• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

GT6 GT6 Values in California?

Share this page

L

LanceLyon

Jedi Hopeful
Offline
Hi Everyone, I'm an Austin Healy owner but have always loved the GT6's and am now trying to buy one.

I have a line on an original, unrestored Mk2 in good running condition with no rust. It has a few dings and the paint is fading through, but otherwise it's in good shape with a recently rebuilt tranny.

What should this be worth? Seller is asking $6K.

Any advice would be appreciated!
 
Last June, I found a 72 GT6 on Ebay that happened to be near my home town, Oklahoma City. I bought it for $2,400. It ran, more or less, and was roadable. It had a pretty good paint job and interior. I was able to drive it home, unlike most of the British cars I have bought. After a tuneup, some steering, wheel bearing work and other miscellaneous fixes, it became my preferred daily transportation. I am 6' 1" and have no problem sitting in the car though getting in and out is not easy. As to summer heat, none of my British cars (except the XJS) have air conditioning, so I guess I am accustomed to the heat of an Oklahoma summer. It is just as hot in my Healey - seems hotter, in fact, with the top down.

$6,000 seems a bit high to me. For that money, you should get a car that needs absolutely no mechanical repair and has decent paint and interior. Everything should work.

One thing I found is that the GT6 really needs an overdrive transmission. On a non-overdrive car, the engine turns 3,500 at 60 mph. Interstate speeds around here are 75 mph and up. I don't want to push a 35 year old engine that hard so I limit my highway speed to 60-65 mph. Last month, I bought an overdrive transmission, to be installed this winter.

One big advantage of owning a Triumph of this era is the availability of parts at reasonable prices. In my experience, parts are generally half or less the cost of similar items for other makes of British cars.

If you decide to buy this car, I have no doubt that you will enjoy it very much. However, if it were my bucks, I would still be looking. Best of luck.
 
If it is REALLY solid and doesn't need a rebuild of engine or transmission that might be a fair price, but it sounds a touch high to me.

I've been looking and they aren't that easy to find, but semi-restored ones seem to be in the 6-8k range. Rough cars seem to trade closer to $1,500.

Just my observations, I'd keep asking around and do a closed listing search on eBay as well.
 
Lance,
I attended the VTR regional meet in Dallas this summer where the GT6 was the featured car. Needless to say, there was a nice bevy of restored GT6 cars there from all over the country. Many of the cars were what I would consider concours quality. Seems the GT6 is truly a niche car that is loved greatly by their owners, but only admired by others. I personally would fall under the "others" catagory. If what you have found is a true dry climate car with zero rust or body rot, and the only real need is cosmetic, then I feel that $6000 is probably a fair price. However, any required bodywork would greatly reduce the standing value of the car, IMHO. Like by 1/2.

Good luck with your negotiations.


Bill
 
From your brief description, that price sounds a little high, but a closer look will determine whether you should consider that price.

A general web search will turn up a few Spitfire/GT6 buyer's guides. Some even have dollar values, which can be adjusted with an inflation calculator if they are more than a few years old.

Is the car marked as a Mk2 or GT6+?

Good luck.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Lance,
I attended the VTR regional meet in Dallas this summer where the GT6 was the featured car. Needless to say, there was a nice bevy of restored GT6 cars there from all over the country. Many of the cars were what I would consider concours quality. Seems the GT6 is truly a niche car that is loved greatly by their owners, but only admired by others. I personally would fall under the "others" catagory. If what you have found is a true dry climate car with zero rust or body rot, and the only real need is cosmetic, then I feel that $6000 is probably a fair price. However, any required bodywork would greatly reduce the standing value of the car, IMHO. Like by 1/2.

Good luck with your negotiations.


Bill

[/ QUOTE ]

Bill is right, you either love them or not. I loved mine but every day I wished I had kept my TR4 instead. With all it's great qualities the GT6 just never came close to the TR4.

I have thought a lot about this the last few days with the different threads here. I have realized that as much fun as it was I do not think I would ever buy another GT6. Another TR4 is a different story and one day I will have one.
 
