Exotic Car Marketplace

[00:00:00] As part of Ferrari Fridays, William Ross from the Exotic Car Marketplace will be discussing all things Ferrari and interviewing people that live and breathe the Ferrari brand. Topics range from road cars to racing, drivers to owners, as well as auctions, private sales, and trends in the collector market.

Hello everyone, welcome back to the Ferrari Marketplace. I’m your host, William Ross. I appreciate you guys listening. Sorry for, uh, the delay getting back to you guys. Um, had got sidetracked in the month of March with the, uh, death of the family for a very close family member passed away. So it was unfortunate.

I had a few things that was scheduled and set up, uh, especially in regards to the women’s history month. So I will still get those out and do those, but I’m going to jump into something else here today on this new episode and I appreciate [00:01:00] you guys. Listen. Today. We are going to speak about two of my favorite, some of my favorite Ferraris.

I mean, I, I pretty much love them all. There’s maybe one or two that I don’t like, but anyways, but these things are fantastic because these are getting back to the roots of Ferrari. Uh, this is when Luca di Monticello took over after Enzo’s passing and wanted to get back to the roots of Ferrari. You know, getting back to what they were building back, you know, in the 50s, 60s, and kind of maybe in the early 70s.

Um, so, but today we are going to talk about the 550. Maranello and the 575M Maranello. Now we could also possibly include the 599 in this conversation because that kind of was the last iteration of this kind of car, but in my opinion, in my mind, the 599 was such a huge leap from the 575 to the 599, just aesthetic wise, technology [00:02:00] wise, motor wise, everything, that I really don’t want to include this in the conversation because It’s just such a completely different car.

Uh, I just don’t think it kind of can do justice to this conversation because the 515 and the 575 are, they’re not identical, but they are just so closely related that, you know, this is a conversation that these two deserve on their own, just having these two talk about it. We’ll have one down the road in the 599.

That’s a fabulous car in itself. So let’s jump into it. Ferrari 550 Maranello that was produced from 1996 to 2002. Now, obviously with the 550 designation that we’re referring to them engine size, uh, so just a little under 5, 500 CCs on that car. So I think it was like 5, 478 CCs roughly on that. So it hence gives you the name of the 550.

So that was getting produced from the F 1 3 3 engine. Which was a normally aspirated dual overhead cam. [00:03:00] So, 4 valves per cylinder. Producing roughly 470 something horsepower. 478, 475. Uh, and kind of putting out roughly, You know, not that much less than torque wise too. But, um, so this car pulled all through the rev range, which is fabulous.

Cause the one thing about the five 55 75 is Luca de Monticello wanted to get back to that front engine V12 grand touring Ferrari. Now at this time, the four or five six also came out, but that was a two plus two, so not really kind of fun or fun falling under the same parameters of but wanting to get back to building.

Front engine V12 Grand Touring car kind of back harkening back to the good old days when Enzo You know started the company was running it because if you started looking at production in regards to late 70s going into the 80s And in the 80s everything was rear rear engined, you know, you’re at 40s [00:04:00] You’re 328s 308s your 512s 288’s all rear engine cars.

So it got them back to where it was another beautiful thing about this You know, it’s a transaxle car So kind of harkening back to the 275 and 365 having the torque tube and putting the transmission in the back of the car Gives you better weight distribution on this car because could you go do a little canning carving it?

Yeah a little bit, but you’re not gonna you know Really tear into it like say you’re driving 360 or 430 or something like that, you know Going through there in regards is because you know It can be a bit I would say nose heavy when you get on the brakes because you got all that weight sitting up front Now they did have you know a switch on the dash that you could go into sport mode They kind of stiffen up the suspension, you know That was high tech back in the day just but the way these were just changed up to damping on it you know wasn’t like what we have with the Magnet roll However you pronounce that word.

Dampers now, they’re basically magnetic and you know, [00:05:00] do the flow in there and all that crap and particles yada yada. So anyways, you know, this car was made to drive long distance at a very rapid rate. So cruising this thing at a buck 20 on the highway feels like you’re doing 60. So just such a very solid car.

