TOPIC: Glastron vs. Glastron Carlson market values...

The nameplate on a collector car can radically increase its value, such as a Shelby Mustang commanding a value much more than a comparably equipped Mustang. Does the same apply to collector boats?
As far as I know, other than the nameplate, there is no difference between a Glastron Carlson CV16 and a Glastron GT-160. So, what premium does the Carlson nameplate add to the market value of the boat? And what is behind the mystique? Is it the rarity of the Carlsons, is it the suggestion of a racing heritage implied by tagging a line of boats with the designer's name?
Opinions, please.

The GT160 , CV16 and the CVX 16 are all different 16 foot boats hull wise , im pretty sure the CVX 16 is the most common of the three with the GT160 being the least common . As far as value their all the same with regards to condition .

The CVX is a later design. I'm talking specifically about the CV16 which as far as I can see is identical to the GT160.

The hull design for the GT160 was a Glastron design with input from Art Carlson while the CV16 was Art's design there are some design similarities but having owned and rebuilt a GT160 and crawling all over a local CV16 that i passed on i can tell you they are two different boats . CV16's were a more popular boat because of the Carlson name attached and are far more plentiful , as far as performance they are similar , they both chine walk around 55 mph . The GT160 is a far more rare boat but that doesnt necessarily mean anything with regards to value . The Carlson boats pre Glastron are more valuable than the latter .

Here is a cool Glastron-Carlson!
doc

This is an example of why I couldn’t wait for the monthly copy of Powerboat magazine to arrive in the mail in the 60’s and 70’s. Jut this Tuesday I had the pleasure of chatting with an older coworker who worked for Evinrude in his young days... his buddy coworker’s Dad was big in the company. Those 2 got to drive the leftover bond boat with what he described as a prototype rude. With a little fear in his voice, he described how young and dumb he was when he threw it into a tight turn and found that a catching chine could make your life flash before your eyes. He said it was then he realized he did not know enough about boats and that careful seat time with an experienced copilot was a smarter way to go forward. Lucky dog got to drive a historical boat. There was the consumer version of this on my creek river where I crew up. Always had glass water to run on. Cool boat history on this thread.

Flatracer,

The GT-160 and CV-16 are similar but not identical. I believe that Glastron was probably working on the GT-160 design for a couple of years before the 1971 debut. It has some automotive styling touches with the upholstery patterns, spoiler lip on the rear deck and racing stripes. The GT-160 would have come from the Texas design team where the CV-16 is California Carlson all the way. The CV-16 was a little longer than the GT, a little wider, and 150 pounds lighter. Price wise the Carlson was $200 more expensive, about 12%.

If you study these photos from the 1971 brochure you can see that the deck/hull joint on the CV splits the side spear near the transom and on the GT-160 the deck is just a cap on the hull. The shape of the front deck is different too.

The GT-160 places the passenger weight further back in the boat and the hull has sharper V at the transom. I believe that GT-160 has a bit softer ride but that the Carlson would be a tad faster.

Values today would be similar between the two boats and be totally dependent on condition.

Wow. That's surprising. I would have thought the Glastron/Carlson would have been less common than the Glastron. I grew up on a lake that had a Glastron and Mercury dealer and fully half of the boats on the lake in the '70s were Glastrons with Mercs. There were guite a few GT150s and GT160s but very few Glastron/Carlsons.
I had a cream & orange GT150 for a short time with a V4 Johnson (I don't remember the hp). I remember the ducktail built into the rear deck. It was a good riding boat, but the aluminum trim behind the windshield always seemed to be in the way.

Okay. I just had an education. I went over to the Classic Glastron Owners' site and looked more closely at the brochure pics. The orange/cream Glastron I had, which I swore was a GT150, was really a GT160! It had the the hull seam and rub rail above the light colored portion of the sides and had the more pronounced duck tail in the rear deck with the cast aluminum trim on top.
I see that the Glastron GT150 had the hull seam and rub rail bisecting the light colored portion of the hull sides, as does the Glastron/Carlson CV16.
Interestingly, the GT models disappeared from the brochure by 1975 leaving only the Glastron/Carlson badged designs to serve the sport boat market. The GT150 reappears in the 1977 brochure and then in '78 is gone again, replaced by the new design Carlson line all with the new CVX model designations.
The other surprise was the lack of a windshield on the CV16 in the 1971 brochure.
I love the idea of "sport boats" in general. I was always intrigued by the brochure photos of the Classic Donzis, the Sea Ray "Pachanga SRX" (what a cool sounding name!). Small Sutphens and Cigarettes are cool too. Not so much into the bigger offshore stuff, mostly stuff under 20'.

Eric