Oh boy!! I've got it made! I love both my TR4(A) and my GT6!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I was just reading Mike Cook's excellent book (again) and he made an interesting comment about the GT6 Mk I and the TR4A. I don't have the book in front of me, but he was impressed with the GT6's acceleration in comparison to the 4A.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif
 
My GT6 just hit the road about a week ago after a 4yr restro. While the car was getting body stuff done, getting running again and all I was thinking I should just sell this thing. Now that I can drive it again it brings every thing back as to why I love the car. It has this strange thing called torque. It also gets looks where ever it goes. I might have spent a mint on it but I am going to drive the thing, that is what it is for. But good ones are harder to find in some places of the country, In Kansas City I have only seen one other on the road. I think that will have something to do with the prices. Cali seems to have all the good stuff.
 
Torque? If you think the 2.0l has torque you should feel the 2.5l. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
I was just reading Mike Cook's excellent book (again) and he made an interesting comment about the GT6 Mk I and the TR4A. I don't have the book in front of me, but he was impressed with the GT6's acceleration in comparison to the 4A. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

No question about it, Mike is correct! It might even give the TR6 a surprise.

One big difference betwen the 2.0l and 2.5l is the RPM range which translates to mph. If I were to go for the larger displacment I think I would try and do it by boring and liners rather than changing the stroke in an effort to keep the RPM range if possible. My 67 GT6 had a 7,000 redline and I had it there often. It had a decidedly different exhaust note than my TR6. More like a bumble bee.
 
No doubt about the 2.0l being able to rev. That happens with a square design. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif
 
i got my gt6 for free, so 6,000 seems high. but seriously, almost no non restored car is going to come solid, or without rust. i realized that and decided to start the restoration right away. i'm about to get my engine back from the shop and just spent 1500 for parts to get me a rolling chassis again. now if only a great paintjob could be had for that much.

the funny thing is, i don't even know how much fun they are, never having seen a running example in my life. she looks fun, though.

i'd expect most gt6's to be in the 4,000 range with a great restoration near 8000 (with all the extra's).
 
Is this the GT6 in SLO? I saw the car also. The interior is in great shape. I didn't drive it, but the owner of the shop said it ran well, I value his judgement. The scary part is the paint or lack of, there are areas where it is bare metal! If you have it resprayed by a shop $5,000 is not far fetched. That now makes it an $11,000 GT6. Thats what made me think twice about it. Personally, I think it is a bit over priced.

Cheers,

Rob
 
[ QUOTE ]
One thing I found is that the GT6 really needs an overdrive transmission. On a non-overdrive car, the engine turns 3,500 at 60 mph.

[/ QUOTE ]I must respectfully disagree...unless that non-overdrive GT6 has a "non-standard" 3.89:1 diff (usually used on with OD gearboxes). The stock GT6 diff was 3.27:1 and gave approx. 20 mph per 1000 rpm. So 60 mph was about 3000 rpm. With such a smooth six, that's nothing...nor was even upwards of 4000 rpm @ 80 mph.

Having lived for a number of years with a 6+ and then a Mk3, both equipped stock with 3.27's, I never felt a need for OD. However, in areas like OK or TX where you can even legally get up to 75-80 mph and stay there for long periods of time, OD sure can't hurt!
 
Rob is correct; it is the one in SLO (San Louis Obispo, for you non-central coasters!). Now you see where my anxt comes from! The shop has a good rep, but it is far from a car you could just buy and feel comfortable driving. I think it represents a good platform for a restoration, but it's probably at least $2K overpriced for what it is. By the way, it's tagged "GT6+".
 
As of today there are 5-6 GT6 on ebay from wierd to trash to runners. Look at these .
 
I was trying to be a bit ambiguous, to protect your find. I agree, $3500 to $4000 would be more reasonable, though I think the owner would be insulted at that offer IMHO. Talking to the shop owner, the car's owner is pretty proud of his car.
I believe the + badge was the same as the Mk2 badge, depending in which side of the pond you found yourself.

Cheers,

Rob
 
Look at the Vintage Triumph Register classified section. A guy from California has what looks to be a nice 68 GT6 for $6500 motivated to sell.
 
Back
Top