Like I said, you know, the design of this motor You know, you’re pulling all the way from the bottom to the top. So if you are like cruising on some back country roads, it’s got some twisties to them, you could just drop this thing into third or fourth gear and leave it there and just go and have some fun and driving this thing, just whipping through the, you know, whipping through the back country roads, watching the cornstalks go by on reference, cause that’s what I have here in the Midwest.

Um, so beautiful car, two seater. Uh, and the other thing that is, I guess. Very much in demand for this. Every 550 built was built with a 6 speed manual transmission. No floppy paddle gearbox. These [00:06:00] were all six speed manual transmission. So getting into values on these They’re pretty damn expensive now five six five years ten years ago.

You could get these things, you know Maybe not five years ago, but definitely ten eight years ten eight to ten years ago You could get these things around a hundred hundred twenty grand all day long low mileage, you know great services or everything like that Now you’re easily 200 to 300 grand, you know, depending on mileage, everything like that.

You know, you got some, like I said, 301s, those are some cheeky dealers out there that are really chinking up. But you know, hey, they have a low mileage car. They’re, they’ll just sit on it till someone comes along because someone will buy it, you know, come in or offer them, you know, something close to what they’re asking and hey, they’ll walk out the door with it.

So, but normal realistic on these cars, you’re about two, 200 to 30 in my opinion is where you should be at now. Could you get something under 200? Yeah, you got to kind of shop around and look. Um, you know, but [00:07:00] again, a lot of variables you have when you’re looking at a Ferrari and any, you know, high end car like that in itself.

You know, obviously service history, most recent service, everything like that, because you could find a deal on one. Like I was looking online this morning at five fifties and I found a cheap one on there for like 140 grand. I think it was out of some, you know, some used car dealer in California, but You know, it had almost 30, 000 miles on it.

Uh, but again, now you start getting into services, what’s going to have to be done, and you can drive that off the lot and then have to take it to your guy and drop, you know, 30, 40 grand on a service. And that gets you right back where it’s up at. So, you know, you got to look at everything on the car, you know, any car you go by, but the On these things, you know, you obviously want to find that book and have, hey, what’s the service history?

How much paperwork you got with this thing? You know, is it from day one, the whole nine yards, you know, where the caretakers, all the subsequent, you know, previous caretakers, you know, how [00:08:00] diligent where they are in regards to documentation. So, that’s kind of one thing to look at, but again, these things are going up in value like crazy, because, just because of the six speed manual transmission.

Now, you know, 10, 15 years ago, you know, people probably dropped in, Oh, is this going to be a collector car? Oh, you know, people probably not thinking because again, you look at the production numbers, they built a little over 3000 of these cars. So you’re like, all right, how could this be a collector car with over 3000 of them built?

Well, the six speed manual transmission, it’s that edge. They’re not building them anymore. Of course, it’ll be interesting to see what’s happening because something’s telling me possibly you’re going to see a manual transmission come from the factory from Ferrari again, Now, will it be the small numbers?

Maybe the Icona series, I don’t know, but don’t be surprised if you see it happen in the next five years, they do something along those lines just to appease their million millionaire billionaire owners, you know, and do it. So [00:09:00] it wouldn’t be surprising, but anyways, so again, a six speed manual transmission is the game changer in regards to this car, because it’s from the factory, you know, it, it, you know, You know, yeah, you have the conversions out there, and when we get into the 575, you know, when you start looking at production numbers, that compared to the F1 transmission, the 6 speed, you know, EAG does a phenomenal job, and the thing is with that F1 transmission, you know, it wasn’t built from ground up in regards to, okay, how it works, you know, in subsequent, in that transmission, You know, they basically took it where there’s a lot of pumps and whatnot that just basically operate the clutch and everything like that, that a clutch pedal would and doing everything and the gear change instead of you, you know, going through the gear selector.

It’s just doing everything for you. So with the computer and all that jazz, so doing it, doing it, it’s not too difficult. You know, it took EAG some time to perfect it, but they did perfect it and they do a phenomenal job. But I’m getting ahead of myself because that’s when we start talking about the [00:10:00] 575.

