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January 16, 2025Ferrari / ProvenanceThe Ferrari 166 S occupies a pivotal place in the annals of automotive history. Introduced in 1948, this car represented a defining moment for Ferrari, encapsulating the brand’s ambition, engineering prowess, and relentless pursuit of excellence. The 166 S was not just a car; it was a symbol of post-war recovery, a competitive force in motorsport, and a precursor to Ferrari’s illustrious lineage of grand tourers and racing machines. This comprehensive article delves into every aspect of the Ferrari 166 S—its design, engineering, racing achievements, market impact, and legacy. Join us on a journey to understand how this iconic car laid the foundation for Ferrari’s reputation as one of the most revered automakers in the world. Post-War Italy and the Birth of Ferrari The late 1940s were a transformative period for Italy and its nascent automotive industry. Emerging from the devastation of World War II, Italian engineers and designers sought to restore their country’s reputation for craftsmanship and innovation. Among them was Enzo Ferrari, a man whose vision for creating the ultimate racing machines led to the establishment of Scuderia Ferrari in 1947. The Ferrari 166 S was born out of this fervent drive for excellence. It followed the 125 S and the 159 S, refining their concepts while introducing significant advancements in performance and design. The “166” designation referred to the displacement of each cylinder in cubic centimeters, while the “S” stood for “Sport,” emphasizing the car’s dual-purpose nature as both a racing machine and a road car. Design Philosophy The 166 S was designed with a clear goal: to dominate on the track and captivate on the road. Ferrari collaborated with some of Italy’s most renowned coachbuilders, including Touring and Vignale, to create a car that was not only functional but also beautiful. The resulting designs set the standard for Ferrari’s aesthetic language, blending elegance with aggression. The Colombo V12 Engine At the heart of the Ferrari 166 S was the Colombo-designed 2.0-liter V12 engine. This engine, developed by legendary engineer Gioachino Colombo, was a masterpiece of efficiency and power. Producing up to 110 horsepower at 6,000 rpm, the V12 was compact, lightweight, and capable of high-revving performance. The engine featured a single overhead camshaft per cylinder bank, a wet sump lubrication system, and three Weber 32 DCF carburetors. These components worked in harmony to deliver smooth power delivery and exceptional reliability—qualities that were critical for both racing and long-distance touring. Chassis and Suspension The 166 S utilized a tubular steel chassis, a hallmark of Ferrari’s early engineering approach. This frame provided the rigidity needed for precise handling while keeping weight to a minimum. The suspension system included independent double wishbones at the front and a live axle with semi-elliptic leaf springs at the rear. This setup offered a balance between comfort and performance, ensuring the car could handle the demands of racing as well as the open road. Transmission and Drivetrain A five-speed manual transmission delivered power to the rear wheels, providing a level of control that was unmatched by many of the car’s contemporaries. The gearbox was praised for its precision, allowing drivers to fully exploit the engine’s capabilities. Mille Miglia Triumph The Ferrari 166 S made its mark in motorsport with an impressive victory at the 1948 Mille Miglia, driven by Clemente Biondetti and Giuseppe Navone. This grueling 1,000-mile race across Italy tested the limits of endurance and performance, and the 166 S rose to the challenge, showcasing its reliability and speed. Success at Le Mans In 1949, a 166 S variant achieved Ferrari’s first victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Luigi Chinetti and Lord Selsdon piloted the car to an extraordinary win, cementing Ferrari’s reputation on the global stage. This victory was a turning point for Ferrari, establishing the brand as a dominant force in endurance racing. Other Achievements The 166 S’s success wasn’t limited to these marquee events. It also claimed victories in hill climbs, road races, and circuit events across Europe. The car’s versatility and performance made it a favorite among privateer racers, further enhancing Ferrari’s prestige. Exterior Styling The Ferrari 166 S’s design varied depending on the coachbuilder, but all versions shared a commitment to aerodynamic efficiency and visual appeal. Touring’s Barchetta (“little boat”) body was particularly iconic, with its flowing lines, minimalistic grille, and open cockpit. This design not only reduced weight but also captured the imagination of enthusiasts and collectors. Interior Features The interior of the 166 S was purpose-built, reflecting its racing DNA. Sparse yet functional, the cabin featured lightweight bucket seats, a simple dashboard with analog gauges, and minimal trim. Despite its spartan nature, the interior exuded a sense of craftsmanship and attention to detail. Limited Production Ferrari produced only 39 examples of the 166 S between 1948 and 1950, making it one of the rarest and most sought-after Ferraris. Each car was hand-built, with variations in bodywork and specifications based on the preferences of its owner. Customer Appeal The 166 S attracted a clientele that valued exclusivity, performance, and style. It was a car for the discerning enthusiast, offering a level of sophistication and capability that was unmatched in its era. Influence on Future Models The Ferrari 166 S set the template for future Ferrari sports cars, from the 250 GT to the modern-day 812 Superfast. Its combination of a high-revving V12 engine, lightweight chassis, and stunning design became hallmarks of the brand. A Collector’s Dream Today, the Ferrari 166 S is a prized possession for collectors. Its rarity, historical significance, and racing pedigree make it one of the most valuable Ferraris ever produced. Restored examples often fetch millions of dollars at auctions, a testament to its enduring appeal. The Ferrari 166 S is more than just a car; it is a cornerstone of Ferrari’s legacy. From its groundbreaking engineering to its racing triumphs and timeless design, the 166 S embodies the spirit of innovation and excellence that defines Ferrari. It remains a symbol of post-war optimism and the enduring allure of Italian automotive craftsmanship. As a piece of history and a work of art, the Ferrari 166 S continues to inspire admiration and respect. Its legacy lives on, not only in the cars that bear the Ferrari name today but also in the hearts of enthusiasts who recognize it as one of the greatest cars ever built. Specifications TYPE front, longitudinal 60° V12 Bore/stroke 60 x 58.8mm Unitary displacement 166.25cc Total displacement 1995.02cc Compression ratio 7.5 : 1 Maximum power 81 kW (110 hp) at 6000 rpm Power per litre 55hp/l Maximum torque- Valve actuation single overhead camshaft per bank, two valves per cylinder Fuel feed three Weber 32 DCF carburetors Ignition single spark plug per cylinder, two coils Lubrication wet sump Clutch single-plate [...]
January 9, 2025Ferrari / ProvenanceFerrari is a name that resonates with automotive excellence, blending innovative engineering with a passion for speed and performance. While the Ferrari 125 S holds the distinction of being the first car to bear the Ferrari name, the Ferrari 159 S represents a critical evolutionary step in the brand’s journey. As the second car produced by Ferrari, the 159 S played a pivotal role in refining the company’s engineering and establishing its reputation in competitive racing. Post-War Ambitions In the aftermath of World War II, Europe was rebuilding, and so too was its automotive industry. For Enzo Ferrari, the war’s end marked a fresh opportunity to pursue his lifelong dream of building high-performance cars. After the debut of the 125 S in 1947, Ferrari sought to improve upon his initial creation. This ambition gave rise to the Ferrari 159 S in 1947, a car that would embody incremental advancements and set the stage for future successes. Technical Innovations and Engineering At the core of the Ferrari 159 S was its updated engine. The 1.5-liter V12 engine, originally designed by Gioachino Colombo, received enhancements to boost its performance. While retaining the 60-degree angle between the cylinder banks, the engine’s displacement was slightly increased from 1,496 cc to 1,905 cc. This modification allowed the engine to produce 125 horsepower at 6,500 RPM, a notable improvement over its predecessor. The V12 engine featured three Weber 32DCF carburetors, a single overhead camshaft per cylinder bank, and a lightweight aluminum block. These innovations contributed to a higher power-to-weight ratio and improved performance. The car’s top speed exceeded 170 km/h (106 mph), making it competitive on both the track and the road. The 159 S’s chassis was an evolution of the steel tubular frame used in the 125 S. It retained independent double-wishbone suspension at the front and a live rear axle with semi-elliptic leaf springs. These refinements enhanced the car’s handling, stability, and overall driving dynamics. Function Meets Form The Ferrari 159 S retained the barchetta (“little boat”) design of the 125 S, characterized by its open-top body style and aerodynamic lines. The bodywork, crafted by Carrozzeria Touring, exhibited clean, minimalist aesthetics that emphasized functionality and performance. The low-slung design, curved fenders, and iconic grille bearing the Ferrari emblem contributed to its timeless appeal. While the 159 S’s design was rooted in racing efficiency, it also hinted at the elegance that would later become synonymous with Ferrari road cars. The craftsmanship and attention to detail demonstrated Ferrari’s commitment to creating vehicles that were as visually striking as they were mechanically advanced. Racing Achievements Enzo Ferrari’s passion for racing drove the development of the 159 S. The car made its competitive debut in 1947, just months after the 125 S’s introduction. With drivers like Franco Cortese and Giuseppe Farina behind the wheel, the 159 S quickly demonstrated its potential. One of the most notable victories for the 159 S came at the 1947 Circuito di Parma. Franco Cortese piloted the car to victory, showcasing its improved performance and reliability. The car also competed in other events, including hill climbs and endurance races, where it consistently demonstrated its capability against more established competitors. The 159 S’s racing success was instrumental in establishing Ferrari’s reputation as a formidable contender in motorsport. These achievements also bolstered the company’s credibility and attracted the attention of enthusiasts and investors alike. Legacy and Evolution The Ferrari 159 S was a transitional model, bridging the gap between the 125 S and subsequent Ferrari cars like the 166 S. While only a limited number of 159 S models were produced, their impact on Ferrari’s development was profound. The lessons learned from the 159 S’s engineering and racing experiences informed the design and performance of future models. Moreover, the 159 S solidified the foundation of Ferrari’s V12 engine lineage. The engine configuration, initially developed by Colombo, became a defining characteristic of Ferrari vehicles. Over the decades, this V12 architecture evolved and powered some of the most iconic Ferrari cars, from the 250 GTO to the modern-day Purosangue. Enzo Ferrari’s Vision Enzo Ferrari’s relentless pursuit of perfection was evident in the creation of the 159 S. He viewed each car not as an end in itself but as a step toward something greater. This philosophy drove continuous innovation and improvement, ensuring that Ferrari remained at the forefront of automotive performance and design. The 159 S also highlighted Ferrari’s ability to attract and collaborate with talented individuals. From engineers like Colombo to skilled craftsmen at Carrozzeria Touring, the collective expertise and passion of Ferrari’s team brought the 159 S to life and set the stage for the company’s future triumphs. The Ferrari 159 S occupies a unique place in automotive history. As Ferrari’s second car, it represents a crucial phase in the company’s evolution, embodying the spirit of innovation and determination that defines the brand. Through its technical advancements, racing success, and timeless design, the 159 S contributed to Ferrari’s ascent as a global icon of performance and luxury. While the 159 S may not be as well-known as some of Ferrari’s later models, its legacy endures. It serves as a reminder of the brand’s humble beginnings and the relentless drive to push boundaries—qualities that continue to define Ferrari today. As enthusiasts and historians reflect on the milestones that shaped Ferrari’s journey, the 159 S stands as a testament to the enduring vision of Enzo Ferrari and the birth of a legend. Specifications Type front, longitudinal 60° V12 Bore/stroke 59 x 58mm Unitary displacement 158.57cc Total displacement 1902.84cc Compression ratio 8.5 : 1 Maximum power 92 kW (125 hp) at 6500 rpm Power per litre 66hp/l Maximum torque- Valve actuation single overhead camshaft per bank, two valves per cylinder Fuel feed three Weber 32 DCF carburetors Ignition single spark plug per cylinder, two magnetos Lubrication wet sump Clutch single plate [...]
January 2, 2025Ferrari / ProvenanceWhen one thinks of Ferrari, images of sleek, high-performance sports cars speeding down scenic roads or dominating racetracks come to mind. The prancing horse emblem has become synonymous with luxury, power, and prestige. However, the journey of Ferrari as an automotive powerhouse began with a single groundbreaking vehicle: the Ferrari 125 S. This car, the first to bear the Ferrari name, represents a pivotal moment in automotive history and serves as a testament to Enzo Ferrari’s vision and determination. The Birth of a Legend The Ferrari 125 S made its debut on March 12, 1947, at the factory gates in Maranello, Italy. This car was the result of years of planning, innovation, and an unwavering commitment to excellence. Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the company, had long been associated with motorsport through his work with Alfa Romeo and Scuderia Ferrari, a racing team he established in the late 1920s. However, World War II disrupted his ambitions, and he had to temporarily pivot his operations to manufacturing machine tools. After the war, Enzo Ferrari returned to his true passion—building high-performance cars. The result was the 125 S, a car designed not only to compete on racetracks but also to establish Ferrari as a force to be reckoned with in the automotive world. Engineering Excellence At the heart of the Ferrari 125 S was its groundbreaking V12 engine. Designed by Gioachino Colombo, this 1.5-liter naturally aspirated engine was an engineering marvel. With an output of 118 horsepower at 6,800 RPM, the engine featured a 60-degree angle between the cylinder banks, a single overhead camshaft per bank, and three Weber 30 DCF carburetors. This compact yet powerful engine set the stage for Ferrari’s future dominance in both racing and road car development. The 125 S was built on a steel tube-frame chassis, with independent double-wishbone suspension at the front and a live axle with semi-elliptic leaf springs at the rear. The car’s lightweight construction and advanced suspension system provided exceptional handling and stability, characteristics that would become hallmarks of Ferrari vehicles. Design and Aesthetics The 125 S was designed as a two-seater Barchetta, or “little boat,” with an open-top configuration. Its sleek, minimalist design prioritized functionality and aerodynamics. Crafted by Carrozzeria Touring, the body featured clean lines, a low profile, and a distinctive grille adorned with the Ferrari emblem. While the car’s aesthetics were relatively simple compared to later Ferrari models, its design exuded elegance and purpose. The First Test The Ferrari 125 S underwent its first public test drive on the streets of Maranello. This marked a historic moment not just for Ferrari but for the automotive world at large. The car’s performance impressed onlookers, and it was clear that Enzo Ferrari had created something extraordinary. However, this was just the beginning. Racing Heritage Enzo Ferrari’s primary goal for the 125 S was to prove its worth on the racetrack. The car made its competitive debut on May 11, 1947, at the Piacenza Circuit. Unfortunately, the debut ended in disappointment due to a mechanical failure. Despite this setback, Enzo Ferrari referred to the race as a “promising failure,” as the car had shown great potential during the initial laps. The 125 S quickly redeemed itself. On May 20, 1947, the car achieved its first victory at the Rome Grand Prix, driven by Franco Cortese. This triumph marked the beginning of Ferrari’s illustrious racing history. Over the course of its brief career, the 125 S competed in 14 races, achieving 11 victories—an impressive feat for a debut model. Legacy and Impact The success of the Ferrari 125 S laid the foundation for the company’s future. It demonstrated Ferrari’s ability to produce cars that excelled in both performance and reliability. Moreover, the 125 S established key principles that would guide Ferrari’s development for decades: a focus on innovation, a commitment to excellence, and an unwavering passion for racing. The 125 S also marked the beginning of Ferrari’s relationship with V12 engines. Over the years, this engine configuration became a defining feature of many iconic Ferrari models, including the 250 GTO, the Daytona, and the modern LaFerrari. The Road Ahead Although only two examples of the 125 S were ever built, their influence is immeasurable. The car’s success gave Enzo Ferrari the confidence and resources to expand his company and develop new models. In 1948, Ferrari introduced the 166 Inter, its first car designed for road use, signaling the start of Ferrari’s dual focus on road and race cars. The legacy of the 125 S is evident in every Ferrari produced since. From its engineering innovations to its racing achievements, the 125 S embodies the spirit of Ferrari: a relentless pursuit of perfection and a passion for pushing the boundaries of what is possible.   The Ferrari 125 S was more than just a car; it was a symbol of determination, innovation, and excellence. As the first vehicle to bear the Ferrari name, it represents the birth of an automotive legend. Through its engineering brilliance, racing success, and lasting impact, the 125 S has earned its place in history as one of the most important cars ever created. Today, Ferrari stands as a beacon of performance and luxury, a legacy that began with the modest yet groundbreaking 125 S. This car not only launched a brand but also set the standard for what a Ferrari should be: a masterpiece of art and engineering that captures the hearts of enthusiasts around the world. Specifications Bore/stroke 55 x 52.5mm Unitary displacement 124.73cc Total displacement 1496.77cc Compression ratio 9.5 : 1 Maximum power 87 kW (118 hp) at 6800 rpm Power per litre 79hp/l Maximum torque- Valve actuation single overhead camshaft per bank, two valves per cylinder Fuel feed three Weber 30 DCF carburetor’s Ignition single spark plug per cylinder, two magnetos Lubrication wet sump Clutch single-plate Frame tubular steel [...]
November 12, 2024Ferrari / PodcastIn this episode of Ferrari Fridays, William marks the return of the Ferrari Marketplace channel after a brief hiatus. William introduces the newly launched Ferrari F80 hypercar, highlighting its design influences from previous Ferrari models and the Le Mans-winning 499 car. He elaborates on the car’s technical specifications, including its twin-turbo V6 engine, electric motors, and all-wheel drive system. The episode also touches on Ferrari’s configurator, allowing fans to explore various options for the F80. The podcast gives shout-outs to partners and invites listeners to explore more content from the Motoring Podcast Network. FERRARI HAS UNVEILED THE F80 AND WROTE A NEW chapter in the history of legendary supercars bearing the badge. The F80 will be produced in a limited run of just 799 examples and joins the pantheon of icons such as the GTO, F40, and LaFerrari by showcasing the best that the Maranello-based marque has achieved in terms of technology and performance. Ever since 1984, Ferrari has periodically released a new supercar that represented the pinnacle of cutting-edge technology and innovation of its era and that was destined to become enshrined in popular culture. Intended for the most discerning clients of the brand, these cars immediately became legends in their own lifetime, making an indelible mark not only on the history of Ferrari, but on the history of the automobile itself. The latest addition to this family, the F80, is tasked with embodying the ultimate in engineering for an internal-combustion-engined vehicle and employs all the most advanced technological solutions, including latest-generation hybrid technology for the powertrain, to achieve unparalleled levels of power and torque. Every aspect of the architecture is conceived to maximize performance, from the carbon-fiber chassis and extreme aerodynamic solutions far beyond anything seen before in a road legal car, to the new active suspension optimized to let the driver wring every ounce of performance from the car on the track. Unlike anything else in the current supercar world, the F80 combines all these attributes with uncompromising levels of usability on the road, where it can be driven with ease. This ability shaped every choice made in terms of technology and architecture to achieve the goal, which at first sight seems impossible, of creating a track-oriented supercar that’s just as drivable as a production range model. As with all the supercars preceding it, the F80 marks the start of a new design era for Ferrari, with a more tense, extreme design language accentuating its race-bred soul. There are clear references to cues borrowed from aerospace, which underscore the cutting-edge technology and elegant engineering of each and every technical solution. But there are also nods to its hallowed progenitors which clearly declare the illustrious lineage of the F80. LAUNCH THE F80 CONFIGURATOR This week William discusses the launch of the new Ferrari F80. There are 35 color options, nine carbon fiber choices, two wheel designs, but can you afford any of them? Tune in to learn more. Episode 27 – The Ferrari F80 00:00 Welcome to Ferrari Fridays 00:25 Introduction and Apologies 01:16 Shoutouts and Acknowledgements 01:38 Discussing the Ferrari F80 02:32 First Impressions of the F80 03:15 Design Influences and Features 05:30 Active Aerodynamics and Comparisons 10:58 Mechanical Details of the F80 12:39 Exclusive Ownership and Community 14:51 Discussing the F80’s Powertrain 15:43 Ferrari’s Impressive Warranty 16:31 Electric Motors and Torque Vectoring 17:11 No Full EV Mode: A Bold Choice 17:49 A Funny Lamborghini Story 18:36 Exploring the F80’s Cockpit 19:57 Diving into the F80 Configurator 23:42 Final Thoughts on the F80 25:24 Outro and Additional Content 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 and welcome back to the Ferrari Marketplace channel. Yes, it’s been a while. Yes, I apologize. Yes, I know I said I was going to have a lot more stuff coming, but you know what? I got crazy busy. So, now that the temperatures are cooling, I’m going to I have some free time, so to speak. I guess that’s kind of maybe not so true, but now that I’m going to be indoors a lot more, uh, I have the time and we can start nailing out some more of these podcasts to keep you guys entertained throughout the winter. Because as we all know, especially up here in the north, northeast, northwest, it gets cold, it gets snowy, and you really can’t take your cars out unless you’re a maniac, got all wheel drive, or you just want to have some fun. But why not? You know what? It’s a car. Car’s a car, right? So, but anyways, really want to welcome everyone back. I appreciate you guys listening. We appreciate all the support we’re getting. Big shout out to the motoring podcast network. Big shout out to the exotic car marketplace. Big shout out to the garage style magazine. Really big shout out to Mr. Beaty and Slot Mods if you haven’t checked out Slot Mods check out the video just did on it We dropped it. It’s on the channel on the Garage 65 channel and also to Hot Shoe Studios to Tony Thank you very much my man. But anyways, onward and upward Today’s episode we are talking about the one the only the successor The one in the lineage of many, many cars that Ferrari’s put out. The 288 GTO, F40, F50, then we went into the Enzo, then the LaFerrari, and now what do we have? Thrrrrrrr Double! The F 80. Yes. Ferrari dropped their newest and latest hypercar today, the Ferrari F 80, keeping in line with kind of how all the names go, which I really like. You know, they could have came up with some goofy name, like La Ferrari, Ferrari, the Ferrari, which it kind of grows on you. But anyways, I, I like that going kind of at 40. F50. Bam. Let’s go with F80. Yeah, you got a couple in there in between, but I like the continuation and keeping that lineage going. I really, I kind of dig it. So, anyways, first impressions, me personally, love it. I think the thing is awesome. It, uh, doesn’t, you know, I guess if you look a lot of these hyper cars that come out, you know, they all have the same look to them, the same kind of style, everything like that. Now, of course, you have to understand, as everyone knows, a lot of these, the design aspect of things is aerodynamic driven. So you kind of have to all of a sudden reverse engineer, so to speak about your aerodynamics, what do you want to achieve performance wise? So then what do you do? Okay, here’s what we want to achieve. Okay. What do we need to do? Drag all that kind of stuff. So, but what I really, really dig and you can see it as soon as you, you know, when you start looking at it, get those first images. It’s not, I want to say you’re spitting, you know, image replica of it, but you can see the heavy, heavy, heavy influence. The Le Mans winning 499 car has on it. It’s got that it’s, it’s low, it’s why the cockpit’s a little bit more narrow than the body, you know, it’s not going out to the edges. It’s got a really, really cool look to it. I really dig it. It’s definitely going to stand out when wherever at the lucky bastards that get to buy one. Uh, hopefully they drive them and take them out. Uh, but you know, it’s just got a really. Really muscular mean look to it when you’re staring at it. You know, it’s uh, the silhouette and everything like that It’s just got that very 499 esque look to it, which is really cool. Now the one thing you will see in the front They kind of pull it off of the new 12 cylinder If I pronounce that right, probably not. But anyways, they got that dark color, the band going across to replicate from the Daytona back in the day, which had just kind of a tidbit. Everyone else, it was never officially called the Daytona from the factory. The writers and media nicknamed that and dubbed it the Daytona after obviously the 24 hours Daytona and it competing it and saw it actually, that thing came out of the factory. It was just a three 65. So, but. Media dubbed it so but anyways you look at the front and you’ll see they’re going across and for those of you that don’t know that going across what happened was or what it is is the European cars that were built or when they built the 365 that actually the designer they put as a plexiglass it went all the way across it was clear and actually put these really cool like little lines and everything like that. You check it out because you know, the headlights were reset, recessed in to the front there. So the plexiglass went all the way across the front. So that’s where they look. But the problem was is here in the, uh, old lucky USA we are because the morons in, uh, the, uh, in Washington DC decided, Oh no, you know, your headlights are too low, whatnot, because your headlights had to be a certain height or like that. So. The 365 and that stuff here is they were pop ups. So once they popped up, they met the minimum requirement for height wise. So to kind of get that same look, you know, they would paint that, that color or whatnot to kind of give it that look. So hence that’s why. But anyways, back to the F80. So you look at the front. You know, it’s really cool and obviously there’s a lot of the active aero going on. There’s a lot of that, you know, going, but you know, it’s, it’s not, it doesn’t jump out at you. It doesn’t have like all these little flap things and all this stuff like that. It’s all kind of tucked underneath the nose and that. So which is really cool. And a lot of stuff’s underneath. So it’s not really kind of overpowering the car having all these little, Doodads and gadgets and whatnot on the front and all these little lines breaking up the whole, I guess you’d say, view of it because you got all these little flaps popping up and into that stuff, you know, a la, like, if you look at Pagani’s and whatnot like that, you know, they got all these flaps that pop up and everything like that to help control it, uh, aerodynamics and that, but the problem is it really kind of messes up the lines, but that’s just me personally. So, now going around, like I said, the, you know, the, uh, The greenhouse you got the cockpit. It’s really cool. How it’s kind of shrunk into the car I guess you don’t speak so you got shoulders to it going all the way down So it’s not like you have smooth on the side It’s really neat and then when you open up the doors, you’ll see the tub to it Which is really really cool get ahead of myself though because that’s we’re getting in the interior But the only one drawback I have with this when you get into the back gas and looking at it It looks like a C8. Yes, it does. It’s one of my first impressions. I saw it go. Wow, that looks very C8 ish Um, I think there could have been something they could have done with the lights maybe Uh, the taillights something along those lines kind of get it away, but it’s got a very very far Chevrolet C8 esque look to it. Now that’s just me I don’t know. And it’s kind of one of those things. Now I mentioned it whatnot. People can’t, can’t unsee it. That’s kind of like that new Bugatti turbulent lawn, whatever it is. If you look at it, put it up next to a pig snout, take a picture of a pig in a snout, put up the new Bugatti next to it. You cannot unsee that. It looks like a pig snout. So, but anyways, so it’s very CA desk. So, but it still looks damn sexy. And again, that back wing is active arrow. So it’s going to either, you know, for breaking, it’s going to be an airbrake. It’s going to tilt down. It’s going to level out for top speed, everything like that and go around. So it’s really cool. It’s neat tricks. This is obviously the. The, uh, generation or genre or whatever you wanna call it, the uh, what the, what we’re in now with all the electronics and everything on these cars, you know, and it just, you know what, it just kind of scares me down the road though. I’ll be dead. So, um, but people that are gonna have to deal with this, you know, you look at your, your pre-war car, your brass air cars, you stuff all the way up to the, you know, eighties, even into the nineties, you know. You can still work on them yourself technically, because it was very basically your straightforward car. You know, you started getting into having, you know, your on board computer to do diagnostics and that, but it was super, super basic. So you could still work on the car yourself. Get in there with the wrench and ratchet and all that. These cars this day and age, starting in the 2000s and whatnot, forget about it, because you’ll screw it up. And, uh, obviously, that’s almost done, like, yeah, you’re gonna get for performance and whatnot. Yeah, it’s supposed to, you know, improve things, but it goes along the lines where these, Manufacturers want to control every aspect of these cars, you know, not just selling it, but then after sale maintenance, everything like that, beyond warranty and stuff, because you have some of these guys, well, the warranty will get voided if you don’t take it to an authorized dealer. Which is insane. I mean, that’s just, I don’t know. I just don’t understand that, you know? And so, but anyway, so look at the car back to the F80. So exterior wise, everything like that. It’s stunning. I really like it. I’m sure there’s going to be other people that hate it, but that’s all it is because everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. But I said, like I said, I really liked the fact is it’s separating itself away from what some of these other ones have come out with. Now the AMG one, Came out so to speak recently, but IE that means it was, you know, customer deliveries, but we’ve been seeing that car since what, 2017. Um, you know, McLaren just came out with the W1, but they kind of mismatched in there the Senna. And the 750 and whatnot. So you can see a lot of influences there. So, but McLaren, technologically great car performance, everything like that. But, you know, there’s a reason they’re nicknamed McCarrens. So, um, but you know, so that’s what I really love about the Ferrari. It’s kind of separating itself away from it. Big jump, big step away from LaFerrari itself too, which is great to see. Now, supposedly Porsche is coming out with also another one here somewhere. It’s kind of, you know, um, I really haven’t heard much about it. Maybe you guys have, but supposedly Porsche also is coming out. Now it’s interesting to see what Lamborghini is going to do. Cause now obviously Lamborghini has got their Rovalto. It’s awesome car. Um, to having some gremlin issues, a little, you know, stuff like that, growing pains to be in a new car. But, with them entering into the WEC next year, you almost gotta wonder, are they gonna drop some sort of hyper, hyper car? On the public, you know, something to go online to what they have that we see. So it’d be interesting to see that would be really cool to see Lamborghini jump into that hyper car game. Um, you know, for what they build, because, you know, they like to really, I would say, break the mold, but push the boundaries, you know, and get very bold and daring with their designs or they, which is fantastic. Um, you know, but here’s the thing, like with the Ferrari, every like, you know, these things, they’re all going to smaller motors and turbos and everything like that. So, Let’s get into the F80 and it’s mechanicals. So we got going on there. Yes, sadly it is a v6 So, no V12, no V10, no V8. Yes, it is a twin turbo V6. Now, the one cool thing about this is, it’s basically the same motor that is in the 296 that just came out, which is an impressive, impressive car. Obviously, you know, it’s still half a million dollars, but what you get power and performance wise out of that V6 is unbelievable. So, it’s, obviously, it’s running the twin turbos, but the twin turbos are electronic. So, they have electric power to spool them up quicker. So basically it, I’m not going to say a hundred percent. It completely eliminates turbo lag, but it’s pretty dang close that you really even, you know, normal person driving it. They won’t even know that there’s any lag or what’s in that. Now you can get your guys out there that used to driving performance cars, race cars, they might feel that little twinge in their foot and whatnot, but you know, they race cars and they, they, every little slight thing, You know, they’re bred to know that, but no person driving this, you know, and the, uh, the twat that can afford it to buy it, you know, the, you know, uh, he won’t know because it’s clueless. So, you know, he might drive the thing 500 feet, you know, just to say, look at me, I own this. He’ll drive it from where it was, comes off to the, uh, transporter under the show field, or even if that may not even drive at 10 feet. So. That’s sad, but it is what it is. It’s where we live in cars, 3 million plus. So obviously you gotta have very, very deep pockets for this. People that buy this car obviously had to be selected by Ferrari. So individuals that are selected to buy this car obviously have many, many, many other Ferraris. I’ll give you a point. In fact, Mr. David Lee, love that guy. He’s awesome. If you ever get a chance to cross paths with him, go up and talk to him. Introduce yourself. David’s a phenomenal guy. Super, super nice. And he will just tell you, he’s a super, super guy, not pretentious whatsoever. Super nice, willing to talk to you about everything and anything Ferrari. But again, he did a cool video because the people that got selected, they got sent a key for it. And what, so he did a video on it. Which is really cool, so I guess that’s, and I don’t know if they knew they were getting it, I have no idea how that part of it works, uh, you know, I’m not in that boat, I don’t have that kind of money, um, but it’s um, it was really cool to see, but anyways, so if those select few, they’re gonna be able to get this car, hopefully they, they take him out, they drive him, I know Mr. David Lee will. Uh, and get it out there in front of the public and let people see it and enjoy, you know, just enjoy it. The cool thing would be if they went the route like Mr. Hamilton does up there with his cars. You know, that was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. When in Columbus at triple F collections, the event, the event, or whatever I call it, Mr. Hamilton had his cars there and he lets people sit in them. The lines are, I mean, in his Bugattis, everything’s Bugattis doors open. Just get in the line. You get in there. You can sit in there for, I don’t know if he had a time down there. If you like similar for 30 seconds or whatnot, it didn’t seem like it, but Hey, people get in there. They could take selfies, photos, whatnot, everything like that, which is awesome to see. Cause again, it’s a car. Let people enjoy it too as well. You know, you’re in blast and that’s what I think. Uh, Mr. Hamilton’s a fantastic guy. And again, him and Tommy, super, super nice guys. Don’t ever be afraid to go up and talk to those guys. They will talk to you. Hey, you know, they’re not going to be pretentious about it. So if you haven’t listened to this podcast there, uh, Mr. Hamilton, they love to come up and chat with you some more. Personal just to kind of get to know you, uh, jump on the podcast. We’ll have a chat. So, but if you have to get this, we’ll see if you can, uh, maybe we can set something up. You’re just in Chicago. I’m here in Cleveland. You’re nothing but a four and a half, five hour drive away. So, but anyways, back to the F80. So we’re getting into the cards, twin turbo V6, three electric motors. The uh, V6 itself is putting out la, just a little under 900 horsepower, like 884 horsepower. Um, roughly in that neighborhood, 800, between 880 and 885. That’s what they’re stating. Now, what’s the interesting thing is, because being the fact it’s the same motors in the 296, it’s pumping out almost 237 more horsepower than the 296. Same pretty much motor and that, but they, you know, worked their magic and they’re able to squeeze it out. Could you imagine if they were tweaking that and that 296 and pumping out that kind of horsepower on that? Which, my guess, if you got someone that knows how to operate, you know, uh, ECU management, everything like that, and have them plug in and do it, I’m sure you could probably figure it out pretty quickly and how to jump it up there. My guess it would void your warranty. Uh, and Ferrari’s got it! Outstanding warranty on their new cars. I mean, it’s unbelievable what you get on that. I want to say I think is now it’s seven years unlimited mileage because they know these people aren’t gonna go nuts on mileage. Um, and bumper to bumper, everything like that. I mean, loaner cars, the whole nine yards. So kudos to Ferrari for standing behind their product in regards to stuff like that. I mean, that’s unbelievable. So, but anyways, so twin turbo V six. So you got the, you got the V6, turbo spooling up, going and thing, you got about 885 horsepower roughly. So then you jump in with your three motors. You got two in the front and you got one in the rear, in the rear axle. Your two front ones and that stuff puts your total output to about 1, 200 horsepower. To about 2. 1 seconds, 0 to 60. It’s roughly in that range. Two seconds. So, um, you know, it’s, it’s rather impressive, I must say, but what helps is all wheel drive because the electric motor is in the front, motor in the back, so you got your grip, you’re just going at it, going at it, going at it. Now with the electric motors on the front of that, you do have torque vectoring, so in regards to that stuff, you don’t have to have rear wheel steering on this because it’s Plenty going, you know what you have there And it wouldn’t be even actually necessary No So and it saves a nice bunch of weight because you’re not putting steering mechanisms as enough on the back wheels So it’s really cool to see that so those things are powering up gets going now the one thing this does not have Like some of the other ones came out. There is no like full EV mode. There isn’t somewhere where you could drive safe Four miles, eight miles in an electric only. Nope, doesn’t have it, which I think is kind of cool. So some people might frown upon that because you got these guys. I mean, it’s like a neat party trick though. You know, it’s, you know, as they say, you know, you can start it up and go in your electric boat. So you’re not waking up your neighbors or whatnot. Some along those lines. But it is what it is, you know, hey just have at it just go for it So I think that was kind of interesting. They said F that we’re not gonna do that It’s just hey you get going and right at it. I said I saw this real cool Short on YouTube the other day. It was a guy. He had a Lamborghini It looked like he was a doctor because he does scrubs but someone had left a note I don’t know if it was a Murcielago or Diablo, uh, what he had, or maybe it was, I think it was an Aventador. Uh, I don’t know what kind of exhaust he had on it, but obviously it was pretty loud. He’s in a parking garage by and far. Someone left a note that says, you know, to whom it may, to the person or individual owns the Lamborghini. You know, you’re leaving early and your car is very loud, blah, blah, blah. So it showed him actually pushing the car. out to a spot so then it wasn’t loud and whatnot. It was great. It was like, that’s cool, man. It’s being real considerate. It’s like, you know, uh, appreciate that much respect for him. But anyways, back to the car. So we’re getting to the powertrain got to all that. So you’re putting down impressive power numbers. So let’s go into the cockpit. Now they have, they have a designated original design thoughts was we’re going to do a single senior. It was like, no, it just really doesn’t fit what for, you know, that ain’t it. So they call it plus one. Which, which is a little baffling. It’s, um, 1. 5, whatever it is. Look up how they state it. It’s kind of humorous. Basically, it is, I mean, there’s a passenger seat, but what it is, it’s staggered just a smidge behind the driver’s seat, uh, to kind of give you that feel like they’re not right next to you and everything like that. But what that does though is, you can actually get things closer to each other so you can kind of shrink that cockpit a little bit. Uh, width wise, because you kind of get things tucked in a little bit tighter. Now, the one cool thing is Also, I say one thing, the one cool, another cool thing is the fact is all these ones you see, they got the screen, they got it on the Pro Sangway, they had it, you know, all these other ones that started in the FF and that stuff, you know, so the patch you can’t see is going to change the screen. Now there’s a configurator on there, and if I understood the configurator, you can delete that and not have that if you don’t want that. If you don’t want your patch, you’re dealing with that stuff or dicking around and touching, you know, which I personally do, I’d say get rid of it. They don’t need to see what’s going on. Tough shit. So, um, But anyways, it’s, it’s neat that you can have that option. So another thing is too is it’s two different colored seats. Now, again, you want to go and spend and waste hours and hours and hours going to the Friar website. They have an F80 configurator up. And you can just go nuts. I got on there. I was trying to pick this, you know, learn everything about it and get all the notes and everything. And I think I was on the configurator for about two and a half hours, just doing different colors, doing everything like that. There’s a lot of options. It’s really cool. I mean, you can’t go too nuts in regards to like, you know, carbon fiber add ons and everything like that. There are some, but. There’s so many different color combinations. Color combinations you can do with the seat, the seatbelts and stitching. Um, I mean, it’s just, it’s really cool. All your exterior color choices and everything like that. You know, it’s, it’s awesome. I tell you, I mean, even if you’re not the biggest Ferrari fan, go on there and do it because it’s a lot of fun. There’s a lot of different configurations you can do. You can get nuts with it. It’s really cool. The one thing I really liked, Also was for the wheels. You can go full carbon fiber if you want. Uh, but you can keep the lip like silver. But you can also get just basically standard, you know, aluminum wheels. I believe they’re aluminum. Uh, on there so they’re silver. Go back to how it used to be. You know, this trend with black wheels got, I don’t know how long ago it started. It was, you know, some years ago. Yeah. I don’t know if it was, you know, making it look meaner or menacing, but I think it also had more to do with hide and break dust. Uh, but it was a trend and all of a sudden it went all the way down to, you know, SUVs and whatnot, you order it from the factory and buy it, it’s got black wheels, but it’s really cool to see that they’re going back to having silver. Silver wheels. Now, I wouldn’t necessarily go all the way back to doing what they used to do in the 80s and 90s, doing chrome. Yeah, leave that back then. Leave it alone. Leave it back to history. Silver, though, looks cool. It gives really that cool contrast to it. Uh, it was nice to see, you know, Matt Armstrong. Uh, I believe it was on his, uh, Nissan, his GTR he did, he kept them silver and it just, it’s very, I don’t want to say retro, but it’s, it gives it a really kind of different look compared to what everyone’s kind of used to with the black wheels. So it’s cool to see that, uh, but then you get into like seat colors, y’all can tear all this stuff. I’m telling you. Go on the website and just start messing around with the Farquhar configurator. Now, the other, funny thing I thought with the configurators when you get done, there’s the option to send it to a dealer. To your local dealer. Now, mind you, all these cars are sold. Mind you, these things are 3 million plus dollars. Uh, but you had the option, when you get done, to save it, send it to a dealer. I’m curious to see what happens. I set mine to a dealer. I want to see if I get a phone call. Cause I mean here, it’s kind of one of those scenarios that, okay, you have something that’s screwed around. I mean, is it going to waste a lot of these guys time salesman? Oh, I’m sure. I’m sure they’re going to get super annoyed cause they’re going to just get these jokers just doing, you know, 50, 60 different configurations a day and just sending each one to the dealer. You know, so, but you know what, it’s fun. And it’s not like the dealer’s got to like do any work and produce a car. Cause they’re all sold. So what’s the difference? Let people have some fun, but I’m curious to see what they do. Do they take to the point where they take down the information? Hey, this, they could maybe buy, you know, a new SF 90 or something, which, you know, people are just not buying, um, and resales gone in the tank. Um, so I don’t know, this is kind of, kind of fun little tidbit, but like I said, definitely check out the configurator. You can spend, you can waste a lot of your day and be careful because if you start some point in the morning and you’re at work. Before you know it’s going to be time to go home and you got absolutely nothing done But you did configure about 50 different types of ferrari f80s. You could buy option and color wise So was it productive in my mind? Yes your boss probably not so much So but anyways, so getting back to the car So again, you know, my impression, I love it. I think it’s fantastic. I can’t wait to see what out on the road driving kind of get some impressions. Uh, cool to see what some of these guys do on it. Uh, go on YouTube. Top gear does an awesome walk around of, obviously their time is limited. Uh, Tim, Mr. AKA shmi 150. He did another one too, cause he’s really in deep with the Ferrari. Cause as anyone that watches this channel, subscribe to his channel, um, he’s got a Uh, so he’s kind of getting in there. Good graces. So they probably offered him one, but I don’t know if his, uh, his channel has gotten to the point where he can afford a 3 million car, but he’s getting up there. I mean, he bought himself that new SF 90. Uh, he’s bought a couple other cars that are not cheap. So, and the one cool thing you also know about Tim, Tim’s a very, very savvy, smart guy, financially wise. So, you know, You’re smart with your money. There’s a lot of good things you can do, make your money work for you. So there’s a lot of cool things you could do. So anyways, precious of the F80 love it. Can’t wait to see it out on the road. Definitely go on the configurator, go check it out, have some fun with it, really dive deep into it. There’s a lot of cool little nuances to it. You know, again, you know, they didn’t go totally nuts in regards to electronics and most stuff, but they did enough to it. Um, so it, it’s a, I want to say, I’m not going to say perfect followup to the LaFerrari, but I will say as a successor to the LaFerrari, they hit it. They did a heck of a job with it. It’s outstanding. Kudos, Ferrari. It’s outstanding. So, alright guys, I appreciate you listening. Stay tuned for more. Like I said, I got some more, uh, a lot more, uh, episodes coming out here in the near future. So stay tuned, this was going to drop rather quick, so, uh, but be sure to, uh, like and subscribe and check out what else, uh, Motoring Podcast Network has in their arsenal. You gotta check out John Summers, he’s got some cool stuff on there. Like I said, you also gotta check out Brake Fix, we got some really cool ones on there as well. Mr. Beatty’s on there, uh, if you haven’t, We got Mario Andretti on there. There’s some really cool people on there. And you gotta listen to some of the other ones on there from the ACO we got here in the USA. They said, um, there’s also some really cool stuff. with the IMRCC as well. So take a listen to that stuff. Subscribe, get on Patreon. Uh, there’s a lot of behind the scenes stuff you can get access to with that as well. I know a lot of people likes getting all the little nooks and crannies. Some people like reading just the show notes itself instead of listening to it, they’d rather read everything. So it’s a lot of cool stuff. So. Definitely sign up for our Patreon, get all the cool stuff, check out what else we got on Motoring Podcast Network, and remember, stay tuned, we got a lot more cool stuff coming. Thanks guys, really appreciate it, hang in there, more to come, later. This episode has been brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports as part of our Motoring Podcast Network. For more episodes like this, tune in each week for more exciting and educational content from organizations like the Exotic Car Marketplace, The Motoring Historian, Brake Fix, and many others. If you’d like to support Grand Touring Motorsports and the Motoring Podcast Network, sign up for one of our many sponsorship tiers at www. patreon. com forward slash GT Motorsports. Please note that the content, opinions, and materials presented and expressed in this episode are those of its creator, and this episode has been published with their consent. If you have any inquiries about this program, please contact the creators of this episode via email or social media as mentioned in the episode. very much for watching, and I’ll see you in the next episode. Copyright William Ross, Exotic Car Marketplace a division of Sixty5 Motorsports. 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November 1, 2024Ferrari / PodcastOn Ferrari Friday’s, William Ross from the Exotic Car Marketplace will be discussing all things Ferrari and interviewing people that live and breath 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. This week William crosses over with Crew Chief Eric from Break/Fix Podcast to talk about the Netflix Series, Car Masters: Rust to Riches, Sixth Season, and the conclusion of their journey into high-end exotics and the Ferrari saga. Episode 29: MODDED. William Ross: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Ferrari Marketplace. You know me, William. And I got my buddy and partner here, Eric, on the other side of this. And we’re going to revisit, I guess you could say. We had a review of the Car Masters episodes being shown on Netflix. It kind of left it at a cliffhanging moment, which they really didn’t go back into more into season six. They just went a completely different route. I don’t know what they’re thinking at Counts Customs. Oh, I mean, I’m sorry. Crew Chief Eric: Gotham Garage. William Ross: So if anyone’s watching. Every time I see their gates, it says Gothico. I’m just thinking it looks just like Count’s Custom. Man, are they just like copying those guys or what’s the deal? Crew Chief Eric: Picture it, January 2024 when Season 5 came out. This is the first time Car Masters has aired what I call the second half or the next season in the same year because we’ve gone so long between seasons you almost forget. you’re like, Oh shoot, another season of car masters. William Ross: Honestly, till you said something about it. I had completely forgot about the show. It was out of my mind. Crew Chief Eric:  If you’re watching this behind the scenes of Patreon, I dress the part. I got my beanie logo and I’m looking my best Mark Towley. Right. I don’t have the ponytail like he does, but you know, I figured I got to dress the part to get into the mood for this. William Ross:  Do you think that ponytail is real? Crew Chief Eric: No, I think he’s bald. He’s bald under there. William Ross: Well, I guess you would say start with season five. It was absolutely horrendous what these people did to this 360. It just got even worse for season six that just got released. There were some Ferraris involved in the beginning. There’s one at the end. We’ll get to that. Crew Chief Eric: You and I talked about the green monster, the 360. And as you mentioned, the season ended on a cliffhanger, which now we find out is West Coast exotics. touring the dealership. And at the time, Nick Smith presented a package deal, this sort of ultimatum, all or nothing, get into the high end community with a navy blue Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, and then a Ferrari 458 Italia that were supposed to be customized with no confirmed client. Bargain combo for the low, low price of 290K. And you’re sitting there going, how the hell are you getting these two cars for 300 grand? That just doesn’t make sense. William Ross: Yeah, what’s going on with that? Crew Chief Eric: So they left us there. Again, as my wife likes to point out when we watch the show together, it always sort of feels like half a season at a time is what we’re getting. And okay, so be it. So when we start season six, we’re sort of doubling down. We find ourselves Resetting the entire scene like all right guys forget what happened in season five We’re at west coast exotics again, and we’re presented with two ferraris and we’re like wait What happened to the blue car and the black car? Now we got a white car and a yellow car and instead of a 612 and a 458 We’ve got a F8 Tributo and a 488 GTB. William Ross: Yeah, completely changed. Completely different car. Crew Chief Eric: But the deal remains the same. 300, 000 for these two cars. And I’m scratching my head. Even my wife’s going, one of these has to be worth 300, 000 by itself. There’s no way. William Ross: Well, that’s what was baffling me. It’s like, all right, is it got a salvage title? There’s something more to that story on those cars that they obviously don’t go into at all. If I walked into a dealership and says, Oh, you can have this basically three year old car and five year old car for a two year old grand boat that both retailed over 300 grand brand new, just a few years ago. It’s not like they’re depreciating that bad. Crew Chief Eric: No. William Ross: I would have said done, but obviously there’s a lot more to, Hey, what’s the story behind these cars and whatnot. That’s why I’m saying maybe they’re salvatized and whatnot because their intent was anyways to hack them up. Crew Chief Eric: Which is true of the 360 that they modified. That car was an accident car, an insurance car, a repo car. It was missing pieces, bumpers, all sorts of stuff. So in that sense, it made sense. We’re going to take a salvage title. Well, we don’t need to rehash that. There’s a whole episode on that thing. So again, we find ourselves at West Coast Exotics with this yellow 488 coupe and a white F8 Tributo. And you maintain a Ferrari market value index on your website. And correct me if I’m wrong, William, the F8 is trending at 350 grand by itself. And the 488 is around 250 grand. How did they end up with a two for one deal of 300k when, to me, that adds up to basically 700, 000 in car? William Ross: That’s even under wholesale. That’s the other thing, too, that was kind of a scratch in my head, because I would love to know what the hell the background story was on those cars. You know, you go look at wholesale numbers on that, That’s still way, way under wholesale numbers. So it’s like, what is the story behind this car? Again, they didn’t get into it. So who knows, but there was no physical attributes looking at the car saying, well, okay, there’s a ding here, scratch here, dah, dah, dah. There was really nothing very blatant saying, all right, I can see why they’re so cheap. They look fine to me. So, I mean, unless they had a hundred thousand miles each on them and. That was a steal and a half. I mean, that was just a no brainer. Just taking those just to flip them. Yeah. They might’ve sat on them for a bit, but I mean, you’re going to make money one way or another on those cars as we’ll get into what they did with one of them. But that’s still a head scratcher to me, how that came about. And no other things, baby. And again, that bean bowl wholesale. And even if those cars have been sitting there for six, seven, eight, nine months, you know, obviously just taking up space, how they have their dealerships set up. If they’re doing floor financing or what they’re doing on that, if they’re paying a nut on that every month or smart way to do it is know you own everything because you pay cash. I mean, that’s the best way to ever set up your dealership if you ever get into that industry. I don’t know, maybe West Coast Exotics thought, well, hey, all right, put our name out there with this. You give us five, 10 minutes of the screen time. And that turns into, Hey, advertising, marketing for us. So we can duck this because, Hey, we’re getting exposure. Cause you have X amount of viewers and whatever, blah, blah, blah, Netflix. I mean, I don’t know. Crew Chief Eric: I think in Hollywood, they call that product placement. William Ross: There you go. There’s so many ways to skin a pig, right? Crew Chief Eric: Unlike the 360 that they trailered in, they drove both those cars and they’re street legal. They ran, they seem to have almost zero issues whatsoever. William Ross: Well, before we delve into these two cars, I kind of want to get into their mindset, what they’re thinking in regards to, Oh, we’re going to take our garage this way. This is what we’re going to get more high end stuff that I, cause they think, Oh, we’ve struck the muddle load. You know, they just gaudied up this 360 and whatever rich meth head they got to buy that car. Is beyond me so they’re thinking oh, we got this thing and you know, they made good money on the car So I was saying what they say 45 grand or something like that. Crew Chief Eric: Yeah in profit William Ross: So he’s got all his costs everything labor and that stuff covered in that and so there’s 45 grand profit Well, you can’t ignore that say hey We’re onto something and Crew Chief Eric: I like that he had enough leftover paint that he resprayed his truck the same color as the ferrari. William Ross: Oh my god – Florida have mercy. Crew Chief Eric: Did you notice the corvette? That he had in the background that was also matching the truck. William Ross: You know, it kills me. Is there a, Oh, and he’s always saying, Oh, I’m the creative one. I have all these, uh, just let my juices flow. Give me creative control. I’m just going to do it. I was like, Oh my God, I’ve seen what you do. That’d be a nightmare. If anyone’s watched this show, they’re not going to give you creative control because it’s horrendous. Nick should understand. I don’t know if anyone’s looked into his background. He’s got a little dealership, you know, he delves into these little cars I mean, he’s not all just Ferraris, Lamborghinis, stuff like that. He gets into lesser expensive products. Crew Chief Eric: And he’s known for vintage bikes as his thing. William Ross: Yeah, how he got dang this, who knows, but it was like no real thought and conversation was had. Nick understands that market, that industry, those clients in regards to how it’s gonna work and what these people are and how they are. Those other guys, they had no clue and they’re just kind of going off base and it seems like Nick should have sat down and had a very, very serious conversation with him and got him, I would say, sign off, but say, look, and hammered his home five, six, seven different times to him. Say, do you understand? No one’s going to give you carte blanche unless they’re just Incredibly stupid or as we’ll get into with that McLaren in a future episode to someone’s a youtuber They just want to get views and hits and whatnot. Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, William Ross: that was a head scratch to me, too It’s like oh my god They’re just jumping in with just completely blind not understand us at all and thinking oh We’re gonna make 50 grand and all these we’re just gonna make these things look ugly as shit But anyways continue Crew Chief Eric: there comes a couple of points in the first half of the season where Nick is like look whatever you do Has to be not so much subtle, but it needs to be in line with the ethos of Ferrari. Because if you do something drastic, the value of the car is going to plummet significantly. That 350 grand that that Tributo is worth. If they just sold it at that moment, take a hundred grand off the car easily because who wants a highly customized F8 Tributo or a 488 GTB or whatever. Now let’s get into his plan a little bit. Because I didn’t disagree with his thought process. The execution is something else. Mark turned his attention on the white car. Satin white finished F8 Tributo. And they kind of parked the 488, which was in Giallo, which is yellow, off to the side. And they’re like, we’ll deal with that car later. Okay, fine. When he first shows the plan for the Tributo, I went, ooh. F40. I like this. I see where you’re going. That’s kind of neat. You know, wide body is his thing and big wheels and, and all that kind of stuff. William Ross: I’m glad you saw that. That was just a total rip off of an F40 front. Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. And I was like, okay, I can live with that. Now the back end is always a problem. And we’ll get to that as we continue talking about these cars. But the front, I was like, okay, I’m on board. I would love to see you do this, but how are you going to do this without destroying the car? And in my opinion, that would have meant taking the hood off, taking the bumper off, taking the fenders off, making it so you could convert the car back to what it originally was. But you’re going to have to create an F40 clamshell from scratch. And I don’t know that that was money and time well spent in that sense. They nipped that in the bud pretty quick. Nick turns around and tells him, the guy wants some vinyls, suspension adjustment, and he wants wheels, and a couple other little just simple mods. You could tell everybody was like, why are we doing this? What’s the point? Which at that moment, my wife turns and goes, you know, sometimes it’s okay to just be a tuner shop. If that’s what the clientele wants and you can make profit on wheels and you can make profit on an exhaust profits, profit, exactly. So I didn’t take issue with it. I do think it was a huge letdown because there was all this buildup to what they were going to do with the tributo. And it’s like. Okay, well you added two vinyl stripes and you put on some actually kind of neat looking wheels. William Ross: Yeah, it wasn’t bad. I liked them. Crew Chief Eric:  I did love that the gotham garage shield double g thing was glued on and you could see them like With 3m tape like putting it on you knew that was coming right off. William Ross: Oh exactly. Yeah That’s another thing too, you know, and you see a lot of those that you see on TV and stuff and do that. And you see it in this series too, putting their name, everything on that. And you’re putting it out there, but you know, it’s Gaudi’s it up so bad. I mean, and that logo sticking up there on the front. I mean, that’s a scenario where it’s saying, Hey, do you mind? Hey, if we do this and this, and I’d be like, if I didn’t mind, I’d be like, well, then take some money off. Cause that’s advertising for you. Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. That is a weird situation to be in. Now. I do think that those Gotham garage emblems came off pretty quickly after the car was the West coast. William Ross: Yeah. Crew Chief Eric: I did check their inventory to see if either of those two cars are still there, and they’re not. Not available, not for sale, so whether they haven’t updated or they took them down because the show is airing or whatever, but they don’t list them as available there. So, the Tributo, all well and good aesthetically. Nothing drastic, nothing major. The Italian stripes, Lended more to like the Lamborghini performante, which came with those stripes from the factory is kind of the same idea, especially offset asymmetrical. Okay. Nothing really original there. That’s fine. Now the exhaust swap was kind of interesting, but they didn’t make that exhaust. They bought that exhaust. That was a bolt on competition replacement exhaust or whatever, which then they had issues with. William Ross: Well, that’s the other thing too, is they didn’t get into this. Oh, we got the guys coming over. They’re going to die. Not see what the hell is going on with it. Why it’s coming up. Then they didn’t explain, oh, here’s what happened. So obviously, I guess they fixed it. Maybe it’s just going into the ECU. So, but I mean, you have no clue. Crew Chief Eric: Swap two vacuum lines because it’s a baffled exhaust and away they went. What clued me in there is when they called West Coast and brought the guys over to Quote unquote, fix the car or at least help them fix the car. My wife and I pause and we were like, so is this the new deal? They’re going to be doing the tuning work for West coast because they don’t do their own tuning. They’re the dealership. They just want to flip the cars and sell them. That’s not a bad relationship. That’s not a bad side hustle to have. It’s like, here’s a bill of materials. That the client wants you guys take care of it. We give you three or four points on the deal and the margin on the parts or whatever, and away you go. But that’s not what Mark wants, right? Mark wants to cut these cars up. William Ross: Which is sad because it’s like to Nick’s point, it takes time. You got to build up. One, I mean, that’s a great upsell for West Coast, because if a guy comes in and says, well, I like that, but I want some more zing to it, I’m like, well, hey, tell you what, this is what we can do. We have a partner we work with, what’s your thoughts and ideas, and we can get it done for you and do the upsell, you know, and right there, the dealership can tack on crap loads of profit into that. And then, like you said, market stuff in the back end, but what happens is, is the dealer says, hey, this is who we partner with, so they know who it is. So. What do they do when they get tired of that after six months a year or whatnot, or they got all their hits and everything they wanted on their channels and Instagram. They go back to Gotham, say, Hey, tell you what, I need a new wrap. I need this, dah, dah, dah. Then you all of a sudden you get in repeat business. And then now this person is coming direct to you. So you got the full boat, you know, on this stuff. It’s very short sighted thinking and it’s kind of like ego getting in the way. And especially how they have that set up. Cause that’s the other thing too, is I know in the earlier season and how they originally set this up is, is they all share in the profits. Now, like these people are getting an hourly, nothing like that, unless they changed it. I don’t know, but my understanding is they all share in the profits and whatnot. So this is all of them. Basically. It’s like an employee owned shop in essence, ESOP, whatever it is. Profit’s profit. And it’s not like they got 50 cars or 20 car jobs lined up, and you can turn and burn those things in a day or two. Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. William Ross: That’s easy money. Buying the wheels, fixing the stance, the exhaust might take a bit, but doing the vinyl wrap, whatever on it, that’s a day or two depending on the extent of it. And it gets them into that market. That’s the thing that I just don’t understand. He does not see it. Crew Chief Eric: And we’re still just talking about the first episode. And one thing that Nick said towards the end of that episode is, And I thought it was code for something. You know, you could tell there was tension between him and Mark. Like, things weren’t going well for a while. And you have to imagine, ten months has gone by. or longer since they shot and released season 5 to season 6 and all that kind of stuff. But Nick says, and he keeps saying, we got lucky with the 360. William Ross: I was catching that too and I was like, damn straight. And that goes back to my comment, whatever meth head rich guy they got to buy that thing is, man they should have been thanking the man upstairs for that because god that thing was so ugly. You know, I, I’m using the word someone said on the show, they use that. And I was like, that is just sums everything up right there in that car. Cause it was just absolutely gaudy as anything. I mean, that’s, I was just got stupid money and saying, ah, you know what? I’m going to be on the show and I don’t care. I got dropped 160, 170 grand wherever it was. They sold it for, you know, and who cares? You know, he’s just got dumb money. Crew Chief Eric: Look at it this way. A year later, we’re still talking about the green monster. So, William Ross: yeah, I mean, I, yeah, I guess. Yeah. What, what’s that saying? It is Crew Chief Eric: all publicity is good publicity, even if it’s bad. William Ross: There you go. Yeah. Unless you’re Diddy. Crew Chief Eric: Let’s talk a little bit about the 488 sitting in the corner. We don’t know what the heck’s going on with this Giallo 488 GTB. William Ross: That yellow is beautiful. I mean, and that’s a factory colored car. Even that we makes it a little, I would say rare, but Crew Chief Eric: I’m not a fan of yellow Ferraris, but the 488 wears it well, which is surprising. You know what I mean? I’m like, ah, actually it looks pretty good. I think the 488 honestly looks worse in red. You know, if I had to choose between ketchup and mustard, probably go with the yellow in that case. Granted, I’m a big fan of gray and black Ferraris, but that’s a whole nother story, right? We sort of pan left suddenly, and Nick shows up with a McLaren. Like, after the F8’s gone, we’re on to the next exotic, and I’m like, McLaren? Okay. William Ross: Out of left field, all of a sudden, it’s just, and again, they just drop the whole storyline. You have to guarantee that there’s a lot of people watch. Well, what the hell happened to them? What’d you guys do? I mean, did you just sell them? It’d take you a minute and a half or not even just to kind of go in the storyline saying, well, Hey, you know, we whole set out or we did this or we gave it back to, you know, whatever. Tell people what you end up doing with the car because it’s just hanging out there. They know they have the client and the customer. They dialed up the F8, which again, didn’t turn out bad. Looked pretty good. But what did you do? You always see is Nick driving out with the car. That’s it. Crew Chief Eric: On to the next one. William Ross: Then there’s McLaren. Crew Chief Eric: I knew something was up. Even my wife says this feels a little staged because of all the tape and the cardboard and all the stuff that they were mocking up. They weren’t really working on it like they would something else. They started to do that with the Tributo as well, where they were like, well, this is where we’re going to cut the fenders. And they weren’t really, it was all just tape and magic markers, you know, that kind of stuff. I don’t know if Mark actually knew this kid was a kid. What was he maybe 20 years old? YouTuber, TikToker. William Ross: At best, if that, and you would think the kid must’ve been all hyped up on his Adderall or something. Cause I mean, he came in just all geeked up. Crew Chief Eric: I mean, he was thinking need for speed underground. It was like, we’re going to put led lights and we’re going to big wheels and wings and flames. And I’m like, Holy cow. That is Mark’s target audience is the people that are really into, as my wife likes to call it. Hot Wheels cars. Yeah. And that’s a shtick and that’s fine. And he does that really, really well. But I was like, this is a new McLaren. Like seriously. And then Nick shows up with his dad. William Ross: Yeah. And Crew Chief Eric: I, I’m gonna say it this way, shit gets real fast. William Ross: Oh, gotcha. And you know, and you have to wonder too. And in that scenario I would put out some of that, blame a good portion of that on Nick. Nick had to have known the whole situation because I would have to say, I mean, I can’t imagine some young kid like that came to me. My first thing to go, so wait, is this your car titled in your name? You can do what you want. Dad’s not involved. Mom’s not involved and get it clarified. Cause then if he says, Oh yeah, it’s mine. Okay. Then you put it on the kid. But if he would just went blind, the kind of this kid reached out and says, Hey, I got a McLaren. I want to do this stuff. And just like, yeah, okay. We can do it, you know, and not really doing some due diligence. I’m at some egg on your face. Crew Chief Eric: I also feel like it was a little petty. My wife said it Felt like Nick was trying to prove a point to the crew because the dad was really open and transparent. That was not scripted. He was like, what are you thinking? The value of this car? Like he went on this tirade about, you know, not no way, not know how. And I was like, amen. And you could see when they would shoot Nick in the background, he had this cat eating the canary grin on his face. Like I’m making my point very clear that you cannot do what you want to do with these cars. These types of buyers are all going to be kind of cut from this mold, so pay very close attention to what he’s saying because that’s what they’re going to want and that’s what they’re going to pay for. William Ross: Another thing too, and again it’s a missed opportunity because it kind of goes back to what they did in the F8. Someone could have stepped in and it should have been Nick. Tell you what, we obviously want to do some of this with the car. He wants to do this with it. Where’s our happy medium? Okay, well let’s not do all the fun stuff. What if we got into doing this? And again, it’s baby steps. Putting the underground light in it. Doing a wrap on it. This and that. Putting some new wheels on it. Not getting too nuts and cutting the body all up. But you could do 15, 25 grand out the door and it cost you maybe 8 to 10. You know, hey, you could make some good money on it. But again, no one stepped in to do it. But to your point, it’s Nick’s in the background and whatnot saying, look, see, this is what I’ve been trying to tell you and you’re not listening to me. And that’s exactly where they went. Crew Chief Eric: And the other thing that my wife and I talked about was what happens when If this kid is driving his dad’s McLaren, as we found out, and his dad goes off about like, how are you going to clear the driveway with the splitter? And how are you going to drive this every day? And it must be nice to, you know, be 20 years old and driving a McLaren every day. And that’s fine. William Ross: Real world problems. Crew Chief Eric: To each their own. But my wife said, what if that kid, God forbid, got into an accident with a modified McLaren? How does the insurance company handle that? Where you’ve cut up the car, And now they got to replace big sections of the car with stuff that maybe didn’t need to be repaired in the same way. Does it change the safety? Does it do this? Does it do that? So it’s like, where does this rabbit hole finish? When you think about it from the perspective of I’m putting this highly modified car in the hands of a young driver. William Ross: Obviously, you know, real world stepped in with dad standing there and pointing out all these things. Yeah, cause guarantee that kid driving around, he’s going to crash it at some point in time. Be in the first six hours or first 60 days, it was going to happen. That McLaren, it’s a beautiful car too. I mean, what else you’d really want to do that anyway? Crew Chief Eric: And the dad says that he says something like this car was perfection from when it left. The factory. And he’s like, what are you going to do to it? William Ross: Flare. Well, first of all, that’s like two feet coming out that side. So you’re adding another four feet. It’ll be as big as a dually. It’ll be ridiculous. I mean, that’s just obnoxious. And again, it’s just not being realistic in regards to that market. Yeah, it’s a missed opportunity for them. It is the way they operate. Crew Chief Eric: And so now we’re talking broader exotics and collector cars too at the same time, right? And so this is such a weird season because there’s this interweaving of classic muscle hot rods, all the stuff that they like to do, you know, big military vehicles and all that kind of stuff, not to give away the whole season. And then we got these exotics and included in the exotics. I think was a bit of foreshadowing. You don’t realize until the end of the season why they suddenly brought in a DeLorean. You’re like, what the heck is this about? And to give it away is they’re setting up this whole idea of doing nostalgia cars. At the end of the show, which we’ll talk about another Ferrari, they hone in on, you know, Magnum PI. My wife and I were laughing about, you know, Nexus Knight Rider and the Flintstones and the Munsters and God knows what else. But the DeLorean is another nostalgia car. And so they did it almost like, it’s like a litmus test. And it was really interesting because it goes right in line with what Nick was saying about these high end exotics. The customers want things a certain way. And when they did the DeLorean, Mark goes. The DeLorean community is very specific about the way they preserve these cars. You don’t mess with the stainless. You don’t do this. And the client was exactly like that. So what did they do? They wrapped it. And I’m just like, Oh my God, this guy is going to have an aneurysm when he sees this car. William Ross: Oh my God. And that kills me. Cause I always go back to my mind and go, this guy thinks he’s creative and he can create. Oh my God. It was again, fugly. Unbelievable what they did to that thing. And they put the exhaust on. Okay. It did sound a little bit better, but that thing’s got 130 horsepower. Okay. You need to do something with the motor. If you’re going to do something, but again, just do an aesthetic. And here’s the funny thing is that almost went back to exactly what they did on the F8 just a little bit more. They put the air dam side skirt under tray. I mean, they did a little bit more, but it was basically almost the same thing they did with the F8 that they were pitching a moment about saying, well, we’re not just going to be a tuner shot. I mean, I was like, well, you basically did that with the DeLorean. Crew Chief Eric: And I have to say that rear splitter was just. Oh my god, let’s add some more weight to an already rear biased car. William Ross: Yeah, I saw those brackets that they’re putting on there to mount that thing. They had a quick shot of it and where it was, I’m like, wait a minute, that’s just, oh my god, that’s, he’s just gonna kill it. Crew Chief Eric: That’s so the owner can just unbolt it and throw it in the trash. William Ross: Yeah, I felt so bad, you know, and the guys, You know, very adamant aluminum and is like, no, we’re going to wrap it. Screw it. We’re going to do it. And so, and then that rap was just horrendous. And was the doc being nice for the show? Oh, it looks great. This and that. And then as soon as he got to take that shit off, it didn’t do anything to it. No, Crew Chief Eric: I have seen some painted DeLoreans black and some other colors and they actually look really cool when they’re done right. So I wasn’t opposed to wrapping it because as my wife pointed out. If Doc doesn’t like it, they can just rip it right back off the car and it’s back to stainless steel. No harm, no foul. Painting is a bigger deal and painting stainless is really, really tough anyway. I’ve seen them in other colors and I think they look neat. The candy apple carbon fiber probably wouldn’t have been my first choice. But then again, you’re sort of limited on what that car can wear that it’ll look good. I thought the wheel choice was bold, but it actually worked for the body style. William Ross: Yeah, it wasn’t bad. I don’t know. It just baffles me each time you think he’s being creative on this. Now, I’m not going to take it away from the people in the shop. Crew Chief Eric: No, they’re awesome. William Ross: Yeah, caveman is just a monkey just cutting stuff up and whatnot. Assembles things takes it apart and cuts it up. But you know the new guy Jake they kept he’s really good the girl She’s a great engine builder. She knows what she’s talking about and the other guy, you know, he’s babbling up metal work I don’t like that. I mean he does some really creative things and what he can build I just don’t see this creative that mark thinks he has Crew Chief Eric: my wife and I always enjoy the episodes where mark, shawn and nick Are out of the way and it’s just the crew working. And I’ll just lightly reference the Humvee build with the biodiesel. And I was talking about that and I said, I love when Tony starts to talk and he’s like the professor of the group. And he’s like, look, guys, this is how it works. And if you do this and then the science of that, and we’re going to take it over the machine and we’re going to run it in the CAD and it’s going to bubble up, dude, we’re learning something like this is awesome. There’s another show on motor trend and it’s like one guy or two guys. And he’s very like that. Yeah. He talks through the process. Why he’s building it that way. Why we got to curve it like this. And it’s super educational. Now it might not be exciting and dramatic, you know, less reality, television and more reality. Like the science of car building. I always appreciate when they have a build like that, where they can do what they need to do. It’s still creative, but we’re learning to your point, what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. William Ross: Yeah. Crew Chief Eric: The DeLorean is this beginning, this foreshadowing of this nostalgia thing that mark’s got running around in his head You see it again with the kenworth semi truck and all that kind of stuff And I will leave that to the article that i’m writing that reviews the entire season But let’s get back into the ferrari saga, William Ross: you know talking about the guys what they’re able to do So, I mean, I guess bringing mark’s vision to life. Obviously there’s episodes that go on between there’s some stuff that happens changing up their thought process, some hiccups and whatnot. But we get to the next Ferrari, the one episode it ends, Mark and Nick have a conversation and basically states, Hey, we’ll leave on good terms. Nick, you get something that comes about, Hey, let’s work together. But you know, this is just not what we’re going to do. So right there, you think, okay, that’s it. Exit next stage left. That’s it. You’re not going to see him on the show anymore. How they do these shows, if they’re scripted out, planned out, or if it’s done, hey, they don’t know what they’re doing from two weeks to the next. I don’t know, but you weren’t going to hear from Nick at all. Uh, the blue all of a sudden he reaches out and says he has something of interest. I want to say it was a 78 or 79. It was one of the early ones. You know, it was a Ferrari 308. It looked like it was sitting for a while cause it was a bit dusty and dirty. But what is it? The guy that owned it obviously has a ton of money. He had a bunch of toys. Mark is trying to do this on his own because, you know, Sean’s all of a sudden all jazzed up because now, hey, we’re getting back to our roots, this and that. So he got his juices flowing again and everything like that. In the one episode, he starts working on this big package deal where we’re going to build this and trade that and get this and work our way up. It’s almost like work your way up to a Ferrari from a paperclip situation. So that’s going on. They talk about, which you’ll read about and see is Mark Finch is building a Kenworth truck that was kind of basically a tribute to his dad’s truck that his dad used to drive back in the day for work. And he was very familiar. So he does that up. I don’t know about that front grill, but it turns out pretty decent. So Mark’s kind of working with Nick, Nick reached out to Mark. So he says, Hey, we’ve got something to work out now. One whole deal fell through on the Humvee. That’s a whole story itself. And some people got to go to themselves, dig up these customers, this stuff. I got to tell you what, that’s where a lot of these people act and aren’t the way they think, especially when they have money. They just think, Oh, I’m going to hoodwink these guys and this and that and stuff like that. And you get really annoyed to them. And there’s one guy in regards to this Camaro. They do a deal with that. I would have punched the guy in the face when he was trying to pull that with me, because it was just, that was annoying to me to go. This guy’s just a piece of. You know what? But anyways, the one whole deal falls due on this Humvee. So that was supposed to get traded for the Jag that they were supposed to then all of a sudden work on and get into a six figure range. What they had in their mind, thinking it was going to be a 200, 000 car. Crew Chief Eric: You imagine what they would have done to that Jag? William Ross: Exactly. Oh my God. That was in my mind going, what in the hell would they do to that poor Jag? I mean, that thing, as we all know it, you know, everyone says, Oh, Enzo said that’s the most beautiful car ever. There’s a bunch of debate at that, but it’s a gorgeous, gorgeous car. You don’t touch that. You don’t do anything to it. Crew Chief Eric: 63 Series 2 convertible. That’s the perfect E type Jag. Like what are you doing? William Ross: Exactly. And it’s like, Oh my God. So that all falls through. So they’re stuck. They have no project done going on. So Mark becomes the wheeler dealer. When Nick calls about this, he wasn’t sure what he was going to do the truck. Well, it turns out, well, this guy is pretty eclectic in regards to what he likes to have in his garage, which you see when they go there, he brings the semi and basically ends up trading the semi for the Ferrari. You know, I don’t know trucks, semis like that, value wise, whatnot. I know some of those older trucks like that, when they’re done, they’re worth some big money. So it’s not like it’s cheap, but I want to say the guy with the Ferrari, I think probably made out in the positive, because that 308, you could tell it’d been sitting a while, a lot of dust on it, dirt, everything like that. It did fire up, but service wise, I mean, that thing needed to be, you know, Gone through left, right, which is something else we can talk about, which they didn’t even say anything about on this car. Crew Chief Eric: And so I went back to your Ferrari market index to see where the 308 GTSs are trending. And so obviously there’s a lot of variables to that. Like you’re saying mileage records, you know, condition that it have this option or that option. This is a U S spec 308 GTS. Cause the big park bench bumpers and all that kind of stuff. According to the market, 88, 000 for a 308 in probably pristine condition. So they were saying in the show, 60, 000 to 70, 000. The truck was probably worth 120, 000 to 150, 000 in that range. So Mark’s like, I’m upside down, but it’s going to take me months to unload a custom semi, which probably isn’t far from the truth. So I think he saw his exit. And he’s like, I’m going to take it in the shorts because we can continue to move the ball forward. And then a bunch of people got upset by that, but it’s business, right? I don’t think he made the wrong move. William Ross: No, no. You know, and I applaud him for that because when you have a business like that, and you’re the one running the show and it’s you and the buck stops with you. Those are the type of decision and moves you have to make. They’re going to hurt. What’s more important, you keeping your toy or moving things forward to grow your business? Again, looking down the road, we’re in the future. Okay. Once we get bigger, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. Hey, I’ll buy another one. Isn’t that? I applaud him for making that move because he left a lot of money on the table, but Hey, he got going and he got it. The body, everything on that car looked like it was in decent shape. Didn’t look bad, but again, who knows service history wise or whatnot. My guess would be is that guy that traded it with didn’t have it long or he just picked it up recently because when you see the guy’s garage everything’s got you think within the first two weeks that he has something he’s gonna clean it do whatever so who knows how this guy got the car so but then they get it and lo and behold what happens is they show up at the shop with it surprising everyone else in the shop well okay now we’re back to doing exotic so to speak if they want to call the 308 an exotic it was that curveball mark’s sitting there and who drives it in Nick, that was kind of an interesting setup, but again, you know, being scripted, I would hope, or I guess you say realism, that they didn’t tell everyone in the shop what was happening. Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. William Ross: It should have surprised them. I would hope that’s how they went about doing it because, get that authentic, Whoa, what the hell, I didn’t think we were doing these anymore. Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, and Sean seemed legitimately angry, like, My wife and I both thought he was going to quit on the spot, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. William Ross: Exactly. I’m Crew Chief Eric: sort of tired of his style and I don’t want them to replace him, but they need to replace him or they need to do this differently again, talking about the next season, if there is one, I think they are going to do things differently because this model of the negotiation and. The way they do things is tired. It’s old. We need to move on from that. Now, Nick style isn’t any better. No, it’s different, but it’s also cringy and it’s just whatever. So yes, they show up at the shop and we thought that Sean was done. You can’t fake that. Like he was visibly disturbed. William Ross: And you know, and I don’t know why, you know, honestly, because. When you have a shop like that, if you’re going, all right, I got one person I only deal with, like this, and he works here, he’s fine. I’m like, you’re just setting yourself up fail. I mean, in this industry and doing especially that is you got to have so many contacts and whatnot. And who cares where the car or the source or anything came from? Hey, if it’s going to work, you do it. And he should recognize that my reaction would have been, Oh, sweet. Oh, Hey, great job, Nick. This is awesome. We can do this and that. Who’s this guy. We got it from, what’s his deal, you know, and blah, blah, blah. Hey, what are the opportunities there? Again, very close minded and took it very personally, thinking he sucked at his job and he’s going to get fired or whatnot. I had the same thought. I thought when he walked out that door, the next scene was going to be him, like, out in the parking lot talking to the thing, saying, Yeah, I’m done. I’m not going to be treated or disrespected, blah, blah, blah. You know, they sat down and talked it out. Something about him, I don’t know, just seemed shady. I don’t know. He’s got that weird vibe, the way he goes about talking and everything. Just like he’s hiding something, you know, it’s like, I don’t know what it is, but it just seems, and the way he has that talk and this and that, and the way he just goes about doing things, it’s just like, Oh, Crew Chief Eric: it’s sort of like the old wanted posters in the post office. You’re like, did you buy a car from this man? I’m like, I don’t think so. William Ross: Exactly. So obviously the tension, you know, you got to have your tension and whatnot, your little trauma stuff for the show. But they get the 308 silver black interior. And as they do in the other episodes, as everyone that watches knows is they do the computer generated what they’re going to do. Oh my God. Crew Chief Eric: Everybody loves to rip that whole thing off from the great British baking show. Like the artist’s rendering of what it’s going to be. William Ross: Yeah. Then you start hearing the wife is getting this for her husband as a birthday present. So it’s going to be a surprise. So there’s no input from the person that’s getting it. Hey, well, I want the Magnum PI, dah, dah, dah, this and that. So, okay, what are you, peanut red? Get into some little stuff to add to it. Oh, some Italian racing theme to it. But if you can, and she’s willing to pay a little extra if you guys can do it and they like it, some inspector gadget stuff. Right. I. e. some James Bond stuff in his car. So like, oh my God, this is just, you start pictures, you shouldn’t have, what are you doing? Then they go to the computer generated stuff and you’re like, Wait, what? They’re gonna do what? It’s like, okay, maybe they’re just exaggerating on the computer generated stuff. But then all of a sudden you see them, they’re disbanding the car, taking out the ugly bumpers and whatnot. But then you see them put on the first fender flare. And I’m like, Crew Chief Eric: This to me was reminiscent of, I think it was season four where they did the Mako Shark C3 Corvette and they’re widening it and you know the side pipes and the big flares and the big wheels and all this and in a very Hot Wheels style. Which, in some ways, I was on board with modding that C3 Corvette. And in the same way I was on board with modding the Ferrari. Because, like you said, is it really an exotic? It is the most mass produced Ferrari of all time. It’s like the 944 for Porsche. It’s what saved them from going under. You know, the same idea. So there’s a ton of 308s out there. So I didn’t feel so bad about them cutting it up. But there’s a certain way of going about it. When you looked at the plan, as I like to call it, you know, the renderings William Ross: air quotes in that plan. Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, it’s a little bit shooting from the hip, but I was sort of thinking, okay, we were going to do an F 40 tribute with the F eight. Is he going to do a two 88 GTO? Is he going to do a three Oh eight evolution and like wide body? Is he going to try like this and that and the other thing? And they kept harping about, you know, we need to defuglify the car, all this kind of stuff. Yeah. You know, knock all the fugly off it is the exact quote that Mark uses. And I’m like, okay, so you get rid of the U. S. spec bumpers. You get rid of this. You get rid of that. Can sort of see in my head, maybe where you’re going. And then it was again, like a carbon copy of what he had done before. And my biggest complaint with it. Is the unfinished rear fender quarter panel section. He has a tendency to leave the wheels in the back exposed and it just bugs me because it breaks up the shape of the car, but the front that grill, I mean, literally to use the rapper term, that grill, not the grill, it looked like braces on a teenager, like I didn’t understand what they were doing. Because you only have so many options with the 308. You can very quickly make it look like a 288. You can make it look like a 328 with a square air dam front end. But I was like, what are we doing to this? Yeah. When it’s all said and done, I was really actually happy with the front minus the back. The grill and the side skirts and like it worked to a point and then those scoops and that rear fender and I would have done the SS Camaro tail. I would have extended the rear. I would have exaggerated that. I would have brought it down. I would have brought it into the fenders. Like a bunch of other stuff could have been done to that. William Ross: Well, like you were saying, I had the thought we mentioned before, you know, Liberty Walk does their kits and that, but what they do and a lot of these other, you know, do it is they don’t just tack on a fender flare at the arch and that’s it. So you got this thing just sticking out. Yeah. They take that whole panel. And shape it so it’s all extended out one piece, i. e. a la, hey, looks like a 288, just on steroids, because it’s bigger and beefier. Crew Chief Eric: Bigger and beefier to the tone of 14 inch wheels. Huge! William Ross: That’s why I was hoping, okay, it’s got promise, because again, you know, have at it, do something really cool to it, really fatten up and do it, but They just tack shit on. That was it. Crew Chief Eric: I’m a fan of a wide body when a wide body is done correctly and a 308 wears a wide body really, really well. If you look at even was a year or two ago, that SEMA 308 that had the Honda VTEC in it. And there’s been a couple other ones that have been done really, really well. And they look awesome. Now, I get it. Mark’s going to do it in his style and he doesn’t want to copy somebody else and this and that either, but I’ve seen some of the other stuff that he’s done. And it’s like, come on, man, like smooth it out, make this sucker, like just look menacing in a three awake and look really just diabolical. Right. And it can be a very James Bond car if you dress it up, right. But it was just like you said, it was sort of tacked on. And I think the problem came in when they had the wheels made for the car. And I don’t know what the hell they measured, Because I think a 10 and a half or 12 would have been the maximum under that body. The first time he cut the fender, I said, we are so screwed, you know, because I looked at it and I said, there’s no way you can turn into a parking spot with this. No, William Ross: no. And even after they think, Oh, I think we’re good. Oh. And then he makes the comment, Oh, even when it’s turned at the suspension, it’ll clear. And I’m like, I guarantee the first time that guy goes turning left. Or right into a driveway or something. It’s gotta be Crew Chief Eric: and I understood what he was saying when you’re turning The nose is gonna lift but that’s gonna happen at speed But the problem is you’re not thinking about the other side where the suspension is compressing and then cutting the tire Yeah, not only that they did the stretch tire thing like you see on a japanese import as well, and i’m just like They did as much as they could to fit the biggest wheel possible in there If I was building it, I would have gone, okay, do we have more space on the inside to have the wheel offset internally? Maybe put coil overs in there, get rid of the stock 308 suspension. Cause they didn’t touch any of that stuff. And I’m like, there’s ways to make space and fit a big wheel and it’s not shoving it to the outside of the car and then cutting the body. William Ross: Yeah. I don’t know where they got their history lesson or whatnot in that car and that frame. That’s just a metal tube chassis. Basically. There’s plenty of room to go into that thing. So I don’t know what he was talking about with cutting into the unibody. This and that. I’m like, huh? Crew Chief Eric: Well, I think for them, anything that isn’t American style body on frame is considered unibody, right? Regardless of the fact that it’s a tube frame car, regardless of the way those things were assembled. It’s just, okay, well, it’s a unibody in their world. William Ross: Then you think too, and it kind of popped into my head. Okay. Maybe just because they’re in a tight timeframe, they had 11 days to do it. That’s kind of the other thing to this equation. Yeah. Now, if they had all the time in the world or hey, they had six months to do it. You go back to other episodes and see what they’ve done in the past. This is their MO. Yeah. This is just how they do it. I think even if they had six months to do instead of 11 days, it wouldn’t turned out the same product. You know, it’s unfortunate because that car can be something really cool. We’ve seen it out there, people posted and whatnot, great car to start with. It’s super light. Two thousand pounds. It’s got to get rid of the motor because you know, you got 210 horsepower I think when that earlier one Crew Chief Eric: out of a three liter. William Ross: Yeah, it’s like yeah, it ain’t going anywhere quickly But again, it’s got kind of thing lightness thing, but it’s again just about aesthetic So you could do something good with that. But again, they just tacked this shit on and it looks unfinished I’m thinking to myself too is they’re lucky in the fact being that it’s an old 308 Ferrari won’t care. Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, William Ross: if they would have done that with the newest, uh, been on their door with the cease and desist or something from Ferrari saying, what the hell are you doing? Crew Chief Eric: You’re on one end like, Oh, this is not good. My wife’s on the other end going, I want to hate it, but it’s really hard to, she’s still on her pain meds. She liked it. She saw they executed the vision. They did what they said they were going to do. Yes. It’s reminiscent of that Corvette. And so I sit in the middle, I sort of love it and I hate it at the same time. Cause there’s parts of it. I really like, I like the asymmetrical Italian flag paint scheme. I like the front end minus the braces. There’s other pieces that I absolutely despise. I think the back is terrible. You know, I thought that just like the slot machine thing, the revolving transporter style rotating license plate was really cool piece of engineering. William Ross: That kid’s really good at that. Perhaps I’ve covered solutions for that. That was brilliant. They left Crew Chief Eric: that bare aluminum. And I’m like, that should have been black and blended into the rear end, you know, all this kind of thing, blah, blah, blah. So there’s parts of it. I didn’t like those parts. I like now going back and reanalyzing it in slow motion and in still to prepare the article where we review all this stuff in more detail, I noticed at certain angles, it really made it look like a second generation. Oh yeah. I Yeah, you’re right. And I’m like, Oh God. And then in my head, I’m going, Oh, this is like the 308 Fiero builds. And it gave it this like kit car feel. And that’s why I sort of sit in the middle because you’re looking at it going, is that a real 308 or is that a fake 308 built on something else? And that’s where it’s sort of like, it’s cool, but they ruined it. I don’t love it. I don’t hate it. But they did walk away with a pretty sizable payday on it. William Ross: Yeah. They made some money up. You made the comment about the paint job. I don’t know how close he looked at it. I might’ve paused. I think it was crooked. Yes. You saw it too. All right. So not just me. And when they did it, I’ll say a closeup of it, but they got kind of close. It was almost like the one rear three quarter view of they got on it. It was a horrible paint job. It was almost like a rattle can job. Crew Chief Eric: My wife pointed that out in the night shots. She said that satin finish looks really neat during the day, but at night it almost had like an orange peel and it looked like it was unfinished, like they needed to spray it again and put some clear on it. Like it really did reflect very oddly in the dark. So I agree with that. And then to your point about the crooked thing, I joked and I said, is he trying to do what he did on the Camaro where the lines weren’t straight? William Ross: Yeah. Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, I guess that’s cool. It looked good on the Camaro. Because again, that was an asymmetrical black on one side, orange on the other. I don’t know. I think Mark’s trying new things. I will say, and I’ve always said, which is what was disappointing about this car. He’s a really good painter. Yeah. When you look at some of the stuff he can do, especially that Corvette, where he did that gradiated from dark blue all the way to silver. So it looked like a shark. William Ross: I guess you could say that might’ve saved him a bit too, is putting all those gadgets on there, getting that extra 18 grand they made out with. You know a lot of things you didn’t see the interior Crew Chief Eric: the same thing on the DeLorean when they redid it Yeah, they didn’t show you the inside. William Ross: No and supposedly they were supposed to redo on the door and it’s all we’re gonna We all love it. It’s that then so you didn’t even see it’s just exterior tacking on some appendages Painting it and putting it out the door unbelievable, but that paint job was horrendous So again, i’m glad you saw it too because soon as I saw it on the road I go wait that line is not straight I mean, it’s just blatant because you got red on white there and it just goes off at an angle You Sad thing is, is that theme could have been done a lot better, but execution wasn’t there. Again, because of the time crunch or what? I don’t know. The way it was painted with the color and stuff, that really accentuated, there was no flow to it. You could tell the shit was just bam, bam, bam, put on. It wasn’t like they did anything to make it nice and smooth. And, and when they’re saying, oh, we’re going to eliminate that one channel that’s going down kind of seperate. Crew Chief Eric: And they ended up leaving that at the end too. It was like, William Ross: Exactly. Whatever. So I don’t know. That would have been a lot of Bondo in that crevice. Buckets and bucket. We’re not ruining the episodes for you guys by telling you what’s going on. It happened. If you haven’t watched it, trust us, you need to watch it to see what it is. Cause then you’re gonna be like, Oh my God, I see what they’re talking about. Cause there’s really no good thing to paint the picture. Crew Chief Eric: And I think we leave our listeners with the question, if you’re going to modify an exotic. Especially a Ferrari. What camp are you in? And there’s multiple lanes. You could be on the far left, like these cars are, just like they came out of the Hot Wheels packaging. Or you could be on the other side where it’s, I’m gonna do some vinyl, I’m gonna put on some wheels, a sport exhaust. Where is your happy medium? Where’s your comfort level of customization? And I think that’s the moral to the story with a lot of this. And someone’s creative vision doesn’t necessarily always align with what you want. Your expectations. As a buyer as a collector and that’s why I think some of the cars that are on that far left side are extremely hard to move. And it begs the question, where do they end up? Where’s that green 360 after a year? Like who’s got that car? Like I’ve never seen it at a show. I didn’t see it at car week. I haven’t seen it in a museum. You’d think it went up at like the Volo museum, you know, with all the other crazy cars that they have, but it’s sort of like tucked in a warehouse somewhere never to be seen again. Yeah. Probably being converted back to a stock 360, you know, William Ross: at this day and age, obviously with YouTube, Instagram, all your social media platforms, everything like that. If it’s a well known car and put out there and the person that owned it got a crap load of followers, whatnot, like that, moving it to someone that just worships to whoever the person is and getting rid of it, usually isn’t too bad. But beyond that, that’s just a drop in the bucket. You see these companies that sell the kits and everything like that. For that one you see on a YouTube channel, there’s 15, 20 other kits they sold to someone else. You’re getting into the personalization programs these manufacturers have for all of them now. I mean, all your high end stuff, they have it because they can make 90 percent profit on these things. It’s unbelievable. You’re getting it so specific in regards to your own taste. What are you going to do with yourself? Because you’re going to have to find that person. OK, I can live with half the stock three quarter stuff on there. Yeah, I probably would have done maybe that, but I can deal with it. You know, with vinyl wraps and stuff like that, you can change the exterior color pretty easily. But option wise, you know, that’s kind of where you get stuck. It’s like, oh, I wish I would have this and that, but I’ll live without it. Because once it’s hacked up like that, and one thing, if you remove body panels off, and you’re putting whole new panels and sections on, you had to do a little massaging to make it work, but it wouldn’t take all that much to turn it back to original. Are you keeping all those panels like that, so any subsequent owner down the line, say, look, here’s all the stuff that came off the car, you can turn it back if you want. Some of those manufacturers, those kits, kind of push that, say, look, oh, it’s bolt on, bolt off, yeah, maybe you gotta do a little this and that, I mean, how true it is, I don’t know. What are you going to do with this? Oh, here’s the car. I mean, you got to have someone that’s like, that’s, Oh, I love it. That’s my style. I don’t know. Cause it changes the car. Especially if you start messing with stance, you’re making a wider, you’re making a lower, you’re doing all these things. You got these guys tacking on, having 1500 horsepower, this kind of stuff too. Crew Chief Eric: You know what it is, William? We’re looking at the wrong car shows. We need to be looking at Radwood and not Car Week. William Ross: Yeah. You would think to your point on that green 360, at least you think the guy would take it to some car shows or, or he’s not that because you know, I would say it’s. A famous car, but it’s decently well known. I don’t know what the viewership is for this show, but people go Oh, that’s that car from god and I’d love to see that thing in person because god I only can imagine how bad it is In person, yeah pictures of it seeing that thing in person be like, oh my god, it’s worse than I thought, Crew Chief Eric: you know It’s funny, We’ve always tried to track the newer What I call restoration shows. And to your point about viewership, Car Masters seem to have outlasted a bunch of other ones, whether it was Rust Valley Restorers or Goblin Works Garage, or even last year they did that one down in El Paso that has disappeared. William Ross: Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. You know, they’re talking about saying going into nostalgia and going that kind of stuff. My personal interpretation at the end of this season. They’re going into replica movie cars. Totally different genre in regards to marketing. And there’s a decent sized market for that, but you got to do it right. You can’t just hack it together like some of the stuff they’ve done. I mean, you have to have that thing dead nut spot on for authenticity. Crew Chief Eric: That’s where this season ends. I’m a fan of the show. My wife and I have been watching since the very first season. Cause we thought the concept was really cool and they leave us with them pushing in a 66 Imperial, the black beauty from green Hornet, and they’re on this whole nostalgia kick. And this three Oh eight was allegedly the beginning, even though. I think the DeLorean was the beginning of this nostalgia thing and we’re going to build other stuff. The Nautilus from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. We’re going to build, you know, maybe Kit, you know, who knows? And that’s cool. And that falls into that Hot Wheels sort of thing that Mark is very good at and the team can get all excited about. The Ferrari saga is over. William Ross: I hope so. Crew Chief Eric: I think they put that to bed. William Ross: They did that Pechanga car for the casino. That was cool. I like what they did with that. I mean, that theme car, whatnot, what they did, and they did the slot machine wheels, that steering wheel, everything was really good. That thing turned out really nice for what its purpose was. And intent was that thing was fantastic. That looked great. And it’s our minds. That’s I think their niche is doing stuff like that. You’re getting into almost kind of an orange County chopper situation. Well, you’re doing it with cars and in previous season, it seemed to my person is that’s where they were good at and they moved cars and they made good money on just steer clear of our stuff because that’s not their forte. You know, I know as creative as Mark likes to say he is and all of this and that he’s not, I think it takes some stuff and making these replica movie cars and what he’s done in the past and executing them. He’s got a great team behind it. Mark can stick with this paint job to make these things look spectacular because he’s a great painter. Give him that. But as for coming out and really designing a whole car to tweak it or whatever you want to call it for him I would say to your point. I think that would make the show that much better if okay mark handles stuff You see the business side he goes out finds the cars do whatever You know get rid of sean and shows him doing the painting and everything on it prepping all that kind of stuff Tony’s on their side going through, Hey, how we did this stuff like that. Crew Chief Eric: Here’s how you build a flux capacitor. William Ross: Showing how they did it, especially go with these movie cars. Cause those things always have these cool little things. And if they’re fully functional and work, people want to know how you did it and incorporating the car and how’d you tie it in. Cause you know, some people are watching that going and saying, well, hey, I’m bored. I’m going to see if I can hook something like that up my car. You know, you’ll learn from it. And I like watching stuff like that. I like watching the shows and YouTube and stuff like that shows with the build process, not so much rebuilding wrecked cars, which seemed to be a big thing. You know, I like the stuff where the guy’s taking the car, doing the modification, making it better and how they went about doing it. That’s just really impressive to me because you know, having that ability to do it and complete it is impressive. And I think that’s the way they should go. In my opinion. And I think they would do a lot better viewer wise. You’re going to turn a lot of people off coming in, taking a Ferrari and hacking it up and just making it gaudy. I’m going to watch this because if that’s what they think this is, forget it. I’m not going to watch. It’d be really interesting to see numbers wise from the end of season five, going into six, what happened in regards to, was there a big drop? What were the demographics of the people that you lost? I thought there were only six episodes. So I got done with episode six. I’m like, All right, but then also the thing pops up in the bottom next episode. Like, oh, wait, there’s more. And then luckily my wife’s out of town. So I was like, well, I got nothing else to do. So, all right, I’ll watch the next episode. And then it got into, I’m like, where it ended up. And again, it seemed like, all right, now it’s like, it was a half season. It’s like, okay, you guys, where you ended this? It seems like, should be more episodes. Crew Chief Eric: And I think the bigger question for us, and I know you’re a newer fan, you haven’t been following the show from day one. Is there going to be a season seven? We don’t know. We probably have to wait. Till sometime in 2025 to see, but it seems like they’re going to keep doing what they do. But are you going to keep watching it? Are you that kind of intrigued to see what their antics and what they’re up to next? William Ross: Next season comes out when it does, I’m going to watch it. Yeah, I want to see where they go because I think these replica car movie cars, I think it’d be a good route to go for them. Those are tough cards that they choose to build right off the bat. That’s for sure. But there’s good money in those things, real good money. Basically to see where they head, to hope they got all that other stuff out of their system. To your point, what you said before is what tweaks they make to the cast. Finding what you need to build those cars isn’t too difficult, because you’re going to basically tear those things down to the frame anyways. There’s rust on the body like that. I mean, you can start with something that’s pretty bad. Crew Chief Eric: And I’m glad you brought that up. And that’s kind of my final thought on this. And my wife made it really, really clear. When we wrap this whole thing up, kind of thinking about this season, previous seasons, and where they’re going next. She goes, did you notice that this was the rust free season? They’re going to have to change their tagline, rust to riches, because not a single one of those cars had rust on them. William Ross: I said the same thing. I go, the title’s not working anymore, guys. There was no rust involved whatsoever. They were even saying it. Wow. There’s nothing on this body. It’s fantastic. There’s no rust anywhere. The rocker panels are fantastic. I’m like, Uh, you guys got to just change this to car masters building movie rep because something, but yeah, I had the same thought. Yeah. The titles is not going to work for you guys anymore. Crew Chief Eric: All right. We’ll bring us home, William. William Ross: Yeah. Thank you guys for listening. I really appreciate it. As you can see, Eric’s cracking the whip on me to get more episodes out on a more consistent basis. So. Remember to leave some comments and your thoughts and feelings, because we’d love to hear you and get your feedback and see what you guys think of what Car Masters did with these Ferraris. So let us know how you feel, guys. Remember to go over to MotoringPodcast.net to check out all the other episodes we have in regards to not just the Ferrari Marketplace, but the other podcasts we have on there. There’s some fantastic stuff on there, and we’re adding more as we speak. Just keep an eye on that. Hit that up as your favorite because there’s some really cool things happening there. Check out the exotic car marketplace. We did a little bit of an overhaul the other week on that. So we rearranged some stuff in that. We’re tweaking it as we go. You’ll see what we want to see. Everything like that. And stay tuned to Rockin Rev’s website. Also for the show next year will be updated. The date is July 27th. So keep that in mind. More stuff will be coming out on that. We appreciate you listening and stay tuned. More to come. Thanks guys. This episode has been brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports as part of our Motoring Podcast Network. For more episodes like this, tune in each week for more exciting and educational content from organizations like The Exotic Car Marketplace, The Motoring Historian, Brake Fix, and many others. If you’d like to support Grand Touring Motorsports and the Motoring Podcast Network, sign up for one of our many sponsorship tiers at www.patreon. com forward slash GT Motorsports. Please note that the content, opinions, and materials presented and expressed in this episode are those of its creator, and this episode has been published with their consent. If you have any inquiries about this program, please contact the creators of this episode via email or social media as mentioned in the episode. Copyright William Ross, Exotic Car Marketplace a division of Sixty5 Motorsports. This episode is part of Gran Touring Motorsports, Motoring Podcast Network and has been republished with permission. [...]
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October 25, 2024Ferrari / PodcastOn this episode, William delves into the viability and desirability of Ferrari producing new models with manual transmissions. Discussions cover various aspects of Ferrari models, from road cars to racing, owners, and market trends. The host considers the engineering and market demands for manual gearboxes in modern Ferraris compared to automated systems, citing examples like Koenigsegg and Pagani. He stresses that a return to factory manual transmissions could resonate deeply with Ferrari enthusiasts and boost sales, urging Ferrari to return to its roots with simpler, analog driving experiences. The episode invites listener feedback and suggests a roundtable discussion on the topic. Episode 28 00:00 Introduction to Ferrari Fridays 00:57 Exploring the Manual Transmission Debate 01:50 Market Trends and Modifications 04:34 Koenigsegg’s Innovative Gearbox 06:13 Pagani’s Utopia and Manual Gearbox Popularity 07:44 Ferrari’s Potential Manual Gearbox 11:07 Market Analysis and Sales Trends 11:49 Case Study: Ferrari F430 Sales 15:09 Exploring Scuderia Conversions and Prices 15:42 Ryan’s Car and Inventory Insights 17:11 Ferrari Market Trends and Pricing 17:45 Comparing Ferrari 360 and 430 18:25 The Case for Factory Manual Ferraris 20:09 Engineering Challenges and Emission Standards 22:34 The Vision for a Basic, Analog Ferrari 25:30 Engaging the Community and Final Thoughts 26:28 Closing Remarks and Sponsorship Information 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. And while you’re at it, when you finish up with this episode, be sure you head on over to the Motoring Podcast Network and check out what else we have to offer. We got some really cool content over there from Mr. Jonathan Summers. We got BrakeFix over there. We got a few others that are just really, really cool to listen. So hop on over to NPN, see what we got going on. Onward and upward. This episode, we’re going to, I guess I want to discuss, everybody just talk about, is it prudent or would it, I don’t know, would it behoove Ferrari to build a new, new model? With the factory manual six speed or seven speed. But would it, would it be in their interest, you think, to actually build a new car, new model without, with offering as a manual transmission. Now I would say, you know, wouldn’t be, you know, Hey, no, it’d be really cool. It’s in the two nine six. Um, but, you know, not just saying not a low end model, not their mid range, whatnot. Would it be like one of the Icona series cars possibly? I don’t know. I mean, take a look what’s kind of going on in the market. Now, for those of you that listen to the episodes, you know, some episodes back I talked about doing, you know, people doing the swaps. Mainly on 360s and 430s, but, you know, people are starting getting doing the 599s. Um, and I know there’s rumors some of you are trying to do a 458 as well, that’s getting really, really tricky because that is a whole system that’s actually just dedicated, you know, how that was built and made, you know, is for a dual clutch or, you know, uh, transmission, you know, whereas, you know, your 599, 575, 550s, Uh, well the 550, I’m sorry. Take that out of the equation. 550, all of those were built, were, uh, factory manuals. Uh, but like say your 430s, your 360s, and down to your 355s. You know, not so many of them. Um, that actually, the transmission in that car, From the factory is actually what they’ve used when you also got a manual all they did was build this Hydraulic system that you know mimicked I guess you could say or would do, you know, you do your shifting for you So it’s just doing a lot of these actuators and doing all the stuff that needs to be done and do it You know, very clunky, you know, not the fastest You’re not slow, but not nowhere near as fast as they you know, dual clutches or anything like that But you know, so doing a swap Actually, it isn’t all that crazy or difficult, I guess you could say. Um, it’s just coming up with, you know, the cables, everything like that. All the interior stuff, because you’ve got to modify the console. You’ve got to, you know, obviously do the gear selector itself. The ball, all that stuff, the gate itself, all that jazz. The big trick is, the computer, teaching it, reteaching it, formatting it, programming it to understand that, hey, now there’s a, there’s a third pedal in there that’s getting utilized, you know, shifting and whatnot for your revs, all that jazz. So it’s just, it’s just reteaching it. So now the, obviously the big name of the game and that is EAG down in Texas. Uh, my understanding there was kind of, uh, some hubble blue going on with ownership, whatnot, fighting, blah, blah, blah. But anyways, I guess they must have gotten things sorted out because they seem to be just plugging away. But anyways, you know, they’re the big player in this game. They actually sell the kits as well. So you can just buy the kit yourself. It’s like 40 Gs, uh, and do it yourself. Pardon me. Um, and have it done. I would recommend having a shop do it because of big, you know, doing the mechanical part, not that difficult. But. Obviously doing the computer part, but hey, you can tweak it yourself. Why not? Uh, Vin Tran, or what’s his name? Vinnie? Vin, I don’t know, he’s got his episode, he was part of Who N Get It? a while back. Uh, probably seen him, you know, putzing around on YouTube. He’s got his own channel. But anyways, back to what I want to talk about. So out there in the market, you’re starting to see some very high end limber reduction hybrid cars come with, offered, retrofitted, With the manual gearbox. Now Koenigsegg came out with this really, really cool setup. You know, and here’s the thing when you watch it, or you see how it is, and do it, you know, it’s actually mimicking a manual. Is what it’s actually doing. So it’s not really so much it’s a manual transmission product. Percay with the clutch in that it’s mimicking it. So the computer is doing everything to give you that sensation that feel like you are actually Rolling your own, rolling the gears going through it. So, because you can actually put it into a fully automatic mode. Or you can put it in where you got the flappy paddles. So you got three options. So is it technically, you know, a manual six feet? Yeah, I guess you could say, yeah, but I mean, it’s all done computers and stuff like that. It’s giving you that sensation to feel the clutch pedal. It’s giving you that sensation. I mean, like that, where your pickup point is the whole thing. It’s really, really cool. The whole system. I mean, it is. Christian Koenigsegg and his team over there. They have some of the most brilliant engineers on the planet right now, what they’re doing. No offense against the guys over at Rimac and what they’re doing, stuff like that. But, I gotta say, the Koenigsegg guys got it going on. So, and, I would love to be a fly in the wild or what not. See who, you know, has these Christian ideas, you know, some of his guys or what not. I don’t know, but I got to say they have some awesome, awesome stuff going on over there. Cody’s thing is really cool. I really respect, like that brand a lot. Love what they do. But anyways, Pagani, Pagani actually offers on their newest model, the Utopia, a full fledged auto, automatic, full fledged manual gearbox, like full on. So you got a V12, twin turbo, V12. In that car, 800 some odd horsepower, everything like that, full fledged, you can get it. Now, you can get the, uh, flappy is the interesting thing, and this makes you wonder if this is something that is starting to become, going to become more and more common with some of these more main players or, you know, more established, I don’t want to say established brands, you know, like the big names, Ferrari, Lamborghini, stuff like that. Porsche obviously still offers a manual on some of their models. But, um, the up, the take up on that from clients, from customers, was like 90 out of the 100, it was like 95 percent of the people took the manual option. They ordered the car with a manual gearbox. And from my understanding, one or two of the people, they wanted to have it, but just due to health reasons, something, their legs or something, somewhere, they couldn’t. Unfortunately, they just for, you know, medical reasons, do their, something with their body, legs, whatnot. They couldn’t do it because they couldn’t do the gear changes or whatnot. So, they had to get the automated, the, uh, you know, flappy pedal gearbox, as we all love to say. So, makes you go, hmm, is that something that Ferrari should consider? So, In my opinion, yes, most definitely. I think they should. Now, see here’s what would suck. Because obviously when you look at what it takes to create that, the engineering, the investment, the time, I mean, you’d have to totally design a whole manual gearbox, everything. You know, and then you get into the fact is, you know, your interior wise, because you got the gear selector, third pedal, awesome. There’s a lot of stuff that goes into that in regards to offering that as an option in a car. So it’s like, okay, what do you do? Do you do it along the Icona series where you’re doing maybe you’ll build a couple hundred cars? Um, or do you get it more mainstream and do it on a model where you offer it? But you’d have to like also really completely change up everything on this car So it’s like you’d have to design and build this car from the get go that you were offering a manual It’s not like for the say the 296 which again i’m gonna say would be Awesome with the manual gearbox. That would be unbelievable with the manual gearbox, you know But the thing was designed that way is designed from the get go to have a flappy paddle gearbox everything like that How the whole thing’s done up the whole nine yards your interior design everything like that I mean everything’s designed to have that set up in there It’s not made designed to have this big stalk and ball sitting there between the passenger and driver’s seat and everything all that jazz And but it would look so cool Fucking cool, pardon my French. But anyways, you know, so, do, do they, you know, the follow up to the 296? Because think about it, because like right now they’re in the stages of, okay, what’s going to be coming after the 296? What are they going to build? Because, you know, in product planning and everything like that, you know, you have your, you know, um, lifespan of a car, you know, depending on if they, you know, anywhere from 6, 7, 8 years. You know, I don’t know how long they’re going to have that, the 296 in the cycle, but you know, sometimes they have them very lengthy, sometimes they have them short. You know, so I’m going to be keeping the thing going for a long time. Now take a look at like the F12, which turned into the 812. I mean, basically almost the same, identical car, just a few tweaks and whatnot. But you know, the, the, the basic premise is there. So they get a custom, hey, so call it the, uh, I don’t know if you go 312, call it the 298, something, I don’t know. But I just think it would be awesome for them to come out and offer a manual gear. I see a lot of people are going back to want that analog experience. Cause let’s be serious. Cars that are getting built today at that level. That price point, that performance, you’re not going to use nowhere near all the things that that car can do. You’re not even going to, those wheels will never see a track. You know, they might barely ever get over a hundred miles an hour. I don’t, you know, I just, I don’t know. I mean, so why have a car that has all that performance, that capability? Oh, you can change gear and X amount of milliseconds. Oh, and this, that is going to shave 10 tenths off for this. Who’s going to do that? You know, the 1 percent of them, a lot of those guys, they’re buying the full fledged race car that their factory sells and taking them on the track. So why do you, you know, why does it matter to road car? You want to have analog experience. You want to be part of it. That’s why you go into the marketplace and you look and see what people are asking for factory manual Ferraris, be it. That’s so much three sixties, but four thirties, if you guys jump on the foreign marketplace. com, check out the analytics we got going on. We have from the past four or five years, we plugged in and put the data up to look at the sales and see where the trends are. I was going to take a look at and see. My man Eric put a lot of time and effort into that. Kudos to my man. He is awesome. But take a look at the numbers and the sales figures. It kind of gives you a market forecast and where it’s been and everything like that. Kind of gives you an idea. Check out the numbers on that and you’ll see. The price and demand for the factory manuals, especially the 430, has gone to the roof. 599, forget about it. Worldwide, 30 built. 20 for the U. S. Now I think they got a little greedy and some people think it’s a million dollar car But if you look at some of the most recent auction numbers, it is about six seven hundred thousand dollars So I know there’s a dealer out there that they had one He was sitting on for a bit and he was looking close to 900 didn’t happen, you know So I obviously got those something out there to see what happens see if it sticks He was wants to know but he said that car for a bit Now you look at factory 430 manuals, uh, there’s a few that have been sitting out there for quite a while. I’m going to pick out a couple. There’s a gentleman that’s over on the east coast. I’m not going to say his name, Ryan Freedman. Um, he’s had a few of these, and he’s got a hell of an inventory. Ryan’s a great guy. Super nice. Uh, but he’s had a couple now. There’s one he’s had. It’s blue, red interior. He bought it from a dealer out of Michigan. I can’t remember the dealer’s name because it’s been a few months. It’s been a while. Um, that dealer had it at like 299, something like that. Carhead. 12, 000 miles, something like that. I have to go back and check. You know, mileage was decent. Anything crazy. Nice color combo. It’s pretty sick. I love the red interior with the blue. It’s a great, great combo on it. So Ryan, you know, it wasn’t for sale long in Detroit because he snagged it up and bought it for what I don’t know. But then he turned around and threw it up on his site for 320. So he was trying to do a flip. He snagged that thing. He was hoping. Now what’s interesting on that car, he had put it up on bring a trailer. And I made a post on there in the question, you know, in the comment section about, about the fact is, Oh, well, hey, this is interesting that this car came from X in Detroit for this. It was for sale at this price. Ryan bought it and then put it up for this curious to see what goes on here. My post got removed for not being, what do they say, it’s, it’s um, it’s not, it’s not contributing in a positive way or something, I don’t know, something cheesy. So I redid it again and reposted it, then it stayed up there, but it’s like really, come on, people with half a brain. We’ll know to do the research. All you gotta do is pull the VIN up, type that into Google search, and it’s gonna come up to where this car is at and everything like that. So, I mean, it ain’t rocket science, people. You can’t be hiding this stuff. So, didn’t sell on Bring a Trailer. I think it got up to 280, 270, something like that. I don’t even know it got that high. I’d have to go back and check. Um, here, tell you what. You know what? I got the computer right in front of me. Let’s go to Bring a Trailer. Let’s pull up 430s. Come on, computer. Come on, computer. Uh, F430. Ferrari F430. Let’s see what we got going on real quick. Uh, let’s see here. Now let’s look at, where’s our auction results. Um, ba doom boom boom. Ba doom boom boom. Trying to remember how long ago it was in, um, give me a moment. Bear with me. It was a few months ago. We’re back to, I don’t think it was that long ago, was it? Is it even on here? I don’t know, do they do, no, they have the ones that are unsold and I’ll see we’re getting back into beginning of the year. Now where’d it go? Where’d you go Mr. Blue Car? Mr. Blue? It wasn’t there, wasn’t there, no, no. We’ll get into Scuds too because that’s a whole, that’s another, it’s interesting to see when you get to like conversions too and see the prices on that. So, um, Oh, I’m sorry. You know what? It wasn’t Ryan’s car. I apologize. It was actually the yellow one. So, you know, I was talking about that yellow one. There was, and I don’t see it anywhere. How’d it go? I don’t know. Anyways, I don’t, I ain’t going to ditch going through it. So anyways, but it was Ryan’s car. We’re going back for it. So, and he’s been still sitting on it and looking at his inventory and he’s got a couple other ones. There seem to get a little more realistic, but there’s a black on black of which I love to have, um, that he’s got reasonably priced at two 80, something like that. And it’s got, um, I’m trying to remember the mileage on it. Um, let me see here. Let’s see here, let’s go on, let’s see if he still has it. Let’s just check it out and see since we’re, since we’re talking about it. Let’s just go on to his website and say, what you got there Mr. Friedman? What you looking at? Inventory? Current inventory? Let’s go to your Ferraris. Let’s see what we got. Maybe he sold it. I don’t know. But he’s got a black on black one. I just love to get my hands on. Um, here let’s just do the search. Make, we want Ferrari. He’s got 11. There we go. All right, got some got a 355 there’s an f1 tranny challenge to dolly Doom See he still has the blue one that one has 12, 000 484 miles He’s got a 289. 9. So he’s dropped it down. So I wonder how much he got it for from the Detroit guy. Um, then there’s a three 60 and then here is the two feet. Oh, he’s dropped the price, but it’s got a little over 26, 000 miles on it. Uh, black on black. My love to have that car. So it’s getting down there. So people got it. I want to say greedy in regards to pricing and what have you, but like I said, go on the, the fire marketplace. com check out the market trends and you’ll see, so They didn’t sell. And I know there was a couple out there. People think, Oh my God, half a mil not happening. People markets going to dictate, tell you what something’s worth. So these guys are sitting on these cars cause they’re getting a little out of hand. Now, the interesting thing is three sixties. You know, you get yourself, you can still, you’re still in the mid 100 range, 140, 170, depending on mileage, whatnot, what have you, um, and get it, so, those are still very decent. Now, I’m going to do the next follow up to this is going to be, I’m going to compare the 360 and 430 because there’s, even though they look extremely similar, there’s some huge differences between them. But anyways, so you can still do well with the 360 in regards to getting a factory manual 6 speed. So, So here’s the thing, again, going with the price wise is on that. So a 360, you can pick one up for 80 grand. It’s got some, you know, maybe 20, 30, 000 miles on it, needs a service or anything like that. So if you’re going to go in there and do a manual swap, you might as well, you know, do your, uh, belts and everything like that as well. So, but say you got 40 grand for the kit, put it in there. I mean, you could still be at the price. So why don’t you just spend a few extra dollars to get yourself factory manual, just the financial and the numbers don’t make sense. So anyways, Should Ferrari build another one? Factory with a new car? Yes, they should. It’s my opinion that I think they would sell like hotcakes. You know? So again, it kind of sucks is, okay, is it going to be an Icona series where it’s a limited edition and you got to be on the list? You got to be the in, you know, you’ve had to had yourself 500 Ferraris before, you know, you got to own yourself, you know, the new F80, you got to own a lot of Ferrari and Enzo, you got to, I mean, you know, I didn’t, you know, some of these stipulations, well, if you, if you buy yourself an SF90, we’ll sell you this, you know, kind of that deal so they can move them because no one’s buying SF90s. Um, you know, so it’s, so. Where do they drop it? You would hope they would drop it. So it would be a production car that, I mean, even a production car, they’re only building a few thousand a year of them. So it’s not like you’re building tens of thousands of them. So it’s still technically limb car. It would sound like crazy. Could you imagine what the resale, the flip market would be? Oh my Lord. People would be making bank on those cars, but I just think it would be so cool for them to go back. Go to their roots, man. Build a factory manual. It’d be awesome to see the 296. I mean, obviously twin 36, but you know, it wouldn’t be that much of an engineering exercise to do it. And I guarantee you’ll be leading the way in the marketplace. You want to talk about Lamborghini jumping on board. They did do that in a heartbeat. And you talk about, you know, their V12 just glorious sounding with the manual, everything. Uh, put a good tiny exhaust on there. Lord have mercy. You’d be singing to the gods with that’s my son. So yes, they should do it again. Now, what do they put in it? Then here’s a question. Do you do it into, drop it into a VTOL? Because here’s the other problem you have. You got all these emission standards. You have all this stuff. So it’s like, oh, maybe you make it a track only car. Well, that would suck. Um, you know, you could go into the fact is you make it. Barely a track only car, but you put all the stuff in there to turn it into a road legal car. You just have someone on the outside do it. So basically have all the wiring for all your stuff, you know that you need to transform it back into a road legal car. You know, there’s those entities that will do that. There’s the, what you would call, they do that with the, uh, McLaren F1s. You know, they’ve done some very, you know, racy, racy cars with those and made them. street legal, and so it’s not out of the realm, so it would be cool for them to do. So, you know, there’s a way to flirt with everything and kind of get these things back to where it would need to be a road legal car. Excuse me, so I don’t think it’d be all that difficult. But, again, you would almost have to go the route of having a twin turbo model, be it a V8 or a V6. Now, yeah, you could do the V12. Yeah, that’s true. So, but, again, for the emissions and all that stuff, they gotta meet all the stringent requirements, all that jazz. You know, you gotta do this to the motor, so you couldn’t have an NA V12, V8, or V6, or anything like that. It’s gonna have to be twin turbocharged and do it. But I mean, you can still make it sound good. So, you know, you have all that to deal with. But I still think it would be so worth it. And I’m going to tell you right now, Ferrari, you would sell them out in a heartbeat. You want to talk about just getting back to the core. You want to talk about not only taking care of your loyal supporters, followers, and clients, customers, man, you’d probably gain Crap load more, you know, you’d get a lot of people over from the dark side of the raging bull and get them over to the prancing horse Because you went back to hey, what let’s let’s do something like that Let’s let’s go back to let’s go back to building something that the clients would just absolutely go nuts for I mean that would just and could you imagine with what they have what you have at your you know, your Your arsenal what you have that you could get into in regards to Put putting this together. It would be awesome what you could do with this car You know what and get rid of all no, you don’t need to have you know You know don’t need the the screen in there. You don’t need to have GPS. You need all that garbage Scrap that go back analog. Yeah, you still have all your computer stuff You need to really enhance it and all that jazz, but get rid of all that crap No one gives a shit about it. No one wants it. And a lot of the times it runs like crap. Go back to make a nice bass. Balls out fun, just analog Ferrari that you can just go out and enjoy. You got your three things in front of you. You got your speedo. You got your RPM gauge. So you know if you’re going to run out of gas or not, you know, if you want to put a couple of other ones in there, fine. So be it, put a couple of your smaller ones for your voltage and all that crap. But just get your big dot, two big dolls in front of you. Have your basic, I mean, you don’t even need a radio, but you know what people are going to want that. So put in a decent radio, your air con, that kind of stuff. But forget having that big fricking screen and touch buttons and all that crap. You know, just have it nice and basic. Have it on your, know what you got on your steering wheel? A horn button. That’s it. That’s all you need. Horn. That’s all you need. You don’t need the magneto and do all that crap to go and raise, blah, blah, blah. All that stuff. No. All you need is your three pedals, your steering wheel, your couple of circle gauges, and that big metal stick sticking up out between your, uh, right next to your right hand. Nice ball in there. Bam, bam, bam, bam. Going through the gates. You want to talk about selling those like, you could probably build a hundred thousand of them. You’d sell them in a heartbeat at 250, 000 a piece. Cost you a hundred grand to build them or whatever. You make a bank. I mean, it’s just an exercise in engineering. I think Ferrari needs to go back to, I think it would just be phenomenal. It’d be so cool to see that happen just to go back to just doing something like that. It would just be so cool to see. I mean, again, obviously you got to have your safety features, got to have airbags, got to have those stuff, dah, dah, dah. So, but just whatever the bare minimum is to pass all the regulations that you need. Cause let’s face it, you’re basically building the past the regulations United States because the United States sucks. in regards to what regulations you got to meet because you meet their U. S. regulations, that thing’s going to pass everywhere else. Just plain and simple. So bare minimum, meet what you got to meet. Put in a six speed manual. Yes, you could do a seven, but it just looks too funky. Having that extra thing over there. All you need is a six speed. You’re finding good with that. Cause I said, that is more than enough for 99. 9 percent of the people that are going to buy it and drive it. They’re going to talk about going to the tail of the dragon, going to those places with that, just hearing that thing sing. Um, I mean, it’d just be unbelievable what you could do with that car. Man, that’d be fantastic. So tell me your thoughts message. Shoot me an email. William at the far part for William at the Ferrari marketplace. com. Shoot me an email. Let me know what your thoughts are. Put some comments down in the comments below. Share this around. Tell me what you think. I did a poll on LinkedIn a while back and yes, basically 99 percent of the people said yes, of course you had these youngsters. Nah, flap your paddle. There you go. Cause they don’t know how to dry stick. That’s the problem. They didn’t learn. I learned my first car was a stick when I drove on the road. Cause I learned how to drive a lot earlier than that, you know, started riding motorcycles when I was five, four. So I guarantee a lot of these listeners, majority of your listeners, your first car was a manual. You probably have a manual car in your garage right now. So, comment on this. Shoot me an email. Let me know what you think. We should have a roundtable discussion on this. I think it’d be really cool. Mr. Eric, I think we should maybe set this up on BreakFix and have a little roundtable discussion. I think that’d be fun. So anyways guys, that’s about all I have on this episode today. Let me know your thoughts on this. Again, I appreciate you listening. Check out, get on over to Motoring Podcast Network, check out what else we got going on on the MPN. There’s a lot of cool stuff you guys can listen to. So don’t miss out on that. So till next time guys, appreciate it. Have a good one. This episode has been brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports as part of our Motoring Podcast Network. For more episodes like this, tune in each week for more exciting and educational content from organizations like the Exotic Car Marketplace, The Motoring Historian, Brake Fix, and many others. If you’d like to support Grand Touring Motorsports and the Motoring Podcast Network, sign up for one of our many sponsorship tiers at www. patreon. com forward slash gt motorsports. Please note that the content, opinions, and materials presented and expressed in this episode are those of its creator, and this episode has been published with their consent. If you have any inquiries about this program, please contact the creators of this episode via email or social media as mentioned in the episode. Copyright William Ross, Exotic Car Marketplace a division of Sixty5 Motorsports. This episode is part of Gran Touring Motorsports, Motoring Podcast Network and has been republished with permission. [...]
