 10 times its launch price on the open market. (photo right) Compare that to a Surrey ‘des-res’ priced at the same level in 1994, now on the market for £2.75m. (Price as of 2014)

By using the Index and the Guide, K500 subscribers can easily find out how cars are really performing in the market, their technical specifications and their backstory. K500 also gives the possibility to create ‘My Collection’ – virtual, or in the metal – and see how it compares to the market.

Speaking at the launch of K500.com at The Connaught, London, in December 2014, Simon Kidston said: “For the first time online and in real time, you can access precise classic car values tracked over 20 years together with expert ranking and insight for each model.

“We like to think it’s the high octane equivalent of Robert Parker’s Independent Consumer Guide to Fine Wine: insightful advice that pulls no punches.

“We’ve gone beyond mere facts and figures – every car has a couple of no-nonsense lines that encapsulate it. We’ve also added some ‘did you know?’ nuggets that should fascinate the most learned aficionado.

“Backing it all up is a wealth of quantifiable data with charts of average price trends, prices achieved at auction and market indices. There’s a lot of information out there. And many opinions, but we believe we have produced the definitive, most readable and extensive guide to appreciating classic cars yet. We believe it will be equally appealing to enthusiasts as investors and collectors.”

Simon Kidston, in addition to running the Geneva-based collectors consultancy Kidston S.A., is chief commentator at the Villa d’Este Concours d’Elegance and Mille Miglia, and a longstanding judge at Pebble Beach and the Cartier ‘Travel with Style’ concours. Over the years, his practice has handled the transaction of many blue-chip classics including a ‘Silver Arrows’ Grand Prix Mercedes and almost every collectible Ferrari including the 250 GTO.

K500’s Managing Editor, Steve Wakefield, is formerly Editor of Classic Driver. The modelling of the K500 Index and associated charting is the work of Stefano Camona, a banker and Bocconi business school graduate, and David Elwen, a management consultant with a background in Financial Services Information Technology.