But anyways, now the 550, Now there’s really only two, I’d say two iterations. Now on the standard 550, you could get the handling package, which, you know, kind of stiffened things up in regards to, you know, your suspension and that. Um, nothing really in regards to aesthetics, anything along those lines. So that was pretty much it.

The only other, uh, thing they came out with was a 550 Barchetta, which was 448, roughly something like that of the convertible. So, uh, with that card, there’s obviously. body related enhancements they had to do to make, obviously, stiffs to reduce cowl shake. Um, now those cars are actually through the roof, well, through the roof, but are very expensive.

You know, well, you don’t hardly ever see them come up for sale. Obviously, a lot of them are always at auction or they’re going to be off market sales, but you’re easily over half a million dollars on those. Uh, again, because, you know, Factory six speed manual convertible from the factory. [00:11:00] So again, it’s all about, you know, desirability and hey, what was produced and hey, Rarity, so those aren’t cheap again.

You don’t see many of those pop up I believe there actually is one on ebay right now that popped up and they’re over a half a mil on it Um something like that, but so it brings you to see I, I, I, I’m still a bit baffled why anyone puts their cars on eBay anymore, especially dealers, but hey, it is what it is.

But anyways, so between the two, and obviously when I include the handling package, there’s only those two iterations of the 550. You know, again, at this time, they weren’t getting into, Oh, I’ll take that back. Now, they, again, when this car was built, obviously, they want, they have benchmarks that Luca told them they needed to hit.

So, there are, they did some world speed record stuff down in Columbus, or I said, East Liberty, Ohio, which is just east of Columbus. It was a Honda test track, whatever. So, they did some world record speed runs. Uh, they did like they say, [00:12:00] like a distance of 100 miles covered average speed of 190. 2 miles an hour.

A distance of 100 kilometers average speed of 188. And driving for one hour at an average speed of 184 miles per hour. So, The one thing, you know, it’s, um, you know, they didn’t last long. So I think it was a few months later after that. Um, or maybe even a couple of years after that, I don’t know, Lamborghini being so they didn’t hold too long.

And again, you know, you’re talking to zero to 60 time of 4. 4 seconds. So, you know, this day and age, a Camry can do that. But again, you know, it’s, it’s not about that, you know, it’s not about your zero to 600, you know, it’s just about, you know, it’s the experience of sitting in that car, smelling the leather, going through the gear selector, you know, and driving and just, I mean, being in the car, I mean, that’s what it’s about.

You know, it’s just really. You know, it just envelops you. It’s such a great car. Like I said, I’ve [00:13:00] had the opportunity to drive both of these cars, um, in the past, and they’re phenomenal cars. I mean, absolutely phenomenal cars. It’s a great, grand touring, I almost want to say daily driver. I mean, hell, look at the guys.

Well, I wouldn’t say they’re doing it, you know, uh, on a regular basis, but the guys at DDE at Daily Driven Exotics, um, you know, they picked up a couple of these and they had, they’re doing the manual, uh, five, seven fives and. What are the 599s? Oh, now I can’t remember. Anyways, I know they had a 550 at one point and they sold it and they did a bunch of stuff to it.

I think actually they’re doing 599s. But anyways, different story. Sidetracked on that. My apologies. You know, brain fart. Early onset dementia possibly. Who knows? But anyways, um, back to the 550. These things are just fabulous cars to drive, you know, and what’s beautiful about these things, too, is obviously you’re talking a mid 90s car, you know, these cars were only built [00:14:00] from 1996 to 2002, so only about a six year production run, so do the math, about 500 cars a year, so, um, you know, they’re obviously plentiful, but they’re out there.

You know, and like I said, this time the 456 was also kind of out there as well, but I mean, there’s two totally different animals. Um, you know, interior wise on these cars, because this is going to get into more talking about the difference between a 550 and 575. Now, the beautiful thing about the 550 had the traditional layout, gauge layout.

Um, you had your, you know, your gear big, that gear stike with the chrome knob sticking out there between you and the center console. Um, but in that center console up on the thing on the dash, you had three, You know, large air vents, but above that you have a gauge cluster that had some of your like oil pressures and whatnot.