September 26, 2024Classifieds / FerrariSlot Mod Raceways is proud to offer a rare, custom-designed Spirit of HotWheels 1/32 scale raceway for $25,000.00, boasting the iconic colors of the renowned brand. Conceived to provide the ultimate HotWheels experience, this impressive 9′ x 12′ setup seeks a new home due to agency funding loss. Ideally suited for a Man Cave, it is ready for immediate installation and enjoyment. Shipping and installation are available at additional fees. David Beattie Founder / Creative Director Slot Mods Raceways Office: 586.649.7830 www.slotmods.com About Slotmods.com They create bespoke handcrafted, 1:32 scale, wooden raceways. Their work is enjoyed around the world in private homes, ultimate garages, museums, and commercial trade shows. Slot Mods is dedicated to creating the finest, handcrafted, slot car race experiences in the world. – LEARN MORE [...]
September 24, 2024FerrariIn 1992, Kevin Waite was the artist commissioned to paint the original oil painting to commemorate Fangio’s visit to South Africa. Limited edition prints were reproduced of the painting for sale to the public, and Fangio personally hand-signed every print! The Pirelli agents in Australia used a portion of the prints as prizes for customers in their loyalty programs. A copy of the print is housed in the Pirelli archives in Italy. As payment for doing the painting Kevin retained a limited number of the signed prints, and kept them in a safe place for over 30 years, and he would like to sell them to collectors. he had the prints independently valued 10 years ago and have that written valuation at that time, which was $500 each. Kevin will include with each print a photo of Fangio signing the prints, a certificate of authenticity and a copy of the gala program. Contact him at: KevinWaite24@yahoo.com or +61 424262412 – Kevin Waite in Australia [...]
September 24, 2024Events / FerrariAutomobilia Ladenburg October 2024 Online Auction, ending Oct 6, 2024. Featuring the Ferrari Archive of Jess G. Pourret. Bid now at https://www.automobilia-ladenburg.de/site/en/pages/news.html For questions and info, please contact Automobilia Ladenburg info@automobilia-ladenburg.de [...]
August 30, 2024Ferrari / Podcast / PorscheOn Ferrari Friday’s, William Ross from the Exotic Car Marketplace will be discussing all things Ferrari and interviewing people that live and breath the Ferrari brand. On this episode William does a crossover podcast with car specialist Greg Stanley, host of RM/Sothebys “The Collector Car Podcast” and the tables have been turned and William Ross interviews Greg Stanley on this episode of The Collector Car Podcast. **REPOSTED WITH PERMISSION FROM RM/SOTHEBYS** Please support our sponsors: www.RMSothebys.com, www.LLCTLC.com and www.EuroClassix.com. For discounted registration fees for your collector car, RV, boat or other awesome ride, please visit LLCTLC at https://www.llctlc.com/classic Follow The Collector Car Podcast: Website, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube or communicate with Greg directly via Email. Join RM Sotheby’s Car Specialist Greg Stanley as he applies over 25 years of insight and analytical experience to the collector car market. Greg interviews the experts, reviews market trends and even has some fun. Podcasts are posted every Thursday and available on Apple Podcast, GooglePlay, Spotify and wherever podcasts are found. See more at www.TheCollectorCarPodcast.com or contact Greg directly at Greg@TheCollectorCarPodcast.com. Are you looking to consign at one of RM Sotheby’s auctions? Email Greg at GStanley@RMSothebys.com. Episode 26 RM Sotheby’s is the world’s largest collector car auction house by total sales. They are the preeminent market maker of high quality collector cars and collections, regardless of size or complexity. By working in partnership with the Sotheby’s team and its network of 80 offices in 40 countries, RM Sotheby’s has established the largest client network of any collector car auction house in the world. Join the RM Sotheby’s family by connecting with one of their car specialists at rmsothebys. com. Or contact me directly at gstanley at rmsothebys. com. LLC TLC is here to save you money on all of your vehicle purchases. LLC TLC will permanently register your classic cars in Montana to avoid any annual renewal fees as your registered agent They will handle everything for you. So you never have to step foot in Montana and as a listener of this podcast LLC TLC is offering 30 percent off your entire package simply go to LLC TLC comm forward slash classic Or mentioned this podcast when you contact LLC TLC directly. All right. Welcome to the collector car podcast. This is going to be a unique and different episode. Mostly because I’m actually interviewing someone while someone’s interviewing me. We’ve never done this before. So it was for two different podcasts. So I’d like to welcome William Ross. William, how are you doing today? Doing fantastic, Greg. How are you doing today? I’m doing well. So you’re turning the tables on me a little bit by asking me some questions here in a minute, and I’m going to ask you some questions. So why don’t I kick it off? Why? Like, What is the podcast that you’re interviewing me, interviewing me for. And then also, I know we want to talk about like the Ferrari marketplace and different things that you’re involved with. Yeah, that’s right. So welcome listeners on my side to the Ferrari marketplace. We’re going to interview Greg here from RM Sotheby’s. And, um, if those of you. Watch and listen, you know, cause we did a, uh, episode on the Ferrari two 50 GTO that Greg was very integral in helping procure set up, do the whole program, everything was set up for the auction. So we’re going to talk about that with Greg and some other things, because he does a lot of cool, fun stuff. He goes and sees a lot of cool collections. So he’s put eyes on a lot of cool stuff. So, and again, I’m going to ask him questions. He’s going to ask me questions. So, It’s going to be different, but it’s going to be fun. So you guys, you’re getting a twofer on this. So that’s right. Yeah. And we actually, we actually met up, uh, it was eyes on design weekend up in Detroit, and I happened to go to the M one Concord, um, and I actually met you there cause you were doing quite a bit of live streaming and activity. So what kind of stuff do you typically put out there for your listeners and your viewers? You know, in my part of the world and in your part of the world, cause you’re just down south in Cincinnati. So I’m up north in Cleveland. So me and Greg are actually that far apart, you know, so, um, we have to travel a bit to get some really cool events. We got some, like there’s the Cincinnati has a great Concord. They do down there. They started. That was what, like four or five years ago. How old is it? It’s old 1978, 78. All right. My bad. And, um, but anyway, so we kind of got to go distances to go and find some cool stuff, which isn’t bad because we’re both kind of right in the middle of heartland, so go into places. But no, I tried to go to the events that, you know, obviously there are so many. During the summer, during this time of year. You know, that people are unable to attend. So like, I try to just give them a little insight, you know, and go to the events that, you know, Hey, people that say live in California, but they can’t go like next weekend’s the vintage Pittsburgh vintage grand Prix, um, go doing the event with the ACO and that up them one concourse, you know, um, you know, stuff like that, you know, then going, you know, seeing some collections and whatnot, if they allow me to video or take anything, uh, as you know, some people are very private. Um, you know, I just try, you know, I have fun with it and what I go do daily. Cause I, you know, as you probably get asked, I’m sure quite a bit that either people that want to get into this business are in this business or just intrigued by it. Is, you know, how do you go see all these things? How, uh, you know, you get, you get asked, you got such a cool, fun job and this and that, and so it’s like, they want to know what you’re doing. They kind of get intrigued about how, what’s this person do during the day or what, when they go to these events, what do they do? So it’s kind of like just a little insight into it. Um, and it’s fun because the one thing is it opens up that door for opportunity to really kind of, I guess they interview someone and get to know them a little bit more. Instead of just casual conversation. You set the stage, having that camera in regards to, okay, Hey, let’s, do you mind if we talk a little bit on camera and I’m going to answer some questions. You know, so you can kind of, you can sidestep because if you’re just, as you know, if you’re having like just a personal conversation with someone, there’s certain questions you’re probably, but that, how’s that going to come up with a conversation while we’re interviewing them for content and just, you know, background history or whatnot, there’s questions you can ask that don’t seem odd. Like Why the F did he ask me that? It’s one of those scenarios. Cause it’s, um, you know, cause obviously, you know, networking is huge in this industry. Um, and meeting people. Cause I mean, there’s awesome people in this industry. I mean, 95 percent of the people are awesome. You’re going to, in anything, you’re going to have those. 5% ers that are just, you know, you steer clear of them, but it’s, it’s one, it’s just, it opens doors. It’s grabbed too, but it’s just a lot of fun. You know, it’s, you know, this day and age with YouTube and doing the podcast and everything like that. It really kind of takes things to a different level in regards to, I guess you say involvement. Because you look at it from a different angle than going to it. Like in years past, you know, I’d go to things and whatnot to talk to people, get car, you know, contact info stuff, you know, um, Hey, what do you have? Like, Hey, you know, if you ever want to do this, you know, that kind of stuff. But then, you know, you look at the cars and whatnot, but. Well, now it is, you’ll come up to a car and you’ll start explaining it because you got a lot of people that might not know what it is, or they’re very minimal in regards to their knowledge of certain cars. Um, so it kind of really gets you more involved in it. And I guess you could say for me, I want not to say reignited the passion for it, cause that’s always been there, but just changed up how I approach going to things. It’s like now, now it’s like. No, I have my mind. So I’ll look at, you know, say entry list or whatnot. What’s there’s like, okay, I want to go look at this car, this car, this car. And hopefully the owners stand there. Cause then again, you can interview them, everything like that. Um, it’s just, it’s a whole different way of approaching things and going at it. And it’s a lot of fun. You know, it’s, you know, I got, you know, my big thing is we talked about up at M one, um, is I got, you know, I’m LinkedIn seems is my, I love LinkedIn. You know, I mean, I got the YouTube channel, we do the podcast, you know, Instagram, that kind of stuff, but you know, I found on LinkedIn, you know, That’s more business oriented. I get a lot more, you know, responses, contact people reached out to me every night back from what I put up on LinkedIn, you know, YouTube and Instagram, whatnot. That’s just for, you know, Hey, look at this, check this out, blah, blah, blah. I mean, you know, you’re going to get some response, but hey, that’s a great car. Oh, he looked like he had fun. You know, like I was just at, um, this past weekend, Oh, in Salem, Ohio, they had this really cool, um, the classic car club of America, you know, had this, uh, like multi day event, you know, do some birds, all old, like pre war stuff and, uh, stuff like that. You know, they do a driving tour and like that. No, so I put some stuff on that and they go, you get a response. Oh, those are chords. Oh, I remember this, you know, that kind of stuff. But whereas LinkedIn, you put it up there. Someone’s going to. Oh, Hey, I saw that. And this, oh, I have this thing for sale. Hey, you know, I got someone I’ll put you in contact with because they’re thinking about selling this or thinking about buying, you know, open up the doors a lot more for business opportunities. And, you know, as you know, got to make money, got to pay the bills. So, you know, tell us before you turn the microphone over in my direction here and ask me some questions, tell us, uh, about. Like the Ferrari marketplace, how people can find you and, you know, kind of like, are you doing stuff weekly? Is it daily? Is it monthly kind of where they can find you on what you’re posting out there? I had these pages go the Ferrari marketplace. com is the, um, just go to the website, uh, as you go into, you delve into it, there’s a lot more layers to it. Uh, we have, we kind of building out, you know, we have is under the umbrella of the exotic car marketplace. So we have not only the fire marketplace, the Porsche marketplace, but we have some other subsequent model, uh, brands. That will be coming down to line that we’ve got in there. That’ll be all under there. But, you know, I’m trying to try to get a buddy of mine. That’s a big Porsche person to take over the Porsche marketplace. com aspect of it. So that can, cause I just, I mean, I love Porsches, but I mean, I just don’t have time wise to kind of start doing these other things, um, usually new content usually comes like every week, every two weeks at most, so either be, you know, new videos, new podcasts. Um, I try and do. I just started doing this a little while ago. Um, started doing, I guess, background stuff on, you know, my specialty, I guess you could say is I do all the Enzo era stuff that’s where I, I kind of focus on, I’ll get into F forties, F fifties, you know, those kinds of things. Enzo’s. Uh, but like the new stuff and like F4, 5. 8, I just, that’s not me. That’s everyone else. Let them deal with it. The, the Gen Z people and stuff like that. And everything along those lines. Um, but I’m doing like some historical stuff on just kind of like, okay, here’s this model kind of, this is where, Hey, uh, creation wise, what they did with it. If it had race history, dah, dah, dah, you know, kind of give a little insight into the cars, you know, what they did. So people understand, because as you know, you know, um, you look at these, it was such a different era in regards to how cars were built, especially by them, uh, and what those cars were meant to do and be, you know, when you do low volume like that, and they’re all hand built, you know, one car to the next is not the same and they can pivot, you know, they can build four cars here, then also the fifth car is something completely different regard to competition or whatnot, like four steel bodies. Hey, number five is going to be aluminum body. You know, car six going to be a competition on car, you know, it’s. It was, it was awesome when they were doing that. Cause obviously regulations were not existed, so to speak, in regards to what you had to have to put up on the road. Um, so it’s, it’s interesting to kind of put that out and it’s not anything in depth, like pages of pages. I try and get a little more concise with it. Um, I’ll put links and everything in it. So people can kind of kick on, you know, click on it too. Delve into it more if they want. Um, you know, cause it’s such a, you know, it’s such an interesting, you know, everyone thinks, you know, Ferrari, a lot of people kind of have this, not to say stigma, but like image thinking, Ooh, Ferrari, you know, la di da, you know, but. If you start digging into more and what it was, I mean, it’s really impressive what he was able to do with his limited resources in essence, you know, it’s not like this guy was, you know, Fiat or something like that, and that, and bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars a year in revenue, you know? I mean, his main thing was racing. He just built streetcars to support his racing. You know, and he was, you know, asked backwards in regards to finances and whatnot all the time, but somehow he did it and he built world conquering cars, I mean, the only way he got beat that small little place out of Maryland was, you know, Ford motor company with billions of dollars coming in and taking, taking many years to do it, you know, it wasn’t like they came out of the gate, you know, to beat him basically and do it. Um, it’s just, I just think it’s a, you know, it’s a very storied brand. Um, and if you can see behind me, basically, those are all Ferrari stuff. All books, everything. I do a lot of reading and, you know, so it’s kind of one of the things that, and as you probably know, as you’ll, you’ll be talking to someone, you see something online, someone mentions a book. And you’re like, oh, I haven’t heard, you know, you go, you buy, there’s so many places you can buy these books. Like, and then I had my one buddy, you know, Eric from up there. He got me this, you know, because obviously people know I’m the Ferri Ferri guy, you know, he bought me this bow tie Ferraris, you know, bought the, you know, Ferris from the fifties and sixties that, you know, people stuffed the Ford and Chevy engines in, pulled out the, you know, B twelves and stuff. Those, I mean, that was a really cool book, you know, because. Again, now that people, you know, realize that that was very common over here in the United States, very common, you know, and, you know, and what always baffled me with that though, is cause like in this day and age, you read the story, the guy’s got the TR. That, you know, someone stuffed the Ford or Chevy in, and then, you know, 30, 40 years later, all reunited with its original engine, you know, it always, it’s amazing to me that you can, you could find it for one, you know, and do it. But it just shows you the wherewithal of people. And that was before internet. Yeah. Yeah. Think about that. You know, it’s, you have such a close knit. You know, group and community, like, Oh, it’ll call shows in this nap, but it’s just, uh, truly neat, you know? So, but anyway, sorry. No, no, it’s interesting. You talk about, you know, having the right book and such, and I’m doing some Bugatti research and, uh, I just had Philip Richter on and I think he mentioned it, but somewhere, somewhere I read, Oh, no, it was a Jay Leno video, he was reviewing one of his Bugatti’s Peter Mullen and the Mullen museum. And you know, the book you have to get is the art of Bugatti. Uh, and so I actually found it, it’s the Mullen and they’re out of business now. You know, the museum, it’s out of business now, you know, they close down. Oh yeah. And, uh, thankfully I found it on used on Amazon, but it’s like brand new, but it’s key, there are certain books that are key. You definitely have to have in order to, you know, be able to knowledgeably speak about certain marks, right? Well, the other thing too, especially those ones, like you said, are out of print. Yeah. Um, and they were done, you know, in the sixties or seventies or even eighties, you know, cause a lot of those guys, like, you know, a lot of those books I have up there were guys that were part of factory, part of the program, part of whatever, you know, insider knowledge and they’re writing about it. You know, those people are long gone. You know, that was it, you know, you’re not going to be able to go and sit down and talk with these people, you know, and so it’s hunting them down. And thank God, you know, for Amazon, you know, the internet and everything like that and finding these and getting it, because to your point, it’s such great knowledge to know and learn, you know, and, and, you know, and some people might think it’s, Oh, well, you just, cause you’re trying to sell. No, I mean, I, to me personally, and I’m sure with you is, It’s very interesting stuff in regards to how something became about the whole process in regards to starting, you know, starting product to finish product. It’s like, okay, idea to completion, you know, that whole process in between, you know, no, no computers, no nothing. You know what I mean? You’re dealing with people who build stuff with hands, wooden bucks, you know, doing stuff by hand, you know, English wheel stuff. I mean, yeah, I love that stuff. I mean, you know, and, and I’m sure you saw it and that’s why one day I hope. I can go to Jay’s lentils garage because in, you can fill us in a little bit. Cause I know he has an unbelievable workshop as well. You know, everyone sees his cars, but he’s got just like everything and anything you’re pretty much need or want. To restore a car, which is all interesting. Yeah. And, and feel free to ask me some questions here. I know you have a list of stuff as well, but, uh, from the Jay Leno perspective, it was really interesting. I didn’t get to see as much of the restoration shop as I, I walked through there briefly. Um, when I was on my drive with Jay, him driving me, riding and My 66 GTO, uh, Pontiac GTO, not Ferrari GTO. My wife and the two daughters of the original owner of the Pontiac, they had like 45 minutes to an hour just to kind of wander around and they met all the mechanics and stuff. Cause they just kind of had to fill their time. And I was slightly envious because I wanted to meet those guys and talk to those guys. So, um, yeah, but I’ll have your link to the Ferrari marketplace in the description of this podcast, obviously. Uh, what questions do you have for me? So for the Ferrari Marketplace listener side, now, as we mentioned before, as I said, you know, doing a podcast on, on my thing a while back when it was beginning, walk me through, cause you were integral in regards to the Ferrari 250 GTO that Sotheby’s auctioned off. Uh, a while back, uh, in New York now, and that car is very interesting as well, because that was one of the things I kind of talked about in my episode was that was one of the few 330 chassis built, but it was rebodied as the series one 250 GTO. Um, so that was kind of the topic in regards to speaking with people like, okay, so is it a real two 50 GTO? Cause it’s originally three 30 data, you know? So I’ll give you, I’ll give you the recap of it. So it was never re bodied per se. All right. So the nuts and bolts of it is, is you had 36 GTOs. This was original GTOs. Uh, two 50 GTOs. This was not one of those. There were three prototype cars built AF, uh, to compete in other classes of racing. And so this was, this one was created with the two 50 GTO body, but with a three 30 running gear so that it would run at Lamar, so it was a larger. Displacement, um, engine four liter versus three liter four speed versus five speed. So. It was designed specifically to, uh, capitalize on a class of racing at Lamar, which is why it was called the three 30 LM LM for Lamar. I mean, it’s really, it’s so confusing because nobody, I don’t care who it is. Not one single article got the car. Correct. No, they didn’t. Obviously in the most correct Steve Algram that writes for sports car marketplace, he was like, So almost there. Um, so anyways, fascinating car. If it was one of the 36, it would have brought more, um, difficult car to market because of that. Like nobody knows what a three 30 LM is. It looks like a two 50 GTO, um, a year into. existence. It was taken back to the factory and, and the two 50 GTO, uh, drive train was put in there. Um, and so it became a two 50 GTO from the factory a year after it was built. So just a complex car, um, a great car. And you know, the question becomes, do you want to put it back to where it was originally where it would be a, basically a big block, a big engine, GTO, or do you want to have it as a last raced as a two 50? And it’s, it’s somewhat hard to identify which is better. If you take it back to the four liter, when it was originally constructed, it actually had kind of an ugly, um, nose on it, had like a nail slot. It didn’t have the iconic. 3d scoops that we are all love about the GTO. Um, but it was the only one made from the factory that way. And so like Ferrari would love to see it with his mail slot nose back on. Uh, but then. You know, I got the three D scoops when it was turned into a two 50 GTO later, which is just absolutely stunning. So it’s kind of, which one do you do? I, I said on one of my podcasts, I would just keep it the way it is as a two 50 GTO with the three D slots, enjoy the heck out of it for 10 years when it truly needs a restoration, then I would put it back to the four liter spec as a three 30 LM and, uh, enjoy it that way. I was trying to dig around and I like, I talked to a few people like prior to that auction, you know, and I got on the phone and maybe you’ll know, uh, cause no one was a hundred percent sure could figure out some people said, Oh, they know where it is or Oh, no, it’s gone forever is where did that original motor is, was that original motor known? Like right now, if you want to put it back, how it was born. With that, the bigger motor in it, do they know where that motor is? So we know where the motor was as of like 10 years ago. Okay. And so I can’t remember what’s on my head. No, the chassis that it’s related to or the chassis that it was put, it was put into, uh, by a very private owner. I don’t know, eight or 10 years ago. It’s someone that. It has fallen off of the collector car Landscape, I guess is the best way to put it. Um, one of my fun things is I I like to dig and try to Figure this stuff out So I have it on my list of to dos to see if I can dig up who that person is and where they are They weren’t in the u. s, which is one of the complicating factors. I believe they were in asia So I think uh, it was an asian collector that has a car that a ferrari that has that engine in it But like I said, I don’t know the situation there. I would love to You Make that connection and see if I could find that car and find that engine to where the current owner who I can’t say who it is, who bought the car, um, that they could reunite the original four liter with it, you know, cause it does have the original three liter that was put into the car year later, which we didn’t go into it too in depth, uh, for the auction. Cause we didn’t want to make it confusing, but that actual three liter that’s in the car that was put in there by, uh, Ferrari actually came out of a wrecked race car that, uh, Phil Hill drove. So the actual engine has quite a bit of Providence attached to it and race history. I forgot the car it was in. It was either. I can’t remember the car that it was in, but it was, um, it was the engine, the three liter had quite a bit of Providence and that’s the engine that’s in the car now. How did you come about, I guess you’d say. Cause I know you, how long have you been with Sotheby’s? So I’ve been, I’ve always been part time as a consultant until recently. I’m doing it full time now. Um, about four years, right? As COVID hit, unfortunately, my first official, uh, auction was Amelia Island, right before the world shut down, uh, walking around Amelia Island, like two weeks before COVID shut down. Interesting times. So how, how do you. Okay. So four years in that span, I mean, one that’s, it’s impressive because, you know, how did you become involved with that 250 DTO sale? I mean, did you know who the owner was? Was it just, Hey, Sotheby’s? Cause it, you know, luck of the draw. I mean, how did they all say, how’d you get tied in with this, you know, involved in the sale? So when you, when you become a car specialist, even as a consultant, you’re trying to network, obviously meet people. Um, have it be known that if someone wants to sell a car through a big global auction house, like RMS Sotheby’s, Hey, I know a guy, you know, and so I would go to the, I would go to the Concord events. I go to car shows, I go to cruise ins, you know, shake hands, talk to people, do podcasts or whatever. Um, that car is local to Cincinnati. So I was familiar with the car. Because it’s one of the few, like, I mean, Cincinnati, there’s two GTOs in Cincinnati at the time, which is unbelievable. The 39, if you count the three prototypes. Um, and so I did not know the family beyond saying hello to one of the, the son at a Concord event, you know, just like you would, if you talk to anyone at a concrete, Hey, love the car, whatever, you know? And then when I came on board with RM, I just amped up, not just, you know, across the board, amped up my interaction with the Cincinnati Concord, you know, try to interact with all the folks that I could over that following couple of years, I became friends with the family. Um, you know, and it was funny cause the, the way it kind of transpired was I was leaving a, a volunteer thank you event for the Cincinnati Concord. And someone mentioned, Oh, they’re going to sell that. GTO. I’m like, what? I didn’t think that was what, you know, I felt like I would have known. And the owner’s name is Jim Jagger. That’s all public knowledge. Um, uh, and I, I texted the son. I said, Hey, are you, you know, are you guys selling the GTO? And it was hilarious because his response back was, um, are you open for coffee tomorrow? Oh, okay. Um, so I met him for coffee and. The answer was we are not selling the car. And this is like three years ago or so. And, um, and the key part to me was at this time, you know, and so fast forward, like a year and a half later or whatever, uh, he wants to meet to kind of say, Hey, we’re thinking about selling the car. And. At that point, the reason I was involved was because they had a relationship with me through networking. Uh, the biggest reason why was because of the power of RM Sotheby’s is specifically the sale of the Ulan out coop for 142 million. You know, and so if you’re trying, you know, that car was very hard to come up with an estimate on, we put it at 60 million, it sold for 51. 7 million because of the reasons we talked about. Um, but if you’re a private individual and you’re trying to sell a 60 million car, let’s say that’s daunting, you know, like, Oh, yeah. You know, like you’re trying to get it out there and sell it half the time. People have to liquidate part of their collection to afford it. Do you want to take on these cars that are maybe worth 10 you have to sell them? You know, like it’s a lot, which is where someone like Sotheby’s comes into play because they can handle all that they can, you know, if there are cars on trade in, you know, they can liquidate them at a future auction, you know, or whatever, you know, and, um, that’s how RM Sotheby’s got involved. So. It’s, it’s really all about the power of RM Sotheby’s and the, uh, their network and everything else. I mean, you know, I, I definitely am honored to be the consigning car specialist, but if I wasn’t there, they probably would have found RM Sotheby’s anyways, because of the out sale. So, but, but it’s a, it’s the relationships, you know, and they knew me. And so it all worked out great. So basically it’s such a big car to sell that, um, you know, we had some folks fly in ballpark and how are we going to sell it? You know, then, and you know, once. Once we had a contract to sell the car, my job was to keep the family informed and happy, right? That’s key, but, but it was the orange Sotheby’s machine that took over from there. And by that, I mean, you know, the marketing department, the PR department, the logistics folks, you know, the Sotheby’s side. Cause we had it at the New York Sotheby’s headquarters where it’s a seven story art museum, basically, or eight story art museum that they do, you know, wine auctions and art auctions. And it was a single car sale. Um, it was the only car sold, uh, that evening to kick off their art week. So yeah, it was a total company collaborative effort and I was just thankful to be a. Very small part of it. So is that how you got your GTO? A little, your commission check? Parsley that did pay for it. Um, that was the other thing that was funny. And I mentioned it in Jay Leno’s video is while I’m dealing with the Ferrari GTO, I get asked to help sell a Pontiac GTO. And so I’m dealing with two GTOs at the same time. And I tried to recreate the, uh, car and driver GTO versus GTO back in 1964, recreate that. Cause I had access to do two GTOs, you know? And so I actually reached out the car and driver and they were interested. It would have been the 60th anniversary of that article. But the problem was, is they insisted that their writer would drive the Ferrari GTO. And the, the seller Jim Jagger, he had a bad experience in the past letting And automotive journalist drive is at the time, uh, Daytona came back and it had a busted transmission. He didn’t want to let a total stranger drive the car three weeks before it would sell just for a magazine article. Right. But the son was, is a former race car driver. He drives the snot out of that car. If you watch the videos, he’s driving it like crazy. And I said, well, You know, have the son drive the car, you’ll be in the passenger seat and you’ll get the same experience, right? Or 90 percent of it, but they didn’t want to go for that. And it actually worked out well because my Pontiac GTO needed an engine rebuild because it only had 58, 000 miles on it. But the owner was a race car driver. So it was my, my car would have blown up if we had done it, you know, much less the Ferrari. So it all worked out well that they didn’t want to do it. But I did get a picture of the two cars together, which. It’s really cool. Oh, nice. Yeah. It’s, it’s, well, I mean, it wouldn’t because you’re a car situation, but it’s unfortunate because I, you know, in speaking with you up at that one stuff, you know, and it seems to be, you know, we kind of have the same thought process in regards to how you present market something, get it out there. Um, it’s unfortunate when you run into someone that’s, you know, like current drivers, well, no, the journalist has got to drive it. Like you’re missing an opportunity here. That’s like, when is this going to ever happen again? Yeah. And then you’re being stubborn about it in regards to, cause you just want this guy to drive. And like, just, you would think there’d be like all over it. I mean, that’s like cover material, everything, you know, for the 60th anniversary. Yeah. Some of that stuff. I just. You know, I don’t know. It seemed like a lost opportunity, but yeah, I don’t know. So, uh, like I said, my car would have probably blown up anyway, so it’s probably good that we didn’t. So, yeah, I gotcha. Yeah. So, you know, you emailed back the other day and said, you know, how often are you going out to go and hit and collection does stuff? Not me, obviously scenes with RM to keeping you busy, you know, as you, I mean, you go everywhere, you’re regional. I mean, where else you go travel? So, you know. This is probably a better question for one of the full time RM folks. I I’ll give you my perspective, which is as a part time consultant. Um, well now, now doing it full time, but you basically, you know, it’s, like I said, it’s based on relationships. Um, if there’s enough leads in an area, then it’s viable for a trip out to meet folks. And so, uh, I can tell RM, Hey, I I’m going, you know, I’m going, this happened the other day, I’m going to. Fort Wayne for a personal thing. I’m chasing a 67 Mustang, believe it or not. Um, can you send me some leads for that area? And these are folks that have registered either to buy or sell that maybe there’s not a strong relationship with anyone at RM. And you basically just kind of cold call them and you might not know anything about them. You might just know their phone number and they had registered at one point with RN for one of the auctions and you just give them a call and leave them a message or shoot an email and say, Hey, I’ll be, I’ll be in your neck of the woods. Are you up for a visit? And so one example is, is this was actually out, this was outside of arms. Sotheby’s, uh, have a good buddy of mine, Dave Snyder. He does a lot of the incredible artwork, a lot of muscle car stuff. Um, uh, great artists. I mean, he does Porsches, he does everything, but he’s known for putting. A painting of the cars back in like the period picture. So he’ll do a painting of, you know, uh, Camaro’s at Yanko’s dealership. So it looks like it’s from the sixties. Like he does a really good job and we’ll have lunch and he’ll mention, Oh, do you know such and such, or do you know such and such, so he gave me a lead. Uh, in the Fort Wayne area. And, uh, so I had that set up and then I asked for some leads from RM Sotheby’s and, uh, this was a situation where I didn’t have to jump on a plane, you know, so much easier to do. Yeah. So I went out there, yeah, I went out there to look at, um. One collection and one Mustang. And then I, they sent me some leads and set up another collection to look at. And then when I was at one collection, I asked, Hey, is there someone else I should meet while I’m here? He’s like, what do you know? Such and such. I’m like, I have no idea who you’re talking about. Then I go to go to his place and it’s. You know, 34 Porsches and an F40 and some BWs and just unbelievable, you know? So that’s how it is. It’s kind of organic. You know, you go there for, um, you know, you go there for hopefully one or two things and it might turn into three or four things that 67 is not a gold one. Is it? No. Oh, all right. Some of, um, it’s pink. Is it a Playboy car? It’s a playboy color, but they technically it’s Playboy pink, but it wasn’t a pink Playboy car. ’cause that was only 65 and 69. 69 and 65. Yeah. Three 90 big block, four speed. Oh, nice. Yeah, because they, uh. A mutual person we know up here is if he’s, if he can come across a six or seven Shelby in a debt gold. Oh yeah. No, I probably know, but yeah, George is looking, he’s like, I’ll buy that thing. A heartbeat. You guys only think color. He doesn’t have it. Yeah, there’s only like 24 of those, I think. So the other thing I’m doing, which, um, you know, I, it seems to be a good idea. I did it last night is I’m doing some public speaking, not only around the Ferrari GTO sale, but also the J lono experience. So behind the scenes stuff, um, I’m talking about like how. My career’s gone in the last four years. Cause it’s really gone really well. So I’m doing that at like private car storage places. I have a social event aspect, so I had two places in Dallas that wanted me to do it the other day. And that’s cool because it benefits me because I can network, meet new people. You know, I actually got a call from the Dallas guys yesterday saying, Hey, we want, this guy wants to sell his Mercedes and Monterey. And I’m like, Oh, Monterey’s closed. How about Hershey? You know, like it probably won’t work out, but. You know, it’s all about networking, getting to meet folks and, uh, try to make it entertaining at the same time. Yeah. So for people listening, this will be a plug for Greg is, and I’ll put it on mine, uh, website and everything is the sign up for his newsletter. It’s a great newsletter. He puts out, you know, sends it out. It’s got cool stuff, great stories. It’s, it’s fantastic. So I’ll put a link to it so you can sign up so you can get it and start receiving it in your inbox. It’s really cool, uh, monthly, uh, weekly, isn’t it? Is it weekly? No, it’s, it’s whenever I can get to it. They’re a lot of work. I’m glad you like it. I try to make it entertaining. Yeah, no, I really like it. It’s really cool. Cause it’s got cool stories and whatnot. It’s just, it’s not just, you know, Here’s some stuff I’m looking for, you know, it’s got some cool content to it. So it’s, you know, it’s, uh, it’s something that you want to open up and read. So I’ll put it on there. So everyone listening, definitely sign up for that. It’s really cool. I appreciate that. Hey, you ever gone up to, um, I’m trying to, I want to try and go, but up to Indianapolis for the, uh, art of Obelia. Stuff those guys do a few times a year that group. Yeah, I went there one time for their show Actually, I think I judged their show one time Very cool show down in Carmel right downtown Carmel. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, and if you can I don’t know if they still do it Friday night. They had a dinner at the Lucas oil Family like mansion and Oh really just stunning location. I mean, I don’t know how many acres it was, but just a stunning mansion with this boathouse and you know, it’s a fundraising event so I can’t remember, it was a hundred bucks a ticket or something. But, uh, really, really cool event. And they get some really nice cars there. I haven’t been in a couple years and I need to put it back on the calendar ’cause that’s a pretty cool show. Yeah, I reached out to one of the guys, uh, one of the organizers that’s behind it all and, um, to him saying about coming out, cause I was going to go. Cause I was down in Tennessee and that for a Porsche event at tailed dragon. And I was going to, on my way back up, I was going to Scott, cause they were going to have something. It was going to be just like, I don’t know what the hell I forget what they were calling it, but it got canceled and hindsight is like, I wish they wouldn’t have canceled it because. I’m a way through. I would have been going through Covington. I would have been going a different way and I’m a way to Covington. I got clipped by a cop for doing 86 and a 55. Yeah. You know, I’m trying to get back, you know, so, but my lawyer did good. 175 fine. And I just got to take an online driver diversion course. No points, no nothing. So for, for reference, that is, uh, September the 7th. Yeah. I will not be there unfortunately, cause I’m flying up to green Bay. I’m judging at the, uh, Ferrari. Annual meet at their big, uh, show up there and, uh, up, up, uh, up in Wisconsin. So, yeah, so you have to pick between automobile or the Ferrari show. Yeah, I was, you know, that was the thing. That’s why I was curious about if you’re headed to, cause I’m debating whether, you know, I want to go to one or the other. And I was like, any apps I can drive to, but the other involves, you know, getting a plane, doing all that. And. Um, that time of year, starting to get those arranges gets a little hectic. Um, so trying to squeeze things in and, um, do things cause on a, on a side thing, I also helped run a nonprofit where we deal with children that have been injured in fires. Um, so I kind of, um, You know, deal with that a few hours a week. Uh, but we have like our, our summer camp. We do, um, fall around that time of year and some other events, um, towards the end, because we try and get them for the kids, go back to school and doing all this stuff. So, um, so anyways, so I’m, I’m trying, you know, it’s one of those things. It’s, and like you mentioned before, it’s this time of year, you know, especially in this part of the country. There’s so much stuff crammed in, you know, because of the weather, you know, you got that window of opportunity and you know, it’s, you got to do what you got to do, one of those things. Do you have any other crazy car specialist questions? Well, they’re always all crazy, aren’t they? I mean, okay. Going in, you know, and this is what I always find fun is, you know, cause I’ve been, you know, at this a long time and I, and you’ve obviously been in the cars and whatnot, but in kind of getting into this aspect of it, you know, more recently, um, What’s, what was, what’s your, I say, I was request or weirdest situation in regards to selling either being part of the car, they want to sell it or buy it. What if you come across something that’s like, Oh my God, this guy’s nuts. You know, I don’t know if it’s that extreme, but I have. Two, but I’ll, I’ll, uh, two, one of them is I have someone that wanted me, they, he wants to sell a group of cars with us, but he wants us to prove our value first with a another car. And I can’t say what the car is. Well, it’s like a race car. The problem is, is it’s. Um, the hardest car to sell, I’d say so, which I get, you know, it’s like, Hey, if you could sell this, then I’ll give you the others, but it’s a car that’s like no provenance, no history, wrong engine, you know, um, like I’m like, can, is it a salvage title? You know, like I get the, the, the reasoning behind it, but I’m like, Uh, you know, give us one of the other 40 cars. Let me prove it on one of the other ones. That’s a known commodity versus what is probably worth the parts and labor to build it, or, you know, like, it’s just difficult. That’s a, that’s been a different request recently. Another one I had was to do, uh, some appraisals for a small collection of exotic cars. And this is when I had to walk away from, cause I wasn’t quite sure what was going on. He’s like, I’m I need a, I need them appraised, but you can’t see them. Cause I can’t let my lawyers know what state they’re in, you know, like something going on from a tax perspective, I believe. He’s like, you know, it’s a convertible, but the title says it’s a coupe. So coupes are, you know, I think it was a divorce thing, you know, like, so coupes are cheaper. So can you appraise it as a coupe? Not as what it really is. You know, so I had to just walk away. I’m like, that’s a little too weird and shady for me, you know? Yeah, I’ve had, I’ve had a few of those where it’s the divorce situation and, you know, and get it from both ends. The husband and wife in regards to, cause they, you know, knowing both of them for a long time, and then all of a sudden they go south in their relationship, you know, so it’s not like only one party knows who I am. They both know, and they know that person is they’re contacting me. So it’s kind of like. I’m not getting in the middle of this, you know, again, to your point, once trying to say, Oh, it’s only worth this. And the other state, no, it’s worth two times that, you know, because they want their money, you know, and he doesn’t want it, you know, God forbid, you know, he doesn’t want to lose any of his cars, all this stuff. And. You know, and sadly, unfortunately it ends up, Hey, he loses half his collection, you know, and it’s just gone. And for what he gets out of is not, he can’t replace them and all this stuff. And those are always interesting because you just like, you become a mediator. And then like your other point is you have ones that guys are just being real shady. And it’s like, you know, you get someone that might be clueless or new at this, be like, Oh, we’ll figure it out. It’s like, you know, it’s like within the first five minutes of conversation, you’re like, no, I’m good. You know, I’m kind of busy. And so you maybe call someone else. Right. Right. It’s never a dull moment. I will say that it’s always, there’s always something interesting and happening, fun happening or whatnot. So it’s always pretty, you know, it’s a great business to be in. Um, you know, it’s, it’s a lot of fun. Yeah. And the one thing you mentioned earlier, which I’ll, I can touch on just briefly is, um, how do you get into this business? Cause you’re like, people think it’s a dream job and such. It’s really, really hard because, um, You know, there’s so many obstacles. So, you know, if you want to come on board with RM Sotheby’s or whoever, and you’re like, well, I know such and such, you know, this mega collector, I can get him as my client. Well, he probably has a relationship already with somebody at RM Sotheby’s and it’s probably the owner or it’s one of the partners or whatever, you know? So it’s really, really difficult. Um, I tell people, you know, if you are looking to do this, do something like bring it, help people with bring a trailer first or Hemings, you know, because there’s a lot of folks that would like to list their cars on those online sites, but you know, maybe they’re older, they don’t have the, you know, they’re not. savvy or whatever. And so you can set up a nice little consulting business, helping people sell and bring a trailer, you know, and, um, that really gives you insight. You know, if you feel, find that that’s easy, all right, then you maybe have what it takes to do it with one of the bigger places. But you’ll quickly find that’s pretty hard, you know, and like, yes, I was able to consign the, the big Ferrari GTO, but before that, you know, I had 22 cars from one client here, there, that kind of stuff. I have four cars in our Monterey sale. It’s difficult. Even if you have someone that says, I want these three cars in Monterey. Well, are they the right cars? Are they at the right price? Are they, uh, you know, where we feel like they’re sellable? Are they have the right reserve? Do they agree to the right fees? Are they willing to do the transport? And, um, I, I got cars in to Monterey and I couldn’t get in, uh, 1967, beautiful Lincoln continental convertible. That was Concord because that just doesn’t fit Monterey. And so, um, you know, but he didn’t want to take it to Hershey, you know? And so like, all right, well, there’s a car that’s no reserve, a hundred thousand dollar car. and I can’t get it into an auction, you know, like it’s, it’s a lot harder. And, and even still like Hershey, um, we’re so far ahead on Hershey. They just put a note out saying, Hey, we’re only taking a handful more. That’s not until October. You know? And so if you’re trying to make a living by getting cars to consign and the next big auction is already full. You know, you got to wait till Scott’s sale of January. And if you’re based in October and you’re trying to get cars over to, you know, like it’s really difficult, you know, there’s, there’s a handful of windows. I mean, you can private sell all day, but that’s, that’s difficult. You know, we have, we have Sotheby’s motorsport, which is online. So, um, Yeah, I always tell people be a consultant for one of the other online where it’s not as difficult first and see how that goes. Yeah, I was fortunate because, you know, in my youth. And younger days I raced and, and just connection wise. And it’s kind of like, you know, uh, stumbling into it, so to speak, you know, it’s one of those things, cause you know, people and someone says, well, Hey, you know, I’m thinking about selling. It’s like, well, you know, if you need some help, let me know. You know, and, and this was, you know, in my early twenties and late teens kind of doing that. And. It just grew from there. And, you know, but again, it was a long road. It wasn’t like, bam, it’s coming out of the gate doing it. You know, it takes a lot of time. And the big thing is, is building, you know, clientele doing it. And that was one thing I kind of figured out, or I guess I, sat down and said, okay, if I’m going to do this, what do I want to do? What’s my passion? What can I do and do it? That’s kind of, you know, I’ve always been, you know, passionate about Ferraris. It’s like, look, I’m going to just go down the path. You know, a lot of guys are, Hey, I’ll give you this and this and that. It’s like, you know, I just, I, I didn’t feel like I wanted to dilute myself and you know, it’s, so it’s, can I help someone? Hey, if you’re looking for a Porsche, so yeah, I know Porsche’s all right. Um, Guinness of art things. So I’ll steer him to someone else. I’ll just like, okay, you know what? Tell you what, you know, here’s a person called this guy. You know, talk with him. That’s what he specializes in. He knows, you know, that brand, those things and doing it, you know, and you know, some, someone’s going to say, well, well, but what about, well, how are you going to get paid on it? I was like, well, look, you know, I give that guy, yeah, he’ll throw me a couple of dollars, but you know, I’m always been the adage, you know, if you’re chasing it after this. because you, you know, for dollars thinking, Hey, I’m gonna make all this money, you’re in there for the wrong reason, you know? Right, right. My always, always say, look, just do what you love. Figure out how you’re going to, you know, you can generate some money out of it, but don’t make that the focal point thinking, okay, it’s all about, I need to make, I wanna make half a million dollars selling cars. You know, you’re not gonna get there because you’re gonna be, ’cause like you made that comment saying about the right number. Because then you’re going to be trying to sell stuff that there’s, no, one’s going to buy it because it’s priced too high, you know, and stuff like that. And, you know, I get, you know, people do LinkedIn, everything like that. And I always get asked by a lot of younger guys in their early mid twenties and, Hey, how do I get into this? You know, it looks so fun. It’s like, and the one big thing is because the way these kids were brought up. So far their own is, you know, their internet phones, everything from day one, you know, we grew up, we’re relatively close in age, you know, we didn’t have any of that, you know, it was auto trader, you know, go into things, you know, getting the, you know, penny singer, that they’ll look and do newspapers and stuff like that. Look in the back of magazines. Um, so you really had to work at it, but these guys, you know, it’s. Sending it, you know, a text message or email, whatnot. And I always tell them, say, look, I go, if you really want to do it, pick up the phone, but if you’re really serious about it, get in your car. If you got to drive an hour, you got to drive 10 hours, knock on the door. I mean, you have to, you have to be proactive in regards to chasing this. And like I tell them, I say, look, you know, it’s going to take years to build up. A database, a client base, just networking stuff. No, you got to get out there and get in front of people and you need to talk to them. Yeah. You know, cause you know, is, yeah, you’re going to have your few that are in your age bracket, so to speak, that has some nice cars, but the majority of the people that have large collects and whatnot are of a much older demographic. So it’s like, you know, you need to, you need to have to speak to him, talk to you know, everything like that, Debra, cause. You know, a lot of those people, they have kids. So, Hey, no, the kid whatnot, but it’s like, it’s a long road to home. I mean, it’s, uh, it takes time, but it’s, it’s, you know, it’s something you really want to do. You just got to stick to it. Um, cause that’s the one thing too. And as I’m sure, you know, you’ve seen is, you know, where things are headed, especially like with your older cars, restoration side, stuff like that is, you know, the influx of younger generation coming into learning that trade. Right. Learning all the nuances and everything like that is falling by the wayside. You know, um, you know, there’s a few colleges out there. Uh, the one in Kansas McPherson, you know, they’re doing a great job. Uh, there’s, you know, a couple of small ones, but it’s more of a trade school type scenario, but. You know, I tell people, I say, look, I go, you can make really good money working on these cars, right? You know, learn it because it’s going to be more and more specialized as years go on. And when it comes more specialized, you can charge more, you know, don’t look at it saying, Hey, you want to be the guy where the, you know, The suit and stand in front of it and being all, Hey, look at me. You know, there’s a lot more avenues you can pursue in this industry to make a living. Um, but you know, it’s, it’s going to be curious to see where things are in say 15, 20 years. Cause as you know, I’m sure and see it and you might, and be a question for you is the transition at the auctions in regards to what’s hot and what’s not, you know, 10, 15 years ago, you know, it just, it, the age That bracket of cars, the decade that’s popular and bringing the money, just keep creeping, creeping up away from your pre war that you’re 60 muscle cars. And now it’s creeping up into your eighties cars that are like bringing like stupid money. That’s That’s a whole, uh, podcast episode by itself right there for sure. You know? Yeah. I mean, just, just, you see that, you know, like, you know, Fox body Mustang, you know, I had one by senior year in high school and guy, I don’t know how cheap we got it, my dad picked up. It’s a, you know, GT five speed, great car. Loved it, you know, and I see what they’re bringing out. I’m like, Oh my God, really? Yeah. The first, the first V8 Mustang I ever drove was an 86 Fox body V8. Yeah, I love that car maroon charcoal interior. That thing was great, you know, and But it’s just, you know, you see those things just like, man, it’s like, where are we going to be? As is it going to be the cars in the nineties? I mean, because you have that transition where cars cause of safety regulations, everything like that. I want to say became stale, but cookie cutter almost, you know, Having this, you know, all these, you know, every manufacturer having a, like a halo car or something that’s, you know, a sports car, two door sports car or anything like that, right. Well, by the way, side, they all start building SUVs because obviously they got to make money and that’s the hot thing everyone wants. You know, I mean, look at Ford now. Ford’s, you know, the only one thing is the Mustang now, and it’s hell. They named it frickin EV after the damn brand name. I know. Come on! You know, and everything else is trucks or SUVs. I mean, it’s You know, and unfortunately, and I kind of laugh at it, you know, I’ll never own an electric car. Um, the technology, but I just don’t see it. And I, these manufacturers, I think got way ahead of themselves with these things. Right. And again, to think about that, I mean, we’ll be long gone by the time, like that’s common, but what, I mean, the only collector thing you see is like a Rimac or something like that. You know, you have these one thing that’s all electric. I mean, it just doesn’t, it’ll be, oh, It’ll be really interesting to see because I know we had a Tesla that really, uh, low mileage, 1, 900 miles, the original Roadster first year. And, uh, I think this is back at Elkhart a couple of years ago, Cope right after COVID. And, you know, the estimate was 60 to 80 grand and it went for like 160, you know, because it was. The lowest in the world. And it was some auction fever going on and stuff, but that’s a very interesting conversation. And what I think the fact that their battery longevity is going to really, I think those will not be that collectible because of the technology. I think a lot of cars, even the brand new Ferraris now that are, Going through the roof as instant collectibles. I don’t think longterm they will be because of maintenance and, uh, parts, availability and stuff like that, electronics and everything. So Jay Leno mentioned it recently. He’s like mechanical stuff you can fix, you know, when it goes bad, electronic, electrical stuff degrades over time. So different, different thing, you know? And so I, I feel like there’s, to me, there’s a couple of like key. Um, and I should probably wrap this up here shortly, but, uh, I think the sixties cars are going to stay strong because they’re drivable. You can customize them. You can rest them on them. They can keep up with today’s traffic. They’re fun. Um, I also think the analog supercars going up until like 2012, 2013, that’s a really, really good sweet spot. You’ve got manual, you’ve got, you know, Ferrari, you know, Five seven fives. You know, I think that’s a really good sweet spot right there too, where I think those will always be desirable. Well, here’s a question for you. Um, in regards to, I mean, this is kind of doing it with some other vehicles, but like a lot of main thing is Ferraris because obviously, you know, you started with the three, five, five doing that terrible F1 transmission. That was basically just all solenoids and whatnot, and just making it change the gears going up. But what you thought I’d say, you know, and I watch this closely because I get to ask this quite a bit because, you know, as you went up, you know, 355s and 360s production wise, you know, majority was manual, but then as you got into the 430, it was a big flip in regards to production numbers. F1 transmission to manual. So now like F430s factory manuals are obscenely priced. I mean, you got one, you know, I think Ryan Friedman’s got one. He’s got a brain trail, but he had one. It was like 500 grand because they had 6, 000 miles. I’m like, Jesus, you know? And then, you know, like five fifties, that whole production was all manual, but then five, seven fives. It was more heavy F1 transmission, but EAG is doing these, you know, conversions. How did, in your opinion, how do you think that’s affecting value? I mean, does someone go look at it and say, well, this car was, the transmission in it is a manual transmission. It’s just, they removed all the cell lines and whatnot and put the gator back in. How do you think that really compared? Well, two things. I actually have to go in a second because I have another interview in three minutes. But but let me answer the question. Um, I think there’ll be a couple that will pop higher in price than you think they should. I think in general, though, there’ll be a premium for those because of the manual, but it won’t It won’t eclipse the cost to do it. So say it costs a hundred grand to do it. And maybe it adds 60 grand to the value. So I don’t think, I don’t think you’ll get your money out of it. Long term if you’re making those transitions, it also highly depends on who is doing it. You know, it’s kind of like when people did the, uh, Daytona spider conversions, you know, the spiders are, there was about 121 of them or something. You know, those are 3 million cars. The conversions. Are more than a coupe if it’s done by someone that was noted and did a good job at the time. Yeah. You know, kind of those things. So I really appreciate you being on my podcast and I appreciate you having me on your podcast. Yeah, no, that was great. No, I said, I hope you’ll, cause it’s a lot of fun. And he said, I’m, I know you got another thing to go to, and I’m sure we can probably talk for another two, three hours, so. Um, but yeah, we’ll be in touch. I said, I’ll let you know about making up the Milwaukee. Like I said, I’m still kind of figuring out where I want to go. I’ll let you know, but I appreciate it. I’ll let you know I’m back in Cleveland and we can go hit some car stuff together. Perfect. Awesome. Really appreciate it. Thanks man. Have a good one. You too. See ya. Copyright William Ross, Exotic Car Marketplace a division of Sixty5 Motorsports. This episode is part of Gran Touring Motorsports, Motoring Podcast Network and has been republished with permission. [...]
August 23, 2024Ferrari / PodcastWilliam acknowledges the recent dip in the market and the opportunities it presents for buying cars at lower prices. Ross extensively covers the Monterey Car Week 2024 and its auctions, sharing insights on specific Ferrari models, their auction outcomes, and market trends. He also discusses the impact of servicing and maintenance on car valuations and offers advice on buying Ferraris as investments versus for the love of driving. Additionally, the episode includes a shout-out to show supporters and upcoming events in the Ferrari community. Ross concludes by expressing his commitment to producing more content and engaging with listeners. Episode 25 00:00 Introduction to Ferrari Fridays 00:47 Market Trends and Monterey Car Week Overview 02:10 Monterey Car Week Auctions and Insights 05:08 Challenges and Realities of Car Ownership 08:25 Monterey Car Week Experience 12:21 Auction Results and Analysis 16:37 Ferrari 550 Maranello Highlights 26:27 Ferrari 575 Maranello Insights 28:06 Exploring the Value of Factory Manual Cars 28:50 Converting to a Six-Speed Manual 30:01 Market Analysis of the 575 Maranello 32:28 Diving into the 599 Market 40:49 High-End Ferrari Auctions 42:17 The Iconic 275 and Other Classics 43:31 Record-Breaking Sales and Surprises 47:14 Final Thoughts and Market Insights 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. And hello everyone, welcome back to the Ferrari Marketplace podcast. It’s been way too long, I apologize for that, but My summer has been absolutely crazy, insane, driving, traveling, just taking care of a lot of stuff, uh, making things happen. So. As you know, the market is going as everyone can possibly, probably see is, you know, we’re in a bit of a dip. So I have a lot of people that are thinking they’re going to steal some cars, so to speak, in regards to getting great deals. And there’s some out there, no doubt. Because we’re going to talk today in this episode about Monterey car week and all the auctions that happened that whole week as there is several of them that happened throughout that week. Uh, if I get a little muffled here and there, I apologize. I have three kittens I’m fostering right now, and one of them insists on sitting right by my face. So, but anyways, that’s what we’re going to get into. But first and foremost, I want to reach out and appreciate the support of the Motoring Podcast Network. The FerrariPlace. com, GarageTile Magazine, and The Collector Car Guide. So, check those things out, say hello to them, hit up their websites, see what they’ve got going on, especially check out the Motoring Podcast Network, uh, we’ve got a lot of cool stuff on there, podcast wise, covering a lot of bases, so. A lot of cooler stuff coming along. My man, Eric, uh, has a lot of cool stuff coming up as well on BrakeFix, but also with the ACO, uh, and stuff like that. So, a lot of cool things happening. So, check those out, give them some support, and let’s get going. So, as I stated, we’re going to be talking about Monterey Car Week 2024 and all the auctions that went on. Now, this was going to be very closely scrutinized and watched amongst individuals and people that are in this world that either obviously operate and that’s how they make their income or be people that buy and collect vehicles, buy and sell them or what have you because, you know, it’s um, We’ve had these before and this always happens. So anyone that watches the market closely knows that, you know, hey, everything goes up. Must come down. So it just depends on when things happen. So it was our last pretty big downturn. There was something like this was back in, you know, Oh, 809 during that big old recession deal, wherever you want to call it in regards to everything melting down. And you know, that whole kit and caboodle, um, you know, everyone thought COVID was going to be, you know, uh, Take everything into the gutter, but actually it everything went the opposite way But anyways, so it’s been a while since we had kind of this sort of dip I guess you would say and going out there and possibly finding some good deals and get you know Getting cars back as I would kind of like to say back to some more realistic Pricing because I will say some of these prices on cars were getting absolutely obscene I mean, I just I couldn’t understand it And, you know, it’s unfortunate because what you have, what you get is, you know, someone out there, say, let’s just, you know, for argument’s sake, a 550 Maranello, um, you know, because hey, all of them are, those are all 6 speed manual cars, so that’s what’s hot, everyone wants the analog 6 speed, you know, manual cars, and as a side note, I still say that Ferrari should come out with, uh, reintroduce a model that has a six speed manual in it. But anyways, uh, that’s neither here nor there, but as I was talking, as I kind of lost track a minute here a second, but anyways. As I take the 550, but you have an owner that sees a car sell or go at auction or something like that for some crazy number. Cause it probably, you know, it had special options, low miles, blah, blah, blah. But then they have their car that, you know, needs a belt service, needs all this kind of stuff that they think their cars were at the same amount. So, you know, with what I do, a big portion of what I have to do is educate and Sometimes you’re going to get them to understand the situation and see, I want to say, not that point of view, so to speak, but just say, look, understanding the logic of why, Hey, your car wasn’t worth that, what that car was, you know, this is what your car is in the region of value wise. Cause of this, you know, you just lay everything out, you know, you compare apples to oranges, so to speak, and just lay everything out in regards to why Your car is not worth what his car was. So, or all the way around. So it’s, you know, it’s one of those situations, like I said, you know, a good portion of majority of this stuff is actually just educating some of these owners. And, you know, you would think that when you’re spending that kind of money on vehicles, that these people would do a lot of homework and really kind of dive deep and understand valuation, market trends, everything like that. But again, Here’s the thing. As I always tell people, if you’re going into this to buy a car as an investment, and that’s your sole driving factor is, Hey, I’m going to buy this car because in five, 10 years, it’s going to double or triple in value. So let me get my money back. If that’s your mindset, you’re going to screw yourself. You’re going to be F’d because that is not the way that you approach this. You buy a car because you love the car, you buy the car because you love how it drives, how it looks, everything, you know, everything that comes along with it, you know, going to rallies, going to events, everything like that, just the camaraderie. That’s why you buy that car. And you know, Hey, luckily for you, if you’re in that financial position that you can afford it, God bless you, get it, have some fun with it. But You know, don’t go with that mindset. Now, granted, there are going to be some that, Hey, you’re pretty much dumb. I, I’m not going to use the G word, but you know, um, you’re pretty close with, Hey, that. You don’t only would get your money back, but, and then some, but now those are scenarios where you are either a, a very, very good customer of that manufacturer. So you have the opportunity to get dibs on first cars that come out of it like that. You know, they contact you, Hey, we have this car coming out, you know, do you want an allocation, blah, blah, blah. And everyone’s going to say yes, because they know that they can get it, keep it for a year, whatever Whatever the restrictions may be, and then turn around and sell it and make a bunch of money. So, um, that does happen, but now and then there’s also ways around the restrictions that get put on some of these cars. You know, Ferrari is very well known for being very, very strict. Putting up some crazy ass restrictions on new cars that come out just to try and protect it. They’re not going out. They’re just getting flipped. You know, granted, you’re going to have a lot of these guys. They keep the car because they want the car. Let’s take example of the new F80 that’s coming out. If none of you have heard this yet, but that’s what it will be is the F80, uh, allocations and people build slots and whatnot have gone out. Uh, if you look up online, the one I, you know, fantastic guys, David Lee, just look up Ferrari collector, David Lee, and look up. He’s got a thing on Instagram. He did his little, uh, you know, reveal on his thing that he got shown that he has an allocation for an F 80. Um, and because it’s been 80 years, a whole nine years, it all coincides with everything. So, uh, the car is going to be spectacular from my understanding. Uh, it’s going to have, you know, all the bells, whistles, but it still will have a natural aspirated V12, um, from my understanding. Um, but they’re going to have, I believe, hybrid assist, something like that. I’m not 100 percent sure. I’ve gotten things here and there on it, but I hate, you know, to speculate because then when you’re wrong, you look like an idiot. So, I wait until the actual facts come out and see what it is. So, but I’m excited for that. That’s going to be a great car. But anyways, we need to get back to what this original thing was supposed to be about. I apologize if I keep rambling on because like I said, you know, it’s been a while and I got a lot to get off my chest. But anyways, we’re going to go talk about Monterey this week or this past, you know, two weeks ago or whatever the heck it was. Uh, I did not go out there. Um, these that week that Monterey happens is the week I take my daughter back to college. So this is her second year going back to school. She’s going to Kent state. Uh, so, I try and squeeze it in because she goes back right in the middle of the week and going out there. It’s just not worth it. And in all honesty, it’s becoming such. A zoo out there that I mean, it’s kind of tough. I want, I mean, you’ll enjoy yourself. You’re going to see some awesome cars, you know, uh, there’s some great events to attend. There’s great parties. There’s stuff that, hey, you’re free. There’s stuff that you got paid for, you know, but the traffic. Just everything, unless you can afford it, get a bunch of guys together and get yourself something that’s close to town, something like that. It’s a pain in the ass. Like I, you know, know some guys they went out to and they were staying almost an hour outside of town miles wise that should have taken them 45 minutes to hour, but it was taking them two to three hours to get in just because of traffic. You know, and that’s not what I go out there for. I don’t want to go out there and sit in traffic like that. Just makes for a long, long day. Cause you drive in and then you’re there, you’re stuck there. You know, I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me. I’m sure there’s other people that feel this way. But you know, I like to have knowing that I have an in and out that I can, you know, if I need to get away, I can either jump in my car real quick, drive for 10 15 minutes, get back to my hotel room, get back to my Airbnb, whatever, and just chill and relax. Then come back a little bit later, re energize and do it. I hate knowing that I’m stuck somewhere. It drives me insane. But you know, it’s, it’s crazy from what it used to be to what it is now. You know, it’s always been very busy. It’s always been a great event to attend. And I always tell people, if you’ve never been, do what you can. If you’re a car person, that’s definitely an event to go to. This is just absolutely spectacular. Definitely, definitely. You know take take in at least once in your life because it’s really cool But for warning you once you go once you’re gonna want to keep going back. But again, it is not cheap It is not cheap to attend these events. It’s not cheap to go to you know, the concourse Pebble Beach thing itself on Sunday You know, I mean you got to allocate, you know If you want to do it, right for one person, you probably need to allocate 10 grand 7, 500 bucks to 10 grand because of you know, the You know, obviously you want to try and split everything, but you got your, you know, what you could drive out there, but you have a plane ride, car rental, you know, your room rental, whatever you want to have, but it’s, you know, where you’re going to put your head, you know, food, all that kind of stuff. You know, there’s so many of those, uh, little intangibles, whatever, so to speak, that you’re going to have to foot the bill for. It can get quite expensive, but I said, you know, could you half ass it and try to do it on the cheap? Yeah, of course you could. You know, take the tent, maybe camp out, whatnot. Do it the rough way. You could have some really good content with that. You know, why not? Do what you hate. You do you, but I definitely recommend going. Um, I might not get out there again. I’m going to try and possibly go next year, but it all depends. If my daughter, if she’s getting her own apartment, which more than likely will happen, then that’s a whole new ballgame in regards to moving around and doing all that kind of stuff. So, who knows? But again, like I said, you know, a lot of stuff you can see online now, everything like that. Granted, it’s nice to meet people and network and do that kind of stuff, but You know, a lot of those people out there, you know, trying to get their ego stroked. So, um, getting things done and what not, I don’t know. It just gets a little tiresome. You know, I’m 54. You know, it just gets old. You know, it’s like, hey, I’ll come to your house. What city do you live in? Let’s just meet up there. I’ll fly in, drive in, whatever. We’ll sit down, we’ll chat, we’ll figure some things out. We’ll find you a car, get your car sold, whatever. But all right, enough of that. I’ve rambled on for almost 12 minutes about a whole bunch of nonsense and everything like that. So I apologize for that. But anyways, let’s get on to Monterey. So for those of you that were watching results and one thing, and you know, as a side note, I apologize. I’m going off on a tangent again is I would wish. Some of these auction houses, they’re fantastic. I’m posting the results and everything like that. Um, the one thing that just drives me nuts that I hate because you’re going to find out the information anyways, it’s going to get posted. People are going to dig, it’s going to get found. Just do the right thing and do a sound just post a post what it went for after sale, post sale, whatever, you know, and Hey, what’s the high, what did it get bid up to? I mean, Come on, you know, it’s that kind of stuff drives me nuts. Mecom is absolutely horrible in regards to auction results. You have no idea what I’ve been up to. You have no idea what it’s sold for or whatnot. They don’t post crap, you know, so I, it drives me absolutely insane with them trying to do research or what have you. Luckily, there’s a couple, uh, sites and whatnot that I’m, I guess you say subscribed to that, you know, it shoots me every day. I get results, sales results, auction results, stuff like that. So, um, I get covered. So I, I have a thing, but it’s just for someone that’s out there, Hey, you know, wanting to do a little research, it can just be a real pain in the ass. But anyways, getting back to some of these results. Now I know overall, Everything went well. A lot of these auction houses do. I think it was just a shade, uh, a shade under 361 million or think the total was, um, something like that in total for like all the auction house, which is good. I don’t want to say, I think it was an increase, slight increase, whatnot. Um, maybe I should have done a little more research on this, but I was trying to look all this crap up and it was just big. My eyes go cross cause I was just getting annoyed, you know, cause you’re trying to find stuff out and you can’t find it out. And just because. Again, why just post the shit? All right, just post it. Would you, you know, what’s it gonna hurt? But anyways, we’re going to talk specifically, obviously about the Ferrari’s that went across the block. Um, and some hate, some sold for a world record price. Some didn’t meet expectations. They didn’t even hit the low bid, uh, low estimate, you know, they were, and they were way under the low estimate. So that’s kind of where some of these people were able to kind of, yeah, I guess they swoop in and get themselves a good deal. I guess you could say, um, you know, ’cause that’s the other thing too, not kinda knowing, obviously depending on year. So if you’re talking basically a 5 50, 5 75, uh, 360, 4 30, eh, you know, those cars, whatnot. I mean, I’m sorry, not 14, but the 360, um, 5 75, 5 50, um, 5 9, 9, a little bit, but you know. Basically cars that when you got to get a service you’re talking, you know, 10, 15 grand, you know, because you have to do belts, everything like that. Some of those you got to pull the motor, all this crap is just, you know, it’s just a pain in the ass. So, but, you know, that kind of stuff you don’t know anyways going in or whatnot. So, you know, there’s some of these things, well, hey, it’s sold for this, but well, you know what, you’re going to have another 20, 30 grand on top of that just for mechanicals and whatnot to get that thing up to snuff to re drive it. Now, the one thing I’ve always kind of bantered about with this is. Who, is it actually getting purchased or bought by an individual to drive, put in their collection, whatever? Or is it getting bought by a dealer? I can’t tell, I mean, you see it all the time. I track this stuff and see it, and obviously it’s really easy because of VINs and that kind of stuff. But, is Seeing a car go across the block, seeing what it sells for, you know, all in fees, the whole nine yards, like, okay, that’s not too bad. You know, someone, someone got a pretty decent deal on that, they’ll be happy. Three months later, you see it sitting, being advertised at a dealer. You know, I mean, hey, you know, people went in for money and whatnot, and they saw a deal, they got it, and hey, they can make a few dollars. God bless him. You know, but it’s like, how long is that car going to sit there? You know, and you know, I, I’m sure once they get their hands out, if they try and get a hold of low bidders and whatnot, the person that was second, third, fourth in line, reach out to them and say, Hey, I got that car, you know, and try and do something. But again, Hey. You’re in the business to make money. That’s what you gotta do. That’s what you have to do. But I’m going to talk about some, uh, let’s start with talking about some, uh, five fifties because there are some that sold for, I would guess you would say the right money. Um, but then you had some that, you know, like, wait, why did it sell for that much money? You know, it kind of was a little bit baffling, um, in regards to price on it. And you know, why would it go for that? Um, Then we’ll jump up to the 575s, but then we’re going to talk about the 599s that went across. There were two 599s that went across that were actually factory six speeds from the factory manual cars that you know, everyone’s told Oh, those are million dollar cars. Well, they didn’t sell anywhere near a million dollars And I know that there’s a dealer out there sitting on one of these. He’s had it for a bit That is not going to be happy with those results because he’s about 200 grand over, uh, on the high bid one, uh, high auction winning, uh, five, seven, uh, uh, 599 that went across. So, um, cause that’s just going to be ammunition for someone to come and say, well, look, these two sold just recently a Monterey for this all in you’re 150 to 200, 000 over that. You know, God knows what the guy’s got into the car and what he picked it up for. I mean, cause the guy is not on consignment. And it’s no secret, just do a search, go into Auto Tempest. You’ll find it. Um, hold on, let me take a sip of my Diet Mountain Dew. My vocal cords are getting a little dry. But now, Let’s look at this one. Now, this is a 99 550. Now it’s a very unique color, but it’s got interior color that I just despise. I hate tan interior. Um, but this was finished in the blue NARC. This was done over at, um, RM Sotheby’s. Big fan. I love RM. RM’s great. Um, their good was about publishing numbers, everything like that. So, but, Obviously being a 550, it’s a six speed manual, but it only had just under 5, 000 miles. So everything was done the whole nine yards. Um, not sure about when the last service was done, everything like that. Um, but you know, this thing sold, um, it was at 280, 000. So now if you look at some other recent stuff that’s going on, you know, I’ve seen five fifties, fifties. You know, obviously more miles, a lot more miles, you know, you’re talking, you know, maybe 20, miles, you know, going for 000. So, I mean, that’s a huge swing. You’re talking basically half of what this is now. If you drive your Ferrari and you take care of it, you can put miles on it. And you know, these things, you know, 550, 575, 590, those are grand touring cars, man. Those cars are made to get on the road and just go, you know, could you have a little Canyon carving with it? Of course you could, you know, because they’re front mid engine cars, you know? So, I mean, it’s got the handling that means not a mid engine cars, not a, you know, 360 or four thirds or anything like that. But, you can still have some fun with it, but those cars are made to get on the road and just go for a drive across country, which, in the next few years, we’re gonna set up, and my man Eric, you’re gonna be my co pilot, just FYI. So, but anyways, um, this thing sold for 280, low miles, Very unique. I hate throwing out the word rare, but, um, you know, beautiful color. Now, the one thing about these, and this was very common with a lot of these sales that was going on is due to the fact that a lot of these cars, obviously getting shipped into California for the auction either had to be sold to a dealer or it had to someone out of state had to buy it just because of emission stuff. Um, you know, so, Out there as you can see there’s always way works that you know you buy you just put it under your Montana LLC Um and bang, there you go. You have it. So anyways, so this thing went for 280, 000, you know unique color everything like that Now, like I said, you go online you look around you find stuff that’s for sale out there Like I said, you’re gonna be anywhere from The low hundreds on up. So again, it depends on miles, colors, you know, just how well is this thing maintained and everything like that. So let’s find that other candidate that I had that was for it. Where’d you go? Oh, here we go. Now this one was interesting. And because here’s the thing, this thing, again, it had, where’s the mileage on this one? Um, 21, 000 miles, but now it’s in the hot, the hot color that, you know, and I want to say David Lee, you’re the man that kind of kicked all this stuff off with the yellow, yellow. Uh, everyone all of a sudden got this big kick in regards to having yellow, yellow Ferraris. Um, I know David, you know, he’s got his yellow ones. Now, some of them he had to get repainted because some of them they did not come from the factory in that color. Yeah. So he got them repainted, which, Hey, have at it. You know what, no big deal, but he’s, he’s got a 288 GTO that he did up in this color and it looks spectacular. And I don’t know, you know, if you look up some other, uh, 288s that were done at, there’s a black one running around. There’s a white one. There’s this, uh, yellow one that David’s got. I mean, it looks great, you know, and why not have at it? He has some fun with it. You know, who cares? You know, it’s your car. Do what you want. But anyways, this went by from Gooding. Now this one had 21, 000 miles on it, it had, you know, obviously it’s yellow with black interior, uh, it had a major service that was just recently done. What does that mean? I don’t know, because, um, it’s, you know, what’s recent to you? To me, recent’s within the past six months. Some people say, oh, it’s had a recent service, when was it? Oh, three years ago! Well, here’s the thing on your services. It’s either by mileage or by years. If you go minimal, basically is every five years, you know, if you haven’t achieved it through mileage, you need to get your belt service done and get the major service done. Plain and simple. So I don’t know what they mean by racing, but anyways, this sold. for 212, 000, I’d just say under just under 213, 000. Now here’s the thing, this is what I like about Gooding. They had an estimate, it was because this went without reserve, of 250, 000 to 300, 000. So right there it shows you this thing went for basically 30, 000 under its low estimate, right? Is my math right? Uh, thirty five thousand, basically. Yeah, roughly about, a little over thirty five, thirty six thousand dollars, thirty seven thousand dollars, under the low estimate. So, that kind of tells you, okay, but why? Why did that other one go for so much more than this one did? Well, I don’t know, color, but it’s got the yellow, because of, uh, I don’t know. I mean, that’s one thing. So, and again, who’s in the room, who’s not in the room going around. This is, this was a good deal, in my opinion, because of what the color is, recent service, everything like that. And it had an original owner until 2024. So basically a one owner car. So, This thing was stunning. Absolutely beautiful. I watched this thing go across and if I had the pockets I would have bought this thing because this thing looks stunning in the yellow. Um, it’s absolutely fantastic. So that kind of gives you an idea of going through between these where the one met its low, it didn’t go over its high reserve, but it met it and hit it. Now this one, you know, obviously being way under like that was a little, you don’t know why. And again, you have all these variables involved when you go. And it happens. Now, look at this one. And this is why, because, here’s the thing, because this is a 2001 550 Maranello. Estimate? 300, 000 to 400, 000. This went out without reserve. Had just under 3, 000 miles on it. Had a recent service, everything done. It was a 2023 Ferrari Club of America Platinum award winner. So it’s got, but here’s a key thing. Cause not many were built in black on black. So, um, I love this car. This thing is spectacular. I’m a big fan. Black on black. Um, you know, but absolutely stunning car. You know, everything got ticks all the box, everything like that. 368, 000. So, again, miles, color, that plays a role. So look at that big swing between, basically, you know, nothing was huge and different across the years in the 550s. You know, they didn’t change anything, there was no evolution or anything like that. They’re pretty much, yeah, hey, from when they got the first ones to the last month line, bam, you know, it’s when they do any type of change on it, they just change the, uh, nameplate, they change the moniker on the car to something else, hence like this, they change it to 575 when they start doing some big changes, so, but look at that big swing, that was what, close to 150, 000 swing in regards to price between one, two, Miles, this thing had, you know, was it 18, 000 less miles? Um, and it’s got the, you know, the yellow is a very desirable and hot color. So, I mean, that’s just a huge swing difference, but that kind of tells you what was going on out there in regards to pricing. So someone got, you know, I want to say a good deal on this, but the thing is, cause it was black on black. Um, but again, that scenario, this person, are they going to drive it? Who knows? Because of, Hey, low miles. Black on black, more than likely, this thing will probably get driven maybe 200 miles a year at best, which is sad because this thing needs to get driven, so. But, we’re going to go and jump over to 575s. Now here’s the one thing about 575s. Uh, as we know, if you watched any, uh, my one I did in regards to comparing 550 to 575s, you know that obviously 550s, the whole production run was all manuals. But then when you got into the 575s, they brought in the F1 transmission. So out of the, what is it, roughly 5, 000, just under 000, whatever that amount was, you know, production numbers, only 268 of them were actually factory manuals. So, that’s where the desire comes in, is finding yourself a factory manual 575. Now, that’s where you’re going to get the, you know, kind of, I guess you would say, big price swing between them in regards to, alright, well, hey, a Regular 575 F1 training, you know, even with lower miles or anything like that, dollar wise, you’re going to be between 125 to 175. Depending on miles, colors, you know, options, everything like that, that’s where you’re going to be on an F1 training. Now, if you jump into the factory 6 speed, basically what it is, is it should double in price, in essence, just because of the low production numbers. So that’s really good. But were you having that? Not really so much, which was crazy because it’s, um, again, weird what the market was doing out there in regards to it now. So we had like this one here. Now it was of the, you know, 246 examples produced with the manual. So this thing has just under 10, 000 miles on it. Um, and, It’s got very limited service documentation, which it which is kind of odd for a Ferrari. So I just kind of showing someone being lazy But here’s the thing with this now, it’s in your standard tan and what you’re like I’m sorry, you know your red tan interior or creamish color interior on this but this thing sold for 240 96, 500. So my guess is the estimate on this, uh, was between 250, 000 or 250, 000 to 350, 000. They gave themselves a wide berth on that. But again, it was a factory manual car. So price wise, I mean, are you there? I mean, I don’t know. Because here’s the thing with these. Now, obviously, value wise, you get this You know, factory from, you know, from the factory six speed. Yeah, that’s a lot of value, but with those cars, with the 575 and a 599, um, and obviously with the 430, you can actually convert those over to a six speed manual. Uh, all you gotta do is pull off the hydraulic actuators and everything that’s being, you know, that does all the shifting for you because the actual transmission itself is still. a manual transmission that was built because they just hooked up all these, and it’s very heavy to the whole system, the whole unit, you know, they just hooked up a whole hydraulic system to it. That did all the work for you, blah blah blah, the computer did everything, so. You know, you go to EAG, uh, there’s a couple other entities out there that can do it. Um, but anyways, EAG is the best known for doing it. Is, the key thing is you’re getting your computer programming done correctly. That’s where you’re going to need all the help at. So, because that’s what’s going to drive the system, so it knows to do the revving, everything like that, um, and getting it done. So hopefully, you know, like I said, you go to EAG, it’s about 40 grand, do it right. And the nice thing with EAG is any other service or whatnot you may need, they can handle it. Let’s look at this 2003 again. That thing sold for just under 300, 000. And, you know, I would say a decent deal. Um, you know, not a steal or anything like that. But, again, you gotta try and find yourself. Where are you gonna find another 575, 000 Maranello? Um, In regards to, you know, manual one, doing it. So, like you can go out and bring a trailer against it, but that’s probably where they’re at dollar wise. So, that was actually a good result. So that’s where, that’s a market correct result for that car. Now, obviously, like I said, you go to other ones that are F1 training and whatnot, you’re in the low to mid hundred range. So again, but what you could do is, and here’s my opinion, because if I’m gonna drive the car, if you’re gonna have to drop 300 grand on a factory six speed, Let’s see, I can pick up one for 125, 000, let’s just say, that’s got maybe, I don’t know, 15, miles on it. I can drop 40, 000, so let’s just say 50, 000, because there are other things I need to get done. 50, 000 on it to get the tranny turned over to a manual. I’m under 200 grand into the car. I’m enjoying it. I got the manuscript and you know what? I’m just out there having fun with it. Will you get back what you got it? Cause like right now, if you go online and you look around for some that, uh, you know, had the swap done, you’re probably, you know, I see it in there between 175 to 225. Depending on the car, mileage, everything like that, colors, everything like that. So, you know, and some of those are creep that are in the 200 range. There’s one out there. I think it’s at 205 or something like that. I mean, you know, that’s pushing it. I don’t think you’ll get it. And that car has been sitting at that dealer for a while. Um, but if it’s your own car, I mean, get it done, you know, the, uh, color combination options, everything open up immensely when you’re not hindered by having to purchase Speed because one, there’s only the 246 that were built and two, how many are actually out there in the market that are for sale. And so you got to get your choices, get limited and you can’t be good. You can’t get picky about it. And so I was like, well, I’m spending 200, 000. I’m gonna get what I want. Well, yeah, that’d be great. But your problem is, is you’re going to be waiting a long time or you’re gonna pay through the nose or you have to go to an auction, what have you, you know, where it’s a little more high profile. So, it all depends, but my, I have my druthers, I’d just be buying myself an F1 tranny and just do the swap. Now here’s the interesting part, we’re going to jump into the 599s, because that’s where this thing got very, very interesting. Because again, with your F1 tranny and your 6, factory 6 speed manual, worldwide, they only produce 30. Factory gated six speeds and 20 of those came to the United States. So that, that tells you, all right, your choices in that are very limited. Now I know people were throwing around the number on the five, nine, nine factor six speeds at a million dollars, 950, 000, blah, blah, blah. You know, so I said before, there’s a dealer that’s got one. He’s had it for awhile and they’re close to that 900, 000 range. Now. At this auction, because one was part of a collection that went through, was two factory, made, factory gated manual 599s. So, um, low miles, very low miles, unique color combination. Low, like the one I want to say was 150, 000 under it. Another one was like 200, 000 under low estimate. Because anyways, this one here that went through, um, RM Sotheby’s had just under 1, 700 miles. Uh, I know the service was done very recently. Everything, everything came with this car. I mean, everything. So, I mean, it’s a brilliant example. Beautiful. Stunning. Again, I love the exterior. It was, it’s just a absolutely stunning, stunning car. So anyways, this thing’s old cost 786, 000. So look at that. Someone is kind of throwing around numbers that, Oh, that’s a million dollar car. It’s up there. Look at that. That was basically 200, 000 under, I think this one was 150, 000 under the low estimate. Thanks. They had the highest mint in the million range, in the seven figure range, which is very, very ambitious. Now, these things are spectacular to drive with the manual. Absolutely spectacular. And now again, here’s the situation. You’re spending almost three, over three quarters of a million dollars on a car that you could go buy with an F1 tranny For 150, 000, 175, 000, depending on miles, everything like that. Um, just to hold 9 yards. That, um, spend 40, 000 and get yourself a manual. I mean, why, why wouldn’t you? Right? I mean, if you want to drive it like that, I know a bunch of people. Look, Hoovey’s got one. He said the thing drives phenomenal. There’s quite a few guys out there that are doing it because it’s just, it’s a great swab to do. It really, hey, you get that, you know, that feel to it, everything like that. I mean, Yeah, look, by the time they basically went to a different tranny, that F1 tranny towards the end of its life was actually pretty decent. It was changing gears quick, everything like that. They got it down the early stuff, like in the 3, 5, 5 stuff. I mean, it was junk. I mean, it would take , it would take, you know, many seconds for it to change gear, to do all the stuff you to do. But anyway, by, by the end of its life cycle or end of its life, uh, it was actually a decent transmission. But there’s nothing like driving a front, front engine, V 12 ferri to six speed manual. So my draw is I had someone to look if you’re going to drive it. Now again, this kind of goes back to that other thing I was saying about, you know, don’t go into this about, you know, make thing. These are investments. What have you? Because that’s what a lot of people started jumping in thinking, okay, that’s a five to nine is going to be a million dollar car. Could it be in five to 10 years? Yeah, probably a factory six speed manual. It’s going to be probably in the seven figure range, but it’s going to take five to 10 years to get there market soft right now. But look at this one that went through at Gooding. They had a low estimate of 650, 000. Went through our reserve. This thing had, let me see, where’s the miles on this one? Uh, but where’d you go? Come on, tell me the miles. Um, I don’t know. I know the miles weren’t all that high on this one. Um, but anyways. Sold. All in fees, everything 610, 000. So right there, 40, 000 under the low estimate. So, that’s a factory gated manual, red, tan interior, it’s a whole nine yards. Beautiful car. Everything’s going, oh, here we go. Had less than ten and a half thousand miles on it. Uh, all the service documents, everything like that. Again, so it went through our service, so it was selling. So, um, whatever it got, it got. And there you go. Out the door. Someone got themselves a heck of a deal on that. See, look at it, you saved there. You saved close to 200, 000. I mean a little bit less, what, 180, 000? By buying a car that’s got, what was it, 8, 000 more miles on it? Uh, than that blue one? Factory 6 speed manual and stuff? That was a great deal right there. That was a heck of a buy. Now, again, it goes back to that poor bastard dealer that’s got one sitting there. He’s got some for, I think it’s close to 900, 000. You know what? Hey, let me, let me, uh, where’s the auto Tempest. Let’s, let’s look up on auto Tempest now folks. I haven’t looked this thing up in a long time to see. I said he might’ve pulled it just because of the fact that that went through and he’s like, Oh crap. You know, uh, I can’t be selling it for that because no one’s going to come buy it. But let’s see here. Five, nine, nine. If you don’t use auto Tempest, use auto temp. I go on, bring a trailer. Um, I go to bring a trailer every day, multiple times a day. And I go on auto Tempest at least once a day, myself, just, Hey, what’s out there. What’s available. What’s being sold. Is anything gotten posted new recently? So let’s see here. We’re going to sort this by highest price. Let’s see. Let’s see here. All right, here we go. Yep. Look at this. We have one on here, 2011 by nine nine factory manual. Uh, Oh, I’m sorry. That’s a GTO. They got a little mislabeled wrong. So, um, here’s the, no, that’s another GTO as well. The GTO going for almost, you know, a million bucks. Uh, great car. But again, but all right. Um, here we go. This one, 2007 got just under 6, 000 miles. Um, so it almost like a charcoal black interior, but this one’s a factory six speed 815, 000. So it’s not too far off. Of the one, but this one, he’s knocked down the price a smidge, uh, from when it first got posted. They said, I keep track of all these things and, you know, uh, in regards to what’s going on to get price alerts, that kind of jazz, blah, blah, blah. But, but again, you know, um, some of these are a little ambitious with price, you know, cause you got a 2010, You know, just under 11, 000 miles on here, white, black interior, Jurassic in 270. I think that’s a little way too ambitious myself. And like this thing’s April 3rd, these things have been sitting at these deals for a while. These guys are just like way, way too ambitious. You know, um, you just go down, get something that’s a little bit older and you know, you can get yourself a good deal. Like here’s a, yeah. 2008 at Marshall Goldman, uh, just under 18, 000 miles, 163 grand. There you go. Negotiate with them. You probably get it for 150. Like I said, you drop in your 50 grand all in for your tranny work, whatever needs to be done. You got yourself a manual with 200 grand. Look at that. So all said and done. There you go. Wham, bam. Thank you, ma’am. So anyways, back to our next, uh, I’ve actually, I’ve been gabbing for a while. But as you can see, with the 599s, that was an interesting one where some people, uh, were way, way high in regards to what they thought these things were going to go for. I honestly thought they were too, but, hey. The auction speaks when the number hits, the number hits. Now we’re going to get into the upper edge line of those are more, I guess you say the expensive Ferrari stuff. Um, a lot of stuff didn’t sell. Um, some stuff got moved after the fact, but a lot of stuff that was about two or 3 million and up did not sell. Um, so it was kind of interesting. I don’t know if it was ambitious in regards to, Um, you know, owners just set too high of a reserve, what have you. I don’t know. But, um, a lot of stuff just didn’t. Didn’t go. Um, a lot of the older stuff, like from the 50s and 60s does not sell. Now I will say that there were some gorgeous, gorgeous 275s that went across a lot. Uh, there was that 67 alloy, uh, 4 cam, that white one that went across. That thing was absolutely stunning. That went for all in, I think it was just under 5. 6. Um, that thing was just a spectacular car. Where’d it go? I had it here a minute ago. Um, I don’t know what I did with it. Um, anyways, you know, but you know, you also had, you know, this, uh, This 500 Mondial Spider by Pininfarina, that went for just over 2. 8, you know, it said. So, there was quite a few big numbers that went, but there’s also quite a few big numbers that didn’t sell. And that can really kind of throw your, uh, results, uh, askew in regards to, hey, your auction results and what have you. So, um, but the one that I kind of wanted to focus on, my kind of thing, like I said, was that 275. There were two on there that didn’t sell. And where’d they go? Cause, um, There was, the alloy, there were two. And it was interesting, cause one was a 66, one was a 67, one was a 4 cam, One was not, the 66 was not, it was a six carb. Um, but that one sold for, you know, just under 3.5. But then the nat alloy body by SK went for just a smidge under 5.3 million. So, I mean, that, that tells you the big swing in regards to four camera that now, ’cause when you get into the four cams, there are obviously a lot less built. Um, you know, that was in the some 66. Have them. But all 67s were the four cams. So, but that kind of tells you, but the body, the race, he gets your everything. That way when he had a lot of Providence to it, but he said that thing went for some great money. Uh, test to roasters are starting to jump back up and start kind of getting that following. Now that has a lot to do with, Hey, the people that grew up Miami vice area, what have you. You know what, they got the money now, they want that Testarossa because they want to be sunny in Crockett. So that’s going on, but now the one big one that went was that, uh, the Cal, the Cal Spider that just went over a little over 17 million. Now that car had a great provenance, um, fantastic car, everything about it. It was a covered headlight one, which you made it even more rare out of the whole production run. That thing was spectacular. There’s some great videos online with that car. Uh, just some absolutely. Absolutely stunning stuff with that. Um, then there was the 59 that went for just a smidge over 5. 6. Now the one, one I was kind of surprised by was that F40, minty 40, um, that was painted that mint green color. Um, that only went for just a hair under 1. 8. Now I know, hey, the color change, everything like that. Um, the whole nine yards and my thought, I think it’s got some, uh, what were the miles on that thing? Um, uh, what does it say? I can’t remember. I don’t know. But anyways, that was kind of a little surprise. I thought that might go for one. I think the owners thought it would go for more too, just because, oh, hey, you know, again, unique color. It’s not all like, just like all the red ones you see, but you know what? It’s an F40. When you see a red F40, you see a red F, they’re gorgeous. So I mean, you know, I don’t think you really need to change color on that thing to say, Hey, look at me. But anyways, that was a little bit surprising. I thought that was going to go for some more money. So someone got themselves a heck of a deal on that. Now here’s the one thing is, is going back to the original color. I think it’s pointless now because. You’d have to find the specialist that’s going to be able to do that because with the weave, everything on that, that’s going to, that takes that delicate deft touch that and to know how those things got painted, uh, out of the factory because when they got paint out of the factory, you know, they were very, very light coat and that’s, and a lot of people complained that got to Carter like, okay. They thought it was a shit paint job. They sent them back out and got them painted again. They put too much paint on it. So trying to find one to see the weave, everything like that. But the one we’re going to end this whole conversation on is the, uh, the F 50 that’s sold for the world record price of just over 5. 5 million. Now those things are just going up, going up. Those in the Enzo’s are going up in value. But those F50’s, they only did the 349 of them. You know, there are only 55 original cars got delivered to the U. S. So that makes it even more rare. The thing only had, uh, just under, just a little bit over 8, 500 miles. But, you know, naturally aspirated. Manual car. I mean, just absolutely stunning. That right there would be an investment grade car if that’s what you’re going in for. Again, you can keep your miles down, whatever, but that would be a car to get your hands on if you’re looking for something. And it ain’t cheap, but my guess. in 10, 15 years, that should be a 10 million car easily, if not sooner. Um, so, but that, that was a great sale by the owner. The owner made out fantastic with that. And then again, the person that got it, got it. Because if you go, I say on the off market side, everything’s at five, one, five, two, everything’s above that. So I was in that five, five, you got your fees and everything in that as well. So, Off market, everything like that, you know, in that five million range, that’s about where there’s a goal. So I think it was a market correct sale, actually. And it being a record, you know, record breaking price at auction. There you go. Now, understandably, you know, it’s all that’s public numbers that are published that can give you, Oh, that’s a record price, blah, blah, blah. Well, You never know what goes on behind the scenes because a lot of people, you sign NDAs. Hey, you’re not going to kind of disclose what was, you know, your client, what they bought it for, what have you. It just doesn’t happen. So, but anyways, I’m going to wrap this up because I’ve been talking over 45 minutes. Um, and I kind of just wanted to get all that off my chest regards to Monterey car week, all the stuff that happened. It was very, very interesting because what’s going on in the market. So some stuff sold way under some stuff sold market crack. one or two here and there. Very few kind of surprise people. Um, but it just kind of shows you where everything’s at right now in the marketplace. Um, so if you got the means and the wherewithal, I think, you know, don’t get your hands on a five 50 by 75, something like that, a three 60, four 30, what have you, um, definitely step up. I would do it now because you’re going to find some great pricing on these things now. And like I said, You know, you’re going to have that argument. Some people think it’s blasphemy, it’s sacrilegious to, uh, change out the transmission on a car that had the F1 training to a 6 speed, but you know what, it’s your car, do what you want with it. If you’re going to drive it, have at it. You know, I just, I don’t see like an F40, I’m sorry, uh, F430, uh, 360, anything like that that’s got the F1 training. You know, it’s not going to, it’s not going to increase in all that much value, having that F1 training. Okay, now if you have the manual, yes. There you go, it’s a safe bet, but if you have a car that had the F1 tranny originally, and you get a six speed manual put in it, just have fun with it. So anyways, I’m gonna wrap this up. I appreciate you guys listening. I know it’s been a long time. Now that we’re winding down summer, I should, you know, start to be able to get more of these out, uh, and get these things going, so. I’m going to send this over to my boy, Eric. He’s going to get everything all cleaned up, make it sound pretty, make me sound better, make me all nicey, nice. And we’ll get this thing out there. And like I said, hopefully, you know, I’ll get off my ass and then can squeeze and start doing more of these. So again, thanks for listening guys. Check out the other, uh, episodes we got for the Ferrari marketplace, podcast network, uh, and check out what other. Desirable podcast. We got show some love and support guys. We also got the YouTube channel out there as well. So that’s kind of growing cause I got some cool things coming. I’m hitting up to Wisconsin here in a couple of weeks. For the, uh, Ferrari Club of America’s annual get together. But I’m also going to hit up something new that I’ve never been to, but looks really cool in Indianapolis. I’m on my way up, I’m kind of doing this weird route, but I’m hitting up Artimobilia, so that’s going to be cool. So, a lot of cool things coming on the channel, on the YouTube channel, but also, like I said, I’m going to get off my ass and get more of these put out there. So, again guys, I really appreciate it. Any questions, thoughts, suggestions, whatnot, shoot me an email, it’s just William at TheFerrariMarketplace. com Thanks guys, have a good one. Till next time. Keep the right side up. This episode has been brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports as part of our Motoring Podcast Network. For more episodes like this, tune in each week for more exciting and educational content from organizations like the Exotic Car Marketplace, The Motoring Historian, Brake Fix, and many others. If you’d like to support Grand Touring Motorsports and the Motoring Podcast Network, sign up for one of our many sponsorship tiers at www. patreon. com forward slash GT Motorsports. Please note that the content, opinions, and materials presented and expressed in this episode are those of its creator and this episode has been published with their consent. If you have any inquiries about this program, please contact the creators of this episode via email or social media as mentioned in the episode. Copyright William Ross, Exotic Car Marketplace a division of Sixty5 Motorsports. This episode is part of Gran Touring Motorsports, Motoring Podcast Network and has been republished with permission. [...]
May 22, 2024Alfa Romeo / Ferrari / ProvenanceFor the last 30 years Andreas Graf restored classic cars and was joining many events in these years. At the same time Andreas Graf was in his daily life in Sport and Lifestyle fashion business and managed a couple of companies in this sector, such as Helly Hansen, LEGO Kidswear, Steiff Kidswear and others. With the Tazio Nuvolari Originals collection, “a dream comes true” says Andreas Graf that combines both passion´s that he had in his life. Even further “ I am very proud to have the chance to continue Tazio`s legacy and develop the collection with his initials. The Idea for the collection started 7 years ago when I discovered the history of Tazio and his branded clothing” says Andras Graf. “It inspired me to see how Tazio already in the 1930s promote himself and his own branded clothing beside his victories of course”.Tazio was more than a Race driver! Today you would call him an influencer, but in his times it was totally outstanding. His history and passion inspired me to develop the Tazio Nuvolari Collection in cooperation with the Nuvolari Museum and the Automobilclub Mantova and we are proud of bringing it now to the market” says Andreas Graf. The collection combines Racing and Casual together and is made for the daily classic car drivers that has a passion for history and style. For now the collection is a menswear collection but woman´s styles will follow as well. You will find classic styles like Polo shirts, Jackets, Sweatshirts, T-Shirts, and Knitwear with the Tazio´s Turtle Logo and a clear link to Italy, on top of that, the refreshed TN Logo that gives a new freshness into today’s times. With small details we underlined the Iconic legacy of Tazio with the clear roots to Italy. Tazio Nuvolari was a iconic race driver and we will now continue and underline his legacy with this signature collection. Discover the collection at: www.nuvolari-collection.com [...]
April 12, 2024Ferrari / PodcastWilliam focuses on the Ferrari 550 Maranello and 575M Maranello. William discusses the history, features, and differences of these iconic cars, highlighting the return to Ferrari’s roots under Luca di Montezemolo. The conversation covers engine specifications, design details, driving experience, and the collector market, emphasizing the value of 6-speed manual transmissions. William also touches on the market trends and the importance of service history in assessing the value of these cars. The episode provides insights into distinguishing features between the two models and offers advice for potential buyers. Episode 24 00:00 Introduction to Ferrari Fridays 00:35 Host’s Personal Update 01:02 Exploring the Ferrari 550 Maranello 16:07 Ferrari 575M Maranello Overview 22:39 Comparing the 550 and 575 30:51 Racing Legacy and ProDrive 36:17 Conclusion and Final Thoughts 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 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 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. 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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. 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, 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 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 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 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 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? 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 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 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 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. 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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. 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 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 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, 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, 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 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 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 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 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. Copyright William Ross, Exotic Car Marketplace a division of Sixty5 Motorsports. This episode is part of Gran Touring Motorsports, Motoring Podcast Network and has been republished with permission. [...]
March 10, 2024FerrariGet ready for an in-depth exploration of Ferrari Formula 1. Join Jon as he dives into the captivating world of Ferrari racing and shares his insights. Check out the full article with Transcription, Slide Show and other notes at jonsummers.net EP16: Designing Emotion, Formula 1 & Ferrari Jon Summers is the Motoring Historian. He was a company car thrashing technology sales rep that turned into a fairly inept sports bike rider. On his show he gets together with various co-hosts to talk about new and old cars, driving, motorbikes, motor racing, motoring travel. You can learn more about Jon’s show “The Motoring Historian” by checking out The Motoring Podcast Network. As well as learning more about his story and background. [...]
March 6, 2024Ferrari / ProvenanceThe Ferrari 365 P Berlinetta Speciale is a rare and exquisite masterpiece that holds a special place in the history of automotive design and engineering. Born in the 1960s, this limited-production model is a testament to Ferrari’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of performance and luxury. In the following, we’ll explore the fascinating history, design features, technical specifications, and the legacy of the Ferrari 365 P Berlinetta Speciale, or the Tre Posti. Origins of the Ferrari 365 P Berlinetta Speciale The roots of the Ferrari 365 P Berlinetta Speciale can be traced back to the early 1960s when Ferrari was dominating the racing scene with iconic models like the 250 GTO. During this period, Ferrari sought to create a road car that would blend the thrill of racing with the comfort of a luxurious GT car. The result was the birth of the 365 P Berlinetta Speciale, a limited-production grand tourer that embodied the essence of Ferrari’s racing pedigree. The development of the 365 P Berlinetta Speciale was spearheaded by Ferrari’s chief engineer, Mauro Forghieri, and the renowned designer Sergio Pininfarina. Pininfarina, responsible for shaping some of the most iconic Ferrari designs, worked closely with Forghieri to create a car that would not only deliver exceptional performance on the track but also provide a refined driving experience on the road. Design and Styling One of the most distinctive aspects of the Ferrari 365 P Berlinetta Speciale is its striking and aerodynamically efficient design. The body of the car was crafted with a keen emphasis on both form and function, reflecting Ferrari’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of automotive design. The exterior of the 365 P Berlinetta Speciale featured clean lines, a low-slung profile, and a distinctive front grille that became a hallmark of Ferrari’s design language. The elongated hood, sculpted fenders, and a sleek roofline contributed to the car’s dynamic and aggressive stance. The design team meticulously integrated aerodynamic elements, such as a rear spoiler and side air intakes, to enhance stability at high speeds. Inside, the Ferrari 365 P Berlinetta Speciale showcased a perfect blend of luxury and performance. The cockpit was adorned with premium materials, including leather upholstery, wooden trim, and polished metal accents. The driver-focused layout featured a well-organized instrument panel, providing essential information while maintaining an uncluttered aesthetic. The seats were designed for comfort during long journeys, highlighting Ferrari’s commitment to creating a true grand tourer. Only two examples were ever created with various distinctive details, both in 1966. (Chassis 8971 & 8815) Chassis 8971   Centre driving position and seating arrangement. Two racing chassis of the 365/P2 type were used by Pininfarina to create the usable concept cars. The first of them was built on chassis 8971 and was the one destined to be a show car. Completed in September 1966 and finished in Garenia White paint, the first example was presented, in October the same year, at the Paris Motor Show on Pininfarina stand. Interior, with the three seats, were upholstered in a black imitation leather. It was however lacking any running gear at that time. The Berlinetta Speciale chassis 8971, was presented all around the world on numerous occasions during 1966 and 1967, appearing at Earl’s Court in London, Brussels, Geneva, and Los Angeles motor shows and salons. After the show tour, US Ferrari importer Luigi Chinetti, acquired the car in May 1967. It was invoiced by Ferrari for the racing chassis with modifications and by Pininfarina for the bodywork and tooling bills. The reported price was around US$21,160, without shipping costs. Chinetti soon sold and bought back the car twice to his customers, at first to a New York banker for US$26,000. From 1969, the Berlinetta Speciale remained in the Chinetti family, being used by Chinetti’s son Luigi “Coco” Chinetti Junior. In 2014 Gooding & Co. offered the car for sale and even though the reserve was not met and the car unsold, the high bid was US$23.5 million. Chassis 8815 Berlinetta Speciale s/n 8815 of Gianni Agnelli. Standing from left: Mike Parkes, Gianni Agnelli, Giovanni Nasi, Renzo Carli and Sergio Pininfarina. You didn’t have time to stop before people were immediately around it. But it was fun. It had monstrous acceleration. You just had to get used to the driver’s seat in the middle, because it gave an ideal any reference points to either side, right or left. Gianni Agnelli on his Berlinetta Speciale. The second example, chassis 8815, was reportedly commissioned by Head of Fiat Gianni Agnelli himself, upon seeing the first example presented at the Paris Motor Show. He took delivery of the car sometime in 1966. This example was finished in metallic grey with black-painted line along the length of the car. Originally it had no sunroof but had it installed early on. The car was delivered with a large, chromed rear spoiler and with fabric covered seats and during its lifetime was repainted in metallic blue and then red. Technical Specifications Underneath its elegantly crafted exterior, the Ferrari 365 P Berlinetta Speciale housed a formidable powertrain and cutting-edge mechanical components. The heart of the car was a high-performance engine that epitomized Ferrari’s dedication to engineering excellence. The 365 P Berlinetta Speciale was equipped with a potent V12 engine, a signature feature in Ferrari’s most iconic models. This engine, meticulously crafted and tuned by Ferrari’s skilled engineers, delivered a symphony of power and precision. The exact specifications varied across different iterations of the 365 P Berlinetta Speciale, with some models featuring enhancements for racing purposes. The chassis and suspension system were designed to provide a perfect balance between responsive handling and a comfortable ride. State-of-the-art technology, such as independent suspension and disc brakes on all four wheels, contributed to the car’s exceptional performance capabilities. The transmission options included manual and, in some cases, advanced automatic systems, catering to the preferences of discerning drivers. Manufacturer: Pininfarina FerrariAlso called Berlinetta Tre-posti Ferrari Guida Centrale Production: 1966 2 produced Designer: Aldo Brovarone at Pininfarina   Body style: 2-door 3-seat berlinetta Layout: Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive Related Ferrari 365 P2   Engine: 4.4 L (4390.35 cc) Colombo V12 Power output 380 PS Transmission: 5-speed manual   Wheelbase: 2,600 mm (102.4 in) Length: 4,400 mm (173.2 in) Width: 1,890 mm (74.4 in) Height: 1,190 mm (46.9 in) Curb weight: 1,020 kg (2,249 lb) Racing Heritage While the Ferrari 365 P Berlinetta Speciale was primarily conceived as a grand tourer for the road, its racing DNA was never far from the surface. Ferrari, with its rich racing history, often used technology and expertise gained on the track to enhance its road-going models. Some variants of the 365 P Berlinetta Speciale were homologated for racing, allowing them to compete in various motorsport events. The inclusion of features like lightweight materials, racing-specific tires, and additional aerodynamic enhancements showcased Ferrari’s commitment to pushing the performance envelope. The car’s participation in events like the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Targa Florio solidified its reputation as a versatile and capable racing machine. Production and Rarity The Ferrari 365 P Berlinetta Speciale was produced in limited numbers, adding to its exclusivity and desirability among collectors. The exact production figures varied depending on the specific model and its intended purpose—whether as a road car, a track-focused variant, or a custom-built masterpiece for a discerning client. The limited production not only reflected Ferrari’s commitment to craftsmanship and attention to detail but also contributed to the car’s mystique and allure. Each 365 P Berlinetta Speciale was a work of art, meticulously assembled by skilled craftsmen and engineers at Ferrari’s Maranello factory. Legacy and Impact The legacy of the Ferrari 365 P Berlinetta Speciale endures as a symbol of automotive excellence, blending performance, luxury, and exclusivity. The car’s influence can be seen in subsequent generations of Ferrari models, as elements of its design and engineering innovations have been passed down to newer iterations. The 365 P Berlinetta Speciale remains highly sought after by collectors and enthusiasts alike, with the two examples commanding top prices.  The most recent example sold for $25mil+ USD. Its rarity, combined with its historical significance, contributes to its status as a coveted piece of automotive history. The two restored and preserved examples of the 365 P Berlinetta Speciale continue to grace prestigious car shows and events, allowing a new generation of enthusiasts to marvel at its timeless design and engineering brilliance. Conclusion In the pantheon of automotive legends, the Ferrari 365 P Berlinetta Speciale stands as a testament to the artistry and engineering prowess of the Italian marque. From its inception in the 1960s to its enduring legacy in the 21st century, this rare and exceptional grand tourer continues to captivate the hearts of car enthusiasts around the world. With its distinctive design, powerful performance, and limited to two examples, the Ferrari 365 P Berlinetta Speciale remains an icon of automotive history, a true masterpiece that transcends the boundaries of time and technology. [...]
February 16, 2024Ferrari / PodcastWilliam discusses all things Ferrari, focusing on the Cavalino 2020 event in West Palm Beach. Ross details his move to a new office in his home, shares information about the Cavalino magazine, and highlights the role of Canoosa Events in organizing the event. He describes the stunning Ferraris on display, including rare models and his personal favorites, the 512TR and 512M. Ross also discusses the entry fees, event layout, crowd control, and his experience in the parking lot, where he observed some spectacular cars. He emphasizes the meticulous judging process and the importance of owning well-documented Ferraris. The episode concludes with Ross encouraging viewers to check out the event and the Motoring Podcast Network for more exciting content. Episode 23 00:00 Introduction to Ferrari Fridays 00:57 Breaking News: Lewis Hamilton Joins Ferrari 01:27 Formula 1 Dynamics and Team Dominance 03:21 Ferrari’s Recent Performance and Future Prospects 05:39 Driver Insights: Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso 07:01 Lewis Hamilton’s Move: Implications and Speculations 17:04 Ferrari’s Internal Politics and Challenges 23:45 Conclusion and Listener Engagement 24:49 Credits and Sponsorship Information 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 presented to you by the Motoring Podcast Network, MPN. Check us out, motoringpodcast. net. I’m your host, William Ross, and for Ferrari Friday this week, we’re not actually going to talk about cars, per se. We are going to talk about the blockbuster news of Lewis Hamilton coming to Ferrari, going to Ferrari in 2025 in Formula One. So I’m sure a lot of you guys out there that listen to the channel or are fans of Ferrari, you know, also are fans of Formula One. Now, Grant, I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea and I know people like lately have kind of been, um, I say losing interest. Oh, Max Verstappen is just, you know, it’s all this Max Verstappen. Well, obviously these people must be new to watching F1 because this is how the cycle works in F1. You have your dominant teams, you have your dominant guy. You know what? It’s the best car wins. That’s the big thing about Formula 1. It’s about the best car. Yeah, best driver helps as well, but the best car is going to win over everything else. And the past few years, obviously the Adrian Newey design red bull has been the dominant car. Now I’m not going to take any ways from anything away from Max. We’re stopping. But prior to that. It was Lewis Hamilton that won six in a row, seven in a row, six or seven or whatever the heck it was, um, with Nico Rosberg, you know, kind of dropped himself in there the one years of 2016 that he won, uh, and then just abruptly retired because he had enough of all the mental games and whatnot and he made his, you know, multimillion dollars and stuff like that. So he didn’t need to really drive anymore. So he got done, which was kind of an interesting move and good for him. Go out on top. But obviously then prior to Lewis Hamilton, you know, we had a spattering here and there, but then you had Michael Schumacher was dominant. Um, you know, so he had consecutive five consecutive years. It was, was it 2000 or 2001 to 2005? I believe it was, uh, that he won the championship and for our one, the constructor champions. So, you know, Michael came on to Ferrari, took him a few years to get things right. But, you know, they also brought on Ross bronze on thought. You know, they had the super team. I guess you could say that Ferrari. In the early 2000s late 90s early 2000s, you know and create a dominant car and that’s what it kind of takes And that’s what red bull has now So but anyways ferrari’s been kind of chipping knocking at the door But you know, they’ve been playing second fiddle to red bull and it’s also subsequently mercedes So like last year, you know ferrari finished third behind mercedes and then obviously red bull So far he’s got some catching up to do so. It’s going to be really interesting to see Uh, if anyone’s been watching or paying attention, Ferrari just dropped video on the new SF24, uh, and so it looks sweet. I mean, it looks like the other cars, everyone seems to be following Red Bull’s design. Um, I mean, obviously regulation safety is, plays a major, huge role in the design of these cars. And, you know, they have to work within the regulations, but. What always kind of kills me is when you look at these cars as these designers, no one really, I guess, say things outside the box in regards to design. Now I give kudos to Mercedes. They gave it a shot with that zero pod design and they tried something completely different, didn’t work. So they had to revert back to like the design pretty much everyone else had. But I was, I was cool. It was cool to see that because, Hey. Outside the box. Let’s try something different. Let’s not do what everyone else is doing. I mean think back to who was it Was it Benetton did the the raised nose back there in the 90s? You know, everyone’s like what the heck is that? You know, everyone had the what the can I know but everyone had the nose went down to the ground I’m sorry, you know like the late 80s early 90s produced some of the most Gorgeous F1 cars of all time barring like say the 1960s, um, but you know, eighties, you know, uh, seventies and eighties, they had some great ones, but man, the late eighties, mid early nineties, just some gorgeous cars. Uh, I wasn’t a big fan of those raised nose design that lasted for so long. They had some really wacky things. And again, it was all about the rules and regulations and how those things got designed. So, and there were, there were, it’s about aerodynamics. You know, it’s about downforce on that car. So obviously you got to have a slippery car. You got to try and have least amount of drag, but you also need downforce on specific tracks. And, you know, you’ll see it where a lot of the cars, they’re good on one track, terrible on the other. You know, it’s, it’s a, you know, obviously, you know, a home run. If someone can build a car, i. e. Adrian Newey, that actually is good on all tracks. Now, I shouldn’t say it’s going to dominate every single track, but, you know, it’s going to pretty much do very, very well on every track. You know, you’re going to have some, you know, where your competitors are closer than others. Uh, but, you know, I think Ferrari had those issues. Last year, I know they pulled out Carlos Sainz, you know, uh, pulled out that one win last year for Ferrari, which was awesome. And speaking of Carlos Sainz, that is who Lewis Hamilton’s seat is he is taking, is Mr. Carlos Sainz. Now, I’m a big Carlos Sainz fan. I like him. You know, he goes about his business, doesn’t play games, you know, everything like that. He’s got kind of a personality. Um, but you know, I like him and I, you know, I love his old man. His old man’s phenomenal when you know, when the best rally drivers of all time. And if you kind of keep an eye on him now, he’s dominating the car rally. Uh, he’s doing some other things, but you know, um, it’s going to be interesting to see where Carlos signs goes now, obviously the scuttlebutt and rumors or that is, you know, he’s going to go over to the Audi team when they kind of show up. Uh, I believe they’re supposed to be showing up next year, you know, taking over for the Sauber team, um, as the Audi team, or I don’t know if it’s going to be 2026 when the new engine regs and everything comes in. So I’m not sure, but the rumor was, has it that he was going over there and I’ll potentially, you know, make sure marker’s name was mixed in there, whatnot. So I don’t know. It’s going to be kind of interesting to see, but he he’ll end up somewhere. Um, obviously there’s a lot of contracts that are up after 2024. Now you had the big guys already signed. No, obviously, um, Max Verstappen signed. You know, you got, well, the Lewis is going now to Ferrari. Uh, Charles Leclerc, he, you know, he’s signed up. So, but you’re gonna have a lot of open seats like that. You know, obviously like Daniel Ricciardo supposedly going back to Red Bull, whatnot. So I don’t know. We’ll see, but let’s get back to Lewis Hamilton and him going to Ferrari. Now. This is kind of an interesting, I guess, scenario because he’ll be 40 years old. Now, obviously this day and age, I was like, Oh, 40 years old, especially way back in the day that was about, you know. The guys weren’t really hitting their prime and doing actually serious racing until their 30s, early 40s. So, I mean, it was nothing new back then, but you know, obviously the big wave was all these young guys in, in their early 20s. Um, obviously then you had the teens, you know, with Max Verstappen being 17 when he made his debut, which was just like, everyone’s like, Oh, that’s a big mistake everybody blah, blah, blah. But Red Bull stuck with them and look what they got now. Now he’s a multi world champion. But, you know, I think, uh, Fernando Alonso was kind of able to. Change that stigma in regards to, you know, these guys in their forties being able to still race Obviously Fernando’s a very very unique specimen and individual in regards to his talent Unfortunately for him, you know, he always wrong place wrong car wrong time, you know It’s sad because he should have more than two world championship He should have five or six, but he always made the wrong move Was it just being too antsy not waiting now? I will give him credit, you know, he stuck around with McLaren for way too long Back there was a 20s 15 whatever it was, you know, and especially when they’re going to the growing pains with Honda but you know He was kind of loyal to them even though he had a kind of a falling out back in, you know, many years prior to that. But, you know, kudos to him. But then obviously he took some time off. Took a sabbatical race, 8,500 caught. I wish he would’ve won the Indy 500 that year. Too bad his engine blew up. That would’ve been so awesome. But, um, you know, then came back obviously with Aston Martin. So now Fernando’s a little bit older by a few years than Lewis, but he’s proving that a gentleman, driver. of that age is still extremely capable of producing results. Obviously, Fernando outscored his teammate Lance Stroll, i. e. the son of the owner of the team. Uh, now I’ll give Kuda, I don’t, I have nothing against Lance Stroll. I think he can drive. He did very well in sub carry, got up there. Yeah. Hey, but who doesn’t, you know, a majority of these guys had to pay the way to get up there. Hey, and so what, yeah, his dad owns a team and he owns Aston Martin basically. So, but. You know what? I think the kid can drive, you know, he’s had his moments, you know, um, you know, he’s won a pole position, whatnot, you know, he’s not, you know, he’s had his few podium finishes, but you know, I just think it gets a bad rap. You know, there’s a lot of weight on his shoulder, you know, everyone just kind of knocks on them because I don’t know if they’re jealous because, hey, you know, who wouldn’t want to have, you know, a dad that’s a multi billionaire, uh, and you have access to all that stuff and you can pretty much go race wherever you want it. So, but, you know, anyway, so Fernando came in and kind of, not say walked all over Lance, but he pretty much did, you know, outscored him very, very by a very wide margin. So I think that kind of opened up the eyes. Now, obviously Lewis Hamilton has the CV. In regards to being, you know, a seven time world champion, i. e. someone could say he should be eight because of that fiasco a few years back, uh, in, uh, Abu Dhabi or wherever that final thing is. Uh, F1 races and they had that last lap restart. Now I will say I was rooting for Max. I thought I was screaming at the TV, watching that finale. That was like, that was probably one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen in F1. Uh, basically, you know, one lap last lap dash for the world championship. And you know, Max was on newer tires and obviously he passed Max and then he goes to win the world championship, you know, and, but then, you know, the race director or whatever his name was, he obviously gets canned and everything, blah, blah, blah, because. You know, that wasn’t supposed to happen, but what’s done is done. But anyways, so, I think, you know, obviously, Fernando Alonso is paving the way for these older guys to stay in the sport. And again, like I said, for, uh, Louis has got the CV. He’s a seven time world champion. And obviously, he’s proved it, you know, driving the Mercedes. Now, obviously, Mercedes has been very, you know, I don’t want to say not competitive. They’ve been competitive, you know, but they’re just, you know, I want to say best of the rest. I guess you could say, um, but you know, they have the technical where with all, um, obviously, as you can see, they nailed the first with the hybrid era in regards to the 2014 to was a 20, 20, 19, 2020, whatever it was, um, you know, then obviously, you know, when, you know, Max came in and then the regulations changed to the new downforce regulations where they also had the under trays, uh, in, um, They changed up the car design. They kind of messed up. So, obviously, again, it just kind of shows you it’s a hit or miss situation. But, he drove those cars very well. He was, you know, showed, you know, he’s still very fast. Still can drive a car. There’s no doubt about that. He’s, uh, you know, a very physically fit person. You know, he’s a vegan. Um, so it’s not like he’s, you know, well, these guys at that age, all the drivers, you know, have their nutritionists and whatnot. They’re not out partying or anything like that. Back in the day, you know, James Hunt, my hero, the way he just, you know, you know, sex, the breakfast of champions. That’s probably one of the greatest, you know, uh, patches you can get on your race suit of all time. But, um, you know, so anyways, it’s shown that these guys can get, you know, still hang with the youngsters and still drive. And again, obviously you gotta have the car. But, you know, and obviously you gotta be physically fit to be able to train and do that stuff. But, it’s going to be interesting to see, one, this year, because Toto, knowing that Lewis is leaving, so are they just gonna put everything behind George Russell? Or are they still gonna try and play nice with, you know, Lewis? You know Lewis will bring A very, very structured and, you know, methodical, you know, hey, work ethic. He’s going to do what he needs to do to win races or try and win races. Um, he’s going to hammer it out. But it’s going to be kind of interesting to see what progresses throughout the year. Because as anyone that watches Formula One, you know, say you got your number one drivers, you got your number two drivers. And even though Mercedes wouldn’t admit it, obviously Lewis was always the number one. George Russell is a very, very fast driver. So, but, so it’s going to be interesting to see what happens for this season, this upcoming season in regards to what Mercedes does and how they get behind Lewis. Knowing the fact that the end of the season, he’s going over to one of their, you know, you got your top three, it’s Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull, there’s your contenders. So, obviously they don’t want to divulge, they’re not going to give away, you know, they just don’t want to give stuff away, and I’ve seen that, you know, there’s always You know, anyway, it was very strange. Normally you wouldn’t see this announcement or done till mid season till around June, July is when you start really, you know, everyone hates signs, new contracts or whatnot, but this was done even before this season started, which I found was absolutely astonishing that they did this so early. So, you know, and cause having the whole season to go, I mean, Lewis has got to probably think in his mind that this season is just a throwaway. Um, You know, I mean, I don’t know. It’ll be seen unless the Mercedes comes out of the box. It’s just faster as all get out, you know, and which then it’ll be interesting because then obviously him and George will be going at it, but so I don’t know. I’m always excited for when the season starts, you know, your first about six to eight races kind of really kind of can dictate where this how the seasonal look. So it’s gonna be interesting to see. I think now that these teams have got a few seasons under their belt. Um, and with this new design, everything like that and how the downforce works now, Um, you know, so it’s, it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out, but Lewis’s aspect of it is even more interesting because what do you do, obviously, say you’re on track, you’re racing against, you know, the guys in the Ferrari in red, you know, you got to give them some leeway, how hard you’re going to race them, what are you going to do? You know, I mean, it’s in your mind think, I’m going to go, you know, I’m going to work with these guys in this team next year. I mean, I don’t want to punt this guy off the track. So it’s going to be very, very interesting to see how this plays out this season with Lewis and the Ferrari guys. Cause they’re always seem to be battling it out. Um, so obviously, you know, divulging secrets like that. So what’s he going to take over? But kind of going back to what I was trying to get to is, you know, if you want, you know, read all the, you know, stuff online, you know, and when, you know, you got all your pundits out there, they’re always going to say this, say that, whatnot, but, you know, saying. You know that all there’s these stipulations put in place about no poaching anti poaching whatnot. You know Lewis can’t take you know anybody that I said I mean come on money talks people buy out, you know, I always love how f1 works They say oh they put that person on gardening leave, you know, they’re still getting paid. They’re just you know out there doing nothing which Who wouldn’t love that? Hey, I’m, yeah, I’m still making what I made, but yeah, I’m just, obviously I’m doing some gardening as they would say. But, um, so it’ll be curious to see if Ferrari’s able to poach any of the Mercedes engineers, any other team members over there and bring them over. Um, you know, and try and obviously move Ferrari forward because. Frye hasn’t won the world championship since 2007 and that was with Kimi Räikkönen and then they won the last Constructors 2008 with the last run of the Constructors. So, it’s been a long time and the people of Marinello, fire is under their ass. You know, so, you know, we got Fred Vasseur, you know, running the team. So, some thought, you know, he might come in and really shake it up or what not. So, I don’t know, you know, obviously last year was his first year. So, now he knows the ropes, he knows how to operate. But the unfortunate thing is with Ferrari, it’s very political how everything is run. You know, they’re the only construction that builds their own car and their own engine. So, I mean, they’re just, it’s a lot of politicking, a lot of BS that goes on in Ferrari, which I wish they would just kind of get rid of that crap. I don’t know if it’s just the Italian way, it’s the way Italians always do stuff. I don’t know, but I think it really can, can hinder their progress. I think that’s why when, you know, Michael came in, Ross Brawn, you had Jean Todt, you know, you had a, a German. An Englishman and a Frenchman come in and, you know, no Italian connections, whatnot. I think they’re really able to turn things around. Just, hey, organizationally wise, just how things done. Hey, the top down structure, you know, so no favorites, anything like that. I mean, obviously, you know, starting out, it was Eddie Irvine, which is why I was always a big fan of Eddie Irvine. Uh, but then obviously Rubens came in, you know, playing second fiddle, but, you know, Rubens got to win some races and whatnot. Uh, then, you know, obviously, you know, you had your other transitions, but anyways. Um, it’s um, this season is gonna be interesting because I think Ferrari’s got a lot to prove this year. Um, I think they need to make a big jump. You know, I only live, you know, obviously, thank God, well, they’re the only other team to win a race last year besides Red Bull, so. Um, am I right with that? I’m pretty sure, right? I can’t remember. My memory’s terrible. Um, so, it’ll be interesting to see how they step their game up. And like I said, obviously the first six to eight races really dictate and will tell you and show you how the season’s gonna go. Um, and what these people were able to produce car wise. No, the Skoda Butters AlphaTauri, i. e. now V, you know, uh, RBV’s the cash app team. These names are horrible. Um, you know, I suppose they’re making a big jump because they’re actually, you know, sharing more of their componentry and whatnot, technological, yada, yada with Red Bull, the parent, you know, the, the, the growing up team, so to speak. Now, there’s a fine line in regards rules and regulations regarding what you can share and what you’re not allowed to share all that kind of stuff. Because I obviously look at Haas and how Haas works with Ferrari. So, you know, Haas is, you know, model, you know, they built by basically by. As much as they’re allowed to off the shelf chassis from Dallara motors from Ferrari. They buy a lot of stuff from Ferrari parts wise Obviously produce their own so but you know, I wish they would just you know Andretti would go in there and Haas would sell it to them or at least you know Buy out 50 percent or 75 percent as if that’s a that’s a whole different whole different episode whole different episode But anyways back to the Lewis going to Ferrari. So When Lewis gets over to Ferrari, he’s going to be, you know, in his forties, um, you know, and he’s obviously on a multi year contract. So it’s not like a one, all right, we got an option and whatnot. And I think that was him, but the amount of money they are paying this guy is obscene, just absolutely obscene. So I don’t know if that’s what made him move or what, but I mean, obviously, you know, you talk to all these drivers and hey, it’s always like the goal is or what the dream is always to drive Ferrari. I want to drive for Maranello, you know. And it’s just, it’s an experience like none other. I mean, I got, I, you know, could imagine, imagine the accesses of the cars you can get access to and the driving and everything you do on the extracurricular sides and just sponsorship, blah, blah, blah. I mean, that’s just be phenomenal and awesome itself. But, um, for the 400, basically just under 450 million, something like that. I mean, it was just obscene amount of money that they’re throwing at this guy. Like I, and I don’t, I want to say that’s not all for our pain. I think that’s what’s all the other subsequent stuff like that. But. The number I saw that was opposite I’ve seen it for what his duration there was contract is but with all those other stuff It’s like almost, you know, it’s close to half a billion dollars now How much he’s getting salarized drive the car. I don’t know I mean, I know like max is up there in the 40 some million dollar range a year So, I mean, I’m assuming losers gonna be at least that so if not more But then you got all the extracurriculars and a lot of back end stuff Um, so I don’t know. I mean, that’s just an obscene amount of money. Get paid to drive a car. I mean, God bless him. Have at it, you know, and you know, you’re set for life after that. And you’re still a young man. Well, I mean, you know, he’s in his forties, but I mean, it’s just phenomenal. I mean, it’s unbelievable. Good for him. Hey, you can get it. Go get it. So, but again, how much motivations will be there? You know, you know, I’m hope that he gets there and you know, it’s, Tooling and whatnot. It reenergizes him. He comes out, man, just swinging, you know, he’s got the momentum Obviously, you know the car has got to be underneath him to be able to do it But again, so what do they do? You know, obviously they build a car They try and build it also to the characteristics of the driver. You know, got some guys like understeer So I’m like oversteer, you know, so and some guys like to you know, turn in sharps or so I mean There’s all these different things. So there’s a way you build the car and set up wise and whatnot. You can kind of, you know, shape it to how the driver likes it. So when you’re building up a new car and the guy’s been there for me for a few years, I eat Charles Leclerc because that’s obviously to be their guy. Um, it’s gonna be kind of built around him. So I was like, so what’s the car going to be when he gets there in 2025? Is it gonna behave what Charles Leclerc likes and how he likes to drive his car? You know, or what? Is he gonna be able to handle that? I mean, um, So I think that’s gonna be other biggest thing is okay. He gets in there. All right This is not gonna be till year two year three if he stays there, you know that He gets a car underneath him that you know, he he likes I mean, I don’t know There’s all these unknowns that you won’t know until 2025 race one, you know, obviously testing and whatnot They do that doesn’t tell you shit. You know what they sandbag it through everything. They’re not going to show all their cards So I mean I always take that’s the Preseason testing stuff where they go to Valencia or Barcelona or what the heck is in Spain, you know I always think that’s a great assault because you’re never gonna real see anyone’s true potential because they’re not going to show all their cards Well, especially the top teams. They’re not going to show it because they’re just not gonna let that fly this the back marker teams What mid level teams? Yeah, they could probably go out there in Hawes But again, you got a large portion of these guys, you know between who’s in the middle there Then they got your drop off. You got your Williams and your Haas, you know, you got your back markers and everyone else is in the middle. Then you got Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes at the top. So, again, it’s going to be an interesting season this year and how things play out. See what happens with Lewis and Mercedes. But, 2025, Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari. I’m curious about what everyone’s thoughts are. Make some comments, shoot some messages our way. Tell me what you guys think about him going to Ferrari and seeing him in the red. Um, I’m, I’m excited for it. I think it’s going to be a big change. I don’t know. Charles is going to be ready for it because I could be a situation where Lewis is going to overshadow Charles or say Charles, um, anything. I’d like Charles to Claire. I just think he’s, you know, yes, he can drive a car, but you know, I just don’t think he’s got the mental wherewithal to win an F1 championship. I just think he’s, you know, doesn’t have it. I mean, you’ve watched him race, whatnot. He has too many mental breaks, lapses, crashes, whatnot. Um, So, it’ll be interesting to see. So, let me know your guys thoughts. Let me know what you think about Lewis Hamilton going to Ferrari 2025. Again, thanks guys. This is the Ferrari Marketplace with William Ross, your host, presented on the Motoring Podcast Network, MPN. Till next time. Appreciate it guys. Have a good one. This episode has been brought to you by grand touring motor sports as part of our motoring podcast network. For more episodes like this tune in each week for more exciting and educational content from organizations like. The Exotic Car Marketplace, The Motoring Historian, BrakeFix, and many others. If you’d like to support Grand Touring Motorsports and the Motoring Podcast Network, sign up for one of our many sponsorship tiers at www. patreon. com forward slash GT Motorsports. Please note that the content, opinions, and materials presented and expressed in this episode are those of its creator. And this episode has been published with their consent. If you have any inquiries about this program, please contact the creators of this episode via email or social media, as mentioned in the episode. Copyright William Ross, Exotic Car Marketplace a division of Sixty5 Motorsports. This episode is part of Gran Touring Motorsports, Motoring Podcast Network and has been republished with permission. [...]