But then right in front of you, you had your big speed dial and you had your big RPM gauge. So everything was right there, right front and center for you to follow and do, you know, see what you’re doing and keep track of what you’re doing. And [00:15:00] obviously mind your P’s and Q’s in regards to driving. Uh, you know, you say, as I said, is, you know, these cars, but, you know, they live.

Beautifully 80 to 120 miles an hour. And obviously that is breaking the law. I do not, I am not saying go out and do that. No, I’m not going to get in trouble for that, but I’m just saying this. That’s what they are, man. You pop that thing and it’s, you know, fifth, sixth gear and you just cruise. And that’s another nice thing too, is, you know, if you’re on the highway, To go past, man, you drop that thing down a gear or two, you know, go from 6th to 4th, that rev just, vrooom, that car, oh man, that thing just sounds beautiful.

You know, you get a nice exhaust on that as well. You know, that’s another thing too, is, you know, hey, to all their own, I’m a purist. I’m all for, you know, getting a newer exhaust on a car, on one of these, you know, just for sound, but also it breathes it better. You gain a little horsepower and what not, but, you know.

Getting anything more crazy than that, putting turbos and all this crap on it. No, that’s not me. I don’t, I’m going to be 54 this month. So maybe I’m just an old man, but to me, I like [00:16:00] purity. Um, but like I said, that V12, that thing just sounds, uh, the snore, uh, the songs coming out of that. It’s just, it’s a symphony.

So, but anyways, let’s, let’s get into the 575 because obviously the 575. You get into it, it’s a larger displacement car, uh, hence 575. So what you get into with that is, you’re talking, you know, just a little under the, you know, 5700, you know, uh, CC’s on the sides. It’s 5, 748 if you want to be precise. So, round that thing up, you got 575.

So, it gets in there, but the big thing is, it also jumps up in horsepower. So, you had your roughly 480 was, you know, roughly in your 550, but this, you jump up to 515 horsepower. So, you gain a nice amount in the 515, you gain also in torque. Um, you know, getting up there, so, which is nice. So, it gets it up there.

Um, Is it top speed wise? [00:17:00] You know, not worried about that, but the big thing about the 5 7 5 is that was only built from 2002 to 2006, so it’s only four years compared to the six years for the five 50. But the biggest thing on the 575 is the transmission. Now, they only built 2, 056 575Ms. Of those, only 246 worldwide, worldwide, were built with a 6 speed manual transmission.

Now, obviously, back in that day, everyone was talking, Oh, the F1 train, oh, it just paddles, blah, blah, blah. You know, everyone wanted the new cool thing. You know, and obviously, you know, If you could, you know, hindsight’s 2020, but you know, I obviously, you know, you go back, if you go back in time, you’d snack, snatch up all the manual ones you could, you know, cause you said, I mean, you talk about return on investment, but you know, everyone wanted to do a big thing, but that is the biggest change you’re going to have.

Our biggest difference on these two is the [00:18:00] transmission option. So you go from low, you know, 2, 056 cars. I’m sorry, 3, 000, a little over 3, 000 cards of the 550, all 6B manuals, and then you jump into the 575, bigger motor, you know, just a lot of little tweaks here and there, and all of a sudden you only have 246 worldwide.

built of the manual transmission on a 575. So, value wise, you can probably guess, is the manual transmission cars are very, very expensive compared to F1 tranny cars. They’re double, if not triple, depending on mileage and everything, history, options, what have you. Um, they’re very, very expensive cars. Um, like you can pick up a 575M with F1 tranny pretty cheaply.

Cheaply, that’s, you know. Kind of take that with a grain of salt, you know, you could be in the low to low hundreds to mid, you know, 1 51 60 range on a [00:19:00] 5 575 M with the F one transmission. So now getting to what I was kind of talking about before, though, is What’s happening with a lot of these cars, because hence such a low production with the factory manual, is a lot of people are doing a 6 speed conversion on these cars.

Um, you know, we’re not talking about the 599, but the 599, just for, you know, production’s sake, the guy to tell you is, out of all the 599s built, only 20 ever left the factory with the factory 6 speed manual. And those cars are worth close to a million bucks, 900, 000. If you go online, there’s a dealer got one listed right now.