February 11, 2024FerrariWilliam discusses all things Ferrari, focusing on the Cavallino 2024 event in West Palm Beach. Ross details his move to a new office in his home, shares information about the Cavallino magazine, and highlights the role of Canossa Events in organizing the event. He describes the stunning Ferraris on display, including rare models and his personal favorites, the 512TR and 512M. Ross also discusses the entry fees, event layout, crowd control, and his experience in the parking lot, where he observed some spectacular cars. He emphasizes the meticulous judging process and the importance of owning well-documented Ferraris. The episode concludes with Ross encouraging viewers to check out the event and the Motoring Podcast Network for more exciting content. William takes us on a tour of The Ferrari Car Show – Cavallino 2024! Tour of Cavallino 2024 – The Ferrari Car Show! Hello everyone, welcome back to the channel. We are off to Cavalino. So, it’s, sun’s out, it’s about 82 degrees it says. So, uh, the rain held off, which is great. I mean it rained a little bit, if you saw the earlier stuff I did the unloading. So, but, got my gear on for, you know, trying to look all nice. Got nice red pants, you know, trying to look all hoity toity. Uh, blend in, you know. But, anyways, so we’re gonna have some cool stuff coming up here. I think the, if my memory serves me correct, the 288 GT. Special vehicle for this year’s event, so it’s gonna be showcased. So that should be cool I’ve seen a bunch of those lying around. I know we’re gonna have a bunch of n50 enzo’s to seven There’s gonna be some really cool stuff So definitely watch this entire video because it’s gonna be some awesome awesome stuff on Ferrari So see if we can get some cool stuff talk some owners maybe see we can figure out You know play by ear see what happens So but remember guys remember hit that like and subscribe button really appreciate it more contents coming You know got a lot of stuff planned for this year Uh, big things happening in regards to the podcast, everything like that. If you haven’t checked it out, you know, go to the Ferrari marketplace. com. Check out the podcast we got going on. Uh, we just dropped a few, uh, going over to Mille Miglia. I got one coming up next Friday for Ferrari Fridays. That’s going to be about the Ferrari movie. It’s been out for a little over a month now. So I figured I’d do it. I’ve watched it twice. I watched it on the plane flying down here and I watched it on the first day. It came out back up there in Ohio. So on Christmas Eve. So anyways, back to you shortly off to Caballino. So we haven’t gotten into it had to go through security just be sure you know I keep out the riffraff Had to show my ticket even before I even got to the gate where I gotta go pick up my thing to get in But what I wanted to show you this is just cars coming in just to park for the event You should see you got an f40 coming there. Look at that beauty There’s montana tags on there, but we got a lineup of some beautiful stuff right here coming through this Expanded Medium look, that thing is medium look. Very nice. I tell you what, you gotta love the color. I’d say it’s orange. So then we got a couple, uh, I’d say 90’s, one’s a, pick off package on it. 12, it’s this matte, like red color. And you know what, in my respect, cause it’s a woman driving it, she’s got a kid with her, but that’s awesome to see. Gotta get more women involved. Passion of Ferrari, or just cars in general. Is what we need to have. So as soon as this lady gets through they let her through. I don’t know if you got something to do. There’s not enough parking maybe or something going on. You kind of uh, I’m sure they’re running out of space. I probably walked, I don’t know, a half mile before I parked. I found a free spot because let me tell you, it’s 40 for the cheap parking, 50 for the more expensive parking. Um, so they’re, okay, they’re turning some cars away. So let’s not meet either to run out of room or something. So, um, so let’s walk up, but say hi to the state trooper. Hey. But let’s see what we’ve got going on here even before we walk inside. So we’ll get some of these up to the side. Maybe we’ll catch some of these cars scooting down here. But look at this, we got a 512M sitting right there. Look at this stuff. We’ll get a better shot of this on the other side of the fence when we get in there. Oh, I love that 512M. Got two of them. Oh, we got four of them. Look at this. Look at that. Just from the backside, but we’ll get in the front side of these here in a minute. These are just all 512M’s. Wow. Look at that. Yeah. Beautiful. Look at what we got. Just a plethora of 512Ms. What is that? I like the white. Going by. Got to do some video. Guy in the vet got through. This is crazy. There’s a TR. Snuck in there with the 512. There’s another TR. Going down here by a year maybe? Now we’re getting into the TR. So those are gorgeous. So go check out the booth as well. We get a free Caino magazine, so, alright, we’re gonna go check in and we’ll be back shortly. Okay, we’re in Simple enough, just so you know. $480 for a ticket for just Saturday. $608 just for Sunday, which sold out. You can guess what the package is. And VIP just says goes up from there. That’s still a lot better than Moto Miami. That’s gonna be almost. 1, 500 a ticket, but let’s go down. We got a 85 Testerosa Montepisto. Look at that. And then we go down, we got ourselves an 86 Testa, another Montepisto, red with black interior. Very nice. I love that black interior. Honey, just keys are in it and go for a ride. So then we got a newer, got a 1990 Testerosa, red, black, very nice. Now we’re getting into the TRs. Okay. I think you can tell by the front end, you know, the thing kind of got a little more beefy, a little more, kind of muscular looking. So, tan interior. I have to go get my free goodie bag. Coming down, we got ourselves a 92 TR. Red tan. Oh, look at this blue. That a stunning blue. It’s red. Look at that. So give us a couple minutes, we’ll get ready. That unbelievable. We’ll have blue shirt tower, I think it’s called. Yeah, look at that. That is just stunning. Okay. If I walk in front of the stage, they’re doing some, dang, we got another TR over here. Black with gray. Going through. Oh, white. It’s got black interior on this 512M. Look at that. Oh my. I’m a big fan of white. That is just stunning. Don’t see that much white. Another red tan. And we got a more unique color here. This, what would you call that? Blue silver? I’m sure I, I, I’m terrible at knowing what the names are. Color wise Tim aka Shmee would know that’s probably on top of his head 96 look at that That’s just Damn sexy This guy’s got though check out the seats he’s got in this one. It’s 96 look at the seats that are in that Those are something you could order Put us an aftermarket season, but it looks great It’s got yellow and black. Black and tan and red one. Check out the revival. Look at the boat. These are, they’re getting judged. Check it out. Look at everything. You got all the tool kit out. Look at that. There’s your tool kit. All the books. Guy’s got everything. Look at that. Got all the bulbs. Look at that. And there’s a boat. You can go around the backside. Let me get my free goodie bag and see it. But there you go. Back in a second. All right, we started out with the 512s and the Tessaroses, but we’re going to get into some of the high dollar stuff here. Uh, and some of the rare, some of the rare stuff. Um, this is up on the higher level of the lawn. As you can see, we got all that down there, but let’s start out here. He’s got, God, he’s got the. Engelbert tires on there. Look at that coming by. 250 GT Europa. Look at this color combo. Stunning. Absolutely beautiful. And they come round. Got two 50 pf 59. I think these are a bit underrated in the market. I think these are very, very sexy cars. Very sexy cars. Alright, let’s jump over here. I don’t think we all know what this is. Look at that black on black. Long wheelbase. Look at that. Here’s a short wheelbase. I don’t know how well you can hear me, I’m trying to talk to this. I should have put a microphone on myself, but I did not. So let’s give you a contrast here. Between the two. Short wheelbase. Long wheelbase. So you can see the difference there. It’s not too big, but significant enough. You can see it more in the front end and your side. Here. Look at that on that one. You can see the difference between the that and to the door. That to the door. This we get ourselves another two 50. Come by. Oh, I’ll leave this getting judged. Two 12 expert. Right hand drive. I think this guy is from, he must be from Ohio because he’s got the Ohio tag. Look at this guy’s face. I started in this row. We’re at 12. I think it’s gotta be loud. I think it’s gotta be sss s Slow. Look me. Unbelievable. Look at this. Come around, look at that. Well, you can see on the inside there, but look, get at you to right there. 67, 4 12. Look at that. I’m going to keep saying that, look at this, because everything, every car you look at, there’s another 212, but I mean just, this is a big nolly, look at the fins on the back, kind of keep up with the Americans when the fins were kind of a big thing. They didn’t last long. Look at that. Look at that, look at that, absolutely stunning. Then we got the one next to it we saw getting off the truck this morning. Jump ahead of this guy. These people around two 12 here, you can scan the QR code. Look at the gear that’s selected, look at that. Ah. As everyone knows, your thing is to put your fire extinguisher behind your rear tire at car shows to keep it from rolling. So when you have a 1. 6 mm, uh, what you do is you build yourself a special case for your fire extinguisher to put behind your wheel. Yeah. I’m sorry, this is a 212. Look at that. Check out the gear selector. Look at that. Check that out. Very bare minimum in the dash. Okay, RPM gauge. 51. All right, go around. Okay, then now we have our obligatory 250 GT. GTO. Look at that. Right hand drive GTO. I want to say this is the one, uh, Graham Hildreth and Moss. Look at that. Come around. Look at the pipes on that. But, you know what? I missed. Come back here. It’s 250 TDF. A little bit of room, huh? Look at this. There’s that, look at this again. This is stunning. Look at this. I know I’m not doing too much commentary because it’s just saying look at all these. These things are just stunning. Just stunning. Look at the size of the fencing shield. Look at that. That thing’s big. Fifty eight. Two fifty. Berlinetta. Oh, we got an SQ 100. Let’s get around these people. It’s a bit crowded up here. It’s a bit hot, maybe I should have wore shorts. Look at this beautiful SP3. Very nice, if we get around here. There’s some behind me shooting as well. Look at that. Look at that. Just, unbelievable. Oh, look at what we got here. Call ourselves an F1 shot 68 3 12. Do the pipe work on this? I mean, just look at that. Look how tight that is. I ain’t fitting in there right now. Got 2 75, sorry, three 30. Look at that color. Check out the interior on this. Interior. Those green inserts. I don’t know how well you can see that. Alright, let’s go up here. Look at that. Yeah, they’re doing the judging. I thought that was tomorrow, but I guess they’re doing it today. Maybe they’re going to announce that tomorrow. I don’t want to get in these guys way of doing the judging. Some more guys wearing their straw hats. Sounds beautiful. Alright, now we’re going down to the lower level. Now there’s nothing too shabby. It’s not down here either. So we got some new stuff sitting down up up front here the SF90 Stradale’s, the Roma 296 and the Pura Sangue The Pura Sangue is gorgeous. I mean, I’d love to have one of those. That thing is just stunning. So onward I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to shoot with the GoPro it’s about ready to overheat I know it’s getting warm and it’s hot down here. I wore pants Probably should’ve brought some shorts to change into. Check out my new shoes I bought because Other products Were looking like shit. So nice s of 90, the purest saying way cars gray man. That didn’t work with, with the past 20 years. What a, what a man. I mean, I think that hopefully gives us a, a little bit of a, an idea of what an important man he was in the Ferrari history. Roma Formula one, Roma convertible. Look at that. I mean, I feel like those are. Wow, that was good. Drop top. Oh, look at this. SF 90 xx Shmi jealous. Man, that thing is gonna be so much fun. Look at that. That thing is unbelievable. Alright, onward. You can see if we got anything laid out down here. You see there’s not like there’s, you know. Hundreds and hundreds of cars, but the cars they have here are very, very special and just very, very rare and very, very high dollar. So we’re going to try and see what we can get before this camera gets too hot. I have to switch to my phone. So look at that. We have 40 where production and then they stopped the production. I’ll scan the QR. Code. I’ll pause on there, scan the QR code and get the details on it. Look at that. Sorry. . It takes your breath away, doesn’t it? Yeah, I’m sorry. You’re okay. And the two 5G TBLM. Let’s get on the QR code. You guys can scan that and get the details. Let’s kind of jump around over here because we’ve got another 275 GTB comp. Wow, two comps. Look at that. Look at that. Get into this one as well. Bunch of old white guys with lots of money that don’t know what to do with it are walking around here. That just don’t give a you know what. They just get right in your way. They don’t care. Look at that. Okay, we’re gonna go up and check out this other NART. Look at this one. Two NART spiders here. Unbelievable. Look at that. Oh, that blood read and tears. It’s freaking gorgeous. You can see that. Absolutely. Yeah. So that’s a four camp. So I don’t think that’s a legit art. I think that was a, uh, it would send n on there, so I dunno if that’s a real one. There’s not, but you scan that code on there, then we have ourselves a two 70 5G three s. Another 2 75 GTSI believe, or was at a 3 30, 2 75. Cute and very nice mc green. And then we got some look of these 2 75. This is, this is the black I’m black position. You go on. It’s getting the shade of it. 714. I like the steelies on this. I think something that I just, I don’t know. I don’t like the wired. I like these steelies on there. A little more subdued, as I guess you could say. I mean, where else are you going to find this collection? The 275s all together. Pebble? Yeah. So going around, we’ve got the 288s, a couple of 288s. Put that they got all the stuff out. I’m doing two. All the documents, tool, everything. Look at that. This, that. Look at the tools. We even got the hammer, the Jack Red Book. Red Book. Get in judged. Didn’t judge, that’s an Italian car. Right? Okay. Let’s go down. Some more. Let’s see what we got floating over here. 330, 330, PTS, 330 Coupes. These are growing on me. I wasn’t a big fan originally, but I don’t know, something about them is just growing on me. Look at this 250. More than that, a loose soul. Another loose soul. Coming around. Look at that. I need to stop. There. Again, there’s a QR code. If you want to scan that and get more details. Alright, let’s go down the road to 330. 2 plus 2. Look at that. Dual headlights. That wouldn’t turn us away. 330 GTC. Wouldn’t go out of there. These guys are scrambling here before they come and get judged. Well, no answer. Sure. Um. Yeah, if that makes sense. Oh, nice. I keep cringing. I have it in the back of my mind, I’m going to be dropping this camera on one of these cars. I have a very tight grip on this thing. Yeah, sure. So, the food at Pasta Fresenio is made here. Oh. Look at that. See, understand. I like the steelies. I love the steelies on there. That’s just, to me, just nice. Hey, understated, you know, all right. So we switched batteries cause it got too hot. So let’s see how long this lasts. We zip everything up here. I might go carry all bag and go down. We did the F forties. Let’s get this on. Sorry about getting the close up to my fat face. So we got two 28th, real eights in that row, growing up top. Now gentlemen, guy, that Skyler who I was talking with earlier today, uh, he was out, you know, unloading the cars. He told me that he wanted to fly in his drone. They said, nope, they would take that thing down with an EMP if you were trying to fly an illegal drone over the show. So, anywho, got 599s, 575s. Let’s see if we got any manual ones. Oh, look at that manual. There we go. Manual 550. Very nice. We got a manual. Yeah, I had a five 50 and then I, I bought it. Paint 99 gtb. I saw this one getting unloaded this morning. That’s a 1 5 50. Let’s see here. Manual. Good man. It’s yellow, tan. Five 50 coming down. Alright, now we’re gonna go into the enzos. Let’s see if this is a, uh, manual. 5, 7, 5. Oh, it is. Look at that. The annual 575. That’s a rare bird. So, all right. Now we’re going down some Enzos and F50s. A little bit newer. Let’s go around these people. It almost looks like it’s a, uh, repaint. I don’t know. Everyone’s down around here. F50. What’s going on? What’s going on with that? Look at that. Look at that. Turn around. They’re good. I think that’s a good one. Not for us. But the interesting thing is, I was asking Mike what we had in mind. I was getting told he was gonna go around here. He really ran it. He just wanted the duration aspect. Those things are starting to start to stick. Look at this. X, X. X, X. Oh, sorry man. Getting people’s ways that the laugh Co F 50. Yeah. Uh, is this, uh, I played on, I dunno if this was Jrs Jrs down there. We got the Enzos. I know this is a wine. That they brought in customer car, black on black, Enzo, very nice and silver on black for Enzo. Very pretty. And we got another l, Larock la ferry. We got some five twelves. Check. Got the orange on this, or I’m sorry, the color orange. I know it’s not orange, but it is. That’d be fun just to cruise. Got a nice long drive. 3. 48 12. 00 We got 3. 55 over here. Manual. Look at this. It’s a manual thing. He’s got everything. He’s got the spare out. There you go. Getting judged. Take it easy. Alright, spider. L5 12. Ooh, this. Here we go. Yeah, it’s black on black. That is just impossible. Alright, last row. Coming around. I’ve been training. On the 599. I don’t know if you can see it, but it’s super, super high end. It’s at 12TBF. 612. Let’s see if this is a manual. Nope. F1 Channing. Super America. Sorry about that little camera slip. Now we got ourselves a 458. That’s what you have. Big dollars now. Big dollars. Look at this, stunning, I love this, TDF, look at that TDF, beautiful, very nice, 430, 430. Alright, so now we’re gonna go get just, I’m gonna take some pictures now, so, I hope you liked the little tour walking around, hope I got, saw what you wanted to see. So like I said, you know, there’s not the hugest of shows so but they got some very very special stuff here So again hit that like and subscribe button here guys when you get done. I really appreciate it Gotta grow this channel some more. Thanks guys next time This is the car we saw get off the 250 lm. I’ll drink for that guy. Sorry. So we saw getting off the truck this morning Yeah I’m not going to touch it Look at this. This is the attached bodywork. Come around. Look at that. Imagine driving this thing. That thing would just be phenomenal. Just driving that thing at speed. It’s nuts. Let’s go check out this 812 comp. This is the one that’s got that, uh, whatchamacallit, paint job on it. Look at that. Wasn’t sure about that when we saw it in pictures, but hey, that looks pretty cool. Alright, back to you shortly. We’ll go down to that lower level. Because all our high, high dollar stuff was up here. So, back to you shortly. Camera’s getting hot. Compared to the wires, I don’t know man. I think the steel is a ton better. What do you guys think? Comment down below. Let me know what you think. Alright, we got our Dino’s. Again, remember I was talking about these this morning. I was talking about them before and how 15, 20 years ago these things weren’t worth anything. 30, 40 grand you can pick these things up, a dime a dozen. Now they’re, 500, 000 and, I don’t want to make this video too long for everybody. I just got some nice patina to it. And, next to that, um, Four plus two. Be nice. They had like a preservation class. Oh, here’s a white one. We saw coming off. The rear brake light still stand. I didn’t jinx it this morning. It’s a legit Daytona Spider. Another one we saw coming off the truck. We have another. Another legit spider. Look at that. Get that, scan that QR code. See if you can get what you can out of it. Look at that. It’s real. Just some jewelry. A, I think they look super cool. Yeah, this might be it. Yeah, I think they’re super cool. Let’s go down and next we got the F40s. Now here’s the thing about all these F40s. I don’t know how many are privately owned or how many actually might be owned by dealers. So that’s kind of a curious question here. So, but we got five F40s in a row coming down. So I don’t know if this is going up to get newer and newer. It is known as, not that this is like a car you can drive like this, but it’s an F40. It’s known as like, basically, like the most overpowered, lightest, like, dangerous boat. It’s like, it’s a race, it’s a race boat. First must be short. Very long. Look at that dude, a flexing wheel. These are all U. S. cars by the bumpers. Euro, Euro car. That’s an American U. S. car. European. Look at the difference between the two. U. S. has got the bumper on their side markers, no bumper U. S. car, European car, European car. So 212 U. S. cars ever built. So rare bird. This is. You know, what’s your opinion? The big difference is the tanks, gas tanks, US cars, aluminum tanks, European cars, bags. You have to get placed every five years. This thing is mean and looking in person. Yep. No one’s kind of around this. I’m going to get video of this. Let’s kind of jump out a little bit. It’s 212. Look at that. That is awesome. Epsite. Oh man. Can’t imagine Blake to drive this thing. Look at that. Absolutely beautiful. Okay. Look at that. That’s awesome. That is just stunning. 00:00 Introduction to Ferrari Fridays 00:37 Welcome and Host Introduction 00:59 Cavallino 2020 Event Overview 02:39 Highlights of Cavallino 2020 05:14 Personal Preferences and Ferrari Colors 08:14 Event Logistics and Parking 10:27 Upper Level Highlights 16:28 Main Show Field and Car Highlights 23:37 Conclusion and Recommendations 24:16 Closing Remarks and Sponsorship Episode 22 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 presented by the Motoring Podcast Network, MPN. Be sure you check out the web channel, motoringpodcast. net. I am your host, William Ross. And I am coming to you from my newly set up office in my house. So, uh, I got off my lazy ass and finally did what I wanted to do. For a long time and move myself out from my basically dining room area up to one of our spare bedrooms That was just basically collecting all my clothes So anyway, it’s Ferrari Friday, and we are here this week to talk about Cavalino 2020 West Palm Beach, those of you not all that too familiar with Cavalino, uh, they’ve been having this event for a while. Uh, if you never heard of Cavalino, the magazine, if you’re a Ferrari person, I’m sure you have, but if you’re not very much Ferrari person, I highly recommend checking out the Cavalino magazine. Fantastic magazine. Uh, it’s a quarterly magazine, not cheap, but it’s an excellent publication. Very, very well put together. Now Canoosa events took over three years ago. I think it was something like that Uh, the start of handlers and they start actually expanding they do an event in the Middle East I think they’re getting ready to do one in Asia. They might be doing Asia. I could be wrong. Don’t quote me on that Uh, but they do an excellent job. They, you know, check out Canoosa events. They also do, obviously they do driving events, rally events. So they had to do quite a bit of stuff, uh, around the globe. But I said, Cavalino is a Ferrari specific event that here in the United States is held down in West Palm beach. Uh, it’s a beautiful, beautiful, was it hotel? Is it Breaker’s hotel? Um, I think it’s Breaker’s. God, my mind just went blank. You know, I was there two weeks ago. Getting old sucks, you know? Um, but anyways, the hotel. Uh, that is, you know, it’s got well, they have it because it’s got a golf course. So they have it on the green. But now here’s the one thing about this event. It’s not massive. It’s not big by any means. You probably got maybe 60, 80 cars at best. Um, something along those lines, but what is presented there and what they curate for this event is absolutely phenomenal. I mean, you got some, I mean, the best, I say the best of the best, but I mean, you got some spectacular Ferraris that come to this event. You know, there’s, uh, obviously they always have a 250 GTO. Uh, they had some 212 Inters. They’ve, you know, they had a Testarossa. Um, the TR I’m speaking of, the original ones, uh, of course they did have some of the actual, the Testarossas from the 80s and early 90s. Uh, they had basically, when you walked in, you know, uh, if you’re familiar with this hotel at all, it’s got this huge, like when you come in off of basically what is it, A1A, whatever it is, that road, it’s got that huge drive entrance that you drive up to the hotel, it’s all tree lined and everything, it’s absolutely gorgeous. Well, and the one area what they have then is, you know, they had, um, I guess you would say the, the, uh, interviewing area, uh, that they had set up there, you know, obviously interviewing yourself and doing video, that kind of stuff, and audio recording that, but they had basically your Testarossa 512 and, uh, 512Ms, your 512TRs, and then your Testarossas there, and they had some spectacular cars there, there was a gorgeous one, I’m, I, I, I’m a fan, not a fan of tan interior, but this, I gotta say, this one, It was like a blue, I forget what it’s called, blue churro, churro, it’s like it’s something. Anyways, it was, it was a very, very rare color in regards to, you don’t normally see, uh, uh, Tessarosa, a TR, a 512M in this color. Very, very rare. Uh, I’m a big fan. I love the 512TRs and the 512M is a spectacular car. Obviously one year only, uh, for the final iteration basically of the tester. So the five 12 TR was 92 to 94, and then. 95, I don’t, I think it was only 95, I don’t think there was any 96, but I think it was only 95 model year was for the 512TR, I mean 512M, but the 512TR because it was just a great, great evolution of the Testarossa, they, you know, they fixed all the kind of little niggles and wiggles and whatnot with the Testarossa and really refined it up to horsepower, uh, just kind of, you know, smoothed it out a bit, you know, just kind of, you know, I guess they take away the edginess a little bit. Um, now, on the Testarossa side itself, I, you know, I’m a big fan of the early ones with the single mirror, the flying mirror, the monopisto, monopesto, however you pronounce that again in my Italian. I don’t speak Italian. Um, but, you know, those things. I love the flying mirror because it’s got a cool presence to it. It’s got a cool look down the road. But, now, oddly enough, I’m not a fan of the red Ferraris. Uh, you would think me being the Ferrari person, you know, love Ferraris, that I love the red. Well, red’s not my favorite color. I don’t like tan interiors, so red tan is just, it’s on, way down my list. I prefer a darker color. Now, I take red with black interior, that I can tolerate, but if I’m gonna have, you know, my druthers, I’ll probably, my first choice is always gonna be black. Um, I think that’s just, a car looks spectacular in black. Um, um, um, Obviously, it’s a pain in the, you know what, to keep clean. You know, after you wash it, two minutes later, it’s dirty. But, I just think a black car presents somewhere, it just looks mean that way. But then, you know, after that, you start using other colors. You know, I, I like a yellow. I think a yellow, the Giallo, uh, is spectacular as well. Uh, don’t get me wrong. I think, you know, obviously, that’s what they’re known for. Being the red, you know, the red car. But, um, To me, I don’t know. I just, it’s not my favorite color of a car, but anyways, I, I wouldn’t turn one away, but anyways, getting back to the event, like I was saying is, you know, when you came in, you had the one, um, you know, you walked down the entrance way. Uh, I can say security is pretty tight. So, and it was pretty spectacular watching what cars came in. Cause now, even before you got in to go into the event itself, get your little, uh, Wristband or whatever you want to call it. Now they have those little nylon things that just kind of slide up. And so instead of having the plastic stuff, which is great, you know, Hey, it’s better for the environment, I guess. Um, maybe people more inclined to keep it cause it’s got the name on it. Uh, it says Cavalino, but, um, anyways, they have different levels and everything for you to get in. And it’s not cheap to get into this event. I will say that and by no means am I bragging or anything like that, but I just say they charge a lot of money because you just said it’s not a massive event. It says they don’t get all that many cars, so to speak, where you got, you know, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of cars and you got thousands and thousands, thousands of people. It’s very nice because it’s not crammed. You don’t have like people on top of people, like say you’re an Amelia or something along those lines, uh, or out of pebble, you know, it’s, Oh, it’s very, very well managed in regards to crowd control. I guess you’ll speak now. I’m not saying that they, I’m sure they have a limit to regards to, Hey. Uh, ticket wise, I know like with the upper echelon, if you look at their website in regards to what it costs, like for packages and whatnot, it ain’t cheap. Like I said, Saturday alone, just take it, go on Saturdays, 480. If you want to just go on Sunday, which is the concourse day is 680. So I don’t see, you know, I always just go on Saturday. I don’t ever go on Sunday cause I just don’t see the point. Cause it’s pretty much all the same cars. So I’m like, why would I come back the next day to see what I just saw the day before? So, you know, um, now, unless I was able to score media credentials for this event, which I was not able to, I guess I’m just not, you know, I don’t have that type of pull yet, but hopefully we’ll get there someday and maybe we’ll go to both days. But right now, if it’s coming out of my pocket, I’m only gonna go one day on Saturday. But anyways, even for going in though, I have to say the parking lot. itself was amazing in regards to cars that people brought there just to drive there to the event. Now parking is very limited because obviously this is a operating functioning hotel. So obviously they have hotel guests and everything going on. So then all of a sudden you have this event on top of it. So parking got kind of limited and parking. If you wanted to park a little bit of ways, it was 40, but if you wanted to park in the hotel, it was 50. And that was if you were able to get in and they were pretty picky about what kind of cars are going in and I said They were turning some way, but I must say Spectacular what cars were in the parking lot itself? I mean just a lineup of some spectacular pieces of machinery Ferraris, but I will say John Tamari from curated We are curated. He brought a Diablo GT that they had just got over from Japan Black on black stunning car. They actually have two available They’re probably already sold more than likely but I will say that guys are curated are able to acquire and hunt down and get their hands on some of the Awesome machinery most specifically Lamborghinis now they get in a lot of other stuff as well But Lamborghinis seem to be the forte, you know people hunt them down But hey, they got it and check out the showroom if you’re ever down in Miami They’re super nice guys. Go check them out. But anyways, the parking lot itself was spectacular. I mean you had, you know, obviously you got SF90s, F8s You had Carrera GT You know, there’s a 918 YSAC, obviously, you know, not Ferrari, but you know, some other spectacular stuff There’s a Challenge for Dali Obviously have your Token, you know, Rolls Royces and that kind of stuff. But, you know, cause it’s just old money down there in West Palm Beach. Um, if you’ve never been down that way, it’s just, I’ve seen. Some of these houses, um, and just the amount of money that some of these people have. It’s just, it’s just obscene, you know, um, It just makes you wonder, where’s all this money come from? I mean, it’s just, makes you think you’re not trying hard enough or something for that. But anyways, so, getting into the event. Obviously, I have kind of different levels of, you know, uh, spectator wise, what not. Like I said, I just bought the cheap one, the 480. You go up from there. But anyways, so when you go in, Yeah, there’s, they have a upper level, uh, where they have the really, really nice stuff. Uh, that’s where they had a 250 Inter, they had a P4, um, that was spectacular. Uh, yellow, it had the blue wheels on it, um, spectacular. Uh, I don’t know if any of you guys listening, go and check out the YouTube channel, um, we have that up. I dropped video there. I had several stuff, long ones, short ones, kind of going over everything. Got the long one going to walk around the whole show field over there, but then also kind of got stuff them unloading, but anyways Say 212 enter they have 250 SWB. They had a SWB go Cal spider that LWB Cal spider It was kind of neat seeing those two next to each other because you can see the nuances of the difference between a short wheel Base and a long wheel base now everyone knows everyone Maybe they don’t know, but obviously the covered headlight short wheelbase is the most coveted of the cow spiders. So those ones are in the upper teens, low twenties in regards to price, whereas the long wheelbase, you’re going to be high single digits, low double digits and millions of dollars. So, you know, um, if you look between two, obviously it’s all about collectability and, you know, production numbers. So me, I long wheelbase short wheelbase doesn’t matter. I would take you to the one, but absolutely spectacular cars. Um, Trying to you know said but check out the YouTube channel because I say there’s some spectacular stuff that you know You got to see now like I said, I’m on that upper level They also had that art car that h12 competition or competition As they like they call it that was up on the upper left. That was yellows like an art car It was kind of really neat because it wasn’t anything too crazy Um, but it was really, really well presented. So, and I was trying to look at it. I’m very sure, I think it is a paint job. I don’t think it’s a wrap, but I mean, almost kind of the way the matte paint looked like it was almost like it was a wrap. But, uh, it was kind of cool to see that, but then, like I said, you know, um, up there is a little more crowded, I would say. So it was a little bit difficult here and there to try and get some shots of stuff, but just, you know, you bide your time. Like I said, you know, people are pretty courteous, uh, wandering around and kind of, you know, notice that you guys, you’re shooting video and trying to check things out and take photos, uh, because what I had done is I got there first thing, uh, try to beat some of the crowds, uh, did what I did and I actually left for a little bit and I came back. Um, feet and back are hurting. There’s a lot of walking. I actually was able to park a little ways away, so I had to do a little bit of a hike to get over to the event, but hey, I didn’t have to pay 40 or 50 to park. So, anyways, like I said, up top, they just, they have an absolute awesome selection of cars. I mean, high end stuff. I mean, you’re talking multi million dollar stuff. Uh, and these guys, you know, obviously are getting judged, so, you know, what was really neat to see, and this is on all the cars that are there at the event, is, like, having all the accoutrements that I guess come with the car. Tool rolls. All that kind of stuff. Documentation, your Class E certification, Red Book. Uh, it’s really neat seeing all that kind of stuff. Um, the one, I guess, the one thing I like to see though is the owner actually doing it. Now the one thing you’ll find when you go to a lot of these events is you’re going to have someone from either a handler or someone from a dealership, someone along those lines. Someone that, you know, obviously helps them buy and sell cars, what have you, these owners. Um, I don’t know, someone they don’t want to deal with it or what have you. I mean, they might not even be there. But, uh, it’s really cool to see owners actually talking with the judges, going over everything with the judges, and them actually knowing about their car. You know, it was, um, I saw a couple, I’m not going to name names, but you can tell, I don’t know if they, maybe they just bought the car. Um, but they must not have really done much homework, but obviously. They were being kind of coached a bit saying, okay, when they come up, this is what they’re going to ask. And then, you know, it’s like maybe it was their first time. I don’t know, but, um, it’s a little disappointing when you see an owner that really doesn’t know their car, I guess you could say, like I said, give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they just got the car. Who knows but you know some of these people seem like it’s more about hey, it’s a status thing Oh, yeah, I own a Ferrari instead of actually it’s about the passion of the brand and the car And just loving this thing You know, I get it, you know, you get quite a few of these guys have you know, multiple cars If not hundreds of cars, you know, but I know a few that are absolutely very passionate They know their cars inside and out. They just they know their stuff very very well Um, but you know, it’s just, it’s great to see when an owner actually is handling the judges and actually talking with the judges and know their cars and going, going over everything with them because they scrutinize the hell out of these cars. I mean, it could, you know, turn signals, start in the car, the right light bulbs, they check under the hood in regards to even like hose clamps. I mean, they get down to the nitty gritty in regards to what they’re actually, you know, looking for and judging, you know, and obviously, you know, they’re trying to get that coveted, you know, you want to get 96 points or above, um, you know, and get it and win the prize. So, um, you know, that’s what they’re looking for. Uh, and, you know, you got these guys that are very, very dedicated in regards to wanting to get that. Because one, It’s an actual selling point for the car if you can say it won at Cavalino. It got this at Cavalino or what have you. I mean, or hey, anywhere. I mean, you wouldn’t like it at Amelia or Pebble Beach or something like that. That’s massive. But you know, you get something at Cavalino and get judged and you get a, you know, a high score. That bodes well for you if you want to go and resell your car at that point in time. And I can say, you know, you might get quite a few of these guys, that’s their goal. Is they wait, they present it at Cavalino, they get their score, they get it out there in the public, kind of people see it and know it. Alright, hey, it’s available, so I want to buy it. Cause they can charge a premium then, because it just won at Cavalino. Take a sip of my Diet Mountain Dew here. Apologize for that sound. And I wet my whistle. But anyways. So going out on to, I guess you would say the regular field, uh, but like I said, on the upper level, I think maybe they had 12 cars, you know, so again, it wasn’t like they had all that many up, you know, it wasn’t like they said, it’s not a massive show, it’s not like they got hundreds and hundreds of cars, but like I said, so they had about 12, so if you go down on the lower level, you kind of got to go out and come back around, because it’s up on this thing, they got this wall, whatever, but anyways, you You go back around on the lower, we start walking down there and other thing they got, you know, the new four hours. They got a, uh, it’s, um, what the dealer was. I can’t remember. I don’t know if it was, uh, there’s something from down in that area. Um, but the Ferrari dealer presented, uh, all the new stuff. They had a Pearl St. Way there. So I got to sit in that. I got to check it out. That thing is awesome. I gotta say, I mean, I was impressed with it when I first seen it, you know, it came out, all the specs, everything that, and I first saw it, uh, I was like, I liked that a lot. Um, But I want to say be able to sit in it and really check it out. It’s got a lot of back seat leg room. I think that thing is sweet. I mean I can see why those things are going for basically double to triple of what they actually are to buy at MSRP. Um, it’s a great car. And that was all, as we know, with all these things. 99. 9 percent of these people aren’t taking these things off road. It ain’t an off road vehicle. They’re not going off road with these things. Yeah, you’re going to have your YouTubers. Yeah, you’re going to have your Yutzes that got more money they know what to do with. And just beat the hell out of these things and make them off road. But 99. 9%. Of these people that buy these things aren’t going off road. So look fry knows that You know, so I apologize for that. Um So anyways, this thing is slick I gotta say if you ever get the opportunity to see one in person check it out. It’s a cool car So another one that they have was the new s SF90XX. Now as you Ferrari aficionados know, the XX program usually has always been designated for race only cars, race cars, racetrack only cars. Um, and some spectacular ones that it is very limited. And run by Ferrari’s clientele program, where it’s basically, you know, you’re just paying them, you own the car, but they kind of hold on to it, uh, it gets shipped around wherever, racetracks, you just fly into it, you know, and the price of these cars, you know, you’re, you’re able to, it’s not a problem to fly into these places and these venues that they have these events at. So. But, this SF90XX is the first actual road legal XX that they’re actually putting out. And, I I, I want to say, I can’t remember what the actual production is. I know they’re not doing too many of them. I mean they’re doing more than normal. I will say because it’s street legal. Um, but you know, obviously you’re not talking thousands and thousands. They’re not doing like to do with SF 90 where, Hey, we’re just building them. Um, and have at it, uh, cause like, Hey, the purse hangway, same thing. You know, they’re, they’re supposedly limiting production. Um, but anyways, I know I can’t remember what time I had, but anyways, that thing was spectacular too. I think it looked mean. I mean, I think it really. It really accentuates that car very, very well in regards to, you know, making it more aggressive looking how that thing is going to be on the street though. It’s probably gonna beat the shit out of you. You know, uh, that suspension is going to be stiff, everything like that. Cause let’s face it. Yeah, you can drive on the street, but it is still, it’s a track day car based on what it boils down to. It’s a track day car, but I will say it did look cool. That thing was spectacular. So that was cool to see that. So then as you walk down on to more of the show, feel the main show field, You know, you started, it kind of went age wise in regards to going, so when you started at the beginning part, it started basically in your early stuff, into your 50s, then you got into your 60s. So, basically, but to start out with what I thought was spectacular, you started getting into was the 275 GTBs. Um, there was actually, I think it’s one of the three, uh, aluminum competition 275 GTB4s. Oh, God, that thing was gorgeous. Um, just stripped out, I mean, and the cool thing is, obviously when they’re judging, a lot of these times, you know, they got to start the car. So that was really cool to see that. I’ll say if you check out some other videos when they’re unloading, I got some of these cars like driving everything as well. But, uh, anyways, a lot of 275 GTB four cams that were there. That’s one of my favorite cars. I mean, I think spectacular. Um, it’s just, it’s a gorgeous car. Great to drive. I mean, it’s just, it’s a great, great car. Uh, so then it says you kind of worked your way down and started to said. As you go down, the age of the cars start getting newer and newer. Uh, you get into it, obviously you had the 288 GTOs there, which again is probably one of my favorite Ferraris as well. Uh, then you got into your F40s, you had plenty of F40s there, plenty of F50s there. So it was really neat seeing those. And it’s kind of neat seeing, especially, um, between F40s and F50s, because those are old enough, obviously, that you can import European models and bring those in as compared to U. S. A. specific, uh, built models bringing in. So it’s kind of neat to see them next to each other. Cause you can see the little differences between the two from what the European regulations allow and what us regulations allow regard like side marker, lights, bumpers, that kind of stuff. Um, you know, it was unfortunate cause some of the things the USA market made you do in regards to make these things, uh, real legal, uh, kind of ugly fight them, but you know, it’s not too bad, but the one thing like, especially with that forties. which was very nice. Not so much F 50. I mean, yeah, a couple of things they had to tack on there, side marker lights and that, but, uh, great thing about an F 50, a USA one, which why they’re really coveted of the 213 out of the 1, 348 that were built. 213 of them were US specific. Is the U. S. models did not have to have, or I’m sorry, had to have an aluminum gas tank, whereas the European ones, it was just a bladder. Uh, which the bladder has to be replaced every five years, no matter what. It’s, it doesn’t matter mileage, what not, it’s just a, it’s a time thing. Uh, same kind of thing with those cars though is, you know, every five years you gotta have your major service. On those things, belts, whatnot. It’s just one of those things because the car, you know, you’re driving it, what have you. Um, and it ain’t cheap, but you know, it’s kind of, but again, it’s kinda neat see in that. So, um, that’s why those USA ones that were covered, it just kind of the one only 213 out of the 1348 built. Um, but anyways, so as I said, you got down going to that fifties, then you got into your newer stuff, uh, got into some more Testa Rosas, um, you know, you got into, you know, just there’s some cool Dinos. I like that. So I highly recommend it. Check out the video. Walk around with it. But, again, you know, it’s a great event. Now, if you’re a Ferrari aficionado, again, it’s a steep price to get in. And again, you know, staying around that area is not cheap. I was lucky. I scored a beach, a beach, I scored a Verbo down in Lake Worth Beach, which was probably, it was about 15 minutes, 10, 15 minutes because of, and it’s not because of distance, it was just because all the roads driving up to there, unless you drive up to 95, took 95 up and got back off, which almost seems to take the same amount of time, uh, just because of traffic. Um. It was great. Yo, I think it was for I was there from Thursday to Sunday, and I will say it was, I think it was this about 500 bucks, but it’s cool little thing. Lake Worth Beach is really cool. So if you ever that area, check out Lake Worth Beach. Uh, it’s a neat little area. Uh, but anyways. Check out the video online. I said, again, I highly recommend checking out Cavalino yourself. Uh, if you have the opportunity and you want to, you know, spurge a little bit, because it’s a lot of fun. You guys see some great, great stuff. And the other cool thing is they do not like say fence off, uh, or put the velvet ropes around. The cars, so it’s like you can get right up on them. You can get there, check them out, you get to see them, you know, stick your head in, take photos, I mean, you really can get in there and take a look at these cars, which is great. Um, so, I highly recommend it. Check out the video. And, uh, let’s see here till what happens next Ferrari Friday, uh, working on something. And then, guys, remember to check out the Motoring Podcast Network. We got a lot of exciting stuff coming up, uh, this year. We got new shows being added as we speak. So keep an eye on that and until next time guys, we appreciate you listening. Have a good one. This episode has been brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports as part of our motoring podcast network. For more episodes like this, tune in each week for more exciting and educational content from organizations like The exotic car marketplace, the motoring historian, brake fix, and many others. If you’d like to support grand touring motor sports and the motoring podcast network, sign up for one of our many sponsorship tiers at www. patreon. com forward slash GT motor sports. Please note that the content, opinions, and materials presented and expressed in this episode are those of its creator, and this episode has been published with their consent. If you have any inquiries about this program, please contact the creators of this episode via email or social media as mentioned in the episode. Copyright William Ross, Exotic Car Marketplace a division of Sixty5 Motorsports. This episode is part of Gran Touring Motorsports, Motoring Podcast Network and has been republished with permission. [...]
January 28, 2024Ferrari / PodcastWilliam reflects on Mille Miglia week and the recently released movie ‘Ferrari,’ centered around Enzo Ferrari and the historical events of 1957. William recounts his excitement attending the movie’s first screening and provides an in-depth analysis while reminding viewers that it is not a documentary but entertainment. He also discusses Enzo Ferrari’s personal and professional challenges, including his relationships, business struggles, and passion for racing. William emphasizes the quality of the movie’s production, including its casting, cinematography, and historical portrayals, and recommends it to Ferrari enthusiasts. He concludes by encouraging audience engagement and promoting other related content on the Motoring Podcast Network and his YouTube channels, Ferrari Marketplace and Garage 65. Episode 21 00:00 Introduction to Ferrari Fridays 00:40 Exciting Updates from the Motoring Podcast Network 01:00 Ferrari: The Movie Review 01:14 Personal Experience Watching Ferrari 04:26 Historical Context and Accuracy of the Movie 06:42 Racing and Technical Insights 11:19 Movie’s Depiction and Final Thoughts 20:39 Conclusion and Viewer Engagement 22:36 Credits and Sponsorship Information Hello everyone and welcome back to the Fiery Marketplace. I’m your host William Ross and hope everyone’s checking out the Motoring Podcast Network MPN and uh, we’re adding new things on a regular basis. So a lot of exciting things coming. We got, uh, some awesome new shows are going to be headed our way to be, uh, hosted on the site. So be sure to keep checking that out. I’m your host, William Ross. And today for Ferrari Friday, we are going to be talking about Ferrari, the movie, not just Ferrari itself. We’re going to be talking about Ferrari, the movie. So I was thinking about, I actually went and saw the movie the first day it came out. Now, I don’t know where it releases, whatnot, but up in where I’m at by Cleveland. Ohio. Uh, it got released on Christmas Eve. So me and I drove my old man to it to go see it. Bought him his ticket to make sure he’d go with me. So I wasn’t sitting there like some weirdo by myself, but I wouldn’t have cared anyways. But anyway, so I went and saw it for the first showing that they had that day on Christmas Eve. So we could, I could check it out because I was all excited about this movie. Boom, got what the year, year and a half prior to, you know, all the behind the scenes stuff I saw some leaked stuff with shots and everything like that when they’re shooting in the square everything like that So, you know, I was really really excited for it and the kind of stuff you saw in the build up to it said hey, yeah, your tracks are pretty good everything like that and Spoiler it was but again, like I said, I thought about doing it right after I saw it But then I kind of had a thought like well, you know what? I don’t want to kind of do a spoiler for anybody. I don’t want to rain on anybody’s parade or anything like that. Just wants to go see it because obviously holidays, Christmas, you know, not everyone, you know, is the nutcase about Ferrari like me is going to run out immediately and go see it. So, like I know my man Eric there, you know, Crew Chief Eric over at Rape Fix, you know, I know he was trying to see it, but the closest place he could go was like an hour away from where he lives. I am down in Palm Beach right now. Actually, I’m in Lake Worth, Florida right now because I just attended Cavalino that was up at the Breakers Hotel. So, I did a verbal stay in this cool little cottage that’s in the backyard of some nice cool little house in Lake Worth. If you’ve ever been down to, uh, I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Lake Worth, the area, but it’s, it’s a really cool little area. Uh, cool little cottages and everything like that. You know, everything’s kind of set up in, uh, like a beachy. You know, kind of way, uh, supposedly it’s got the largest, I guess, um, collection of all these cottages, like over a thousand of them that are just kind of lined up and down in this one area. So really cool, um, you know, and the Verbo was, you know, not that expensive. It was pretty cool. Uh, it’s pretty cheap, parking right in the back. The one cool thing was, is if you check out my videos, um, take a look at those on YouTube. I hope you’ve, uh, liked and subscribed to my videos and then checked out the YouTube channel. Garage 65 or the Ferrari Marketplace. Garage 65 is two words garage and the word 60 spelled out Then the number five and the reasoning behind that if I haven’t mentioned it before is because garage The number six and five was going to cost an arm and a leg for the website It was gonna be like three grand for GoDaddy. Garage 65 with the word 60 spelled out was You know, a dollar for the first year. So, do the math. So anyway, getting back to it, like I said, I didn’t want to do a rehash or just a review of the movie right off the bat because I wanted everyone to go see it. I wanted everyone to get their own opinion about it. You know, kind of You know, see what their thoughts were, everything, you know, and it’s been very positive, but the one thing I really want to stress to everybody and, you know, and I posted up some things on LinkedIn and around the thing, just some little brief synopsis. I didn’t get into the details because I didn’t want to kind of spoil it for anybody, but it’s, this is not a documentary. This is not factual. This is not trying to tell you exactly how things were in 1957 and the buildup there’s, you know, obviously there’s a lot of leeway because it’s a movie. It’s entertainment. So please. Remember that this is not a documentary. This is just for entertainment value It’s just you know to go spend a few hours at the movie theater checking it out All I really want to stress to everyone out there Before they go see it. If you haven’t seen it already, like I said, I watched it a second time. I downloaded and watched it on the plane on the flight down here. Um, three hour flight. So that killed some time. And I was actually starting and I was reading the Brock Yates book, the Enzo book. I had already read the other one by Luca, I don’t know if I can, I can never pronounce his name, but the Italian guy. I read that one prior. Uh, and Brock Yates’s books kind of got a lot of similar similarities to it. Um, but obviously it’s just a different viewpoint. I think it’s a little more. To the point and not so, I don’t want to say fluffy. Um, Luca’s book was, I want to say, you know, I don’t want to say put him in a positive light. I don’t know how I really want to word it. You know, he, um, he wasn’t going to be negative, I guess you could say, or just, I guess say all, you know, I guess you’d say all warts and blisters and everything like that. Where in Brockade’s books, he’s going all warts and blisters. In essence, you know, not all of them extremely in depth, but I mean, you know, he doesn’t pull any punches, which is great. So, anyway, back about the movie. Now, as we all know, the movie’s based on 1957 and that short period, just a few months of when the meal Amelia was going to take place. Obviously, actually the last meal Amelia to ever take place. If you’ve listened to the last two episodes, myself, John Summers, and Coochie Eric went over these and, you know, kind of got in depth. We did a two parter because there was a lot to kind of unload and go over. So, but take a listen to those if you like. But again, the movie takes place in that short period in 1957. You know, obviously, you know, Enzo is getting to that point. You know, racing is getting a lot more expensive, you know. How familiar are with his racing background and history in regards to what they competed in, but they competed in everything because one of the things that he did to kind of, I guess, augment cash, you know, earnings is, you know, he got a percentage of the, uh, driver’s winnings. So. You know, but he covered, you know, bills and whatnot, got the car done, but he’d also, you know, get a percentage and sometimes he got, you know, start money, that kind of stuff, but you know, a big portion of how he made money was through getting winnings from the driver. I could have anywhere from, you know, 40, 50%, 30%, depending on the driver, you know, obviously to entice them to drive his cars and they won quite a lot, but, you know, they ran and racing everything, you know, at that point in time, Formula One, they were doing endurance racing, um, you know, they were doing hill climbs, you know, And in that period of time, there’s probably a race going on in some shape or form every weekend over in Europe because it was just absolutely massive in regards to the popularity of the sport. So, I mean, you can go anywhere, just in Italy alone itself and go and race somewhere pretty much probably every weekend and find an event, you know, and how much, you know, winning drawings and whatnot, you know, obviously it’s going to vary depending on the promoter and the vet, everything like that. But, you know, I know for like D’Amelio and Target Florida, you know, he, they did pretty well because You know, they entered quite a few cars now again, go back and listen to the podcast. We did covering the melee melee, kind of going over it, but, you know, starting out in the first, you know, obviously pre war there wasn’t really Scuderia Ferrari technically as Ferrari, the cars, there was Scuderia Ferrari as a team for Alfa Romeo, but, you know, they competed Enzo race, you know, they did pretty well. Um, you know, and obviously, as we know, Enzo wasn’t that bad of a racer himself either. So post war coming back 1947 was the first race back. He only had two cars entered and So but subsequent years going forward, obviously that you know grew because obviously in 48 he won with Clemente B and Daddy So as that goes and you know, they make this comment the movie So this was never something that was created by NASCAR. It wasn’t anything like that It was basically kind of by these guys’s Hey, went on Sunday, sell on Monday. That was the motto and it’s actually in the movie movie It gets make that comment gets made so see if you catch it in there But it does get stated that comment does make the statement in there So I thought that was kind of an interesting little tidbit, you know, it’s just held true no matter what Race series manufacturer, what hey, went up Sunday, saw Monday, but as we know, at that point in time, obviously in 1957, you know, they make reference to it that they only sold the previous year. So, in 1956, 98 cars, you know, Angel thinks it’s more, and he’s not really into all the minute details in regards to running his business. He’s more focused on the racing, the cars being faster, building the motors, you know, and hey, horsepower, everything like that. And as we know, he was always about, you know, motor in front, you know, the ox, ox pulls the cart, um, you know, it doesn’t push it, you know, hence his big reluctance to go to mid engine cars, you know, the big onslaught from the, uh, British entourages coming in with the rear engine cars. And obviously we know that Proust superior. So he obviously had to go that route, but at this point in time, everything’s still, you know, basically all front engine, uh, in 1957, you know, he’s running. You know, that’s when the infamous Testarossa name came out, but they also had the 500 TR, 500 TRC’s racing that, um, but the big cars that they had in there were the 315’s and the 335’s. So, obviously the difference between those is displacement, uh, a few more horsepower, everything like that, torque wise. 315’s were always just a little more reliable, a little bit easier on the car. Whereas the 335s were a little more, uh, abusive to the base, especially the rear ends, the back trans axles, the rear axles, the suspension, uh, just getting beaten and everything like that. And you got to stay, you know, these guys are having like, you know, 30, 40, 50 gallon gas tanks in these cars. So you start out a race and you’re going balls out and you know, that thing’s taking a beating, but as you use the gas, it gets lighter, but you make a pit stop, bam, they’re loading that back up and these things are taking a beating. So there you go. So, cause a lot of the cars in that 1957 race, especially Peter Collins, who, and just a side note, the Greek photographer, Peter Klimaski was his co pilot, taking some great stuff in that. But he was winning majority of the race, uh, till his rear end probably had a broke on him. So. But anyway, let’s start with the movie in the beginning. So, you know, it starts out and again, you know, and I got to say Penelope Cruz plays a great role as Laura. Uh, the lady that plays Enzo’s mother is hilarious. She’s just short little tiny lady, but you know, and. Cheyenne, Cheyenne or Shailene Woodley is playing Lena Lardy, his mistress, mistress forever that, you know, he, she bore Piero Lardy, but then obviously it turns to Piero Ferrari, uh, subsequently down the road after Laura dies. But, I will say this, they were very gracious in regards to the, the looks, I guess you could say, about them, because if you look at some photos back in the day, neither of those women were very good lookers. I mean, uh. Lena was obviously a little bit better, more attractive than Laura was, but they’re not very handsome women, I guess you could say. So I don’t know, cause like I said, Enzo, like, you know, he wasn’t like the, let’s say the most attractive guy either. But so anyways, so they were very, you know, gracious in that fact. So it starts out, you know, obviously 1927, Dino’s already died. So his son’s already passed away. So it’s always the point of contention between obviously Enzo and Laura. Because Laura, it seems in the movie, is blaming, I can see it’s, you know, blaming Enzo for his death and not saving him, but you know, he had muscular dystrophy. There was no savings back then, it wasn’t going to happen. So, you know, it’s amazing that Dino lived until he was 26. That’s, you know, that was even unbelievable for that day and age. So, and at that, by this point in time, though, is when it starts and she’s not aware of Piero, how true this is, I don’t know, but she’s not aware of it, then through some, going to the bank and whatnot, she discovers, you know, finds out about him, you know, and finds out about, uh, Lena, and then finds out about Piero, all this, and that’s when she makes the, you know, kind of thing, and he’s a, ends up basically flat, flat out says that, you know, he loves Lena, you know, hey, obviously he loves Piero, because it’s his son, you know. Uh, but Laura makes the statement, and I guess, you know, puts her face down and says, He will not have the Ferrari name until after I die. And as you know, Laura dies in 1978. And in 1979, even maybe sooner, 78, right after Laura dies, Piero takes on the Ferrari name. So now it’s named Piero Ferrari. And just a little sidebar. He has a son, or grandson, I’m sorry, grandson, I believe his name is Enzo Ferrari, I believe it’s Enzo, he’s going to, he’s the last I checked, he was a, not like a stalker, but he was going to college, uh, somewhere in California, I don’t know if it’s Pepperdine or, I don’t know, somewhere out there, but anyways, so, again, the movie takes a lot of leeway in regards to historical accuracy, so again, this is not a documentary, this is just entertainment. So, you know, they kind of start going into about his money woes and, you know, being approached by Ford and all this crap, which, as we know, did not happen until the 60s. So they’re a little bit ahead of their time in regards to that. And then also the talks with Fiat and Anginelli, you know, giving him a call. There’s, it’s funny, you know, Anginelli, you know, they’re talking on the phone. He makes the comment, why didn’t you call me first? He goes, I did, you know, and, uh, and you said no. He goes, that was 1917. So Enzo was holding the grudge. So anyways, you know, so they, they discussed that and again, you know, they go into everything about testing, you know, getting the cars, you know, they get on how to port, you know, Alfonso de Portillo to Portago. I’ll say that, right. I can’t do accents very well. You know, coming onto the scene in 1957, um, you know, testing, he shows up. So, why don’t you introduce yourself? Enzo knows who he is because he bought a car from him the previous year or prior or something like that. So, he’s aware of this and he knows that he won the Tour de France, uh, previously. And I want to say, was it a Ferrari? Uh, and those not, those who aren’t familiar with the Tour de France, take a look at it. It was a grueling, grueling race. Not only the roads, but our racetracks, time trials, everything like that. But it was, that was a pretty impressive, uh, undertaking if you took part in that and you won. So anyway, so the Pargo, the Pargo comes onto the scene. Um, and he goes and tests because, um, so bear got a cat on my mind’s going blank. They’re testing at the track, you know, um, no, it’s a Castellani who can, who guys got the camera? Watch the movie. You’ll see. I can’t remember off the top of my head. My mind’s going blank. Um, anyways, you know, he’s wanting to do it and he’s like, oh, no, no, this and that, you know, I don’t have any driving. I have my job. There’s my dad. So bear comes into town about setting a fast lap. Enzo calls up cast. And if I’m, and if I’m wrong in the names, I’m sorry. I apologize. Like I said, I, this is, I believe that’s who it is. I, I don’t have my notes in front of me ’cause I’m, I’m down in Florida and I’m, I’m, I’m doing this, so I have some time. So anyways, he calls the cast, Hey, bring your gloves, blah, blah, blah. Come, you know, the bears coming in the town to, you know, test and, you know, in a Maserati and break in time. So anyways, he goes to track the port goes. Uh, and if they have to track him there and he’s pushing him real hard, Kesselite, and then he, you know, dies and gets himself killed. So, eggs, then Enzo looks at the program and says, be in my office Monday. So, he gets to drive that way because Kesselite got killed. Um, and again, or whoever was driving it, again, I apologize if I’m giving names wrong. But, you’ll see the movie and you’ll understand. So, anyways, so he gets the car and obviously we know in the race what happens at the end. But, so, you got Pierrot, Tarufi, DePorto, Peter Collins are running the cars, and you got Oliver Gendibian as your factory driver. Gendibian’s in a coupe with another gentleman in a 335, a 315, so there’s a smattering. But, total there’s 24 cars, or 22 cars total entered, but he’s only got those four factory cars. Obviously, what happens in the race, I think we’re all aware of it, everything goes back and forth and whatnot. I was like, I said before, Peter Collins is, you know, his back axles, rear axle suspension is in a brace, he can’t go on a transmission shot. Uh, DePorgo’s up there going, running, he’s got some potential up here. Truffy’s, you know, this guy’s run the race, you know, 16 times prior, 15 times prior, so he knows the course. Ups, down, left, right, he’s got it down pat. So, obviously going through the whole race, everything, we get to the end. Um, you know, I, I think we know what happens because of the accident and I will say this, it’s a pretty brutal, I know it’s CGI, but that’s pretty brutal how they depict that accident that the program gets into and takes out those people. Now, one thing I thought was interesting, I don’t know if you ever, I was looking at some of the notes, some of the, you know, some interviews with Michael Mann, and supposedly when he went to scout that area where the accident happened, some old man came out and actually, And I said, Hey, what are you doing? And he explained it to him and he’s like, Oh, it was, I was there. He goes, you know, and his brother had died. He actually was one of the kids. That was in the farmhouse. It’s big to the wherever to kill out to watch it now out there eating dinner again How much you do I don’t know but he got that from those whole man. So he put that in there But the old man say oh, yeah, that was my brother. Yes. We came out blah blah and then his brother was killed So I thought that was kind of interesting. So getting it right from the horse’s mouth So that’s probably pretty accurate to painting how that was. But again, I can’t guarantee it That’s you know going from you know, a director of a movie is trying to sell tickets. So who knows but anyways You know, the photography of the movie, the racing is great in it, um, like it, I don’t know how much you’ve looked into the cars that they were utilizing that obviously were not actual, real, legitimate Ferraris. They were recreations. done out of this firm out of Italy, and they look phenomenal. I mean, they did a hell of a job building those. Um, you know, if you look into who, you know, Prior Truffula’s Patrick Dempsey, uh, uh, was it, uh, Derrick Hill, Phil Hill’s son, you know, is in there as well. You know, there’s some, you know, names that you should be familiar with that actually portray some of these drivers. So, you know, you have legit guys, you know, running. So, but the race is really good. The engines sound glorious. I don’t know if that’s what the engines are using or if that was just dubbed in sound. But, I gotta say, they did a phenomenal job. I really, really enjoyed the movie. I thought it was great. And again, I took it back, it’s entertainment. This is not a documentary. I highly recommend you go see it if you haven’t. Um, and if you have, if you’re like me, I bought it so I can watch it, you know, ten times over again and again when I get bored. Cause it’s, I feel it’s just that entertaining. Adam Driver, I thought he did a great job as Enzo Ferrari. Obviously, the, you know, going between how Enzo looks and how Adam Driver looks, you know. But there, but I thought he did an excellent job of portraying him. You know, only things I’ve ever seen of Enzo, I’m sure the majority of people has, you know, interviews he did or, you know, recordings. Not really kind of any personal stuff, so how much that is true in regards to that, I don’t know. But I thought he did an excellent job, like Stephanie Delpy, who did a great job as Laura. Uh, you know, as we know, she rules everything with an iron fist. You know, she, uh, basically created the, uh, the mutiny there at Ferrari where all these, you know, you know, uh, higher ups left because they were just sick and tired of all the meddling and everything that was going on. But, you know, it seems to be how true it is again, if the movie is depicted as accurate, you know, she seemed to kind of have very good control and oversight of what was going on with the finances. So. So. Again, I highly recommend seeing it if you have not seen it yet, you know, leave your comments below. Shoot me an email. Let me know your thoughts. You know, I always like to get to hear other people’s opinion. Like I said, it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. I was going to find, you know, the nuances, everything. Something’s wrong with it. Everyone wants me to pick it, you know, but you know, hey, so be it. You have that right. So, but check out the movie. I highly recommend it. You know, it’s, I, I, you know, I feel it’s, you know, well portrayed, you know, and if you haven’t read the books, read both the books and it kind of, you’ll see that, you know, hey, they’re kind of following the book pretty closely. So, which is really nice because I said, Brock Hayes is doing an extra job. I’m about halfway through his book. Um, but, you know, reading the other books, they’re both about 800, 900 pages long. So, I mean, they’re pretty in depth and going to it, but the books actually, you know, are starting from basically the beginning of Enzo’s, you know, hey. in life and going forward and all the way to the end. So. It really kind of it doesn’t encapsulate that whole time period just to sell those 800 pages But when you get to those points in the book, you’re talking about it, you know The million million was extremely extremely important to Enzo Ferrari Obviously in selling cars and we have you know history starts. It’s going forward as we all know what happens So again, I appreciate all you guys listening. I’m William. I’m your host Like I said, leave some comments below shoot me an email William at the Ferrari marketplace calm And hey, check out the YouTube channels the fire marketplace and also check out garage 65 Uh, obviously the Ferrari Marketplace is just deals with everything Ferrari, Garage 65, it covers everything. I go over all different types of cars and check out events and everything like that. So, um, take a look at both those and hit the subscribe button on those things to help support the channel. Uh, remember check out the Motoring Podcast Network. We got a lot of great things coming this year, so we’re going to be blowing things up. So, hit that like and subscribe button, keep track. I appreciate everyone listening and back to you next Friday with talking about Cavalino. Thanks guys. Copyright William Ross, Exotic Car Marketplace a division of Sixty5 Motorsports. This episode is part of Gran Touring Motorsports, Motoring Podcast Network and has been republished with permission. 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January 26, 2024Ferrari / Podcast / ProvenanceWilliam returns for Part-2 with historian Jonathan Summers, along with Crew Chief Eric, continuing the intricate history of Ferrari and the Mille Miglia race. They discuss Ferrari’s legendary road and racing cars, prominent drivers, notable races, and the collector car market. They explore the evolution from the early 1950s to the monumental changes by 1957, highlighting technical advancements in car design, key figures like Ascari and Fangio, and the passion and dangers of the race. The episode also examines the tragic 1957 Mille Miglia that led to the race’s end as a competitive event and its subsequent resurgence as a historic rally, reflecting on its cultural and historical significance. Winning Ferraris mentioned on this Episode 1953 – Ferrari 340MM-Chassis 0280AM driven by Gianno Marzotto & Marco Crosara; Gianno Marzotto wins at 89mph 1954 – Lancia of Ascari with Marzotto 2nd, Biondetti 4th in Ferrari’s 1955 – Mercedes of Moss/Jenkins with Castelotti close behind. Record speeds!  1956 – Ferrari 290MM-Chassis 0616 driven by Eugenio Castelotti wins at 85.42 mph in the RAIN! 1957 – Ferrari 315S-Chassis 0684 driven by Piero Taruffi wins at 95 mph Episode 20 On Ferrari Friday’s, William Ross from the Exotic Car Marketplace will be discussing all things Ferrari and interviewing people that live and breath 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. 00:00:00 Introduction to Ferrari Fridays 00:00:37 Recap and Introduction to Part Two 00:00:59 The Mille Miglia: 1954-1957 00:01:38 Lancia’s Dominance and Ascari’s Tragic End 00:07:03 Ferrari’s Diverse Lineup and Auction Insights 00:10:55 The Debate on Authenticity in Classic Cars 00:20:19 Tribute to Tazio Nuvolari 00:26:09 The Evolution of Co-Drivers in Racing 00:29:03 Stirling Moss and the 1955 Mille Miglia 00:35:02 Ferrari’s Engine Switcheroo 00:36:40 Fangio’s Unique Approach to Racing 00:37:34 The Power of Coca Leaves 00:38:53 Moss and Jenkinson’s Mille Miglia Adventures 00:42:07 Castellotti’s Rainy Victory 00:50:13 The Tragic 1957 Mille Miglia 01:03:57 The Rebirth of the Mille Miglia 01:09:31 Conclusion and Further Reading Crew Chief Brad: 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. William Ross: Welcome back to the Ferrari Marketplace podcast. We are back again for part two. Of our story of the millimillia, we have crew chief Eric on as our moderator and pundit that just, you know, likes to pipe in and ask some good questions. And we got Jonathan Summers, the motoring historian, is also participating again to wrap this thing up, take us home in the last 4 years. If you all remember, we ended up at around 1953, and we thought that was a good break point because as you get into 54, 55, 56 and 57, there’s some big jumps in regards to horsepower. The cars that are utilized and just the times, everything like that. So it was a nice break point. So we’re going to cover the last four years and John’s also going to touch base. And we’ll discuss a little bit at the end there regarding what they’re doing now with it and how they brought it back. Not so much as a race, but you know what they’re doing with it now. So we’ll kind of talk about that a little bit at the end as well. But gentlemen, welcome back. We got part two Crew Chief Eric: going on here. Picture it, Brescia, 1954. What is going on? William Ross: Yes. Jon Summers: Well, Lancia are in the house, aren’t they? This was the year of Lancia, or Lancia is the correct pronunciation, isn’t it? Well, I was struggling with the Italian pronunciation before. The other thing, I misspoke last time. I said that Lancia himself was gone. Of course, the father, Vincenzo Lancia, the racing driver from the beginning of the 1900s for FIA, that guy was gone. But his son, Gianni Lancia. Was driving this project, this return to motorsport for Lancia as a mark, you know, from the reading that I’ve done, Lancia were, were the team to beat in 1956 and quite interesting though, they were focused on formula one, the formula one car was taking a long time coming. They had the mechanical parts, so they felt like, you know, what. We can put together a sports car team and the sports car team they put together, the cars that they built were maybe not, maybe similar in power to the Ferrari, maybe a little to the Ferraris of the period, maybe a little less dependent on the model. But my sense is that the Lancias went around corners better. So, so the Formula One car was, I think, D20, was it the sports car that participated in them all was the D24 and the car was sufficiently good. You know, the, the best drivers went to them and 54 was won by Alberto Ascari. And that would be like Verstappen winning the cannonball nowadays. I think that’s the right way to think about it in the Ascari was formerly a one world champion in, in. 52 and 53, I think those two years, but back to back for Ferrari. And there was a period there where he won nine Grand Prix in a row, which doesn’t seem that much in comparison to Verstappen, but in era when there were only six Grand Prix in a year. It meant that Ascari was unbeaten in Formula One for 18 months, so it’s this period that he makes the move from Ferrari to Lancia and does an event that he never really enjoyed very much, never really wanted to do, the Mille Miglia, and wins for Lancia. William Ross: What year did Lancia give all those D50s to Ferrari when they got an F1? What year was that? Jon Summers: Right after Ascari was killed. William Ross: Okay. Jon Summers: It’s the spring of 55 and Ascari crashes the Lancia into the harbour at Monaco. In the Grand Prix, and then is at Monza the following week. And William, you probably know this story. He’s at Monza the following week. He’s a deeply superstitious guy, Iskari. Literally, if a black cat crossed the road, he would go and drive another way. He wouldn’t drive where the black cat crossed in front of him. Literally, the guy was that superstitious. He’s at the track. Castellotti or Villaresi or somebody was there testing a Ferrari sports car. And Ascari says, can I take a couple of laps? Oh, the other thing is he didn’t have his lucky helmet. He went out and drove without his lucky helmet. William Ross: Yeah, he borrowed. I can’t remember off the top of my head. He borrowed one of the other driver’s helmets that was there. I Jon Summers: think it was Castellotti. I’m not sure, but I think it was. William Ross: Yeah, he borrowed his helmet. Yeah, because he didn’t have his thing. And I was thinking people are a little bit surprised that he did it because how superstitious he was. And I was like, this is kind of odd, you know, for him, and went out and did it, and that’s that. Jon Summers: And rolls the car at the bend, you know, now it’s a right, left, right, isn’t it? In those days, it was just a left hand kink, which if you think about it, was one of the most challenging corners, probably the most challenging corner at Monza, and he rolled the car there. Yeah, this speaks to this whole thing of, you know, we see roll bars, disfiguring historic race cars now, and it can be quite hard to see. I always feel like the Cobra is the only car that, you know, the little roll bar actually suits most cars. Terrible with the roll bar, but really when, when you think about it, the amount of drivers that we lost, especially in midget racing in the States, but really in open, we’re in, you know, in Formula One, the amount of drivers we lost, Vazzi, we talked about last time, you know, it’s a bang on the head. The guy would have been fine had he had a proper helmet, and he certainly would have been fine had he had a helmet and a roll cage. But yeah, that was the loss of Ascari. That was, uh, spring 55, but you get the impression that it’s this grand, passionate gesture that with Ascari gone, we’re going to throw up our hands and we’re not going to participate anymore. My understanding is that they were short money as well, that the effort to develop. The D 24 and the D 50, uh, completely, you know, spoiled them financially. Crew Chief Eric: Not only that, they were also investing heavily in rally at the same time. So to run two different major disciplines of motor sport, that’s gotta be cost ineffective for them at that time. So they had to make a decision. So without a talented driver, like Ascari in the ranks, you go to the other discipline of motor sport, where maybe lesser known, but it’s more affordable to run long term. Jon Summers: Yeah. I mean, they reckon that Aurelia, wasn’t it? The B24, that was considered the finest road car of the period. All the Formula One drivers wanted one in 53. You know, my own personal connection, you know, Mike Hawthorne, I grew up near where Mike Hawthorne lived. I have a lot of personal associations with Mike Hawthorne, you know, Hawthorne’s dad. Ran a garage named after the Isle of Man TT because he loved motorcycles, but he sold Lancia. We sold Lancias and then Jaguars, but he was a committed Lancia guy. Absolutely loved Lancia. Did Leslie Hawthorne, but we’ve digressed here somewhat, haven’t we? So for the Mille Miglia in 54. Ascari is in one of the lancers, but Ferrari is still able to field a pretty strong team of what, William, Ferrari 375 pluses? Was that what they were running then, or was it still 340s? William Ross: They had 24 cars, 24 Ferraris that registered. Three or four did not even start, and then obviously had a large portion of retired, but you had the 500 Mondial. You had a 250 MM, you had 375 also in there, not many of them, MM and a plus, 212 export, 16 MM tried and true at 212 inter, 340 America, 250 Monza. So, I mean, it was kind of a, again, a scattering. Of different models that Ferrari had produced. Jon Summers: Wasn’t the Mondial a four cylinder? Wasn’t that car that RM had? Just this, that was like the twisted up wreck. And they were like, literally, it was a, it was a twisted up tin can. And they were estimating 1. 2 million. And you rolled your eyes. And then it made like 1. 9 or something. Wasn’t that a Mondial? William Ross: Yes, it was. Yeah. And well, not only twisted up, it was burnt. It was in the fire. That’s where people are kind of rolling their eyes and, you know, people just couldn’t get it, you know, understand it. But when you start breaking down, and again, it’s going to be how someone views it, because is it the actual car? Hey, they take the chassis plate off it, put it on a whole new car, which you’re going to have to do. I mean, and maybe they’ll save a couple pieces off that chassis just for originality reason to say it. But whatever they make out of that’s going to be completely brand new car, but you know, they try to justify it, say, well, here’s what one complete restoring goes for what now? It’s like, well, because if memory serves me, I mean, they have the engine and transmission for it to to put in there. Jon Summers: Oh, I didn’t know that William Ross: they can put it all back together. But. Is it really the car? Jon Summers: Oh, I think so. I thought there was nothing. I didn’t realize there was the engine and transmission. I think if there’s the engine and transmission, I think the bodywork, that’s just the dress on the beautiful woman, isn’t it? That’s what Ferrari used to say. He was all about the engine. If you’ve got the engine, then that’s the real thing. I was going to say about the whole car. You see, I feel like it would be like a continuation Cobra. The great thing with a continuation Cobra is it’s just like the real thing, but you can go out and drive it just like they did in period. And if you wrap it around a lamppost, well, that’s a sad day, but we’ve not thrown away a piece of history. Whereas were that Ferrari Mondial. As it had raced in the Mille Miglia. You could never do that. It would be destruction of a work of art. But if it’s something which has just been knocked up in a workshop 10 minutes ago, that’s exactly the same as the original was. Well, that’s awesome. You can go to Goodwood and you can cosplay that you are one of the Marzotto brothers. I mean, it’s the best thing in the world. William Ross: Oh yeah. I said, there’s an ask for every seat. So it just depends on what someone wants to do. Yeah. I mean, it opens a ton of doors for someone. Getting into events and everything. And again, I don’t know if it’s, someone’s going to get it at a value price compared to like a real original one. I say never wreck cause they all pretty much have been wrecked at some point to what extent, but you know, it’d be interesting to see in three, four years when the car is done. I mean, that’s gotta be a minimum, if not maybe five years for them to restore that car, unless someone just goes whole hog. Now you’re talking basically building a whole new chassis, all new metal work. And then you got everything else. I mean, you have your engine and trans you dropped in, but then you have everything else and it’s. And it’s not like you can buy, find NOS parts to put on that thing to what extent, I don’t know, it’ll be interesting to see where they get that thing done because it’s going to make a splash because everyone’s going to know where that car came from and what they started with. So it’s going to be interesting to see and some people are going to knock it and say, no, I think Joe, it’s not even a real thing. Everyone say, well, no, it’s got the chassis plate. Hey, all race cars were wrecked back in the day. And you know, how many cars actually out there still have their original chassis, blah, blah. And there was, um, like a big argument and court thing on that 935, uh, was the Kramer Porsche ever was, uh, about which one was the real lungs. They both had the same thing and, you know, went to the courts and everything about it. You know, so you have a lot of that. And it’s unfortunate, but some people play that game. Jon Summers: Well, we should touch on this, shouldn’t we? Because isn’t the one Ferrari chassis number that there are three iterations of? William Ross: Yeah. Jon Summers: But for people who don’t understand this, it’s really hard to believe. But fundamentally, I think what happened was the car crashed, was wrecked. Then. It was broken up, and one person had the engine and one person had the body, and then when old Ferraris became multi billion dollar cars, both people built a complete car, replica, original, whatever you want to say, built another car around the bits that they had, but for there to be three, there had to be some additional knowledge. Wrinkle in that. Do you know what that wrinkle is? Will you? Crew Chief Eric: This might be similar to what happened to James Dean’s 550 Spider and we had Lee Raskin on a couple seasons back who’s the world’s expert on all those cars and the way they did it in that case was Part of the chassis supposedly went on this national road show for the highway safety commission, but that was the body and the engine got sold to somebody and that has its number. And then the transaxle had a matching number. And so the car got sort of split up in three ways and there’s rumor where his engine ended up where the transaxle. was found under some guy’s porch and all these kinds of things. So it’s not unbelievable that this would have happened to a Ferrari as well. And again, goes back to what Trevor Lister was talking about in the episode that aired earlier this week about how these numbers don’t match. And we should really rely on the engine number more than anything else at the end of the day. William Ross: Yeah, in my opinion, I agree that’s your beating heart of the vehicle, you know, and that’s why some manufacturers, especially back in the day is that was their definitive, which car was, which was by the engine and transmission. It wasn’t, it had nothing to do with the chassis number. It was like an afterthought, but their reasoning was no, Hey, whatever that engine did, that’s your, that’s the car back then because accidents, whatnot, and things getting rebuilt, obviously, because the price of these things, there’s a lot of shady people out there that, you know, are going to do whatever they can either a Somehow, some way they got their hands on a chassis plate number, or they, um, you know, have one reproduced or something like that. And especially this day and age, you know, you can really fake something really good in regards to patina and whatnot. You know, you’re always going to have an argument with someone, you know, the person that owns owns it is always going to say, no, mine’s the real one. The other person owns it’s going to say theirs is the real one. If it turns out that you don’t have the real one, unfortunately, because you’re gonna take a hit financially. But, you know, you could bring in five different experts, get five different That’s Jon Summers: really what it’s about though, isn’t it? It’s really about money. It’s really that people only built all these cars up when they were worth lots of money. William Ross: Yeah. Jon Summers: And now the argument is, is that mine’s the real one because it’s not got the engine. And you’re saying, no, no, mine’s the real one because it’s got the chassis. And then the bloke that had the paperwork all along and had one wheel left. Cause when his grandfather sold the car, he didn’t give the title. He like lost the title or something. Cause that’s the kind of thing that happens, isn’t it? With it. That’s how it evolves. William Ross: Oh yeah. Jon Summers: There’s a whole world of fakes. There’s a factory in Russia somewhere, which is making fake. Mercedes 300 SLs that are being passed off as real. That was something somebody told me. Uh, that was like a whisperings on the lawn at Pebble conversation I had a couple of years ago now. I don’t know if that’s still going on, but a couple of those cars had come onto the market. And whilst we’re on the theme of these sort of, is it fake? Is it real? Are you guys aware of, is it Pura Sang? Yeah. Workshop in Argentina who will make you a replica. They’ve done like Tassio Nuvolari, Achille Vazzi, Zagato body style, Alfa Romeo 1750s and 2300s and that kind of stuff. They’re famous for Bugatti Type 21s. They’ll also build you an Alfa 8C if you really want it. I’ve seen them with the Alfa. William Ross: They just started doing Bentleys too. Bentley blowers. You know, you have a lot of these companies out there and, and I think Pursang, Pursang, however you pronounce it, P U R S A N G. You know, they’ve been at it for a while. You know, they were building replicas, but I think they really kind of made their stamp in the world in regards to they started doing the Bugattis. And they’re not cheap. It’s not like you’re talking 89 grand. I mean, these are half a million, if not more. And they’re supposedly tool room copies in essence. Of what, you know, the originals were. So I mean, basically as close as you can get, and I believe the FIA has finally kind of, I want to say caved in or basically said, well, yeah, you can get FIA historical papers for these, you know, and run them because obviously the value of real ones is so high. People won’t bring them out and run them on a track. People want to see these cars. So they’re kind of like, all right, well, let’s just give them the papers and do it and be able to run it. It’s kind of like there was a proliferation of these companies doing it. But then all of a sudden you had a lot of these manufacturers all of a sudden pushing back in regards to trademark and all that kind of stuff in regards to what they were making. Because it can knock on what and the value and everything like that. You know, think of Ferris Bueller’s Ferrari. You know, that thing’s actually in recent years, that thing’s been jumped around a few times regards to sale wise. Me personally, I don’t put any value with something that’s got like a movie problem on it. So that I could give two shits if it’s been in a movie or not. Only person I think I put any kind of, I guess, weight to it in regards to Bao is maybe Steve McQueen, but not as much as people do. I mean, I think it’s obscene what some people play just because they say, Oh, Steve McQueen owned it four owners ago. Didn’t know he wasn’t the last owner. Crew Chief Eric: That 911S that he has at the beginning of Le Mans is more interesting than the 917 that he drove in the movie. William Ross: Yeah, exactly. You know, stuff like that. So, um, it’s kind of an interesting world getting into in regards to historicals. You have it where people, these owners, don’t want to bring those cars out and run them on a track with anyone else. They might do it by themselves and do a solo run around or something like that, but they’re not going to race in any of the historical races just because of value. So I think the FIA is kind of caving in regards to authenticity and saying, Look, we get it. Crew Chief Eric: But there are museums out there that do exercise their vehicles. Two of them come to mind. One of them is the REVS Institute in Florida, and the other is the Simeone Foundation in Philadelphia, where they will take these one of a kind, basically priceless race cars, And exercise them on track or in their parking lots or whatever. Have you? William Ross: Yes, exactly. Well, Sydney does it once a month, isn’t it? Like every, the third Saturday or something of the month. So anyone, Hey, if you’re in that area, go check it out. Look it up. Awesome museum, the collection, unfortunately, Dr. Samuel passed away recently. All those cars in there are just, you can almost say priceless because all of them. Or a winning car from a race, either Lamar, Daytona or something. So they all, they were a winning car. That was kind of his prerequisite. So he’s got some spectacular machinery down there and I highly recommend if you’re ever down in Florida over by Naples. Go to the Rebs Institute. It’s a phenomenal museum. The people are super nice. It’s a great place to go and spend three, four hours. The docents there that walk you around, know this stuff left and right. They’re super nice and they take you around and answer any questions you got. So I highly recommend the Rebs Institute as well. You know, they do a phenomenal job. Not people, I would say, aware of it, but I don’t think they know, hey, it’s actually a museum. You can go there and check things out and, and see what they got going on. But, you know, I definitely highly recommend. Both of those, if you’re ever in those areas, definitely hit those up. So now we’re going to get back to where we’re supposed to be at in the middle. Amelia. Crew Chief Eric: So 1954, there’s a lot of things going on in the world of motorsport. And we just talked about a scary death and there’s some other tragic deaths in that year. But what’s interesting about that is you mentioned where he wrecked in Monaco. This. repeats itself with Bandini in the exact same spot a couple of years later. And we can unpack that on a totally different episode. But I want to go back to something, John, you talked about in the first part of this discussion, which was Biondetti. He was 56 years old. He’s pretty sick. He only has a couple months to live. 1954, Mille Miglia was his last Jon Summers: race. And in not that fast a car. He finishes fourth, and I reread the Mike Lawrence account from the Brooklyn’s book that we talked about before. He says that he thinks that had he not already been dying of throat cancer, he probably would have performed much better than he did. He could have even won really a remarkable drive and remarkable performance. Crew Chief Eric: So is there anything else that we should highlight from 54 going into 55, or do we just jump into the next year when Mercedes shows up to shake the tree? Jon Summers: You were right to highlight B and DE’s fourth. The other thing that, that we should talk about is that the fact that, so there are four Marto brothers and at different points all compete and feature significantly in in the Milli milia. Of course, Giannino wins twice. Is it Vittorio? I’m not sure that the V Marzotto finishes second in 1954. I think in one of the earlier years we talked about Paolo was super competitive from one of the lower classes. I want to say had a race, really close race, one year with, with Musso, who we know who went on to be a Ferrari Formula One driver. So yeah, so, so we should highlight the contribution of these four super wealthy brothers, all of whom compete in a meaningful way in the Mille Miglia at different points in these last 10 years of its, of the Mille Miglia’s run as a proper competitive event. I guess the other thing to say about 54 is the, is the passing of Tazio Nuvolari. And because Nuvolari’s died in the last year, and because everyone in Italian motorsport has such enormous reverence for him, the route is changed to pass through his hometown, Mantua. And this gives rise to, and they also do a special little prize. So the run from Cremona, where they made Stradivarius violins to Mantua, and then on to Russia. There’s a special prize for this bit at the end. I know that bit of the course quite well. Many years ago, 2004, I rented and rode and a pre or RSV millet. I rented it in Milan and I did the Futa and the Raticosa. And I also did this, like, Novellari Grand Prix bit. I visited the Novellari Museum in Mantua. It’s really worth doing if you’re there. It’s a nice part of the world. But those final sections, it’s super, super fast. And the countryside is very, very flat. And I was passed by another guy riding an RSV Millet and he did the Follow Me. And I really did a brain out with him. It was like a Sunday evening and it was a two lane road and there were cars on both sides, but we did that European thing where you put the bike on the white line and then you can weave in between the cars. Well, this guy was really good and we ran. At Mille Miglia speeds in those moments, I really felt the Mille Miglia and the spirit of Nuvolari. Crew Chief Eric: So since you bring that up, what people may not realize about the importance of Nuvolari, and there’s not many people left of that generation that would have been our age when Nuvolari passed away, but he was the Ayrton Senna. of those times. He’s regarded in that similar way in Italy, a national treasure and all those kinds of things. So I want to draw that parallel so people understand the importance of Nuvolari’s passing. Jon Summers: You know, we, we tend to exist in this world where we say, Oh, who is the greatest driver of all time? And then we think, how can I compare Mark Marquez with Vincenzo Lancia? I mean, the answer is You can’t. So, so we narrow it down and we talk about the greatest Formula One drivers. And then when we do that, it’s quite convenient because it means that we can forget about all these pre war guys like Rossemeyer and particularly Nuvolari. But Nuvolari for his whole style, for the arriving at the corner sideways, for the whole, like, when the mechanics taking too long at the German Grand Prix, he leaps out of the car and yells at the mechanic. It’s this pure Italian. Passion. Nuvolari is the personification of Italian passion. He’s the personification of the pissed off short guy. And we talked a little bit about him last time, but really we can’t underscore how much the loss of his sons turned him into. Somebody who looked for death on the track. He did not want to die in bed. So when he stepped into that, she’s telling 1948, although it was 48 and 49, 49 was the Ferrari that fell apart and the racing on the bag of oranges and lemons and. Ferrari weeping ’cause the car’s not strong enough. Although Naval LAI’s heart is big enough, this is NA’s special place in all of Motorsport, not just Italian motorsports. So I would say, and I say this as a Sen fan, I would say bigger than Senna because Naval is Ri Vartan and Sena, he’s Sebastian Loeb and Michael Schumacher. William Ross: I dunno if you guys have seen it, but anyone out, you guys listening, there’s a great magazine called Taio has been out. I think the guy like. 12, 13, I mean, fabulous magazine. Really nice. We had a chance to check it out. What Marzotto and being daddy, which was interesting, especially being daddy is they both ran solo, they didn’t have anyone riding with them. No, no mechanic or anything like that. No. And you have two contrasting cars, Marzotto coming in second, driving the Mondial, which is a four cylinder. And just for nerds sake, it’s chassis. Oh, four Oh four MD. But then. Being Daddy, you know, he’s driving a 12 cylinder, 250mm. And just for the nerds, 0276mm is the chassis number. Jon Summers: So my understanding was, though, that V12 made a bit more power, but the 4 cylinder was more reliable. So the feeling was, Ferrari liked entering both, felt like hedging his bets. William Ross: That was the thing about that horse. I mean, I think it’s like 170 horsepower in that range like that, but the torque, it was like, as someone said, it’s like pulled like a tractor. But reliability wise, that thing was, you know, I would say bulletproof, but it was, you know, obviously you have less moving parts, that kind of stuff, but it was very, very reliable. So, and that’s why he, you know, obviously Enzo always favored the B12, but it’s like, no, hey, for reliability wise, whatnot, I’m going to also hedge bets and put these cars in there. And those four cylinders were actually very, very successful throughout, you know, the years that they were campaigning them. If, if you have a chance, look it up and try and hear, and listen to hear one. And it’s got a very unique sound in regards to a Ferrari. They’re a screamer. They’re great engines. And I think they didn’t build four cylinders all that long. I want to say it was only made for like six or seven years or something like that they did them. And then again, obviously everything’s dictated by regulations for the series as they wanted to race in. And what was their best bet in regards to? But then having the best car, you know, so everything was kind of built around that kind of interesting to see those two contrasting things in it. Cause you got 12. Jon Summers: So I was reading about that co driver thing, right? Previously they had to have a co driver then later on it became superfluous and kind of dangerous. So Fangio. never has a co driver because he had an accident in one of the South American road races he did years ago before the Second World War, and his best friend was killed in the accident, and so he never wanted the responsibility of driving with anybody else. My sense is a scary So I don’t, I can’t remember exactly which year it was, but a rule did come in one year that you no longer had to have what they used to call the riding mechanic, or what we might call, you know, the co driver or the navigator. Now we’re just about to talk about 1955 here. And it’s worth saying that. In 1955, Stirling Moss won with Dennis Jenkinson, and the defining factor is that Jenkinson is there alongside him, helping him with direction. William Ross: It always kind of made me scratch my head, because you would think that that’s just something that, you know, would just be common sense, that, oh, we’re driving this long ass race, thousands of miles, twisting turns and whatnot. Why wouldn’t you do that for? I just, I was amazed that no one else had done it before. Jon Summers: We were talking about open cars and covered cars and co drivers a moment ago from Mike Lawrence, writing in those Brooklyn’s books, talking about Braco saying that co drivers had largely become superfluous. They were only doing things like occasionally helping change a tire or in Braco’s case, supplying him with brandy and cigarettes if they were foolhardy enough to ride alongside him. And you know, that’s what it speaks to, right? Is that it speaks to, in Braco, you have how the sport was and in Moss, you have how the sport is going to be. How the sport is going to be is professional and planned. It’s a factory team who’ve arrived with a T car and a Mercedes 300 SL, and you do laps of the course before. And when Moss and Jenkinson wrecked a 300 SL by crashing it into the back of a farm cart, they went back to Stuttgart expecting Neubauer to yell at them. And instead he just gave them another car and said, we’re really pleased you’re not hurt. That was how Ben’s approached winning the Mille Miglia. Now, a word on these pace notes. There is a museum in the central coast of California, not far from where I live. It’s called the Estrella Warbirds Museum and it’s mostly planes, but then bolted onto it is this sprint car museum, which is one of the best collections of sprint cars I’ve ever seen. Within that sprint car museum, in a cabinet is a roller. A map of the Carrera Panamericana that was drawn up by Bill Strop and Johnny Mance. William Ross: Really? Jon Summers: Yeah. When Lincoln arrived with a whole bunch of money and was like, let’s win the Carrera, they went to that old California hot rod at Bill Strop and Strop built the Lincolns. Strop and Mance developed this system of a roller map. Now, one of the other guys on that team was John Fitch. John Fitch, an American fighter pilot, was also on the Mercedes team, and I believe it was John Fitch, in conversation with Dennis Jenkinson, that introduced the idea of the map. So Jenkinson is Moss’s co driver in 1955 for Mercedes, and he is a really interesting character. He is small. He is English, he has a big bushy beard, he lives in a house with no water or heating. When he was given a Ford GT40 he waited until Christmas day and then he went out and drove it at 160 miles an hour on the public highway because nobody else was going to be out on the road on Christmas day and he wanted to test the car properly. That’s Dennis Jenkinson. He was world motorcycle champion in the early 50s and I feel like he needed to do that. Because in the war, he’d been a conscientious objector. He didn’t believe in the war. So in order to escape being branded as a coward, I think he did that motorcycle racing afterwards. And you can see just what a push against the system kind of a guy he was. Most people would, you’d been afraid to sit alongside Sterling Moss as far as. Jenkinson was concerned it was the best seat in the house to watch the best driver compete in one of the most exciting motor racing events you were ever going to participate in. So they drove the route, they made what they called the loo roll, the toilet roll of this map. And it was by being able and, and this is the example I always think about when approaching a crest at full speed, 175 miles an hour in the 300 SLR, Moss knew that he could just hold the throttle flat because Jenkinson was being like, I know it’s straight over the crest. Everybody else, they’re shitting themselves. Do I need to lift the throttle? Does the road turn left or right over the crest? Now, Braco. to roofie they knew the road no issue for them but for the foreigners it was hard and mercedes benz with the planning and with dsj’s map making and then with sterling moss’s sheer balls out commitment in practice moss said to dsj you know i’ll probably be a bit afraid i’ll probably lift a bit anyway In the race, no chance. In the race, it was pedal to the metal over the rises. At one point, the car took off and DSJ in the report that he wrote about it afterwards from Motorsport, if you’ve not read it, you need to, it’s the be all end all piece of motoring journalism. Whilst the car is in the air, the two of them meet eyes and then the car lands and they carry on. This is a 175 miles an hour on a narrow crown piece of. Italian road. I mean, just stop and think about what that, the implications of that William Ross: do that route, like 10, 12 times, but I know they did it a lot to get the notes and everything. And now that they do it, not only the notes, but they had their hand signals down and do it, but didn’t they go do it like 10, 12 times? How many Jon Summers: times do you think somebody like Tarufi drove from Brescia to No. Or Martin at, uh, bologna or Bologna. The Italians drove the route all the time. Yeah, all the time. The, the only way you were gonna be able to commit was by having a driver who was ready to be as brain out as moss. And remember right in the early parts of Ds J’s report it’s called With moss at the mil, mil otti passes. Moss early on and on the approach to Florence Moss slides the car, hits some hay bales and damages the front of the car. So Moss is trying like Duke’s a hazard hard and Castellotti passes him and DSJ talks about Castellotti using all the roads like being up on the sidewalks. And this is what I really want to fix in people’s minds is that when you look at the film on TV, it’s always in town and the cars have always slowed down and it’s the control, or it’s like a left, right zigzag in town where loads of people have stopped. And that’s where the camera is. Cause there might be action there. If you watch that shell movie of the 1953 film, there’s a couple of clips where the camera car is out on the road and you can see the Lancey is passing at like 150 miles an hour. That’s the real millimillia. That’s the sense of speed. And that speed combined with the wildness of Castellotti, this is why the attrition rate was so enormous. I mean, it’s just the whole event just boggles the mind with the speed and the danger and the way that particularly the Italians drove. Crew Chief Eric: Wrapped up inside of your enthusiasm for 1955, John, is something that William alluded to several times, is the technological jumps that were happening From 53 to 54 to 55 to 56 and so on. And it’s very, very clear, especially between 54 and 55 hop speeds. You’re adding at least 25 mile an hour. The horsepower is going up and the average speed of the race jumps significantly from 87 miles an hour to almost a hundred miles an hour on average. That is huge Jon Summers: because it was dry. It was dry. So Moss has this clear run. I think on this performance thing, I think the cars gained about five miles an hour a year. If you think from 47 to 57, if you say five miles an hour a year over that decade, that’s 50 miles an hour. And that seems about realistic that would lift us from 130 or 140. to 180 or 190. I think there’s an incremental increase here. I think that Moss’s speed was due to it being completely dry. It was fairly dry Ascari’s year. 56 and 57 it was wet for a lot of the event. 56 it rained. Absolutely throughout. Yeah, I should just say as well. The other thing that I think is interesting about Dennis Jenkinson’s account from a Ferrari perspective is, is that Castellotti’s Ferrari had the legs on the Mercedes out of the towns, but once the cars were up to cruising speed, the Mercedes could hold the Ferrari. So what that speaks to for me is that Mercedes had really focused on making sure the gearing and all of that was right, whereas Ferrari had. Put a giant engine, super powerful engine. And then maybe the back axle ratio was right. And maybe it wasn’t, and maybe the gearbox would hold together. And maybe it wasn’t, it was just, you know, Ferrari, it’s all at the altar of the V12 engine. William Ross: It’s funny. He’s speaking about engines, the second place guy, they’re actually running six cylinders that were the ones that were more, I guess, a prevalent in that race and, you know, jump wise horsepower wise, or you’re going up, you know, it got up to 280 horsepower now in these six cylinder cars. They had the 118 and the 121 LMs that they were running in that race. Now your 118 was a 3. 7 liter and your 121 was a 4. 4 liter, you know, a little more power and whatnot in the bigger motor reliability wise, kind of hard to say, but it was three of the guys that thought they were running the 118s with the 3. 7 liter and Ferrari actually, unbeknownst to the owners of drivers of those cars actually. Stuffed in the bigger motors into it. So they’re thinking they got this 3. 7. They actually got the 4. 4. So that’s kind of funny. When it comes to Ferrari again, pulling the, I would say old switcheroo on some of their drivers and the owners is stuff in the bigger motor without telling them. You know, I don’t know the psychological reason why it’s whatnot. Why you wouldn’t tell them you’re not talking a huge jump, but performance wise, obviously it might seem to help a little bit, but again, you know, you got single person driving the car. And you got these six cylinder cars that are actually, you know, up at the front, you know, not only, you know, uh, Moss and Jankstiel winning, second place was another Mercedes with Fangio driving it. And he was like almost 30 some odd minutes behind them. Now it has to do with pace notes or whatnot. But as we all know, Fangio wasn’t too bad of a driver. Jon Summers: My sense having studied Fangio is that he did not care. I feel like the only time he tried in the Mille Miglia was in 53 when he was coming back after his bad accident and he really wanted to prove to the Italians that he still had it. If you look at Fangio’s performance, It, the South American road races that would be like five days over the Andes when the car stopped overnight, you were still allowed to work on the car. So he would like work on the car all night and then get up and drive and drive. You know, DSJ said about Fangio that after those South American road races, the bumps of the Nürburgring held no fear for him. And I feel like. He looked at the Mille Miglia with those giant crowds and the distance that wasn’t that vast in comparison to what he’d done in South America and just thought, this is not an event that I want to go balls out. Crew Chief Eric: It also shows the power of cocaine. I mean, the coca leaves, right? Jon Summers: Okay. And, and you say that, right, Eric, this is, this is, I’m pleased we touched on this because yes, he used to chew these coca leaves and it’s quite well known. And I feel like I want to chew them as well and kind of get a sense of, is it. I do want to do that part of motoring adventuring to see if they have any effect or not, but Moss said in period that before the race, Fangio had said to him, have these little pills. They will help you with the race. According to Moss, this was the only time this has ever happened. He did take them after the race. He drove the car back to Stuttgart to show the directors of Mercedes of Daimler Benz. So that’s, he did the Mille Miglia, won it at record speed and then drove the car. From Brescia in Italy, across the Alps, and all the way back to Stuttgart, northern Germany. Crew Chief Eric: I believe we call those performance enhancing drugs now, John. Jon Summers: Dexedrine was the speculation that I’d had. Frankly, pilots in the Korean War, if anybody was a fighter pilot in the Korean War, probably whatever they were giving those kind of pilots, because it was dexedrine for the pilots in Vietnam. I don’t know what it was for Korea. I assume that there was experimentation with performance arts and drugs in, in career as well, but I don’t know for sure. What I was going to say is, is that, you know, just to speak to Moss and Jenkinson, they participated in 1956 and 1957. And in 1956, They slid the car off the road and would have fallen down into like a hundred foot crevasse, but it was stopped by a single tree. They got out of the car and were standing at the side of the road. And when Fangio came by, he stopped and offered them a lift. Now that is proof to me of Fangio’s attitude to the Mille Miglia. He stopped in his sports racing Ferrari that was going to win the race. He stopped and said, are you guys all right? Do you need a lift? Actually, they walked to the local railway station and went from Crew Chief Eric: Or does Fangio’s behavior speak to the fraternity and camaraderie of drivers in motorsport? There’s another way you could probably take that particular position, right? Jon Summers: Well, there is, because in those South American road races, if you saw somebody at the side of the road, you would stop and help them. And Fangio’s great rival in those South American road races were the Chavez brothers. And there’s numerous incidents of the Chavez stopping to help Fangio, and him stopping to help them. And this is, is really Crazy. It would be like Verstappen seeing Hamilton struggling at the side of the road with a flat tire and not just helping him back to the pits, but getting out of the car and helping him change the tire, even though the others are catching up. But you know, these South American road races, they would do them in these like Fangio’s car was a 40 Chevy and they would cut the fenders and then like put the suspension up high. So it looked like Baja. Trophy trucks. Look, now it had that kind of stance and high suspension and all of that because that was what it needed to do. So in that kind of environment, if you saw somebody off the road, you stopped and helped them. So I’m sure there was an element of that, but I just feel like you can’t see Castellotti, Ascari, you can’t see them stopping. You think Braco would have stopped to see if the young, young English pup was okay. Crew Chief Eric: Only if he ran out of brandy. Jon Summers: I was going to say 57, just to finish off Moss and Jenkinson at the Mille Miglia, 57, the Maserati 450S gets put together right at the end, right before the, you know, we’re about to kick off, the race is about to start. And the 450S is an awesome looking car. I would say probably 190 mile an hour car, certainly 185. Mile an hour, really an awesome piece of kit. As we know, at the start, it’s these long straights from Brescia over to Ravenna and then down the Adriatic coast. Well, before they’ve even got to Ravenna, the first piece of heavy braking, the brake pedal broke off. William Ross: Well, that’s not good. Jon Summers: Now I just need you to stop and think about that. Literally you’re about to do the milling, but you’ve hit the brakes. The brake. Well, they were so mad. They drove the car back. They were ready to fight the Maserati mechanics. They broke down in tears. And you’ve got this contrast then between the planning of Mercedes Benz and this sort of slapdash, can’t even weld the brake pedal properly, of Maserati. Big contrast. Crew Chief Eric: I think we’ve stumbled backwards into 1956. So how does this story continue? We know it’s a rainy Mille Miglia in 56. Jon Summers: Yeah, we’re William Ross: back to V12s in the Ferraris. Jon Summers: We’re at a pivot point, aren’t we? Because Castellotti wins in, in a time which is really pretty astonishingly close to Stirling Moss’s time, yet in rain throughout, in a car which is undamaged. Which is remarkable, right? If you think about Moss had two or three offs, which Jenks documents, you know, we know Verrazzi won in, in 51 with a car that, you know, it looked like a NASCAR that had been beaten up, you know, it really carried some heavy damage and contemporary reports make play of the fact that Castellotti won with the car completely undamaged. And some of the reports will even suggest he had this sort of. unbroken run. I think actually in the race, it was pretty competitive to Rome, but by the time he got past Rome, which is about the halfway mark, by the time they got past Rome, Castellotti was really very comfortably in command. You know, Moss and Jenkinson talked about how wild the guy’s driving was. The Italians talk about it in a very poetic kind of a way. The previous four, Mille Miglia, Castellotti had not finished. So, again, we’ve got this sense that it’s pedal to the metal, even in the thrashing rain here. So, hats off to Castellotti, and it’s Castellotti’s coming of age. I think that’s what we’d say is that for Ferrari, Ferrari took notice of Castellotti. After his Mille Miglia victory, Fangio, who was on the Ferrari works team, just briefly at that time, requested that Castellotti drive with him in all sports car races, which is a huge compliment to Castellotti. Of course, he’s killed at a Formula One race at the modern water drone, just a. Few years later with him and, and with Musso disappears. This whole tradition of Italian racing drivers, the pre-war guys, the Burnetts to Rufi, Farinas fa Jolies Villa. There’s loads of them that we see represented in the milli mil. Now by the late fifties, these guys are kind of dead or retired. And, you know, there’s only Tarufi left. And Castellotti is one of these new, young generation. And that’s illustrated by the fact that he came up through cars, like a modern racing driver, like Sterling Moss did. Braco cars as well. Whereas everybody else we’ve talked about came up through motorcycles. Castellotti, different from that. William Ross: You know, if you look at the times, You know, the time that he won in, I mean, it was, it was about 90 minutes. So an hour and a half, roughly, you know, behind what most of the year before, but people don’t understand is, you know, you look at the race itself and people say he would have beat Moss’s time if he had the same conditions that Moss had, he was just absolutely flying. But obviously with the rain, the weather and they really hampered his efforts, but they were just saying he was just driving. Like a madman in, in that weather. And again, you know, you got a big jump. You’re going back to the V 12, now all of a sudden you got 320 horsepower in these cars, in these v twelves. And again, you know, in the two 90 mm, you know, it’s an open top by himself. Jon Summers: A magazine asked how fast the car was, uh, he said how he spent time to 179 miles an hour. William Ross: No. So your top speeds increasing. Yeah. Know you’re thinking well, oh, okay. That’s not so fast. But I mean, you. Think about what they’re driving on the roads. They’re on just everything. They’re tapping those things out as fast. They could go on a lot of those sections that they could. Jon Summers: That is, I think if you’ve only ever, you know, done 120 miles an hour on the highway late at night with the windows up. Sitting in your leather chair with your Bose stereo and your Mercedes Benz or your BMW, or, you know, in a modern car, you just have no idea of what 120 mile an hour was like in an open car, like that car that Castellotti, uh, won in. You doubly have no idea what, I mean, for me on sports bikes, right, at 120, you can move the bike, at 150, getting the bike to change direction is really hard. When I watch motor GP guys flip the bikes over at 170 or 180 miles an hour, I have no idea how they do it. It’s not just the dexterity of the lines. It’s the whole physical thing. Well, well, Castellotti in that Ferrari, 180 miles an hour. I mean, he lost his visor. And the race reports would talk about how he was in a lot of pain because the rain was cutting out his face. And you’ll even see some pictures where he’s raising his hand. He’s driving one hand and he’s got his hand across his face because the rain is coming down and cutting his face so much. He’s, and he’s, he’s got goggles and used goggles for the, after the visor blew away. William Ross: Yeah, just impressive. Do you want to say the manliness? I don’t know what you’d say but just just the dedication and commitment these guys had, you know, a lot of guys you would think that they would just stop after that, you know, be like, I can’t see or I can’t do this or it’s just, you know, Jon Summers: unstop them. It’s gladiatorial and it’s about honor. You know, Castellotti was a wealthy landowner from, I mean, we’re in California now, there’s a town just near here, Lodi. He was from Lodi in Italy, which is, you know, Northern Italian town. And he wanted to put Lodi on the map. He was a handsome, wealthy guy. He could have just been a playboy. Instead, he really wanted to prove himself. He did date a movie star, Delia Scalia was her name. She had one of these page boy haircuts, a bit like Steve McQueen’s wife. The Italian press used to love it because, you know, he would, at the Rome Control, they shared a kiss and obviously that was the great fodder for the front pages as opposed to the back pages of the news. William Ross: And again, it came down to personal preference had to do with the weather, you know, and just all the, you know, circumstances these guys were driving in. But you had Quite a few more coupes, closed top Ferraris running in that event as well. You know, you had your 250 GTs in that and running in them. And as we know from previous ones, a lot of it was personal preference of the driver. Now, Enzo’s philosophy was, no, you only can win in an open top car. I think a lot of these guys like, well, I don’t think you could see what the weather or maybe figure it out. But a lot of these guys chose to run closed top cars. And that race as well, too. Jon Summers: Villaresi argued with Ferrari and then in 51, Villaresi won in a closed car. Yep. The quote was that he didn’t want to drive in a bordello of noise, which I, I feel like the, whatever the Italian for a whorehouse of noise is, it’s probably more dramatic sounding than that. That’s what it is, right? The. You know, I drove half of the route in a Fiat Punto rental and I drove half of the route on this RSV Mille and the RSV Mille, it had a performance and the experience was similar to, I think the way it would have been in the faster cars, of course, the Punto was directly similar to the vast majority of the cars doing the route. And I, and I do think the interesting thing for me about that was I drove down the Adriatic coast to Pescara. And then when I turned inland at Pescara, I couldn’t believe how quickly the roads changed. I literally. Nearly slid this Punto off because you’d been used to these straights where you could just like run flat. And I actually did the Autostrada down the coast now because the old coast road, it’s all tourists and so on now. So you can’t run at the representative speeds. Whereas I felt on the Autostrada, I could like run at a representative speed. But once you get off those straight roads, it’s immediately super mountainous and twisty. And I nearly put this Punto, uh, off the road. William Ross: What you saw, I’ll say the introduction, but the, uh, show up is the 500 TR as everyone usually calls the Testarossa showed up, but now it was only a four cylinder wasn’t a 12 cylinder, but yeah, they had one 500 TR entered in that race. He retired now all of a sudden you have that name that kind of is very synonymous with Ferrari. Testarossa, the redhead, all of a sudden show up in that race. Jon Summers: Just not for nothing, right? Genius marketing. Dasher Redpaint. And you’ve a whole model name. You’ve created a whole. I’m put in mind of Picasso in his later years, who would like, if he needed some money to pay for a restaurant bill, he would draw a sketch and then sell it to another one of the patrons in the restaurant. And that would pay for his meal. But he literally, like, on the napkin, he’d just, like, draw whatever he felt. And if you look at his later art, it really has that feeling of, I’m going to draw whatever I want to create. I want to just hit a slightly macabre note here. Six deaths in 1956. A series of different accidents. I’ve not drilled into who, why, what went out. But this really speaks to the fact that this. Is a city to city road race, which was always dangerous. But when we were doing city to city road racing and the cars were doing 120 or 140, that was really dangerous, but that was. You know, maybe not lots of people would be killed. Now we’ve moved to the stage where the cars are doing 180 miles an hour. That little bump, now the car’s fully airborne over that little bump. Now I know when we talked about it with Sterling Moss a minute ago, it was a wonderful story and it was like the Dukes of Hazzard and what plucky Brits. But really, if you stop and think about that, looking back, It’s impossible to imagine that the people organizing the Mille Miglia didn’t believe that it was just a matter of time before there was a horrific accident. You feel like everybody was relying on, you know, the Virgin or fate or somebody to save us. Cause literally you can’t race 180 mile an hour cars through crowded streets without sooner or later that the being, you know, the big one as they call it. And of course that was. 1957. William Ross: I don’t mean to just kind of gloss over it, but every year, I mean, it wasn’t like one or two, you know, there was a decent amount of people getting killed in that race every year. And, you know, I don’t know if it had to do with the fact is obviously in the time, you know, you don’t have, you know, the AP wire and all that kind of stuff. You don’t have the internet, obviously, or anything like that, but there were significant amounts of people getting killed in that race. You know, year in, year out and not, you know, drivers. Yeah, but there were spectators as well that were getting killed at these races. 57 obviously was, you know, the capper of it. It’s all Jesus, you know, kids and everything like that. But if you look going back to that race, there was every year, there was a, you know, 5, guys dying racing. But then there was also a spectator here or there or whatnot. Also, you know, got killed as well, you know, wandering out in the road or whatnot. Because as much as they tried one, hey, they, all the roads were closed. Now you’re going to have a few of those. Old Italian guys and their farmers and whatnot saying, I don’t give two shits. This is, you know, I’m going to keep working and do what I got to do. And just, you know, wander out in the road and do whatever I got to do, driving a tractor on it. I, you know, I don’t know if people realize that it wasn’t just a 57 that all crap, nine people got killed and kids and everything like that. That, oh, we got to stop it. No, there was death. You’re in, you’re out. Jon Summers: And the other Italians, Braco, rolled a car into a crowd and killed 12 in an event in the 40s. We were slating Braco here, I mean for what it’s worth, Farina also had those kinds of incidents. The way that you need to frame this is you need to see this through the eyes of contemporary Italians. Mussolini came to power and Italy became a fascist nation. in 1921. So throughout the 20s and the 30s you have this ethos of survival of the fittest and Mussolini and the Italian fascists believed that the natural state for a nation was to be at war and that there would be some attrition and combat. There would be some death. That was why it was just accepted as part of the sport. And I think post war, we see that becoming unacceptable. And we see the Pope stepping in and saying, you know what? This kind of carnage in the name of what the greater good, the advancement of Italian motorsport. And that’s what Taruffi says that early on, it felt like you were really advancing the art of automobility. Whereas by the fifties. It’s not really like that. We’ve sort of outgrown the environment we’re playing. We’ve perfected the automobile. And Crew Chief Eric: to be fair, the Mille Miglia is not a special corner case in this instance. Death was common in motorsport across the board. Whether it was Formula One, Grand Prix racing, Le Mans, Indianapolis 500. It’s just a sign of those times. And as a result of that, safety equipment got better. It didn’t get better for a long time because even folks like Sir Jackie Stewart were still fighting for safety in the seventies. We have really taken leaps and bounds in that department in the modern times. But what’s important about this particular story and how it comes to a head with the Ferrari movie that just came out is 1957 is sort of the wreck that changed the world, especially the motor sports world. And John, you foreshadowed this about the Italian drivers. And Taroufi was one of the last of the old guard in this sense. And he’s quoted as saying, stop us before we kill again. We need to get our arms around these races and the Mille Miglia, especially because it’s a bit more wild west than organized races that were sanctioned by the FIA. Like Le Mans and some of the other ones that were out there. So the movie depicts this horrific crash of Portago. And I’ll let you guys kind of explain that and why it’s significant and how it changed motorsport from 1957 forward. Jon Summers: Ferrari for the mille mille has four cars, two, three, three fives. Two, three 15s that the difference is, you know, some are a 3. 8 liter. The others are, are a 4. 1. So, you know, you fast and effing fast. Basically you have a driver lineup, which is focused on young up and comers. And you’ve also got Ferrari who is recently grieving from the loss of his son. And I don’t know if the movie speaks to this or not. I’m yet to see the movie. I’m really looking forward to seeing it. You know, I deliberately wanted to do this call and talk about. The 1957 Mille Miglia and talk about the Mille Miglia and Ferrari in general, before I’ve seen, you know, Michael Mann’s interpretation of it. I’m fascinated to see Michael Mann’s interpretation. In those Ferraris, you have young up and coming Formula One drivers, Peter Collins, Wolfgang von Trips, Alfonso de Portago, and the old Italian charger. Tarufi, by the way, we should just do a thumbnail on the Pataco for a minute, Spanish, half a dozen different titles, a wealthy playboy, Spanish champion, I think tennis, maybe golf as well. Bobsleigh champion, you know, set a record time on the Cresta run for people who understand bobsleighing. I can’t pretend that I do, but I even, I understand what the Cresta run is. Maybe it was because of those Vauxhall Crestas. 1960s that my grandfather had. But no, DePortago is this all round sportsman who established himself as a racing driver. People thought he was just a wealthy playboy. There were plenty of them that tried to participate in Formula 1, but no, DePortago was the real deal. Earned his place on Ferrari team. Although I would say that one of my favorite stories about him is that the way that he recognized his car was when they were first allocated the car, he would scratch a mark on the dashboard by the rev counter. So he recognized his car. And I just think of that every, and the next time you’re at a Ferrari event and you’re looking at all of these dudes picking the gravel out of the tire, just think about Fond de Portago. And just, I just put a scrape in it with a screwdriver there. So I know which car’s mine and yes. All the others of the Italians are gone by this time. And Taruffi is left with this burning desire to win the Mille Miglia. At the time, Ferrari has this rather odd relationship with Peter Collins. I think reading between the lines, he sort of adopted Peter Collins sort of as his son. And then when Peter Collins got married, he sort of, you know, stepped away from that. But there was some very bizarre thing going on. And in the stuff that you read about Castellotti, The Italians were upset that Ferrari favored the blonde haired British boy rather than, you know, the Italian in terms of the cars that they gave them in Formula One at least. The Ferraris that enter in 1957, I would say if we roll with this five miles an hour faster each year, what we’re saying is these are 185 mile an hour cars, which is stupefying, frankly. Crew Chief Eric: Still on six inch tires. Jon Summers: Yeah. 360 William Ross: horsepower under 2000 pounds. Jon Summers: And this pattern and William, you touched on this in the last episode that with Ferraris, the ancillary components fail, it’s the suspension. It’s the steering. It’s the gearbox. It’s the back axle. It’s not the engine. The rest of the car will fall apart around the engine. And certainly with these big capacity, 12 cylinders with the amount of torque they produce, they are gonna just. Take apart the drive train. Hey, Dean Batchelor, the editor of car and driver. He was super keen hot rod guy, but a super keen Ferrari guy. And he wrote about these big capacity V12 sports racing Ferraris because the gas tanks were over the rear wheels. When you got in the car in Brescia at the start, the car’s got fresh suspension, fresh brakes, and a full tank of gas. By the time you’re at Rome, the tanks are empty, so it’s handling a completely different way. You gas up at Rome, and now it’s handling a completely different way again, because now it’s got all that weight at the back, but the suspension and the brakes aren’t what they were before. The line that Batchelor has is, they were not for the faint hearted. You really need to be on the case just to survive the race, let alone win. William Ross: Yeah. You’re talking like 35 to 40 gallons of gas. You’re not talking 10, 20. Jon Summers: I think Moss is SLR had a 50 gallon tank. William Ross: Yeah. That’s a lot of weight. Jon Summers: Yeah. A William Ross: lot of weight. And to your point, you know, when everything kind of breaking down and all of a sudden you get to a point where all of a sudden this car is driving completely different because you got hardly any gas and then all of a sudden it’s just taking a beating and then all of a sudden you dump. Three, 400 pounds of gas back into this thing. Cause that’s probably what you’re probably talking about easily. Crew Chief Brad: Yeah. William Ross: All of a sudden it’s just going, it’s like behind your toes. Jon Summers: I wonder, you know, Ferrari had a falling out with his tire maker in 55 and Marzotto retired or one of the Ferrari guys retired when a car threw a tread and the spare that he had didn’t fit. And it was cause Ferrari had these like issues with tires and you do, you wonder. Let’s tell the story of the race a little bit that the Ferraris are dominant and trade the lead amongst each other. Peter Collins is leading but loses a transmission. So the race is between Tarufi and Von Trips right in the finishing stages. DePortago loses a tire, we think, probably lost a tire, and without wanting to go into detail, there is horrific detail out there now, and I’m not seeing the movie, maybe the movie will even do it, my understanding was it was one side of the road in a ditch, the other side of the road in a ditch, through a wall, there were some people on the wall, a lot of children, both Edmund Nelson, DePortago’s co driver, and DePortago himself, gone immediately, and with it, Really the end of the Mille Miglia because the Pope gets involved, there’s talk of excommunication, Ferrari faces manslaughter, charges, an interesting story which an Italian told me and may or may not be true, but when you drive in Italy now, there are not cat’s eyes in the middle of the road. You know, the reflectors in the middle of the road in Italy, they don’t do them. And apparently I’m not research this, but what he told me was the, the reason that they don’t have cat size in Italy was that it was decided that the reason the Protago’s tire came apart. was because he skidded over a cat’s eye and that’s what caused it to come off the rim and crash. So cat’s eyes were the cause of the accident, not that you’d raced for 900 miles, uh, more than 170 miles an hour on dodgy cross ply, narrow tires. And there was none of that in a 400 horsepower car. No, no, it was none of that. It was those cat’s eyes caused the accident. So all of this overshadows To Rufy’s really pretty, awesome, considered balanced drive. And, and really every other Mille Miglia, he’d always been there, but there’d always been some, if you know Indianapolis 500 history, there’d always been some kind of Lloyd Ruby moment where, you know, the car had gone wrong or one year a backmarker moved into his path and forced him off the road when he was leading, you know, he had, his hat was in the ring every time since 1930s. And now finally, I think it’s sad because You know, they were cheering him. And then after what had happened with the Potago, the cheering was considerably less and it took the edge off what was undoubtedly a huge achievement. I guess the final thing to say is Ferrari, the way Ferrari has it. is that he says to Von Trips at the last control, it would be really nice if Tarufi could win. And Von Trips, who was a German nobleman who, like Di Portago, was racing for honor, racing to prove himself, racing to, I think, to establish. himself as something different from what everybody knew Germany had been just a few short years before. In Von Trips you really get the sense of a gentleman driver wanting to prove himself. So Von Trips, according to one version of the story, allows To roofie to, to win to roofie’s version is to roofie had nursed the car. The car was stronger and on some bends, just outside Cremona. He’s able to demonstrate to Von Tripps that he’s better and able to win the race and goes on and wins again. More research is probably required into that one, but hats off to to roofie. And that is the end of the melee milieu. Crew Chief Eric: But is it really the end? So because of that crash, it puts a huge dark cloud over motorsport and they press pause on the Amelia Amelia. But if you jump us forward a couple of decades, it’s reborn. Jon Summers: And the rebirth. is absolutely about the time there was a proper collector car movement established that really before the 1970s, there was no real collector car movement into the 1980s. That was the beginning of a collector car movement. And those of us with gray hair will remember that there was a bit of a boom. Well, there was more than a bit of a boom. There was a huge boom in Ferrari prices in, in the late eighties. And, and around about that time, the Mille Miglia was reestablished as a historic motoring event. You know, we arrive in Brescia, the look and feel in Brescia is very similar to the way that it was cars that are invited to. Participate of the cars that participated years ago and the Italian government is involved in, if not in closing the roads in providing a police escort to allow the cars to drive the route of the Mille Miglia, but now we stop in nice five star hotels, eat nice food and patch each other on the back and remember days of your, and if that sounds. A shadow of the event as it was. Yes, absolutely. It is. But if you talk to anybody who’s participated in modern millimilia, they’ll tell you that it’s really hard to enjoy that five star food because, you know, you’re up at six in the morning and you’re responsible for looking after the car and you know, those Italian police convoys, they will let you run. Autobahn speed, you know, more than a hundred miles an hour. They love motorcycles, BMW motorcycles. So, you know, the Italians have a passion for motorsport, which carries through to this day. So it’s a, it’s an awesome event. Is it what Moss won in 1955? No, because that was nonstop. This is. Very much the feel of it. And it would be an awesome event to do if I was wealthy enough to do it. I know one guy I in, uh, actually used lives in Lodi who did the event a few years ago with a guy who has an alpha Romeo and he did it with this guy. Because years ago, my friend, Phil, his skill. Well, he has many skills, but his skill is Corvette mechanical fuel injection. And he was at Goodwood one year and the guy with the Corvette with the mechanical fuel injection, he could tell the car wasn’t running properly. So he helped the guy tune his Rochester mechanical fuel injection. And the guy was like, you are welcome to my house whenever you wish. And it turns out the bloke was an English Lord. With the hot rod guy from Lodi, who just happened to really know how to do the Rochester mechanical fuel injection, was able to help the English Lord win the Goodwood race in the Corvair, and thus was invited to do the Mille Miglia in the Alfa Romeo a few years later. So, Yeah, a significant digression there, Eric. I’m sorry about that. Crew Chief Eric: No, but you bring up a very valid point in the sense that the Mila Melia in some ways can be compared to Goodwood and on a grand scale, countrywide in Italy, it’s Italy’s version of Goodwood now. And that’s something to. Appreciate but also celebrate and it’s nice that we can be part of that again and it’s not something that’s just lost on the pages of history that pun intended died in 1957. It’s now still alive and vibrant and in a new way, but in a good way. William Ross: Trying to, I guess they corral everyone and keep everyone in check, but not everyone follows it because they want to be doing the, they got these great cars, so they want to open them up, but there’s all the times like it’s a rally. So they have all these different sections time wise and whatnot. So in a way it’s trying to hold people back because if you’re familiar with how those work, you know, Hey, you got A to B got, this is what you’re supposed to get to B. And so they try and crowd people in, but. You see it all the time and you see videos like that, you know, you got guys crash and whatnot because they’re just going balls out in their car because if they want to do it, you know, the town police, they’re more than happy to, uh, help you out in that manner and get ahead of you and clear traffic. It’s an interesting event and don’t necessarily have to own a car. There’s actually a few companies that have cars that you can go and they actually do the whole thing. You rent the car or everything like that and do it. So. You know, you don’t have to necessarily have to have a car pre 1957 to have to compete in it. You know, there’s several different ways to participate. It’s an interesting event, but again, as John said, it ain’t cheap. Jon Summers: Because they drive past you as well. I mean, you can also go and, you know, have your Italian vacation and, you know, be there as the cars drive by, you know, it’s free to go and be in Brescia. At the start, you know, I’ve not been, but the atmosphere of that, when you see film of it, it looks and feels exactly the same as it did in period. The kind of people who participate, it always was wealthy, showy people. I mean, think of the Marzottos and they’re, you know, wearing their shirts and ties. I mean, that it’s always been that kind of event. Yeah. It’s always been part motor sport, part Italian festival. William Ross: You have a lot of people too, that just. Have a modern car and just follow along and drive in it because it’s not like the route’s a secret, but I mean, you could have a rental car if you want to go over there and just follow the route and follow the people and stay in your own place and everything. Then kind of pseudo take part in it. But Hey, if you want to check it out and see it, I mean, you’d be amongst all the cars and the competitors and hanging out and doing what you have to do. And from my understanding, no one really cares. Hey, you’re having fun with it as well. You’re just not staying in the five star hotels and. Kind of, as John says, how much you’re actually enjoying that because there’s some days you’re driving for 12, 14 hours. Jon Summers: Yeah, and if you’re doing that in an open car, you are beating it up. Guys, I have Crew Chief Eric: to say this two part history and celebration of the Mille Miglia has been an education. The collector car information, the history of Ferraris coming from William and John, you bringing this plethora of information about the stories and the drivers and the adventures that were happening during the millennial. I come away from this in awe. There’s a lot of things that I knew or I had heard in passing, but I feel like I’m more familiar with the stories now. I feel like I’m closer to the race and I appreciate you guys spending the time to educate not only me, but the audience that’s listening to these episodes as well. William Ross: Yeah, I got, you know, um. Obviously we could have got a lot more in depth. I mean, not saying that we didn’t get in depth. I was gonna say the first part of this thing was like, what, you know, hour and a half over, it was two hours long, just so much more information in detail. Cause as you go into the years, you can see, you know, you had three, four cars with Ferraris around, but then by the end there’s 20 plus cars in the event, you know, Ferraris. So, you know, it’s, it’s a great, great event to really kind of dig into. So I highly recommend, you know, there’s plenty of books out there. There’s a great reference book that I use is it’s probably one of the guys could be Giano Marzotto wrote it called Red Arrows Farmer’s at the Mill. Amelia. It’s a great book. It has everything about all the fires are participated. It goes throughout all the years. I think that’s fantastic. Book gives you chassis numbers, everything like that. So if you really want to get into something, it’s not a cheap book because they didn’t make many of them. But, uh, it’s a great book to hunt down, you know, appreciate everyone listening. And like I said, I think we only scratched the surface of what we get into, but. I think we kind of gave everyone a good listen and a good overview of the middle of million and definitely recommend doing a little more digging into it. And, uh, so I want to thank Eric for, uh, being our moderator and pundit in this and helping us out. And obviously John, the motor and historian, you know, helping out as well, giving us all the history and background stuff, cause you definitely have these, these guys will be back on definitely some other ones down the road, we’re looking at, you know, Targa Floria as well, and some other events. So, uh. Keep your ears peeled and eyes open for those when they drop. So, but again, I appreciate everyone listening to the Ferrari Marketplace. Get yourself hooked up on the MPN, the Motoring Podcast Network, because we have a lot more episodes, a lot more podcasts that will be getting dropped onto the site and we appreciate it guys and enjoy your day. And thank you guys. Crew Chief Eric: This episode has been brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports, as part of our Motoring Podcast Network. For more episodes like this, tune in each week for more exciting and educational content from organizations like the Exotic Car Marketplace, The Motoring Historian, BrakeFix, and many others. If you’d like to support Grand Touring Motorsports and the Motoring Podcast Network, sign up for one of our many sponsorship tiers at www. patreon. com forward slash GT Motorsports. Please note that the content, opinions, and materials presented and expressed in this episode are those of its creator, and this episode has been published with their consent. If you have any inquiries about this program, please contact the creators of this episode via email or social media, as mentioned in the episode. Copyright William Ross, Exotic Car Marketplace a division of Sixty5 Motorsports. This episode is part of Gran Touring Motorsports, Motoring Podcast Network and has been republished with permission. [...]