I think it’s 800, almost 900, 900 grand. So rare, rare, rare bird indeed. But anyways, back to the 575. EAG is pretty much not the only game, but they are the game in regards to doing conversions on these. Uh, I want to say roughly, if you look at it, I think you’re probably about 30 to 40 grand on the conversion.

That’s if you have them do it, but you know, hey, you might as well have them do it. Um, I had heard somewhere though recently, there [00:20:00] was some, Some financial things or something going on with the AG. I don’t know. But like I said, it’s all rumors here. Say, I don’t know. But anyways, you know, but you’re looking at, you know, 30 to 40 grand to do it.

So just, let’s say, you know, just do the numbers. If you can pick up a nice lowest, my lower mileage one. that’s got great service, you know, documentation, service history, everything on it, you know, recent service and that kind of stuff done. Um, not saying, you know, you’d have to have a resurface done cause AEG can do the service as well.

But if you can pick it up, such as say, 130 grand, or let’s just run it up to 140, 000. So you spend, go on the higher end, 40 grand on the conversion. So do the math. You’re at 170, 000. You’re still a lot less than the 300, 000 to 400, 000 you’re going to be in regards to getting a factory manual that these things are, uh, asking out there for these.

Um, you know, there’s, I think there’s one on BAT right now, um, that has one as well. [00:21:00] So I’m kind of curious to see where that goes, but you know, they’re, cause they’re a So people sit on it and. If you go online, I mean, as sure all of you that are listening, you do too much. You go on BAT 10 times a day and you’re looking at all other things in between doing actual work.

Um, you know, you look at stuff. Dealers are getting very cheeky in regards to, you know, I’m rare cards and whatnot. You know, they’ll ask an astronomical number and you just kind of laugh. Oh, they’ll never get that. But you know what? Some point someone’s going to just say, well, I guess I got to step up because look, they’re not getting any cheaper.

That’s the thing on a lot of these cars, especially on something like this. They’re not going to get any cheaper. Is it an investment? I say, yes, it is. Um, they’re only going to go up in value and they’re going to get more and more rare in regards to availability because as, as the value goes up, the less and less you’re going to see out on the open market now, not to say you won’t be able to find one off market, but you know, and you got to probably figure a lot of these guys that have these, they get approached [00:22:00] constantly if their car’s at a show or something like that.

You know, hey, give them a hand on their car. Hey, when you want to sell, give me a call. I’ll buy it. You’re probably the 20th 30th person has probably said that to him. So it’s great to have a relationship with some of those guys, but you know, it’s just becoming a rare bird and trying to find these things is getting rarer and rarer and just getting more and more expensive.

So, you know, sadly I had the opportunity on a five 50, you know, some years ago, I should have bought it. I don’t know why I didn’t. It was around a little over a hundred grand. You know, it had, you know, I think it was 16, 000 miles on it. Everything like that. Great service or that. And I just didn’t pull the trigger.

Why? I don’t know. I’m just an idiot and I should have got it because like I said, these things are great. Now, obviously let’s get into a couple aesthetics difference between the 550 and the 575. Cause that’s the one kind of thing is if someone’s walking by and really, you know, everyone’s not, it’s hard to just tell right off the bat.

And when you glance at it regards to if it’s a 550 or 575. Five. The biggest thing, I guess, kind of dead giveaway. I mean, [00:23:00] hood scoop, same location. It’s a smidge, I mean, I don’t know, maybe a millimeter, centimeter bigger. I mean, it’s just a smidge bigger, but again, up close looking at it, you never gonna be able to tell, but the big kind of indicator that can give it away is the headlights.

The headlights actually are color matched to the car. If you look at a 550 with the headlights that are itself, is actually black. So, but if you look at a 575, they’re actually color matched to the car. So that’s a little aesthetic change. But then on the front nose, obviously they tweaked it a little bit more in regards to aerodynamics and everything like that to make it, you know, cut through the air a little bit better.

but big thing is in a 550 almost looks like little fangs but if you look at the grill in the lower corners of the grill whatnot you’ll see fog lamps the 575 does not have those that are in the grill so that’s a big kind of indicator right there in the front that kind of is the dead giveaway because you know from the side it’s kind of hard to tell now when you get to the back [00:24:00] a dead giveaway if someone has the 575m badging on it now again the 550 never did Um, I could be wrong on that, but from what I understand it never did.