January 19, 2024Ferrari / Podcast / ProvenanceWilliam is joined by motoring historian Jonathan Summers and Crew Chief Eric, they dive into the storied history of Ferrari, covering road cars, racing, auctions, and the collector market. The episode features in-depth discussions about the origins of the Mille Miglia from the 1920s, its significance pre- and post-World War II, notable drivers, evolving technology, and Ferrari’s rise to dominance in the race. They explore how Ferrari’s design philosophy and race strategies were shaped in this era and conclude by teasing a follow-up episode that will continue examining the Mille Miglia up to its final race in 1957. 1953 Mille Miglia Complete News Reel/Documentary – AI Upscaled https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpAw0630nzo Winning Ferraris mentioned on this Episode 1948 – Ferrari 166S-Chassis 003S driven by Clemente Biondetti & Guisseppe Navone; Biondetti wins at 75.343 mph – 15hrs 5’44” 1949 – Ferrai 166MM-Chassis 0034M – Open Roadster driven by Clemente Biondetti & Guiseppe Navone; Biondetti wins at 81.683mph – 12hrs 7’05” 1950 – Ferrari 195S-Chassis 0026M (technically a 166 Touring Barchetta but engine was replaced to create 195S) driven by Giannino Marzotto & Martino Severi-Only “Private” Ferrari to win the Mille Miligia. Unbeknownst to Marzotto, Ferrari replaced his motor with a brand new 2.3 litre Type 195. 1951 – Ferrari 340 America-Chassis 0082A driven by Gigi Villoresi & Pasquale Cassani; Villoresi wins at 76mph 1952 – Ferrari 250S-Chassis 0156ET driven by Giovanni Bracco &; Alfonso Rolfo; Bracco wins at 80mph 1953 – Ferrari 340MM-Chassis 0280AM driven by Gianno Marzotto & Marco Crosara; Gianno Marzotto wins at 89mph Episode 19 On Ferrari Friday’s, William Ross from the Exotic Car Marketplace will be discussing all things Ferrari and interviewing people that live and breath 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. 00:00:00 Introduction to Ferrari Fridays 00:00:41 Meet the Guests: Eric and Jonathan 00:01:10 Diving into the Mille Miglia 00:02:05 Historical Context and Early Races 00:06:28 The Evolution of the Mille Miglia 00:07:19 Modern Mille Miglia vs. The Original 00:14:12 Ferrari’s Early Years and Influence 00:27:44 The Impact of World War II 00:31:31 Post-War Revival and Technological Advances 00:39:00 Exploring 1950s Italian Cinema 00:39:27 The Mille Miglia: A Festival of Rebirth 00:40:25 Post-War Racing: The Revival of Alfa Romeo 00:41:12 The Diverse Entry List of the Late 1940s 00:42:08 The Evolution of Fiat and Aerodynamics 00:44:05 Ferrari’s Early Struggles and Triumphs 00:45:43 The Intricacies of Ferrari’s V12 Engines 00:52:25 The Fragility of Early Ferrari Race Cars 00:55:26 The Challenge of Tracing Classic Car Provenance 01:07:57 The Marzotto Brothers and the 1950 Mille Miglia 01:16:33 The Value of Historic Race Cars 01:17:42 Ownership Stories and Market Impact 01:18:55 Driving and Maintaining Classic Cars 01:19:55 The Importance of Car Stories 01:21:45 Memorable Moments and Personal Experiences 01:24:58 The Evolution of Mille Miglia 01:37:56 The 1953 Mille Miglia Race 01:49:43 Conclusion and Future Discussions Crew Chief Brad: 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. William Ross: Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Ferrari Marketplace. This week we have crew chief Eric joining us again as our moderator and participant, but we also have the motoring historian Jonathan Summers participating in this episode and you will hear him on some more episodes consequently down the road as well. This man has a wealth of knowledge and he’s got his own podcast as well that you will find on the Motoring Podcast Network MPN, motoringpodcast. net is the website, so check it out. We got a lot more stuff coming on the site, so so pay attention. So. This episode, this week for Ferrari Friday, we are going to talk about the Mille Miglia. Now, obviously, with the release of the Ferrari movie, everyone’s eyes kind of got, you know, glued to this time period and, you know, what was going on in that era. But we’re going to kind of go through the post war stuff, starting in about 47. John’s going to talk a little bit about the pre stuff and that kind of give the basis for everything because It happened, you know, they were racing before the war, then it had the jump in the gap we started after. So John’s going to kind of cover a lot of that stuff. He’s going to get into a lot of the finer details of the Mille Miglia itself, the race, the route, the drivers. I’m here to discuss the cars and Crew Chief Eric is here just to kind of jump in and ask the questions that I’m sure a lot of you will want to know answers to. Crew Chief Eric: The first question is, John, how good is your Estelle Getty? Impersonation. Picture it, Russia, 1933. Oh, Jon Summers: yeah. This is a really interesting place that you started, Eric, because this is part of the story of the Mille it’s a very Italian story. And when we look at film and photographs of the Mille Miglia now, it’s always in towns and there’s always crowds of people, and it almost doesn’t look like a motor race. It almost looks more like a fete or a festival or You know, we’re going to talk about the cars and the motor racing, but, but really the mille miglia exists in this, in this shadow of the way that government was in Italy in the early 20th century. And as an Englishman, it’s always quite amusing to me that the attitude of the British journalists that went there was that the really this showed that the Italians, you know, they, they could organize themselves. You know, it’s quite impressive really that these Italian fellows could actually organize themselves. Crew Chief Eric: I’ll take that as a compliment. Jon Summers: Because that is what’s going on here. And this is really where I want it to begin is we’re going to talk a lot about the Mille Miglia in the post war period, but really as an event, the Mille Miglia looks and feels like those really early city to city. races. So in, in the early days, you know, the very first motor race was the Paris Rouen of 1895. It’s considered the first motor race because the newspaper, a newspaper was like, we’ve got this newfangled technology. Let’s try and tell some stories about it. Let’s have all these peculiar vehicles. Some of them are steam powered. Some of them are yeah. Buses, some of them are motorcycles, but let’s have them go from one town to another and let’s write a story about it. It was meant to just be like a demonstration, an exposition. What the newspapers wrote about was who finished first, and that gave birth to motor racing. And what they would do, certainly at the turn of the century, would be like, We’re in Paris! First man to Bordeaux’s the winner! And they would just get in the cars and go, and it was really madcap. And the Mille Miglia was born out of this kind of city to city road race, so even in the post war period, even when the cars could do 180 miles an hour, you still just closed the public roads and you got the soldiers and the policemen out to keep the farmers off the road, and you had this route which changed every year, but was approximately a figure of eight, which always began in Brescia and would run down one coast and then come across the country to Rome, and then it would turn north again and come back north and end in Brescia. Always in the spring, so often bad weather, changeable weather, often beginning in the small hours, so the cars are going to be flagged away from the start in the small hours, because they’re going to be racing all day because this is a Thousand miles. So although the route changed, it always was a thousand miles. Probably should have done my research and be able to tell you why. Crew Chief Eric: That’s what I’m here for is to translate all the Italian that’s in the documentation, right? So for those that don’t know the name of the race, the Mille Miglia actually translates literally to 1000 miles. Jon Summers: Why a thousand miles in a country of kilometers? I only just thought of that. William Ross: What’s up with these Italians? You Crew Chief Eric: know, we can’t make up our minds. The French may have invented motorsport, but we invented NASCAR. Think about I Circo Maximo in Rome, which you’re familiar with, John. Isn’t the chariot racing just NASCAR? At the end of the day, Jon Summers: Eric, I even cut my teeth as a tour guide and I would show people around the forum and the Coliseum like the other guides would, but I had a good shtick for the Americans because I would position the Circus Maximus as NASCAR. It really was like NASCAR. The attitudes of the fans and the whole razzmatazz of it. Those of you who’ve not been to Rome and haven’t studied. The chariot racing, the pod racing of the Star Wars universe is basically a pretty straight ripoff. If you watch the pod racing scene and thought, hasn’t George Lucas recently watched Ben Hur? Yes, he had. The scene in Ben Hur, in Ben Hur where you’ve got the dolphins. There were these giant silver dolphins, and slaves would knock the dolphins for each lap that was done. Caligula, the Roman emperor, would bet a lot. He was big into betting on it. If you think of Nazca with betting now. We’ve digressed somewhat there, haven’t we? In this sort of initial period, as we talk about the Mille Miglia, I really wanted to draw a distinction between the event as it was up to 1957 and the event as it is now. So the event as it is now is a really awesome open road race event. For many years it’s been organized by a chap called Mark Gessler and I’ve had the pleasure of working with Mark on various different projects not to do with the Mille Miglia. But the notion of the modern event is Where you, we take cars that participated in the event years ago and we drive from town to town often with a police escort. It’s in Italy. So that police escort might be motorcycles. We might be able to do more than 100 miles an hour on a piece of Italian autostrada or not on a piece of Italian autostrada. This modern event is. Not a procession, but nor is it the full on pedal to the metal cannonball that the original event was. The original event was non stop, this event you overnight in a nice five star hotel, and it’s a wonderful way to commemorate. The original event, but the modern event has nothing to do with the original event in Intel. And the original event was around in the world sports car championship for three or four years of its existence. William Ross: The modern one now too, I mean, it’s actually route book to hold nine yards, time sections and everything. They kind of, I want to say, want to try and hold people back in regards to Excessive speed, but you know, you’re going to have your outliers out there. They’re just, you know, they’re not in it. They don’t care. They’re just having fun. You know, it’s kind of a different animal in regards to what it is back. What it was back then as compared to now. And they get, geez, I think they get like 300, 250 to 300 entrance, like right now, something like that. I know they get a large amount of participants. Jon Summers: My understanding is he’s a bit of a spool to get car. That you’re going to be invited to enter with because on the face of it, we think about, you know, Maserati 450s or Ferrari 290mm, you know, these are the cars that, that we think about as Mille Miglia cars, but you look, I mean, there’s lots of film on YouTube of the original events and you can see there, it’s all like little Fiat 1100s and much smaller cars in period. A few people could afford the Ferraris and there were lots of Fiat 1100s. Of course, nowadays, the people that want to participate in the event are the Ferrari and Maserati guys. So what they try and do is they try and have some of that, but they also try and allow, you’ll see Bentleys in the event now, because Bentleys were eligible for the event in period, although no Englishman entered, no Englishman entered, nobody brought a Bentley. And my understanding is, and I don’t know much about, I’m not like, I would never claim to be an expert on the Mille Miglia pre war. My understanding is that there are very, very few foreign entrants. Like I think there were no British entrants and one or two German entrants. So what you’re looking at is really an event, which has the feel of the Isle of Man TT, that yes, this is an international motoring event, but it’s something which the locals seem to excel at. And I think that’s partly because you really need to have the local knowledge there. So in the case of the Mille Miglia, the Italians knew the road, so they could race better than the Brits or the Germans who, who went and tried to. William Ross: Yeah, I think it was like 90, 95 percent of all, it’s like. Pre-war were, it was all Italian. Yeah. You had your German here, couple French here. I mean, extremely minimal, but the majority, 99% were just all Italian Jon Summers: and Ferrari. In that pre-war period, it was Eria, Ferrari, Alfredo’s that were really the yeah. Winners for bulk of the 1930s at least. If, if we look at the thirties, not the twenties, and it’s that classic alpha. 1750 with the Zagato body, you know, when you picture the classic 30s, Alfa Romeo, that’s, that’s the car. And I always feel like it was Victory at Le Mans and Targa and the Mille Miglia that built Alfa Romeo’s reputation and built Ferrari’s reputation pre war. Crew Chief Eric: So before we go too far down into the 1930s, between the two wars, right, as the Mille Miglia is ramping up and there’s the iconic turn and kind of renaissance of the Mille Miglia in 1940, and we’ll get to that. I want to take us just a step back to something you said earlier, John, and hopefully you can clarify it for the audience. You know, you talked about how motorsport started in the 1890s, you know, with the French and things like that. And then we joked about the Romans, but the first road race is credited to the Vanderbilt cup. I wonder is the Mille Miglia as we jokingly refer to it as the cannonball of Europe. Is it the first road rally? Is there a rally that precedes it? Jon Summers: The Targa Florio dates from 1902. So the Targa Florio, which is, it’s on Sicily, it was set up by an Italian nobleman. They used different routes, you know, they’d been all around the island. The classic route is I think 44 miles, eight miles along the coast, the rest of the time winding around the coast road. But it was always that, it was always on Sicily and they always had a uniquely Sicilian character. The Mille Miglia doesn’t come along until 1927. And the Mille Miglia is this notion that it will be all Italy. So the Mille Miglia is this, very much this creature of the fascist age after Le Mans, because Grand Prix racing, the early era of the city to city races, and then from 1906, 1906 was the first. French Grand Prix, the first Grand Prix, and this introduced this notion of circuit race. But then the feeling was that certainly amongst the French, certainly when they were being beaten by the Italians and the Germans, the feeling was that perhaps we needed to get back to basics, and we needed to get away from these prototype racing machines. And we needed to create a challenge, which replicated real motoring. So the thought was we’ll race for 24 hours and we’ll race with touring car. And thus Le Mans was born. And my sense is that the four guys that created the Mille Miglia created something that was for similar cars as might race at Le Mans. This was not for prototypes. This was for what we would know today as sports car. Crew Chief Eric: Were the previous point to point races timed like the Mille Miglia was? Are they time distance rallies? Jon Summers: Yes. You leave Paris, the Paris control, and then the key thing was to get your time card stamped at Bordeaux. And because the innovation that the Mille Miglia introduced, at least in the post war period and in the top classes, was the number tells you exactly the time that the car leaves. So if the car’s carrying five, three, one. That means it left Brescia So if car 5. 31 comes by, and then car 5. 27 comes by, you know that not only is 5. 31 past 5. 27 on the road, but he’s five minutes ahead in the race. And you know that from the side of the road, just by watching the cars come by. No complicated lights like they have at Le Mans, and certainly none of the, Who was that? And who’s leaving? Confusion. Was motorsport years ago? No, you it’s on the side of the car. It’s interesting that magnificent shell movie on YouTube There’s that AI enhanced version of it. Now, you can illustrate it illustrates exactly the point that I was trying to make Dan, although I Crew Chief Eric: We’ll just have to search for it on YouTube, that’s all Let’s jump back into this. The Mille Miglia kicks off 1927, and then there’s a major milestone in its history right around 1933. And then again in 1940, and we’ll continue to move forward. So John, take us on that journey. You kind of set the stage. We’ve compared and contrast some other famous races that started within that decade. You talked about Le Mans, the Vanderbilt Cup. We talked about all these other races. Where does the Mille Miglia go in its first five years? Jon Summers: Let’s see it through Ferrari’s eyes. Ferrari himself is born in Modena, which is on the route of the Mille Miglia, and the Via Emilia passes by not far from Ferrari’s front door. So he sees motor racing on the Via Emilia. He sees the early Mille Miglia is very close to his home and for Ferrari, you know, late in life. He didn’t want to leave that whole area of Northern Italy. He’s often will make reference to he himself wasn’t a great craftsman or artisan. He was an agitator of men, agitator of men line. We see over and over in this and the agitator of men. He has this success because of the craftsman. of Modena. So you have this sense in these early years that this burgeoning motorsport industry and this race which is centered around Brescia and Bologna and Modena and this auto strata connecting these cities together. Long before the German autobahn or freeways or motorways, the Italians had thought about connecting the race is natural, right? The Romans built these kind of roads and just linked to that Roman history there. The checkpoint for many years, the Rome checkpoint was at the Milvian Bridge, which is on the Northern bit of Rome where the Appian Way crosses over. But the Milvian Bridge was where Constantius defeated, I can’t remember the name of the Roman Emperor that he defeated, but where Constantius defeats the last pagan Roman Emperor and makes Rome Christian in the year 312. You know, this is where you get your paper stamped before you race on. So always in Italy, right, we’re steeped with this history. It would be fair to say early on, we have events that really are races of attrition and that benefit cars that are built like Bentley. So, you know, famously, the first foreign winner is Caracciola in the Mercedes SSK. William Ross: People always, I think I would say overlook in regards to, you know, the pre war time. And so John was stating, you know, Enzo’s enthusiasm for motor racing. And I think a lot of people overlook or forget, I mean, he wasn’t world champion or that, but he was a decent wheel, man, when he was racing for Alfa Romeo, he did rather well. And so getting into that area and I know he batted around a bit in his youth and trying to find his way. But, you know, he did pretty well with alpha and helping them grow into, you know, I say being the dominant force twenties into the early mid thirties until they decide to pull out, you know, he had a big role in regards to creating. I guess you would say, you know, this dominating format in regards to teams are singular team, you know, and I, and he, obviously he carried that throughout his life, ups and downs, but obviously when he broke out onto his own post war, he was allowed to, you know, due to contract obligations, cause he wasn’t allowed to for a set amount of time from alpha, but able to create his own, build his own cars and start racing. It did not take him long to become dominant in the racing arena. And as everyone knows, I mean, that was his thing, you know, he had one, nothing to do with road cars or anything that he wanted to build race cars for business aspects. You know, he had to get into building road cars for rich people because it helps fund his racing endeavors. You’ll see, as we talk in this episode, getting 1953. You’ll see, I guess you would say the gestation, the growth of the cars themselves is not real like big monumental leaps, you know, yeah. Maybe the body shape and this way the engines built and, you know, some of the parameters and characteristics of the motors and everything like that, how they’re made, you know, internal wise and just bore stroke, all that kind of stuff. There isn’t this massive, like, jump that you’ll see 54 and on, say, into 57. It evolved pretty slowly, and obviously the war had a big effect on progression in regards to these cars kind of jumping quickly. War’s over, and you’ll have all these engineers and whatnot starting to come back into play. But, It’s pretty interesting to look at the cars themselves pre war and then after the war when they started getting, you know, started to race back up again. It’s a leap from when they stopped to when they started again, but not like monumental regards to horsepower and speed. It all hovered around 150, 200 some horsepower and going and maybe top speeds of 120. 130, nothing crazy, because you think about that today, like, well, that’s nothing, but you know, you got to look at what the cars were back then, you know, that was pretty sketchy in regards to what these cars were going at that rapid rate. But then it’s interesting to see what that jump that happens post war in regards to how these cars just all of a sudden go, phew! Just kind of took off horsepower and everything. Crew Chief Eric: Correct me if I’m wrong, but there’s also something here that William touched on that we can unpack for just a second. Enzo was a driver. He was part of Alfa Romeo’s racing team, the early days of Formula One, right? Obviously huge influences there, not only from Alfa Romeo, but Maserati. When you look at some of the early Ferraris, They’re modeled after those cars that he was familiar with, but he was also one of the four horsemen of the famed Quadrifoglio, right? These shamrock that you see on the side of the Alfa Romeos, those four leaves are for the four drivers. One of those being Enzo, another one Tazio Nuvolari and so on down the line. There are some interesting stories and characters and big name drivers during this period of the early days of the Mille Miglia. Let’s unpack that for a moment as we get closer and closer to the 1940s and the war. Jon Summers: You know, the two big names, you know, the non Italian winner, they’ve only ever been driving Mercedes and one with Caracciola. So, so we should credit Caracciola really. And if there had been a Formula One World Championship in the 1930s, Caracciola would have won it more than anybody else. So there seems little doubt that he was the complete driver of the 30s. I feel like the historians of Ferrari himself. Nuvolari really stood out as a guy who in the book Ferrari wrote about drivers. He has a line about how the first time he ever sat next to Nuvolari, the first corner they got to, he thought he wasn’t going to make it around because Nuvolari’s whole cornering style was not to lift off the throttle. You just turn the car into a slide and skidded the car around the corner. In other words, you know, he was very much from the Ari Vatanen. Beau Duke school of cornering. The first newspaper mention, this is from Count Johnny Lurani’s Polka Biography of Nuvolari. The first mention of Nuvolari anywhere in literature is a newspaper that describes him as an audacious young man. So huge, huge cojones. And look, along with Ferrari, right? There’s this deep tragedy around Nuvolari. When we talk about the post war, Millet Millius, we’ll see that the guy drove out of his skin, arguably the greatest drives ever, you know, of anybody in any motor race ever kind of thing. I think you could make a case for Nuvolari in the 47 and 48 Millet Millius, but he had two sons and lost them during the war. So this post war Nuvolari is a Nuvolari who does not want to die in bed. He wants to die on the road. He Crew Chief Eric: wants to send it. Jon Summers: How do you race that guy? How do you race somebody who is publicly sta And this is not This is not some crazy Andrew Tate guy. This is a middle aged guy who will look the interviewer straight in the eye and say, I’ll race your car, Ferrari, and I really hope I die on the road. I will race so hard. I mean, it is Crew Chief Eric: Just maybe he was Sigmund Freud’s inspiration for the whole death wish study, right? And he was all around talks. You Jon Summers: know, we’ll, we’ll talk about the 1952 winner Giovanni Bracco later. And I read that Bracco’s phrase was either it goes or I’ll crash it. That’s so Crew Chief Eric: Italian. Jon Summers: This is not some Anthony Gobert, like crazy teenage motorcycle rider. This is a middle aged man. And so I feel like this is being a part of the, a product of the fascist era. So, so Novelari’s great foil at Scuderia Ferrari in the Mille Miglia is Achille Vazzi. And Vazzi has a very different manner where, you know, Novelari has this kind of. Bodo handling, cornering style, Achille Vazzi, very precise and very together and very structured. Both come from motorcycles and at this point, almost everybody we’re going to talk about began their career racing motorcycles before turning to cars. The really famous post war story of Nuvolari and Vazzi is towards the end of One Mille Miglia, I think. 33 or 34. Nuvolari spots Vazi ahead and in order to pass him he switches his lights off and comes up behind him and then passes suddenly and unexpectedly so Vazi can’t see him coming and is is defeated again. William Ross: Yeah, I mean that’s pitch dark. You’re not talking like, now you got streetlights, and like, lit up, and like, no, I mean, you’re, you’re talking pitch dark, and a road that’s maybe, what, eight feet wide, ten feet at best? Jon Summers: Yeah. William Ross: I mean, that’s some cojones. Jon Summers: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And, and what we’re talking about here is, this was, the only, the only person who saw that was Vazi, right? Vazi, there’s only the four of them, the two co drivers, and the drivers out there, and there is the sense of epic gladiators. Battling here. If you look at the pictures of them, uh, uh, images of them, n is so sort of small and, and wiry, sort of prune like man. And, and TSI has this very sort of fascist slicked over hair and usually has a, has a cigarette on, William Ross: had Jon Summers: an affair with another driver’s wife whilst he was at Auto Union. She introduced him to heroin. William Ross: Oh, Jon Summers: and over ended the car at 180 miles an hour. Now he did come out of that. whole process again. But I visited his hometown. It’s just north of Turin. There’s a wonderful museum there. You need to like talk to a librarian and so on and get in there. But the way that the Alfa Romeo Formula One team got themselves ready for Vazzi post war was absolutely incredible. He was all set. To be the formula one world champion and then rolled the car in burn and knocked himself on the head and was, and was gone. And that was really interesting. In a lot of photographs, the team took on Fangio, poor lad from South America. He’s come from South America and now he’s this prodigy. In a lot of the photographs of the car, he even looks like Vazi. You can only tell the difference because Varzi always had the cigarette and Fangio doesn’t. So you’ve this sort of sense that when Varzi went, the family and the team in, in, I can’t remember the name of the town in Italy that he was from, but they’ve sort of adopted him. And the museum, it’s hard to tell when the driver that we follow was Varzi. And when it was, he did transportation stuff in the war, Varzi, he was much wealthier. The Novelari could always buy a better car sooner. And this is important for Ferrari and the sports cars, because with Ferrari, we very much get this sense that he has to take the money from the customers, from the noblemen who are buying the cars, to keep the lights switched on, even though what he really wants to do is give the car to people like Novelari, who he knows are going to drive the Begisus out of it and potentially win the race with it. William Ross: On that point, you know, in regards to selling the cars to noblemen, You know, you look at post war, we get to that point, we get there, but you’ll see there’s a large contingent of Ferraris. I mean, you have 20, there’s 20 plus Ferraris in it, but there’s only maybe two or three, maybe four max factory cars that, you know, are, are, you know, being now these gentlemen drivers and whatnot, you’ll have some factories for whatnot, but there’s really not like. Normally you kind of have the opposite where you have like this big factory team, four or five factory guys, and you got like two or three private. It was, you know, complete opposite. And I mean, they had a massive contingent of privately entered Ferraris in the race year in year out, Crew Chief Eric: which is really interesting because we have come. Full circle on that paradigm in sports car and endurance racing. There is no Ferrari factory team. There is no Corvette factory team. There is no Porsche factory team. They’re all privateers under license from the factory. So we’ve come a hundred years later, full circle on all that. So that’s really, really interesting. William Ross: As we speak about these drivers, you know, the ones that win and participated. I always find very interesting, I don’t know, have to do with maturity or what have you, but again, also the mentality, because as you know, you get older, you get more cautious, you think more in regards to what can happen. You put that in your head. A lot of these guys were in their late thirties, forties, even some of these guys, you know, 50 plus that were racing in these events and just going balls out. You would think you’d get that age. You’re kind of like, I’m gonna be a little hesitant because I know what could happen. You know, if I hit this these guys were not young. There’s a couple of instances here and there, but I don’t know if it was back then, you know, you know, as you age, you know, maturity, what have you. And they kind of looked down on these youngsters, you know, that all, they don’t have the maturity. You don’t have, you know, they looked at them differently, but you know, I always found it interesting. It’s like the age of these people, these gentlemen erased. You know, they were up there, you know, they were no spring chickens and like, you know, speaking about varsity smoking These guys smoke trade. It’s not like it’s to this day and age where you got these working out every day You got nutritionists and all this stuff in regards to you watching every ounce and everything like that A lot of these guys were rather portly Crew Chief Eric: or you got banjo who’s chewing on coca leaves the whole time, right? William Ross: Yeah, just Crew Chief Eric: to keep them up there. What’s also happening in this period, the race starts in 1927. We’ve been talking a little bit about 1933 and in the early 30s. So we got that six year jump there. And then we’re creeping closer to the 40s, creeping closer to World War II. The technology advancements that are occurring from the mid 20s to the mid 30s to the early 40s are huge. It’s like a space race compared to today where we’re not searching for seconds anymore. We’re searching for hundredths and thousandths of a second, which is a lot of technology for very little return. But in those days, all sorts of invention, ingenuity and things were going on. So John, talk to us about that and how that influences the birth. Of the first Ferraris, Jon Summers: certainly the, the key technology of, I think for the twenties is supercharging Mercedes, that the one, the Mille Miglia was a, was supercharged and this created this sort of dichotomy in motor sport period where the unlimited cars would make plenty of power and be supercharged. And then there was a whole class of unsupercharged cars that were similar to the ones that everyday people could use. So there was always this contrast within the, the Mille Miglia. I suppose the other thing that we should say about it is that, you know, yes, a definite class of car. emerges that is good at this kind of event. We might even call it the Grand Touring car, the Grand Touring motorsports car. What we’re saying is that, you know, a Bentley could win Le Mans, but it wasn’t really the ideal shape for it. Mercedes SSK could win Le Mans, but it was not really the ideal shape for it. An Alfa 1750 with a Zagato body on it. Now that Was much more of what we might understand to be the first and indeed you can make that position that those alphas that won the melee in the 30s very much count as, you know, the first sports cars before we move on from this post war period, let’s just cover off the weirdness of the end of the melee miller in the post war period. There was a really bad accident in 1938, a car hit, I went over a level crossing into the crowd and that was the end of the event. The event was stopped. There was no event in 1939, even though war hadn’t broken out in that part of Europe. Yeah, there was even an event in 1940. The event in 1940 was, um, I, from my reading about it, it feels as if the Italians tried to do an event just for them, but then unexpectedly, the Germans like showed up. With these hot rod BMWs driven by Hushka von Hanstein, who became the, uh, you know, the face of Porsche Motorsport in the post war period. I guess the course was no longer the sort of crazy open roads. It was a triangle of closed roads and, and this is, this is very much in keeping. With racing on the public roads in continental Europe and Ireland, you know, in, in Ireland, there’s still motorcycle racing, the same kind of thing as you see at the Isle of Man TT, but, you know, less money, club stuff, it’s three towns joined together in a triangle, Reims, Reims, the circuit in northern France is this three And, you know, Towns joined together. This is a, this is a classic kind of layout. So the 1940 used that kind of format. It was won by, as I said, Hanstein in this, in this BMW, quite famously. The photo of him on the podium, he has his SS on his overalls. There, there were British people there. War had been declared. I think it must’ve been a very, very. Peculiar event, you know, I always feel like it warrants further research in my mind. It doesn’t count as a melee melee or it stands aside. There’s like post war period, the pre war period. And then there’s this funny 1940 anomaly for our purposes. I think it’s really worth talking about because this is the first time a car that Ferrari built himself. So this is the period where he’s had the falling out with Alfromeo. We should go back to the fact that his relationship with Alfromeo is really odd, that they don’t have a works racing team. They just have him doing it for them. And it seems from some of the reading that you do, a lot of this is predicated around Ferrari’s personal relationship with Gabbato, the boss of Alfa Romeo, but then there comes this sort of falling out with this character, Wilfrid Reichardt. He has this estrangement, Ferrari has this estrangement from Alfa Romeo. Whilst he’s estranged, he can’t build his own cars, this is the understanding. So he doesn’t build a car under his own name, a Ferrari, he builds this probably know better than me. William Auto Avioni. My Italian, I William Ross: can’t, it’s not good, but Auto Avio Construzione 815. Jon Summers: You know, but it feels like a Ferrari, right? Eight cylinders and 1500 cc’s. The nomenclature is there right from the start. From memory, not such an impressive showing on the event, but he was there in that pre war Mille Miglia in a car that wasn’t. And alpha with a Ferrari shield on the side of it, which is all he’d done up to then. So that’s really where Ferrari begins at the Mille Miglia. And William Ross: yeah, he had two cars entered. Yeah, they both retired. But you know, the main thing is, is if memory serves me, you know, when he created the name and put under, it was, he was trying very hard to hide the fact that it was him just because. You know, with what happened with Alfa Romeo and, you know, them saying, Hey, you can’t go out and build your own cars and everything like that. But, you know, that desire and that need to do it was just so strong. Then the cars, you know, they kind of took on a look of a lot of other vehicles of that day. Kind of looked a lot like a. The BMW and stuff like that. You know, it’s, I want to say, I say copying, but it had a very similar look to a lot of other cars back in that day, you know, I don’t know. At that point, you know, you still had that very strong presence of these coach builders in that area and sending them out, obviously money had been extremely tight for him in regards to, you know, getting these things put together, you know, how much Testing input and everything that, you know, gone into these cars and it, nothing like what’s, you know, it kind of is today. But the key thing is, is this is where, you know, he basically starts creating his aura in work, so to speak, in regards to getting into being, you know, builder that he became. So it got him going, obviously, unfortunately, we know what happens later, you know, in the coming months in that region and a certain gentleman up in Germany getting some crazy ideas. So it kind of distracts from that. You know, and he goes into his tool making business and, you know, keeps everything going and, you know, he did well, you know, at that point in time too. So, I mean, he was setting himself up for post war, kept himself very neutral, you know, people kind of say, oh, he joined the fascist prior to that. But, yeah, he did, he didn’t participate in a lot of stuff. It was more just to kind of not say much gain favor, you know, to get the government contracts and kind of just, you know. Working the system, doing the politics and everything like that. But he really wasn’t a face of it or anything like that. He did what he had to do in regards to what needed to be done to survive the war. Jon Summers: That 8 1 5 A a c or a CC or whatever it was, Otto Evian constructs, the only that thing that was eight cylinders. Yet post-war. He’s doing 12 cylinders, but still in this very. small capacity. Why, why was he doing 12? Why didn’t he just do a four cylinder? That’s what Fiat was doing. William Ross: Now, I believe with the eight cylinder when he did that, it had a lot to do with what he had available to him in regards to build the car. So he couldn’t go out and build his own, you know, cast his own block and do everything like that. He took a lot of pieces of parts from everywhere and built these cars. So hence that first one was an eight cylinder. Crew Chief Eric: You hit. The nail on the head. William Ferrari was resourceful, especially starting out, right? He had to beg, borrow and steal from wherever he could. Obviously he was on the rocks without for a male in some ways, right? Undercover trying to develop his own car, all this kind of stuff. Who’s he going to go. Two for an engine at that point, right? It’s not going to get it from Fiat. Fiat’s not building the eight V until the 1950s. He’s not going to get it from Alfa Romeo. He doesn’t have his own engine. Like you said, he’s not building his own. He’s going to turn to Maserati and borrow from the 1939 Maserati race car, which had a V8 engine. So it makes sense to get ahold of one of those, jam it in your own chassis, make some modifications. Stamp the head, call it a Ferrari and go on with life. The Americans were ahead of the game. Cadillac had a V8 in the early 19 teens, along with a couple other brands. And then you’ve got Packard with what they called the twin six, which is the V12 as we know it. He’s looking beyond. His boundaries to say, what can I do to build a better mousetrap? Because remember Ferrari in the early days, he’s quoted as saying this. I could care less about the car. It’s all about the engine, right? Build a bigger engine, build a bigger power plant. There was nothing in Italy bigger than the Maserati V8 at that time. Because the V8. that came came later Jon Summers: pre war period the reason that there weren’t very many v engines lancet did that before but really nobody did successful vng you know the va pre war wasn’t really that well i guess the flathead va was successful wasn’t it certainly mercedes benz their pre war racing cars were straight motors weren’t they because you just it was just easier To do a strong, you only needed to do one casting. You didn’t need to do the two castings in, in the V. And, you know, until Lancia do a V6 to race with, you know, in our period here, you know, nobody had done V6s at all. So it’s an interesting point, isn’t it? Because you do wonder, and I feel like I need to do more research now. You know, right there, if you imagine Ferrari trying to build that AAC, okay, I need to, like, cast an engine. How do I go about and do that? You can’t just, like, call up a machine tool manufacturer, can you? So, there must have been, he must have had access. You know, so it’s Modena, it is that relationship with Alpha, because I know there was the falling out, but he remains on good terms with Gabbato personally. I’ve got to believe that there were Crew Chief Eric: He never wanted to let them know what he was up to, right, with the racing program, so the logical conclusion is he went to Maserati for an engine. Jon Summers: That’s interesting. Yeah. Ready. Interesting. Crew Chief Eric: Where are we in the timeline now? We’re like 1940s issue talked about the meal Amelia that wasn’t the meal Amelia. And I will add a footnote here that our friend Paul Baxa from the society of automotive historians has a whole presentation that we are airing on break fix as part of our history of motorsports series. That’s going to come out a little bit later. So you actually be able to dive into the 1940 meal Amelia very, very deeply on that. So I want to give him a shout out that we’ve got that coming. So 1941, 42, we’re talking about the beginning of the war is the mille mille put on hold or does it continue through the war or does it restart post war? Where are we at? Jon Summers: It restarts post war in 1947. Remember it had sort of stopped in 1938 and then it had restarted in this circuit format down in 47. It’s like 1938 never happened. And we’re going back to this crazy open road race around the country. You know, I lived in Italy for a year and, and, uh, I lived with a really weird German guy who was very into Italian cinema. And I went to a number of fifties Italian movies with him. And I remember after the third one saying to him, are all fifties Italian movies about some poor widow who like has to work in the fields. Or be a prostitute, but she chooses to nobly work in the fields. Is that what it’s all about? And he was like, yes. And then we get into this big diatribe about how it’s the land, and it’s that she personifies Italy. And this is why Sophia Loren and all of When we think about the Mille Miglia coming back, we have to see it in this context of Italy rebuilding itself, of remembering a good time, of remembering As we said before, a festival. The early route maps, the route maps from the 40s and the 50s, they would list, you know, Serafini driving Ferrari, but they would also list, you know, Siena. And here’s a photograph of the cathedral in Siena kind of thing, because this is the route that we’re taking. So we have this feeling of Italian festival, which brings the events back. And as William alluded to earlier in those events in. 47, 48, cars weren’t really, they were what had survived the war pulled out and dusted off. And the drivers were very much the same kind of, you know, pulling themselves out of the cupboard and dusting themselves off a little bit. So, you know, that 1947 winner Alfa Romeo 2900B. I mean, that’s a beautiful car and even a fast car by modern standards, but it’s a completely pre war design. William Ross: You know, you had a lot of the drivers participating, basically just, hey, just starting back up. They participated pre war, now they’re doing a post war. I mean, you have a lot of guys that won pre war that win post war. You know, and you got to look at it, basically 10 years in regards to that gap, and these guys weren’t young, so to speak, when they It says a lot there in regards to, I guess you’d say the desire, you know, and there’s that passion to race, you know, and getting back to, I would say down to the roots, but, you know, just getting back to it and going for it. Crew Chief Eric: Car factory. As we note the birth of Ferrari 1947, what did the rest of the field look like? You know, we talked about Bentley pre war. We obviously talked about Alfa Romeo, a couple of BMWs in there, a Mercedes. What does the 1947, 48, 49 entry list for the Mille Miglia look like? Who’s allowed to Jon Summers: race? Anybody, as I read somewhere, Eddie, Tom, Dick, or Luigi William Ross: is allowed to enter. You talked earlier about Crew Chief Eric: the classing system where it was sort of like 300 horsepower and above with your forced induction or These regular pedestrian cars, you know, the Cinquecentos and all those things of the world that existed back then, did that dichotomy still exist or was there a proper classing system in 47? Had they figured it out in the 10 years that had gone by, or were they still running sort of fast and loose and developing the race as they were going along? Jon Summers: The bulk of the entry is always small capacity Fiat, Fiat 11. Many of those were sedans. Then you had guys like Zagato and Abarth, who made a career for themselves, putting these beautiful aerodynamic bodies on Fiat 1100s, because if you think of it You know, those Adriatic Straits, I’ve read, I don’t know if this was true, that Jaguar needed a higher back axle ratio for the Mille Miglia than they used at Le Mans. Le Mans has got a three mile straight, and it was for those Adriatic Straits. So if you could imagine how wrung out Fiat 1100 would have been on those kind of straights, any extra little bit of horsepower, any improved aero you can find. So, you know, we, we look at. The second generation Prius and we see that little indent on the roof. Well, that bubble was a Zagato, you know, styling trade, but it’s literally about making the frontal area that little bit less so it can cut through the air a little bit faster. And the crucible that these guys were testing themselves in was the Mille Miglia. That was the Indianapolis 500 of, uh, you know, events. So most of the entry list is standard. Little Fiat’s a lot of the entry list is these hot rodded little Fiat’s then you also have larger Touring cars so four door Alfa Romeo this kind of thing you see a lot of that stuff being entered Crew Chief Eric: any French entrance some Jon Summers: But no, not very many, because remember in, in the post war period, there’s no motor racing in 45 or 46. And then in 47, there’s, you know, the first British event was in Jersey in 1947. And there is this sense of some recovery in 1947. But really, the French weren’t in a position to do much. Much motor racing at that time in my, uh, in my experience. Crew Chief Eric: So 1948, there’s a plethora of Fiat’s and then the Ferraris begin their dominance. And I know dominance in motorsport. We don’t think about that back then. Like we do today when you talk about, you know, Schumacher and Hamilton, and now they’re stopping and things like that in the formula one. And some of the other disciplines, but Ferrari was becoming dominant and they set dominance for almost a decade in that period, the year after they officially opened their doors as a company. So educate the audience on the significance of 48 up through 57 and where that takes the rest of the conversation about the Mille Miglia. William Ross: For 47, you know, with that entry. The car that they raced at actually had won their prior race in the Grand Prix Rome. So I mean he already was going in as a race winning car constructor, I guess you could say. Jon Summers: Was that a 1 6 6 that first year, Willie? William Ross: No, the uh, 1, 2, 5 in 47. It has that, you know, we are looking front end. You wanna see that Grill’s almost like an olive Aston Martin DB two three. You know that weird look to it. But that, you know, that’s the one thing right out of the gate. First race, retire. Second race, they win. And so then they go to the Mille Emilia and it retires in that race. But, you know, he came out of the gate pretty hot, I guess you could say, in regards to winning. The Grand Prix of Rome obviously wasn’t the Mille Emilia, and obviously length, endurance of what that road is. So, you know, you have a lot of brutality. In regards to what a car has to take, potholes, everything like that. Just, you know, it’s getting beat the hell by the road itself. It’s pretty impressive what they come up with. And obviously we get into 48, that’s when they really, you know, make that leap in regards to You know, having several cars in it say dominating, Jon Summers: you know, there’s that line that I’ve used in some of my other presentations that Ferrari uses in a documentary that, you know, when he was working in the first world war, he was worked in the Packard factory and he fell in love with the V 12 engine. These Packard aero engine. I fell in love with the V 12 and I have never got divorced. That was the quote. William Ross: Yeah, yeah. Anyone listening, you know, if they read, obviously, you know, you have a couple of big novels in regards to Enzo’s history. But the one thing you know and understand about Enzo Ferrari is he knew how to work, I guess you would say, the story, narrate to make it in his favor. I always look at it when you hear a lot of these stories, you know, kind of going back, we just talked before in regards to how about Lamborghini with the tractor or the clutch, what have you know, you know, you’re going to hear all these little nuanced stories. There’s always little tweaks to it. And My understanding was that he went with the 12 cylinder because of the Packard. But when he was able to build everything himself, it’s one thing, okay, you build a frame, it’s just tubing. Back then, those frames were pretty straightforward. Two tubes, some cross members, what have you, start building it up, you know, and beating the metal, you know, using the English wheel and using hammers, dollies and wooden bucks and everything like that. Casting your own blocks. I mean, you’re talking molten metal in regards to building this stuff and sand casting, all this stuff. It’s incredible. The infrastructure get put into place to build those cars. So you’re basically building everything yourself from scratch. It wasn’t like you were, Hey, I’m gonna order this from over here. I’m going to order this from this manufacturer or whatnot. I mean, a majority of the, they’ve made a manufacturer themselves, but the electronics, I think if memory serves, they were using Lucas electronics and stuff from the UK. There’s certain things that are bringing in, but your major components, you know, they were manufacturing themselves, but getting on the 12 cylinder, my understanding is because just, he loved that Packard and just the sound of it and the power, the delivery and how smooth it was, and it was about how effortlessly it ran and with the Vanderbilt cup, that kind of played a little bit of role into how well Packard did and that kind of stuff back then as well, played a big role in it, which is kind of surprising because you wouldn’t think. An American car is going to have influence on this Italian automaker, but it played a big role. Crew Chief Eric: To me, it all makes sense when you look back over what was available at the time. So who’s he going to turn to with the biggest, baddest engine on the block? The Packard Twin 6. William Ross: Yeah, you look at the displacement of the difference between the two. Those 12s, V12s in the beginning, you know, they weren’t very big displacement wise. In your mind, you think V12, you’re thinking this big monstrous engine, everything’s like, Oh, it’s 12 cylinders. Crew Chief Eric: That’s like a two liter 12 cylinder, but that’s when you’re borrowing jugs from a Fiat and you’re trying to put it all together. Right? Jon Summers: You know, I thought there was a rational reason for the V12 around the fact that they can usually rev high. Crew Chief Eric: And even the Packard Boater, the reason they call it twin six is it’s two straight sixes together. It’s not a actual casted V. So even then it’s sort of, we’re working towards what the V12 becomes, you know, the classic V12s from Ferrari and Jaguar and so down the line. So, you know, it’s a little nuanced thing. And, and I refer to the Packards as a twin six for that specific reason, because it is two straight sixes together on one crank. All right, so here we are, we’re jumping back into the beginning of the Dolce Vita period. We’re talking about the reconstruction of Italy, the renaissance of the Mila Milia. So we’re fast forwarding 1947 into 48, 49, 50 and so on down the line. So do we want to talk about. Some of the notable cars from this period, specifically the Ferraris. William, where do we want to take the conversation now that we’re in this sweet spot of the meal Amelia’s rebirth? William Ross: I guess you’d say being sports tours and what have you is a majority of these cars were all closed coops. You might’ve had the rare one here and there. It’s not till you start getting more subsequent years till he’s made. No, it needs to be an open top. Barketta. A lot of it kind of, and you go back, and I’m sure John can, you know, hit on these points, is some of the drivers preferred the coupe to the Barchetta just because sound, noise, comfort, what have you. And not to mention, a majority of these guys were driving wearing double breasted suits. So they don’t want to get their clothes dirty. So it’s not so much in the, some of the early years, or I’d say, you know, of the Ferrari cars, but as you get into subsequent years, you could have three, four different models makes a Ferraris in the race. Now they obviously had different size classes and what have you, you know, so you compete, I think it was a 2000 CC was like something like that. So there’s obviously those little subsequent subclasses, you know, you can race the one as well, but. You know, you always had a mixture of cars in there. The one, obviously, the one was the 166S. The chassis, 0 0 3 S, the one with, I always, I’m terrible at pronouncing this, Biondetti and the Volt. Is it, uh, John, how do you pronounce his last name? Crew Chief Eric: He asked the non Italian how to pronounce an Italian name. Can you believe Jon Summers: this? We can’t get this far through without mentioning Clemente Biondetti, can we? Because the bloke won four times, which is twice as much as anybody else won. He raced within a few months of dying of cancer as well. I mean, the bloke was from Sardinia and my understanding is, is that the others were kind of snobbish with him. Crew Chief Eric: He’s a southerner. Come on now. Jon Summers: I think it was a social class thing. Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. Jon Summers: And, uh, there was even a thing between like the Piedmontese and the guys from, from the East. And I think, you know, the peasant from the Agricultural Island. I think that bloke really Crew Chief Eric: well, the other gentleman that William was referring to is Giuseppe Navone. William Ross: Thank you. My Italian is not good. John mentioned all about, you know, going in the car, you can go in and start getting an adapt a lot of these, but you know, in 48, you know, there was obviously with the winning car, it’s impressive for what they were able to do. Cause these cars took a beating in regards to what that race was. 94 miles an hour. So you’re not talking anything crazy fast. I mean, you’re talking drum breaks. You’re not talking to something that’s going to be stopping a dime or everything like that. And you know, and you know, you had a lot of long straights and whatnot, but you had a lot of mountainous portion of this where you’re on the, you know, using your brakes quite a bit, how John had mentioned about how new Volaris driving style regards to throwing the car around. I think, you know, a lot of these guys, you know, they started looking at, okay, how do I save this or whatnot? Because the car had to make it. You know, as that as is, you know, to finish first, first, you got to finish. These cars are fragile. Ferrari’s biggest Achilles heel throughout all the subsequent years was the transmissions. And the rear end and the axon that just because banging on the ground and just, you know, it took out Pierrot to roofie, you know, five times, I think it was something like that, that he retired. Either. He’s always the same thing. His rear end is very actual. I Jon Summers: roofies like the Lloyd Ruby of the guy who was always well placed and then fell out in the most absurd unlucky kind of, William Ross: yeah, up front or leading or whatnot. And that happens. And that’s a common occurrence. You know, these cars were fragile. And the other aspect is, it’s not so much again, as we talk going from like about here from 47 to 53, you’re not talking major leaps and bounds in regards to torque, horsepower, speed, but again, just very fragile cars. You know, these things were all hand built and you’re not talking precision getting out your micrometers and all this stuff and regarding your tolerances and gaps in that. You know, these guys are drinking at noon for lunch and having wine and everything like that, you know, and smoking. It was just, I was not saying attention to detail wasn’t there. You’re not talking about obviously what it is today. It’s just nowhere near it. You have one car built and it’s not like you’re building five a day. It goes, Hey, you got one car. A week, potentially. It’s a very slow process, but these cars are very, very fragile. Crew Chief Eric: So do we know how many of these 47, 48, 49 early, early Ferrari race cars that were in the Mille Miglia still exist today? William Ross: Not a lot. I mean, as you get into the, you know, later years, when you start getting into 54, 5, 6 going on, there’s more of those around that participated because there was numerous ones. Cause you start getting towards the end of it. No, you have 20 plus four hours in the race. So you’re going to have quite a few that are roaming around. They can say they’ve got million million history. Now, obviously you’re only going to have that one that has a winning history and your winning car. There’s not that many in regards to production numbers, but no, you’re going to have subsequent ones that line, but he was not building. Hundreds and hundreds of cars. You had 20 of this, 10 of that, five of this, you know? So when you sit and think, Oh, it’s still running around now. I mean, all those cars were basically race cars. Yeah. I mean, couple of, Hey, you’ll drive down the street now, but these were meant to last that wasn’t their intent when they got built, it was, Hey, I’m going to race this car for a couple of years, you know, and then it’s just basically. Say junk, but basically that’s kind of what it was. And you look back at these old ads, you know, especially like people always pull up like for, I’m two 50 GTOs. Oh, he can buy this thing for, you know, it was 500 back in the early seventies, right? It’s like, Oh my God, you know, now it’s 50, million. I get, they were just old beat up race cars. He had a few that were scrapped, you know, very common back then, you’ll motor blew up, get rid of it, pitch it, you know, put a different motor in it. A lot of these cars that came over to the U. S., you know, they dumped in, you know, a Chevy or a Ford motor. It’s kind of tough to really trace some of these. I would say there’s not an abundance, but yeah, there’s, you know, there’s a decent amount running around. Crew Chief Eric: And what’s interesting about this and John, you might remember, there’s a presentation from year before last from Trevor Lister and Don Capps from the society of automotive historians, where they actually talk about the provenance of a lot of these cars, especially the Maseratis you’re hitting the nail right on the head, William, where they talk about, well, the engine blew up, so we took it out and we put in a different one. And then we called it the model one 67. Instead of the one 66 and it’s the same chassis number, but the engine code doesn’t match. And so there’s all this sort of who cares because it was racing. And, you know, you listen to the presentation and how they dissect it all down and try to figure out the lineage of some of these cars and what is the provenance of these early race cars. And basically at the end of it, you realize it’s an extremely difficult, challenging task to nail down where some of them ended up or suddenly there’s a new model of Ferrari. Well, it’s really the old car with a different motor. This has been changed and they scratched out the bin number and put a new one on, right? So if you’re interested in diving deep off the diving board onto that side of the pool, we’re going to reissue that episode later, but it’s really interesting that you bring that up because it is. systemic, especially in Italy, all the manufacturers as a result of these races, trying to evolve and perfect their cars. Jon Summers: At its root, what my understanding of what Trevor List is saying is that Italian cars are often like motorcycles. So a motorcycle has a frame identity and it also has an engine number and typically it’s the engine number which we know the motorcycle. Trevor’s contention is, is that in most countries around the world, we know a car by its chassis number. However, the Italians and Ferrari and Maserati and so on, they would identify a car by its engine. So let’s say I buy car number one with engine number one. I go out, I race it, I blow up the motor. I send my car back to the factory and I say, Ferrari, give me your latest greatest engine. Ferrari says, okay, he takes the engine number one out. He puts engine number two in. I drive the car away. According to Ferrari, I’m driving engine number two. But according to the British government, I’m driving engine number one. I might be really happy with that confusion. If this was car number two, because it’s got engine number two, I would have to pay a whole new load more purchase tax. Whereas if I just say that this is just a part, even if maybe I balled the car up completely, and you know, the only part left is my St. Christopher on the dashboard, it might suit me for tax reasons. To say that actually I, this is a different part of the same car. So there’s not so what Trevor list has tried to do is partly unpick that, but mostly he thinks that a lot of the confusion can be unpicked if you follow engine numbers, rather than chassis numbers William Ross: for the 48 winning car scrapped. They took the motor out of it, but the car, it got, you know, they raced a couple of times, but that car got scrapped and they put the motor into something else, whatnot. And it’s actually kind of jumping back to the 125S from 47. It went to all the different races and whatnot, but in 06, or well, early 2000s, I forget the gentleman’s name, you know, but they tried to, I guess you would say they recreated it, so to speak. But then there was also this argument that they were trying to say, no, it’s that one, but showed it at Pebble Beach, but he didn’t enter it. And it was a, I guess, a big sigh of relief from all the judges and everybody else in the concourse because there was going to be a huge uproar in regards to legitimacy and history and everything in this car and trying to actually prove what it was. Ferrari was good, you know, documentation and there’s so many historians out there, you know, so many people that follow Ferrari and kind of go back and everything like that. As you get more into, you know, the fifties, especially, and on mid fifties and on, it’s pretty, I want to say easy. You can go through and find history and whatnot series of cars are, but your late forties and early fifties, it sometimes can be a little difficult just because of what these cars went through and what they did with it. The Jon Summers: reason why it’s so complicated and difficult. is there are many, many generations of auctioneers and classic car brokers who’ve spent a career out of saying, my Maserati 250 F is worth 5 million because it was driven by Sterling Moss, whereas yours is only worth three because he wasn’t well, if suddenly mine might’ve been driven by Sterling Moss or yours might’ve been, or actually who the bloody hell knows who was driven by what. Which is kind of what Trevor Lister says, introducing that level of confusion doesn’t help anybody. And I’m reminded of a student who’s worked for Stanford University. And for a while, REVS had a program running at Stanford that I was, was part of. And I remember a student coming and looking for funding for a startup that he was going to do, that was going to test. paint depth and integrity, but he was a chemical major to a much higher standard that is currently done. And it took a couple of the old car guys to come to him and say, look, there’s no upside to any of this. I don’t need to know that my car has been repainted if I think it’s original. And if you’re buying the car off me. Just believe that it’s original. I think that it’s original. You think it’s original. Let’s all believe that it’s original. Believe the emperor has new clothes. Let’s not just cast into doubt whether or not he may or may not be wearing any clothes because then everybody’s going to lose. There’s no upside to finding out that the cars had a new fender painted on it. That was the point that was, was made. Crew Chief Eric: is out there. Jon Summers: William, to your point about cars falling apart, I mentioned my involvement with Stanford. I did some work with a chap whose official title is the Omar and Anthea Hoskins Professor of Classical History. This is a dude who made a career out of looking at shards of Greek pottery and comparing them with other. Shards of Greek pottery coming up with a whole fresh way of understanding the way life developed on the Greek Peloponnesian peninsula. So it sounds boring, but it has this kind of really, like, profound point that we understand a lot more about ancient Greece than we did before. Now, he loves The story of the, the Milli Milia in 1948 with Naval, with the Ferrari’s given. Ferrari has four entries. He sold one car to an Italian prince, but Naval comes to him and says, look, Ferrari, I can’t dine my bed. Give me a car to race. So Ferrari’s like, alright, I’ll give you this car that I sold to this Russian. Noble, but I’ll give you that car and you can race in it. And the story is that the car falls apart under Nuvolari. The bonnet comes off and Nuvolari says, No problem. It’s lighter now. We’ll race better. The seat comes adrift. And this is the part that Michael Shanks, my academic colleague, likes. So, so Nuvolari now. races on on a bag of oranges and lemon and we now have to think about this Sophia Loren and you know the personification of Italy here so eventually the car expires at the side of the road and Nuvolari is like at the side of the road and a priest finds him and says can I help you great Tazio and Nuvolari says yes and sleeps in his bed. The priest gives him his bed to sleep in and Nuvolari, exhausted, sleeps in the bed and Ferrari weeps because he’s not able to build a car which is strong enough for the passion that Nuvolari can bring to it. William Ross: Obviously, me and Daddy winning the race, you know, you would think I say accolades and whatnot but everyone was so focused on Nuvolari and he was kind of getting all the attention. And I know Nouvelire is kind of like trying to push it back, but everyone was so focused on Nouvelire because he didn’t win and everything that happened and stuff like that. So Biandetti’s win kind of was, I want to say understated, but you know, everyone was kind of more focused on Nouvelire than they were on the actual winner of the race day. Jon Summers: Yeah. And Biandetti has this quote, doesn’t he, that in the melee melee, you have to have the courage to drive slowly. You get the impression that contemporaries were. Cynical about him because, you know, he was always the guy who you couldn’t drive steadily and still win the Mille Miglia, but he certainly didn’t like, put it out there in the way the Novolari did. The previous year, he’d raced the Stusitalia, been leading and it had got wet right towards the end and he’d like, had to change a spark plug. And the story I read in the Lurani biography is. Back at home in, in Manchuria, he says to his old mechanic who’d refused to come with him, if you’d come with me, we’d have won. We’d have changed the spot because it took me five minutes to change the spot. Like if you’d have come, we’d have done it in less time and we’d have won the race. So that’s 48. Biondetti wins at an average speed of 75 miles an hour. Biondetti again, 48. 