But the 575, some have them, some don’t. So my guess is if it’s an older thing, you could get on there, or maybe someone didn’t have it. But not many have it on there. But the biggest dead giveaway on the back, if you’re looking at the ass end of a 575 compared to a 550, is right where you reach to lift the trunk up, the 550 has a notch cut out, little indentation for your hand.

The 575, it’s straight across. That’s your dead giveaway right there in regards to between a 550 and 575 from the back. That can tell you if it doesn’t have the badging on it. Um, interior wise, the biggest thing is the gauge cluster and the center console. Now again, obviously we have the F1 tranny, it’s completely different in regards to the center console because there’s no gear selector, gear, gear shift.

But, is on the center console part, all you have are those three vents that are bigger. The gauge [00:25:00] cluster above the vents on the 550 are gone, they’re no longer there, they’re just. The vents are just there now. Everything moves over to the gauge cluster that is right in front of the driver. And the layout is completely different.

Now your tach is basically dead center. That’s your big thing taking it up. Speedometer is off to the right. So are all your other ancillary gauges are kind of encircled around it. So that’s kind of the bigger thing. You know, I guess you’re trying to make it more, I don’t know, driver oriented in regards to more sportiness because you’re really driving by the revs, not so much by the speedometer.

Um, but, you know, it’s, it’s, you know, it still looks beautiful, there’s no doubt about that. Uh, it’s still a gorgeous interior, and obviously if you have that gated manual, it’s even as pretty as it gets. So, it’s just little things like that on the interior. And the one big thing is, On the 550, on the center console, the ashtray is just kind of black on there, but on the 575, it’s a leather.

They just went to [00:26:00] town more with the leather, more alcantara on the interior. So they really kind of upped the game in regards to what they did on the interior wise and just obviously value wise and whatnot. Uh, so get into it. Now, the one cool thing is they had four different models in regards to the 575, um, when they came out with.

Now, I don’t know if, you know. If you want to say the GTC handling package, you know, it changed things up in it. It changed up the suspension. You got Converx, they got the ceramic brakes on there. Um, you know, obviously that really improves your braking, but you know, I know honestly I’m not a fan, especially in the earlier cars like that.

I wouldn’t want ceramic brakes because back then you had to get them heated up before they actually worked as good as they’re supposed to. And the problem is when they’re cold, they make a lot of noise, everything like that, so, but, you know, obviously you want to go rarity wise, you want to get that GTC handling package on there.

So, really didn’t change much else, those are kind of the [00:27:00] biggest thing. Um, and it gave you, you know, the bigger 19 inch wheels compared to the 18 inches that are standard. Um, it’s kind of got that weird Almost they’re two piece on the car. I don’t know if they are two piece, but they look two piece. It’s got the bolt patterns on everything like that.

Um, but you know, it’s got a different look. Some like it, some don’t. But you know, it’s a different look to it, that’s for sure. Now, the big one is again going to the convertible and that would be the Super America. So again, obviously changing up to stiffen things up, everything like that. But what this thing had is they had that electrochromatic roof, glass panel roof on there.

That, you know, it, it can, you know, change color, whatnot, everything like that. But I tell you what, that thing breaks. You break and whatnot. Forget about it. I, I, I wanna say I’ve heard it’s like a hundred, $200,000 get, you know, get it repaired or get it replaced. Um, it’s, it’s just obscenely expensive. I mean, it’s, again, though, you’re getting into rarity of these things.

[00:28:00] Uh, only 559 of ’em were built. Um, and 43 of those had a manual gearbox. So you wanna talk about. big money. I want to say those are probably about a million bucks of those 43s, the gated six speed manual coming out of the factory on the super america. Gorgeous looking car, top down. I mean again, you couldn’t go wrong, convertible front engine v12.

Speed manual transmission again, no promise. Now you get into rarity, you know, and you know, it’s, you know, getting to those few people that can afford to buy it, you know, um, you know, yeah. Who would love to have that? You know, again, you know, uh, I’d love to, I’d love to have a five, seven, five over a five 50, just because of all the, you know, you know, a little more horsepower upgrades on the staff, but.

There’s no way in heck I can afford buying a 575 manual. I mean, I could get a conversion done, you know, that’s kind of the argument. It’s like, what are you going to do with the car? I mean, you’re going to drive it, you’re going to, you know, um, you [00:29:00] know, just sit and stare at it. Me, I want to drive it. So it wouldn’t be that big of a difference between the 550 and 575, you know, you’re not talking a huge horsepower difference, you know, and so it’s not really getting all that much.

Um, If I had my druthers, obviously I’m gonna buy five 50 because they’re more plentiful and I get a little better deal on it. And if I need to, if I, if I’m gonna do it, I need to do it here in the next year or two, um, and have some fun with it, you know, I would. Prefer possibly to buy a 430 manual. Again, probably go with one that’s a conversion done on a 430.

Just because of cost. And again, I’m going to drive my car. And getting into that F1 transmission. Is, you know, EAG does a phenomenal job. Again, how those things were designed. It’s not a big, huge deal to swap in the 6 speed and drop in the clutch pedal and do everything. The big thing is the computer, and just getting that computer to understand that, hey, it’s actually, you know, you’re rolling the gears yourself, it’s not the computer doing it.

So that’s the [00:30:00] big thing, and that’s the thing that took EAG a long time to perfect, is getting that done. Now there is someone out there. I supposedly did it on four or five eight I think they only did one because it was such a nightmare, but that’s a whole different story. That’s a whole nother podcast So but the other one that you know, there was a custom 575 GTZ that was built by Zagato That was for a Japanese collector Yoshiyuki Hayashi So I want to say they only built the one.

Oh, I’m sorry. There were six built in total. My apologies. Um, so I was still discussing one off and got, the only way you’re going to buy one of those is off market and you got another person, you have a lot of money. So anyways, I seen them. I don’t know. I’m not a fan. I don’t like the way you look. You know?

Yeah, I know. Zagato is a big, huge name, but I’m not really a fan of what they used to do with their cars and how they did it. I just thought it was, you know, I wasn’t a fan. Just wasn’t me. Now, one thing I want to get into about both these cars for your motorsports racing people is, you know, [00:31:00] 550, you know, kind of people, you know, some guys, some race teams out there, you know, started getting into it, uh, and using that car and build it.

But now the big one that did it, and these things are crazy money now is pro drive came in and started with the 550, but then they also did a five, seven, five version of it. Um, built these for the cars for FIA, uh, GT championship, mainly. Um, Now they built, I can’t remember how many they built. Uh, I was trying to find out, you know, there’s very numbers.

So I’m not going to quote a number, but these things are phenomenal race cars. And these things are big money. And a few of them got, you know, changed hands recently. Uh, there was widely just went through the auction thing. And I want to say it was a couple of million bucks. Don’t quote me on that. I could be wrong.

Um, you know, but, you know, these things are great. ProDrive is a phenomenal team. Everyone knows who ProDrive is. Um, they, you know, the 550, you know, I want to say teething and whatnot, get everything going, but man, [00:32:00] they had a lot of luck with that 575, I won’t say luck, but they really knocked it out of the park with 575 and the racing program that they, uh, built with that.

So, but anyways, long story short, there’s your two differences between a 550 Now, like I said, you know, there’s not too many differences between the two. Big one obviously horsepower, but aesthetic wise, there’s not a lot. I hope this kind of can give you a little insight. So next time you’re at a show and you see one sitting there, you’ll be able to distinguish the two between each other.

So you know right off the bat. Oh, that’s a 550. Oh, that’s a 575. Like I said, the big, biggest thing when you look at the front is, just look at the headlights. A 575, they’re color matched to the body, whereas a 550, where the headlights are themselves, they’re black. So that’s going to be your biggest indicator and giveaway, but also the, you know, fog lamps on a 550 are there in that grille on a 575, they’re not.

And again, from the back, just look for that little indentation on the trunk. That’s your biggest indicators inside, you know, uh, there’s a lot of differences, obviously with the gauge cluster center console, but I said from [00:33:00] outside, they’ll be able to tell the difference again, value wise. Uh, all five fifties were six speed manuals.

So you’re probably, you know, for a decent one, one that’s got history, everything like that, one that you’re going to want to buy because you know, that way you’re not into it. You’re going to be close to 200 grand on it. Now, can you find them cheaper? Yeah. Like I said, I know there’s one going on, you know, uh, I found it on, it was auto Tempest did a search, the dealer there had one for like 130, but you know, it had almost 30, 000 miles and God only knows history or anything like that.

There’s a reason it’s cheap. That’s one thing you got to remember. You know, it’s kind of that edge. If it’s too good to be true. Um, so just do your due diligence. You know, hey, maybe you’re handy with the wrench. Because with these cars, you’re still on that verge of where you can do a lot of the work yourself.

Um, you know, as long as you have a brain on your head and you’ve got patience, you can sort some things out. Same on the 575, same thing. You know, it’s still, I’d say, basically, it’s a basic car. But, you can still do a lot of stuff yourself. Now, then getting the [00:34:00] 575, now we’re getting to F1 trannies. And obviously, compared to a 6 speed manual, hey, the, uh, with the F1 transmission, mid, mid 150 range, a little bit less, uh, on there, depending on mileage, but, you know, 6 speed manuals, you’re 300 plus easily, because as I said, they only did 246 worldwide, 6 speed manuals, so, again, do your thing, like I said, now, look into, hey, if you’re considering it, put some serious thought, what do you want to do with this car, I mean, the car’s going to hold its value, as long as you maintain everything like that, so, I mean, F1 transmission 575, You know, you maintain it, you drive and have some fun with it.

Hey, you do everything. You might lose a couple of bucks. Hey, you might keep your, you know, you might make your money back. Who knows? But. You’re still going to have fun with the car, or hey, if you want to drive a lot, you want a 6 speed manual? Get a EAG, get a conversion done. You’re still going to be ahead of the game compared to a factory manual, and it’s still going to basically have the same feel and stuff like that to how you drive it.

Some people do say when you drive a factory man, you’re compared to [00:35:00] what each has, you know, again, this is if you have that field, that sense, you can do it. Some people say, oh, you could definitely feel the difference. Some people, you know, it’s all about the click, clack, click, clack, going through the gears.

Um, other people say, I can’t tell the difference, you know, but Hey. It’s so my new, what’s the, you know, Hey, have fun with the car. You’d be under the, in the car under 200 grand and then kind of, and I don’t know if I mentioned much to say any service or whatnot, e. g. They can fully service the car as well.

So while they’re doing it, they can go through the whole car. Well, so, um, just don’t be surprised when you send it down there, you walk out there with the 60, 70, 000 bill. If you’re doing the conversion. So again, it’s all about preference. It’s all about your drivers. Like I said, um, I think the five 50 is a great value.

Great purchase. Now it’s going to hold its value. It’s only going to go up in value. I mean, how fast, I don’t know, but I want to say is that five 50 is, you know, if you’re in the market for a front engine Ferrari, Obviously, definitely, I would put some serious thought, I’d buy a 550 just because of the gated manual.

Um, now going [00:36:00] between say a 355 or 360 compared to a 550, 570, I mean it’s all about preference of what you’re going to do with the car. You know, again, these, these are front engine V12 Grand Touring cars. They’re made that you’ll go drive long distances and whatnot in comfort, um, and have at it. So it’s just about personal preference.

So go out there and look, but again, hey guys, I really appreciate you guys listening. I hope I gave you a little insight into these two. Transcribed Uh, like I said, I got some other ones got all lined up here in schedule. So we’ve got some more coming here and try and get some more of these out on a weekly basis.

Guys, again, appreciate you listening. Check out the modern podcasting network. Um, sorry, motoring podcast network, uh, NPN. Uh, we’re gaining some momentum here in regards to who’s on board and that stuff. So we’ve got a lot of cool things coming down the pike. Keep the right side up. Keep the rubber on the road.

Thanks guys. Until next time. Have a good one.