75. And 49, 82 on dirty winning three years in a row. William Ross: Look at the times to is that’s kind of a big leap because 48 at roughly a little over 75 miles an hour airspeed, 15 hours, five minutes, 44 seconds. But then in 49, not that different of a car, but it was, it was a barketta, everything like that. You know, it changed up quite a bit, but it drops by three hours. Jon Summers: It’s huge. That’s a lot. William Ross: Yeah. I Jon Summers: wonder if the weather was better. I wonder if it was a weather thing William Ross: that plays into it. And you know, rain, it was very prominent. In that race, you’re in, you’re out. Obviously, as you get into the subsequent years when the cars start getting bigger and faster, 48, you know, there was a weather issue. And you gotta remember the tires that they were using back then. You’re not talking specialized rain tires or anything like that. I mean, they were terrible tires. But that’s a big leap, and obviously it would have been completely dry or whatnot. You know, you go from 48 to 49, but again, the two gentlemen, they, they win it again. And that just goes to tell you, he knew how to win that race. I would say he was a specialized guy for it, but two years in a row, winning for a Ferrari, it says a lot for Biendetti and Devoni. Jon Summers: The whole business of whether you raced with a Barchetta, Or whether you race with a closed car. The open car, of course, has got less air resistance. So fundamentally, it’s going to be a faster car for the same amount of horsepower, less weight. The closed car, because it keeps the weather off, and you’re just that much more civilized, the argument is the closed car can be So in 47, the Alfa that Biondetti wins with is closed. In 48, it was That was a coupe. It was another 166 in 49. William Ross: Because when you go from that, from 166 S to a 16 MM with MM, obviously stand for Mille Miglia, because now, you know, he’s on this run. They basically took the 166 S, shortened it just a bit. Obviously, they made it a Barchetta, you know, and a few other little tweaks here and there, you know, and created that car. Enzo’s thought always was that you win this race in an open car. He thinks a race car is open. It’s not a coupe. I don’t know how much difference, but obviously I think going from that coupe to that barketta and for what they changed on it, really, I want to say drastic, a max speed only goes up by maybe 15 miles an hour. You know, so you’re not talking some massive jump where you’re talking like 50 miles an hour faster. I Jon Summers: think that’s significant though, isn’t it? Over the 10, 11 hours the race would take. Something that could do 135 versus something that can do 120. Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. When you step away from 1949 1950 and you jump from the 166MM to the 195S, you’re kind of going back to that squarish, garish, boxy look. That was the early Ferraris, like the 125 and things like that. So I’m seeing this design language flip flop happening here as he’s finding his way. Jon Summers: Probably whoever was going to do the cheapest bodywork. Crew Chief Eric: There was a sale on square grills that week. Jon Summers: No, but if you think about that, if I’m one of those little Carrozzeria, and they were little, they were half a dozen guys at most. If a car with my body wins just its class in the millimetre, let alone winning the whole event, that’s terrific advertising for somebody to come to my girl’s rear for their nice Alfa Romeo or touring Fiat or whatever. So I feel like Ferrari wasn’t exaggerating when he said that the body is like a dress on a beautiful woman. This is what it was, right? It was, and you know, we know that he just concentrated on the engine. And was never that interested in, you know, making the brakes better or making the chassis better or anything like that. He just focused on making the engine better. And then you’ve got these coach builders who are competing with each other. These yes, aerodynamic bodies on, but also good looking bodies because they want their car to be on the. photograph of tomorrow’s Sunday sports newspaper as the Mille Miglia winner. Crew Chief Eric: Well, you mentioned 1950. So here we are, right. And I was already alluding to that with the change in design from the one six, six to the one nine five S. So what’s significant about the 1950 Mille Miglia? Jon Summers: Well, it’s the first time the Marzotto brothers make a real impact on the event. So this is a family of textile magnets, and there’s four brothers, all of whom are super enthusiastic buyers and racers. And Giannino wins twice. And as William alluded to earlier, because the family were textile magnets, he would race. wearing a double breasted shirt and tie, even in an open car. You know, you’re advertising your, your wares. There’s an expression that Noblesse obliged this notion that the wealthy and the, the nobleman should share what he has with the peasantry somewhat. So in other words, I can afford these fine clothes and this Ferrari. I’m not going to hide them under a bushel. In my, I’m not going to live in a compound. I’m not going to buy a Hawaiian Island. No, I’m going to race the Mille Miglia wearing these fine clothes and driving this fine Ferrari. Yeah. All right. So for me, there’s, there’s that element going on, right? The Marzotto brothers feel to me less like. Uh, motor races and more like, I won’t say playboys because that implies that they were womanizing, and I don’t know that they were, and it implies that they weren’t doing it seriously, and they were doing it seriously, but, you know, the Marzotto brothers were never gonna come to Dundrod and race in the rain of Northern Ireland, you know, Nuvolari wanted to do that, they weren’t in that kind of realm. And I think the big story that year is this absurdness where Marzotto struggles, where Giannino struggles to get a car and then gets a car and wins the race. And then after the race, Ferrari says to him, Oh, by the way, I changed the motor. So you owe me half the prize money because he fitted this bigger motor without Marzotto knowing. And this is another one of these Ferrari stories where one wonders how true it really is. William Ross: That’s what I need to about that car. You go for 1. 6 mm and you go up just 195s. Obviously that 195s that he won with. Cherokee 0026M. When you look it up history wise, it actually referred to as 166 because that’s what he bought. And as John mentioned, unbeknownst to him at the factory, they dumped in that bigger motor. He didn’t know it. And obviously more power, everything like that. So it’s called the 1 9 5 s ’cause of the motor and kind of going back to think, hey, it’s designated, hey, it’s by what the engine is. Not so much the chassis, but that chassis was a 1, 6 6 that he had bought for that and then they just dumped in this bigger motor. So it’s back and forth in regards to what was saying, but bumping it up. Now you had 160 horsepower, got a top speed of just a hair under 137 miles an hour. So I mean, you’re creeping up there in regards to power. You’re still thinking that doesn’t sound like a lot, but again, you’re still talking about a car that’s pretty basic in regards to stopping and everything like that, it gets going, but I always found that interesting in regards to how that car is looked at and viewed Crew Chief Eric: up until 1950, you mentioned it earlier. William, there were a couple of Ferraris here, a couple of Ferraris there. They were only building a handful of cars. And in 1950, the number of Ferraris entered in the Miele, Miele jumps. About 5X compared to the previous year where you have 16 Ferraris entered in the race. And that is pretty significant for a company in its third official year that is hand building cars. William Ross: Earlier in our conversation, John was speaking about Rome and the Romans and the chariot races, but then also getting into like the Vanderbilt Cup and everything like that. You know, and you mentioned NASCAR, you know, always had adages. I would say that big adage is, you know, We’ll win on Sunday, sell on Monday. That basically started way back when, when cars are doing it. Cause that was it. The car that was winning was the car that people wanted. Ferrari was winning. So these people that had the money, I want a Ferrari because that’s what’s winning. It started way back when, so it wasn’t kind of started, you know, this NASCAR kind of marketing campaign. Went on Sunday, sell Monday. It was basically, it started from the dawn of the car in essence, when they started racing because people wanted the car that wanted that’s kind of how these races also kind of came about in the beginning. It was an endurance race to test these cars, these manufacturers and these manufacturers to prove I have the best, strongest, fastest car, and that’s what people wanted. Crew Chief Eric: 1950 into 51, we introduced the Ferrari 340 America. Jon Summers: For me, this is when the horsepower figures and the top speed starts becoming interesting, and I think it’s my own perception of what a fast car is, because I’m sure for my son, his generation, a car that can’t do 150 miles an hour is not that fast. But for me, If a car can do 150 miles an hour and has more than 250 horsepower, it qualifies as a, as a fast car, especially when the tires are as narrow and the brakes are as bad and the drivers and the event is generally as lunatic as the Mille Miglia. I feel this is the stage now where it starts. It’s to move into something where it’s quite hard to believe that it was allowed to go ahead. William Ross: 50 to 51, you know, if you go from 160 horsepower to 220 top speed, it said, you know, just a hair under 137 in 1950 to just a bit under 150. in 51. That’s a significant jump, especially on the horsepower scale in regards to what these engines are doing. I think that has to do with design and the engine and was it Lampretti that was coming into play, creating these motors? Jon Summers: Yeah, when we, when I, when you or I might think about 120 or 150 miles an hour, we imagine, well, that’s like, you know, on a track day or on a Notionally imaginative, you know, allegedly a quiet piece of freeway or autostrada, you might see those speeds. The important thing to understand about the Mille Miglia is this is taking place through town, across bridges. The V12, that’s an important thing to talk about, isn’t it? We talked about Ferrari and this agitator of men. Throughout the period, two V12 engines produced in Multiple different capacities when he’s friends with Columbo, the Columbo engine gets developed. When he falls out with Columbo, he hires Lampready. Lampready designs his own engine and this engine grows in capacity. And then when he falls out with Lampready, he rehires Columbo and develops the Columbo engine again. I’m told. By Alain Decadene. Let’s name drop there. I did an event years ago called the Mille Miglia North America with him. We had Buono 250 that was chassis number 0625. I know that car’s still out there. It was not in great condition when Decadene and I drove it and he was looking under the hood of that car that he said to me it’s a Columbo. You can tell by the spark plug position. One has the plugs high, the other has the plugs low. Um, I yeah, but but yes, absolutely. We’ve got that. And it seems to me the increased horsepower came simply from being able to do bigger displacement. And I feel like there must have been things like we were getting better grade fuel. So you could do higher. Compression ratios, because my understanding was, even if you could make the machine tools to do like high compression, the fuel was so bad that you couldn’t really do it. You know, there was no point in trying to do high compression. Everything, everything was like an American car in the 1970s, rather than American cars in the late 60s, you know, it was always pretty low compression sub due to the poor grade of fuel. William Ross: Didn’t they bring in special race fuel? Did the organizers arrange that? I know like the post war, like the first couple, because of rationing and whatnot, you know, getting allotments had to really go to the government, but didn’t they, because of the, you know, obviously compression and that stuff, didn’t they have to get special, bring in good fuel? Jon Summers: I read a story about somebody who missed the refueling rig. Like a Ferrari team member who’d missed the refueling stop, stopped for normal gas, like gassed up at a normal gas station. That normal fuel, the Ferrari couldn’t run on that normal fuel. William Ross: Yeah. Jon Summers: What I am aware of is that you were allowed what the British teams would call jungle juice. In Formula 1 up until either 57 or 58. You know, the issue was, was that if I’ve mixed up special fuel, you have to go to the lengths of mixing up special fuel in order to be competitive with me. And then each of us are rushing around spending loads of time trying to get hold of all these special fuels because this is the easiest way for us to make horsepower. And none of this really has anything to do with motor racing. So that’s why those special fuels were banned in Formula 1. I imagine. There were standard fueling in the immediate post war period. There were fewer shortages. So the fuel had to be especially allocated tires and fuel. The stories of people, Italians entering early milly milliers, getting their fuel and tires, and then just driving home because you only did it to get the free tires and fuel. William Ross: As a side note, in case anyone listening is curious, actually the 50 and 51 car are currently owned by the same person, and I probably, can I pronounce the last name is right? It’s, it’s Crowell, C R O U L. Jack and Kingsley, they own both those cars. Jon Summers: Oh. Well, who knew? William did. Yeah, William Ross: because now you’re getting the car, you know, that raced and one participated and its current day still have its correct, you know, matching numbers, everything, engine, gearbox, everything. This is when you start getting to values of a car that kind of, I guess you get obscene because it plays a huge role in regards to. Race history and value of a car. And especially if you have a winning car, especially of a stature of the Mille Emilia Targa Florio Le Mans, that really takes the value of the car exponentially higher. Just because of the exposure and the profile of it. So how much does it add? I mean, you know, again, something’s only worth what someone’s willing to pay, but it really adds value to that car. If it has it on its CV in regards to winning a very high profile race like that. Value wise, you’d have to go back and kind of look, but you know, it’s not like these things pop up every year or every auction, like say F forties and stuff like that, where you kind of can gauge the market based on that these pop up, you know, every maybe 5, 6, 7 years and markets change so much at a consistent basis, it’s kind of hard to pinpoint what something’s worth getting your experts out there and they can start putting a number on it or throw a number at it. You don’t know until a, it goes through an auction and either it sells or it doesn’t sell. It doesn’t hit reserve. So you kind of see what the market’s saying, or you kind of know through the grapevine that a, it was sold privately at this price. So that’s when you start getting these values in regards to, you know, not hundreds of thousands of dollars. You’re talking seven, eight, nine, 10, 20 million, you know, going up. I wouldn’t say, you know, getting into these. With these one nine fives and that stuff, you know, you’re not getting into 15 million. So, I mean, you’re going to be in that five to 10 million range. I think it starts getting into, I would say use, especially this day and age and what you can do with these cars and going to events. You’re starting to see a lot more. It’s not just, Hey, they’re just sitting on the lawn. Hey, they’re driving them and participate in the middle of me or participate in the Colorado grand or the California mill. Getting out there and you like these cars and they’re still very, I don’t want to say archaic. But you know, the technology it’s getting there, you’ll want to drive these things and use them on a regular basis gets very, very touchy because something breaks. You can’t just go and find a new NOS part on these things. You know, it depends on the owner as well. You know, you can have some guys, I don’t care. They got so much money. They just, I’m going to go enjoy it, which is great because then more people get to see it. Where then you got other people, they own these cars, they stick them in their collection and no one ever gets to see them but them and their family. And people always ask, well, how is that worth this? John, me and you have had this conversation. You know, Eric, we’ve had this conversation on previous episodes and stuff like that about values and stuff. Jon Summers: It’s the story though, isn’t it? If you’re buying a Honda Accord, You know, in the used car trade in Britain, people will say, Oh, it’s got no stories, mate. That means, you know, it definitely, you know, it hasn’t been robbed and, you know, joined Britain and then it’s tarted up and is now being sold to you. You know, it’s been owned by the cliched one lady owner, hasn’t it? So the no story where you’re buying your Honda Accord, you definitely want a car with no stories when you’re buying your Ferrari F40. Do you want the one that was owned new by the cocaine dealer who drove it into a swimming pool? Yes. Do you want the one that was owned by, you know, the Chinese millionaire who put it in a hermetically sealed container? Now the market would tell you the hermetically sealed car that has absolutely no stories about it at all. That’s the one you want. Now the irony with these kind of Ferrari is the car that has no story has less value than the one that has. All the stories associated with it and, you know, we’re also in a place where the worse the condition, it’s got a new leather seat in it. Well, so what? It’s got a new leather seat in it like every other vintage Ferrari. It’s got the old leather seat. You mean Tazio Nuvolari? farted on that seat. Well, you know, I’m gonna, at this point, how many other leather seats can you buy that Tassio Nuvolari actually farted on that are attached to a racing car that you can show to your friends? So at this point, suddenly it doesn’t matter to me whether it costs 12 million or 15 million. I told my friend I was going to have the seat that Nuvolari farted in. And by Jimny, I’m gonna have it. And that does drive values of them. And it’s, it’s funny, you know, we’re, we’re talking about 51, we’re talking about the car that Villaresi won in 1951 with. For many years at Pebble Beach, I’ve done a slightly, I won’t say sneaky thing, because it’s not really sneaky, because anybody can do it, but I’m not wealthy enough to be in the quail ticket lottery, but that is the best. Show to go to a pebble, you know, the pebble beach itself is great But really the quail if you especially if you prefer post war cars as I tend to the quail is is probably even better So what I’ll usually do is wait to the Friday afternoon until it’s closing up and when they’re loading all the cars up I’ll just walk across the field most of the cars have gone, but you still see a few lying around one day I’ve spent a good 15 minutes With Villaresi’s 1951 Mille Miglia winner because, uh, you know, they were moving the cars around, but it was just there sitting on the lawn. on its owner had a really nice, um, few moments with it. So the bottom line there is, is that it’s great that owners. Feel the need to bring them out and it’s great that they’ve survived because I had a total like you’re not meant to touch these things are you but I did rest my hand on the door handle and think to myself Villa Razi stood here the morning, you know when he got in the car before he won the race, you know, so I did I did allow myself that and I should just say A lot of my knowledge of the Mille Miglia comes from a series of books, publishers Brooklyn’s books, and they’ve done a series on great motor races on the Mille Miglia, on Carrera Panamericana, on the Targa Florio, but the cover of the edition that covers the 1951 Mille Miglia is Villaresi’s Ferrari. With a bunch of front end damage on it. And it’s obvious he’s gone off the road, not seriously, but just a little bit. And that to me really speaks of what the Mille Miglia is all about. Because, you know, the winning car went off the road and suffered damage. It’s not like Formula One, where if you put a wheel wrong, it’s over. This is an event where there’s bumps and bruises on the, on the winning car. Like a NASCAR. William Ross: Yeah, exactly. Mentioning like the hermetically sealed F40. Yeah, that’s the one that people want to go after. But what’s unfortunate is like, you can’t drive it then. That’s the problem is you’re going to buy it. It’s just, it’s something to look at because it loses its value. You start putting the miles on. And this is a mechanical being entity. It’s meant to be started, driven and going. I mean, it needs to be lubricated, everything. So it’s in that car. God knows what would tell you. Oh yeah. I commissioned it to get it back onto the road itself. You don’t have to replace everything because you couldn’t drive it. There’s only got say 500 miles since 1988. You really can’t drive. You know, it’s going to take a lot of money to get that thing up to be able to do it, but you wouldn’t want to because it loses value. Crew Chief Eric: So what I’ve learned from this is confirmation of two previous break fix episodes. One is, the first question I need to ask when buying a Ferrari of this period is, A, what does it smell like? And B, Going back to our Italian car episode. I definitely want the one with the crack pipe in the glove box. Right? William. William Ross: Exactly. That’s got the story. I guess that can be seen as like, you know, to quote John says, I did new Valerie fart who farted in this car. Crew Chief Eric: See, what does it smell like? That’s what it smells like. William Ross: Who farted in this car? Crew Chief Eric: All old Volkswagen smell like melting crayons. That’s all I know. So that brings us to 19. 52. And I think we’re going to close out the thought with 52 and 53, their significance before we pick up for the second half of the millimelia coverage on the Ferrari marketplace, William Ross: you know, more power, higher top end speed, but the interesting fact is now what you start getting into is, you know, obviously pre war, but then post war too, is You always had usually a mechanic riding with you. There was always someone next to you in the passenger seat. But as you start getting into these years, you start seeing not so much 52, but I know when 53 guys started, as you start seeing guys start racing by themselves, the winning car. Again, 250 at 230 horsepower, so we’ve got a 10 horsepower jump. It starts going up more, it’s almost at 156. So, it’s jumping up there. 0 1 5 6 18 is the winning chassis number Jon Summers: of 1952. I think it’s fascinating that he gave Tarufi, like, uh, open four and a half liter. And he gives Braco, who wins, a closed three liter. Yeah. There’s no even sense that, you know, I’m going to build the same engine, but, you know, do some open cars and some closed cars. There’s no sense of that whatsoever. We’re just going to do whatever. I feel like Braco doesn’t feature in much other motor racing history. He wasn’t part of the team that Alpha. Formula One team or anything like that. And one source I read refers to him as a, as a hill climb specialist. The other story that I’d read that was particularly, uh, amusing, uh, about him was, he’s known as a hill climb specialist. And of course on the Mille Miglia, you’ve those two passes, the Futa and the Raticosa, where it was often felt that, you know, here was a, a section where you, the driver could make a real difference. If you attacked over those passes, that was a way that you could maybe make a difference in a way that the flat out flat straits around Cremona and Manchu and all those bits between the middle of the country and back up north, all those bits wouldn’t allow you to make the same kind of difference. So the, the story is that, that in, in 52, Barco was behind cling as they do this northern phase and as they leave Florence was they approach, Barco says to his co-driver. I will lead by, by Florence or, you know, I’ll lead by then, or as long as you keep plying me with this brandy that you’re, you’re buying me with. William Ross: Yeah. Braco had that reputation of being the kind of hitting the sauce quite a bit. Jon Summers: And, and the story that I’d read was that when he beat Kling, Kling was never the same again because he was like beaten. The pictures of Braco. You know, he’s often in an ill fitting sports jacket. And he’s like Vazzi in that he always seems to have a cigarette on. Unlike Bonetto. Bonetto’s the one that’s always got the pipe on. It’s quite peculiar to think about people in middle age, in the way that Braco was, who are able to do this completely kind of, you know, sports bikers talk about brain out. Let’s see, you say, you know, how was your ride? And they say, Oh, it was brain out, mate. And what that means is that I took my brain out. I wasn’t thinking. I just instinctively. So, you know, did you split between cars at 120 miles an hour? William Ross: Yeah. Jon Summers: And I feel like fascist. philosophy that was with Italy right the way from the early 20s right the way through the mid 40s. That fascist philosophy believed that a state of war was natural, believed that a level of attrition was natural. So guys like Nuvolari and Bracco grew up with this motto, either it goes Or I’ll crash it, you know, it was win or crash, absolutely a win or crash philosophy and, and that must have been very hard to compete with. And certainly the Brits, I mean, Donald Healy went and competed in an early mille millia and he describes it as a lunatic race. And I feel that Braco probably personifies that lunacy even more than Biondetti or even more than the names like Ascari or Castellotti that we’ve heard as Formula 1 stars. This guy who was a hill climb guy who didn’t really do much, you know, kind of retired, but was persuaded back. I don’t think he was even going to race. I think Villaresi was meant to race and I think he took Villaresi’s. seat in this Hillclimb special car. So yeah, amazing personality. William Ross: That’s the year that Mercedes came and basically started, I want to say a big push or onslaught. They showed up like a month early for the race. Cat, all their guys camped out and just. Repeatedly, repeatedly doing the whole course, learning it, learning it, learning it, could that have played into Cling’s little thing? And, you know, Neubauer had his, his strategy in regards to his three guys. Hey, you’re the tortoise, you’re the hare. You’re, you know, this guy’s chasing you and going, they tried to really hammer it and Rocco still wins. And Cling was leading for a long time, but then they got to the hills. And he went past them, I think that really just chafed Kling’s ass. And he was like, how the hell is this guy doing it? Because those SLs, they were, you could probably say they were superior to that Ferrari, technologically, everything. But it comes down to just knowing the course and technique and what have you, but Braco triumphed in the end. Sterling Wallace was racing a Jag and I think he only made it a few miles or something like that. I know he didn’t finish, but yeah, he didn’t have much success. Jon Summers: Well, that’s really a point worth making, isn’t it? That we’re talking about how dominant Ferrari was. We talked about Mercedes winning a couple of times. We’re not talking about Maserati winning at all. No, we’re not talking about Porsche winning at all. Now, albeit they were really just starting, but Jaguar were pretty dominant at Le Mans in this period, five wins at Le Mans, nothing at the melee. Was it because they didn’t try? Hmm. One year, Biondetti had a Jaguar. Yeah. Was it because the cars weren’t tough enough where they could win Le Mans? Was it because they weren’t able to cope with the rough roads, the changing surface, all of that? Was it because the people driving them? didn’t have the local knowledge. It tended to be, you know, we tended to put Brits in them and it took us a while to figure out that it was probably a better idea to give them to people like Fangio and Biondetti to do the job in. It’s a blend of the cars that Ferrari was building and the drivers who he was putting in them. Yeah, it’s impressive that you can call on somebody of the caliber of Braco. I mean, something that I’m really struck by is clearly to win, you have to drive in a way personal safety was of a secondary. consideration. And there’s this sense, I love Giuseppe Farina, but Farina, it was in the Virgin’s hand. You know, whether or not I crash or wreck has nothing to do with me. I’m in the hand of fate. I’m in the hands of the Virgin. If you ally that with this sort of fascist philosophy, my word, it’s, it is, it’s frightening. It’s, it’s like that sort of teenage boy intensity. But it’s been refined through a world war. And now what Ferrari’s given us the equipment to go out and do this. We’ll talk later about Ferrari’s brush with the papacy around the Mille Miglia, but morally there’s something a little, he’s drinking his brandy and driving flat out over the Raticosa pass and then speeding through crowds of people. I mean, it’s hard to believe that it’s Crew Chief Eric: just so Italian. I mean, if you think about it in an alliterative sort of way, it’s. Passion and power equals perfection, and that’s sort of Ferrari in a nutshell. When you think about it, right? It takes that exuberant teenage passion. Like you’re talking about the extra power of these big engines that they’re again, they’re throwing caution to the wind, saying the body’s the body, whatever. We’re going to build a bigger, better mousetrap, bigger engine. And then it’s putting those two, the crazy. With this big engine and that gives you the win. And when you think about, yes, the Mercedes is a better car or the Porsche was better engineered or the Jag had this advantage or whatever, but it never panned out because the variables didn’t align correctly. You know, the superiority of the Benz with a sterile, very utilitarian driver. It’s not going to happen. You can do all the practicing and calculations you want and perfectly apex every turn on a thousand mile route. But it doesn’t work if you’re not adaptable and you don’t drive, like you said, with your brain out and you stop thinking. And this translates to all sorts of disciplines of motorsport. When you think about Formula One and you talk about just we’ll pick three names from the same era, Senna, Prost and Mansell, all champions in their own right. It’s completely different drivers, excellent machinery, but who’s the better driver, right? And if you take the unruly boyish nature of Senna and his car, it’s sort of like Brandini and Marzotto and all the rest of these guys that are just driving with everything in the wind and they’re having fun doing it. So maybe that’s part of the equation, right? Is that reckless abandon lets you push to 11 tenths. Where everybody else is not. I certainly think Jon Summers: that’s part of the Ferrari magic. 100 Crew Chief Eric: percent! 100 percent. Oh yeah! Jon Summers: Everyone wants Ferrari apparel, right? The reason you want a Ferrari logo on your shoe is that you want to have some of that. It’s like when you put the Brute 33 on, you feel like Barry Sheen, you know? It’s that kind of thing. William Ross: Yeah. That was one thing too. And again, go back to like how we said about, you know, cars, I say, get into participation, you know, and, you know, having a Ferrari that’s in there. But in that race, there was 27 Ferraris entered out of the 501 that started 501 cars start. I mean, and just think about that number, 501 cars. Started that event because you always see a lot of these things where they start on that ramp, 52 was actually the first year that they started on that ramp, they didn’t have it before. And the reason being is because they wanted people to be able to see. The spectators. So when the guys, they pulled up onto the ramp, they could see who was driving or that instead of, you know, being on the ground, you know, we had all these crowds, it was tough to see. So, Hey, let’s build a starting ramp. They roll up and go, but 52 is the first year they had that. Crew Chief Eric: Which is interesting because the only other discipline of motorsport that still does that to this day is rally. William Ross: Yep. I found that interesting too, because I was like, Oh, wow. It’s like you’re thinking of mine. You see, you think that just, Oh, they always did that. 52 is the first day they started doing that. And it was just those spectators. Could see their heroes, these people that we’re driving on. That’s what it boils down to because, you know, these people are so adored, especially in Italy. Jon Summers: You know what I’m struck by? We’ve talked about how crazy the driving was. When you look to the film of them, they’re always driving slowly. Yeah. I was watching some film with my son. like nine and I was thinking that thinking like he’s not seeing that they’re gonna like skidding around the corner they’re like driving and I’m like oh yeah he’s just like come into the town that we’re in he’s been doing like 180 out of the town he’s now like tested the brakes and slowed down yeah it’s like the TT all of the film when you see the Isle of Man TT the films them you know jumping over that little humpback bridge that’s the only part of the course where they’re doing less than 30 miles an hour But that’s the part of the course where the camera is, because you can actually see them and catch all of that. So that shell film and a lot of films, although they’re awesome representations of the event, I like the shell film, but it’s only when you’re out on the road and you can see the other cars coming past the camera car, that you really get a sense of the speed. William Ross: The Kalmanski was, I don’t think it was him and Collins were running together yet. Cause you know, in subsequent years, Kalmanski did phenomenal photos and take a video and. There’s a few other instances of some participants basically just starting a race and then just bailing because they were doing a film or something like that, but I saw the number of cars starting and what you see, there was actually 607 cars entered. But only 501 started. So, I mean, you had over a hundred cars that didn’t even start to vent itself for whatever reason. Think about that. And then how your number is, what time you start, there always was, the premise was the slower cars started first. Now you would think, no, let’s start the fast cars first. But it’s like, no, the slowest cars started first. The fast ones started last. So you always had that drama of them come flying by these slower cars and had to pass. So not only dealing with these roads, dealing with the crowds, because obviously when you watch this stuff, there’s no barriers. There’s no anything like that. I can’t, I don’t know if it was in 52. I know there’s, there’s one in there that cars were crashing at a certain point on the, on the course. They eventually from them crashing. They took out the guardrail. I don’t know if it was 53, it might have been 53. But, so the guardrail’s gone, the cars are there, so the person that’s coming through, and I want to say it was the winner, he crashes into that car, because as the guardrail’s gone, he only kind of goes off when he hits one of the person’s cars, and so the damage isn’t significant, so he keeps going, and goes on. The person that he hit, then they went after him to pay for it to fix his car, because he hit it. It kind of just shows you what they were dealing with. Here’s where we’re going to go. We’re going to go into 1953. And what we’re going to do is after they get done, we’re going to pause. And what we’re going to do is we’re going to have a second part to this discussion that we will put that out next week, just make everyone know that we still got a subsequent other half to go, because what we’re going to get into in that other half too, we start talking is obviously the increase in horsepower, the cars, but we’re also going to get into, because of 1957 being the last race, but also. With the new Ferrari movie that came out, kind of have a little discussion with that and how it all ties in. But we’re going to jump into 1953. There’s a lot of interesting things with 1953. You go from 1952 with 230 horsepower from the winning car to 300 horsepower for the winning car. You go into a 340 mm, a hair under 168 miles an hour. So it’s actually not too much faster top speed, but your horsepower is increased immensely. You know, the winner, Giano Marzotto, winning the race, but what’s interesting about the fact is he didn’t have a car when that race was supposed to start. He was actually supposed to race, I believe it was, he was supposed to race one of the Alfa Romeo. One of those Disco Volantes. He was promised a car. He went on, I guess it was a family, whatever, getaway to, uh, Lebanon for where his one part of his family was from. But when he returned, he did not have a car. They said, nope, sorry. They assigned it to someone else. He went then and tried to make some calls. He called Lance. Yeah, they didn’t have a car. Now you would think, no brainer. Well, why doesn’t he just get a Ferrari? Well, he had a bit of a dust up. with Enzo, because he had built and designed a car affectionately called the egg. And if you look it up, you’ll see why they called it the egg. He started, I guess, say dabbling and looking at and understanding aerodynamics of a car, you know, how it affects it, top speed, everything and where it’s worked. Now, obviously, it’s very crude in regards to doing it, you know, not kind of anywhere near what’s today, but it started entering the picture, which is rather impressive. For 1953. And you take a look at the car, you can see where they’re coming from. Now the interesting fact was Enzo wasn’t too happy, but Marzotto family and the brothers were such good customers, you know, he kind of, uh, gritted his teeth and kind of dealt with it. Now, the one problem they had, though, with the egg was the radiator that was supplied to them by Ferrari was the wrong one, because the weight was supposed to rest in there, and so what their problem was, they had front end lift, which was creating, you know, obviously, very light in your steering in certain aspects, especially when you’re going down straight. So, when he got back, his mindset was, well, I don’t have a car. He was all prepared and he started to dust that off and he was going to bring that car back. And that was a couple year old car itself. Well, his co driver, how would you say Corsera? Jon Summers: I’d say Corsara. William Ross: He played mediator between Enzo and Marzotto and it was interesting how he played it off because you tell Enzo, Oh yeah, he’s sorry. Oh, yeah. And then he was going to Marzotto and saying, Oh Enzo. Oh yeah. He wants it back. So it was kind of played on Twitter. So they kissed and made up the car. They gave him actually was from a previous race. It was sitting in the corner. It was beat up. Didn’t have a clutch. You know, it needed some stuff done to, it needed some work. So he says, I can give you this. You know, and Enzo’s not thinking, oh, he’s going to win this race. I think it’s because it was beat up from this previous race. Well, they get it up running and there you have it. He wins the race in this car, you know, basically getting it last minute from Enzo. I mean, literally, like, I think a week or two before the race. So, I mean, it was very, very rushed in getting it. But, you know, hey, he took it and won. Crew Chief Eric: So what else in 1953, Jon Summers: the wonderful shell film was made, and that gives a more effective document of the race visual document of the race than any melee Melia, there may be more stuff out there in Italian archives but certainly on if you surf around on YouTube this 53 film, which as it says this AI enhanced version of it that’s available on YouTube so sure you’re coming from the perspective of shell right that they want. You know, they’re advertising their product somewhat, but for the first time, you know, this helicopter coverage of the race and the race itself is, is a good one. The, the alpha males are fast Fangio’s back from an injury feels like he has a lot to prove. He’s. Leading at Rome over the Futa or Raticosa, he develops steering issues and Marzotto passes him and wins. Or at least, you know, Marzotto overtakes him and wins in that final stage. And again, you know, Marzotto’s win is worth talking about for me. The thing really worth talking about is Fangio finishing second. In a car that only steered on one wheel, you know, as a friend of mine said, well, at least he didn’t have to drive it over any dangerous mountain passes. And at least he wasn’t driving it more than, you know, 130 miles an hour. Crew Chief Eric: The drum brakes were as big as wheels anyway, so it was okay, you know. Jon Summers: 26 Ferraris entered and 12 had retired, I think before Rome. Crew Chief Brad: Yeah. Jon Summers: That gives you the attrition rate. And the other thing, and the Brooklyn’s books will give you the impression of like a, you know, will give you the, the, the race by race. But what I’m struck by is how often the leader is leading and crashes out . He doesn’t like suffer a problem, he just straight ahead crashes out. Sna, he’s leading, he’s in a wall. out ski. There’s no like, you know, you don’t just change the tire and carry this isn’t Gran Turismo where you just respawn further down the track. No, you’re just, you’re out and if you’re eating hospital food, you’re lucky. My own particular guy from the period, Giuseppe Farina, I mean, Farina seems never to have even made it as far as Pescara. You know, which is where they come from Brescia down the right hands down the Adriatic coast and then turn right across to Rome and then right again up to, he never even made it that far because, and Ferrari says about him in, in, uh, in his book about racing drivers, that he was like a high strung race horse. And you get this sense that he just couldn’t like contain. himself to do an event that required a bit of endurance, like, you know, a bit of caring for the car, like the Mille Miglia or, or Le William Ross: Mans. It takes that certain, I guess you would say, um, holding yourself back. You want to go 10 tenths. These guys, I think that you’re winning to your point, like the number you said, you know, you had 26 start, but only 12 finished. I think the year before it was 27 started, I think only nine finished. So I’m about to go back and look at the exact numbers, but you know, the attrition rate was so high crash him or the car breaking down, it happened quite a bit, so they just kind of use it as a reference, you know, that’s how Lamar was to for the longest period of time for it comes just flat out sprints. It is now. You had to feel that car and understand it and take care of the car and get yourself there to the finish line, but you also had to go at a rapid enough rate that you’re going to win. Jon Summers: My understanding is one year, Mike Hawthorne was so unhappy at the prospect of race 57, the year he’ll won. Like he’ll prove himself. It was going to be rainy and miserable. So Hawthorne deliberately wrecked the clutch early in the race. So they didn’t have to race in, in the rain. I mean, I’ve not seen that written down, just reading between the lines and knowing what I know about Mike Hawthorne. It feels to me that that would have been the case. Crew Chief Eric: So a 25 year span. In our 1st part here covering the meal Amelia, what are the 3 big takeaways? What did we learn from looking at the early days of the meal Amelia? What do we leave our audience with in part 1 William Ross: looking at it pre war and what everyone was trying to achieve? But even post war up to. Including 53 now, 53, obviously, as we discussed, you know, there was that big jump from 52, 53 and cardiac horsepower. And I agree with John is, you know, you’re starting to see, you know, I want to say it’s almost, these are becoming true race cars. The stuff he was building. Yeah, you know, it coops whatnot. Yeah. I mean, they were he had them in his mind Hey, they’re race cars, but you could drive them on the street and drive them, you know, very delicately obviously racing clutches whatnot But this is what you know, it’s starting to transition to the full blown race cars for this race So all your stuff up until this point You can see that relationship and see, you know, hey, between a street car and a race car. It’s like, wow, you know, I mean, identical. I mean, you’re not talking anything radically different. You know, you’re not talking massive horsepower. You’re not talking, you know, massive top speed. Now, you’re talking these gentlemen drivers, you know, these guys racing in double breasted suits, you know, no helmets. I would guarantee, you know, majority of these cars didn’t have seatbelts. You know, that adds back into the, you know, F1 race stuff like that in the open wheel single seater, you know, they want to be thrown from the car, but you’re talking, you know, these closed coupes, you know, you’d think you’d want to be kind of locked down, but a lot of them probably didn’t have seatbelts in, let alone, you know, safety harness, you know, you’re not talking roll cages or anything like that. These were elegant cars, you know, leather interiors just laid out. I mean, beautiful cars. The technology and what was, how these cars were built, there wasn’t a massive job, you know, pre war is building up, it’s getting there, but then also in the war derails everything in regards to progress and technology advancement. Then all of a sudden, you know, the war ends and you’re basically dealing with. technology from pre war, mid late 30s. There wasn’t any vast because everything went to the war. So I mean, all of a sudden you’re back into going race that, but you’re actually working with and racing with technology and that from the 30s. It’s playing catch up and then obviously it takes those few years to get those. Advancements going and start trying new things and kind of really, you know, getting those engineering down, you gradually see it, but then all of a sudden you can see in those five, six years when they started going back again from 47 to 53, okay, now that five, six years, so everything’s. Caught up. Now we’ve tried these things. Hey, we could do this whatnot. Hey, we’re taking this technology from, you know, airplanes or this and that we’re gonna dump it into here and do these things. So you start getting to that point where you’re going to see that big jump from 53 to 54, you know, and not only seeing the fact that it’s an Italian basically only race in the beginning here, but now you’re starting to see these other manufacturers from different countries starting to participate. You know, so you got your, you know, Jaguar company, you got Porsche, you got Mercedes, you know, you got these guys starting to show up with these cars. That, you know, Hey, they’re new to the scene, but now you’re starting to see the expansion. You know, you still have these hundreds and hundreds of cars starting, but you know, you’re not seeing 95 percent of them in Italian built cars. You’re starting to see them from outside it. It’s kind of interesting how these things are progressing in regards to just advancement. and technology and what they were working with. Pretty impressive. And just the shape of the cars, you know, you look at the pre war stuff. The look of those cars, you know, when you think pre war, you’re thinking Bentleys and stuff like that. And that’s what a lot of these look like. Look at the SSK, how those things were, you know, almost they say cycle fendered cars and that stuff. And how it was, it wasn’t these closed full bodied cars. They had these certain looks to them, but then all of a sudden, bam, you come back post war, they’re completely different animals. Jon Summers: My sort of takeaways is that this is an event which sits right in the middle. of automobility. It’s like the very beginning of automobility in that it’s a city to city, flat out, run over the dogs, F everybody road race. But there’s no doubt that Ferrari is the single maker who’s most associated with this race. Sure, Fiat, well far more Fiat’s entered, but what a Ferrari is. What a grand touring luxury automobile is, that was a vehicle that could win the Mille Miglia. You know, what Ferrari is, was forged in the crucible of the Mille Miglia. So when we look at a late 20th century Ferrari like an F40, that car owes absolutely its DNA is the Mille Miglia. And the Mille Miglia’s DNA is this beginning of motoring. So that would be my take. William Ross: All right, guys, like I said before, we’re going to have a second part to this series on the Mille Miglia. We’ll get that out to you. Hopefully we should have it out next Friday for Ferrari Friday. I appreciate everyone listening and remember the motoring podcast network, motoringpodcast. net. And don’t forget to check out John’s the motor historian. We got a lot more stuff coming, so I appreciate everybody listening, but great stuff coming guys. Appreciate it. Back to you soon. Crew Chief Eric: This episode has been brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports, as part of our motoring podcast network. For more episodes like this, tune in each week for more exciting and educational content from organizations like the Exotic Car Marketplace, The Motoring Historian, BrakeFix, and many others. If you’d like to support Grand Touring Motorsports and the motoring podcast network, sign up for one of our many sponsorship tiers at www. patreon. com forward slash GT Motorsports. Please note that the content, opinions, and materials presented and expressed in this episode are those of its creator, and this episode has been published with their consent. If you have any inquiries about this program, please contact the creators of this episode via email or social media as mentioned in the episode. ​ Go Behind The Scenes Copyright William Ross, Exotic Car Marketplace a division of Sixty5 Motorsports. This episode is part of Gran Touring Motorsports, Motoring Podcast Network and has been republished with permission. [...]
January 12, 2024Ferrari / PodcastWilliam and co-host Crew Chief Eric discuss the latest season of the reality TV show ‘Car Masters: Rust to Riches,’ particularly focusing on their controversial project of modifying a Ferrari 360 Spider. They critique the show’s modifications, including a Porsche Carrera Green paint job and rose gold accents, and question the legitimacy and market potential of such custom Ferraris. The episode concludes with a cliffhanger about potential future projects involving a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti and a Ferrari 458 Italia, and teases upcoming episodes about the Mille Miglia and a review of the Ferrari movie. Episode 18 On Ferrari Friday’s, William Ross from the Exotic Car Marketplace will be discussing all things Ferrari and interviewing people that live and breath 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. 00:00 Introduction to Ferrari Fridays 01:05 Meet the Co-Host: Crew Chief Eric 02:15 Exploring Car Masters: Rust to Riches 03:50 The Ferrari Episode: A Deep Dive 06:52 Season 5 Overview and Changes 10:40 The Ferrari 360 Spider: A Closer Look 21:33 Design Inspirations and Modifications 32:50 Fiberglass Work and Final Touches 37:02 Ferrari’s Color Controversy 38:07 Gotham Garage’s Gaudy Accents 39:59 The Paint Job Disaster 41:44 The Failed Sales Event 49:04 The Mysterious Buyer 57:36 Future of Custom Ferraris 01:09:33 Final Thoughts and Wrap-Up Crew Chief Brad: 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. William Ross: Hey everyone, welcome back to the Ferrari Marketplace podcast. I’m William Ross, your host. Uh, I want to welcome. Everyone over to our new platform. And I want to also welcome my, I don’t want to say guest on the show. I’m going to say more like co host because, you know, we’re a kind of, you know, good friends, uh, business associates. Um, you know, we do a lot of things together. So, but Eric. Crew chief Eric is joining me on this and he’ll probably be on a lot of subsequent episodes as well as either co host, guest, moderator, what have you, but you will be hearing some more soon. So crew chief Eric, introduce yourself to our listeners. Crew Chief Eric: Well, William, folks that are familiar with the BreakPix podcast are familiar with my voice and, you know, it, I always say it’s a little bit. Odd being on the other side of the microphone. So I appreciate you inviting me onto the Ferrari marketplace podcast. Talk about a really interesting topic tonight, but, uh, happy to be here. Happy to have you as part of the motoring podcast network. So this is a lot of fun and looking forward to seeing where things go for the future of the Ferrari marketplace podcast. William Ross: Yeah, so as everyone heard, uh, Eric just mentioned is the motoring podcast network is a nice little project is getting launched. That is going to have basically all podcast, uh, motoring related and it’s going to be a fantastic platform. So it’ll give you many, many options and choices to listen to different, various podcasts of people we know and people that, Hey, we kind of all jump on each other’s podcasts, but, uh, you’re going to find a lot of variation in regards to what you can listen to. So definitely get on there and sign up and keep a listen. So tonight we are going to be talking about a show that Eric turned me on to, um, or inform me on, I should say, I wouldn’t say turn me on to because, you know, I kind of scratched my head about watching it, but I know Eric and his wife are kind of big fans of it. Um, it is on Netflix. It’s called car masters for us to riches. Um, if you look it up, you’ll see there’s five seasons, uh, and it follows this crew at Gotham garage out in California. Uh, and you know, it, it’s kind of along the lines of what you would think when you see a TV show that’s on Netflix or any other of these like motive trend or whatnot. Um, but you know, their philosophy or I guess to say business model is to take. Really junk cheap cars, fix them up to sell them for X or trade it for Y, and then take that and do the same thing to it, but for more money to get to Z, which would be a six figure car. So they just basically taking that old adage, and I think they use this example in the beginning talking about it, talking about the person using the paperclip, and 11 trades later they own a house. Kind of that scenario is what they’re looking at. So there’s some interesting people on the show. Um, I know Eric’s done a lot of research on the show and the individuals I’ve done a little bit on it too, because it was a head scratcher on some of these guys. Cause. Um, you kind of like, are they legit or are they just kind of actors or what, which you’ll find out one of them kind of is, um, so, but you know, the majority of the guys were in the car, you know, they know their stuff, I’ll give them that. So, but you might be asking yourself, why are we talking about this show on the Ferrari Marketplace podcast? Well, here’s the reason. In an episode, or in season five, towards the last few episodes. There is a Ferrari that they get their hands on and modify and if you want to take the time to watch it, watch it, and you’ll see what we’re talking about here, but oh, my Lord. I mean, it is. It is. Oh, my Lord. And yeah, it’s like, where to start. I mean, I just, and you know, I, when Eric told me about this, you know, the show itself and you know, Hey, this is right because they did this Ferrari and I’m like, all right. Well, and I did, I watched the first season. I watched a couple episodes and I’m like, okay, I got the gist of it. So I jumped right to the ones for the Ferrari. So it was like the last three episodes of season five, it kind of goes across it. So, and there’s kind of a big jump in regards to some things happening from season one to season five as well. And they expand and all this stuff, but anyways. It’s the kind of same thing. Crew Chief Eric: And if you want to take a quick trip down seasons one through four, we actually released part of our too long. Didn’t read mini series. I go over all of my previous reviews of seasons one through four on break fix. And you can listen to that and kind of get caught up with what we’re talking about as we’re talking about season five, but you’re right. A lot of things changed on the show. COVID played a big part in it. This has been going on for many, many years now that my wife and I have been following these builders and following the show. And to your point, it does follow a bit of a formula that other, what we call restoration shows will follow, whether it’s Rust Valley Restorers, whether it’s Tex Mex Motors, whether it’s Car Masters and some of the other ones, you know, fast and loud, all those ones that, you know, from the old days, there’s a certain way of doing it. The thing that was interesting about Gotham is the head of the ship, which is Mark Towley, who is famous for building some of the most interesting Hollywood replica cars or like Hot Wheels inspired type of cars. And the most famous one he built many, many years ago, and it’s in the Peterson, is the Mach 5 racer full size car that was used in the movie Speed Racer. So, you know, that really put him on the mark. That was the first car he got in the museum. There’s been others since then. But he’s got this particular style about the way he likes to conduct his builds. And we’ll get into that as we go along. William Ross: Yeah, and you can probably, and listen to those ones, because I’m sure Eric touches on the legal issue that came about with one of these cars that got built. But, hey, as in, watch all the seasons and listen to his reviews, or hey, you want to skip all the things, listen to his thing and watch the Ferrari, Either way, take a listen to it because it’ll be very insightful and there’s a lot of good tidbits and stuff in that. So please definitely take a listen to that for the Break Fix podcast as well. Crew Chief Eric: So let’s, let’s set the stage for season five. It picks up exactly where season four left off. And so to give people an idea of why that’s important, season four was a bit of a game changer for the show. It moved away from the classic format of upgrade and trade. They called it, like you said, the red paper clip to the house in 11 trades later, they sort of decided that they wanted to go and start reaching for high end clientele. They wanted to do six figure builds. Every time they built a car. And so the builds got more extreme. They got more exaggerated. Some of them you’re like, I don’t really know if this flies or if this works. And they did keep some of the cartoony aspect to a couple of the builds. Let’s say the rocket car or the school bus or some of the other ones that they built. And you can go back and see those in season three and season four. The reason season four is such a turning point in the show is. It brings in this dynamic duo of a design that apparently Mark had been sitting on for about 20 years. And it’s a bit of a Bugatti inspired supercar built on top of, you know, his favorite chassis, which is a C4 Corvette. And so there were struggles getting that car sold and incomes, a personality that. Most of us that have watched anything on Motor Trend would recognize this gentleman right away. He’s a bloke from the UK, as we like to say. His name is Nick Smith. He’s originally from Classic Avenue, which is a big, you know, brokerage in classic motorcycles and classic cars and things like that. He presents himself on TV as The appraiser, right? I’ve seen him on a lot of shows where they have to bring in a specialist to put a number on, let’s say, an old school Mercedes or something like that. So Nick suddenly walks in the Bay of Gotham garage and you’re like, what’s he doing here? And he’s representing. The client that’s going to buy this duo supercar and motorcycle that they had built during season 3 that they struggled to unload because of covid and everything else. So season 5 picks up exactly at that handshake when they were all sort of getting together and now Nick Smith’s team of fabricators is getting together with Mark’s team at Gotham. They’ve got 2 locations that they’re working out of and. You’re sort of thrown in the middle of it going, where is this going to go? Is this going to work? Are these guys going to gel? Are they going to have personality conflicts? And the show, if you go back and watch the previous years, one of the things we always highlighted and appreciated was it was a pretty low drama show. When you compare it to like a Rust Valley Restorers where they’re at each other’s throats and you never know who’s going to throw a wrench across the room next. And, you know, it’s like West Coast choppers, you know, that kind of just ridiculousness. These guys are pretty mellow. They’re really laid back. They work well together as a team and they take direction well, and it was nice to watch a restoration show where people aren’t at each other’s throats and they’re building some interesting stuff. Whether you agreed with the final product or not. You’re like, I can appreciate what went into that, the labor and the process. So that’s, what’s kept us engaged up until this point now introduced. Nick Smith introduced his team. How is this all going to go down? Are we suddenly going to become, you know, West Coast shop, West Coast customs or anything like that? Where is this going to lead us? Luckily, they stayed pretty subdued, but we hit this other bump in the road when they tried to build the cover car, which is this Tesla that they converted. To a rear wheel drive LS powered abomination. That’s the word I want to give it. William Ross: They Crew Chief Eric: had a really hard time selling this car and they finally found the right buyer. Let’s say that, and that opened the door for this Ferrari. So William, why don’t you talk about the Ferrari, the deal they brokered and the condition of the car? William Ross: Well, It’s a 360, uh, spider. Um, so right there, it tells you, you know, F1 tranny, not a six feet. So right there, it tells you, you know, even with low miles, even say 10 feet, I mean, you’re still maybe a 90, car retail, you know, and depending on case, you may be a little bit more, but you know, that’s about it. You know, there’s a lot of factors that go into it. You’ll serve history like that. Well, this is actually a theft recovery car. Now, this is what I found interesting. First of all, when they’re saying it was a theft recovery and they were showing it when they were looking at it, you know, to go view it and then try you for the initial process of potentially buying the car. It was only missing its rear bumper cover and the lower front valance on it. Think was gone to, or the Crew Chief Eric: rear, the rear deck, the hood was missing at that point. William Ross: So, which was kind of baffling to me because I mean, I, I, I’m not in that field, so, but I figured that car would have been stripped a lot more than that. Cause you know, there’s a lot of expensive parts on there that they could have just peeled off and made, you know. You know, whoever did it or stole the car. So stealing some aesthetic pieces off the car seemed a bit, you know, I don’t know, just head scratcher. It didn’t make sense. But hey, you know what weird stuff’s happened. Um, so then when they negotiated, obviously the first initial thing was they supposedly agreed on a price at 60 grand. But you’re my mind if I was looking to say, okay, that’s not so bad because it won’t take all that much You know, you can put in you know, 20 grand into it You know and get it back up to where it needs to be and then sell it for you Whatever, you know put it out there for 110 something like that and take your 95 whatever you make a nice profit on it Crew Chief Eric: Okay, so 60 grand for this theft recovery 360, but let’s, let’s be real for a minute. What do you think the broker or the consigner in this case, what did they get the car for from the police auction? William Ross: 35 grand. Crew Chief Eric: Right? Okay. So some, so there’s a profit margin in every step of this equation as we move along in the story of this car. William Ross: Yeah, I mean 35 40 grand tops. I mean, it’s, you know, coming through because obviously, you know, whoever owned it got their payout from the insurance or anything like that. And, you know, they, you know, the cops get, you know, however it got in the insurance company, they just want to get off their hands. So there’s money to be made all steps. And it just depends on what level you want to be at. But then, you know, it, it, And it was a big jump because then all of a sudden, you know, they thought they had the deal at 60, but then all of a sudden they get the phone call saying, well, we had another person come in and offer a 75. And if, if you’re willing to meet, it’s like, it’s like Crew Chief Eric: typical used car salesman stuff. Yeah. You’re like, oh, I got another buyer on the line. Suddenly the price has gone up. If you want to get, I was like, are you kidding me? William Ross: Yeah. That, that is like the absolute typical, well, I had someone in earlier today, you know, putting in an offer. You know, I got someone calling me back or, you know, this same old BS. So they fall for it. So true or not, whatever. So they, because they told him that, well, if you can match it, since you were here first, and we’ll sell you the car. So they kind of mull it over briefly and say, I pulled the trigger and buy it. And I’m like, it’s 75 grand. What that was. I go right there. That’s just a loser as it is. Crew Chief Eric: Because what’s the market look like on a three 60 these days? It’s pretty soft, right? William Ross: Oh God. Yeah. Especially with an F1 tranny. I mean, you know, if you’re going to buy one, obviously you want to buy it with the six feet and hey, with that car, I mean, you could get the, you know, conversion done or you’re still, you know, on those. I think it’s like 40 grand, 35 grand on a 360 to do the conversion. So, I mean, that ain’t cheap. So you start doing the math and get it up there. So. Um, but yeah, F1 traffic 360 is spider. I mean Yeah, like I saying, depending on modules, you know, to me, like I said, top markets, you know, 1 10, 1 20, you know, I know there’s people out there trying to, you know, ask for a lot more, but you know, the ain’t gonna sell, you know, you could ask wherever you want for the car, who wants to, you know, pay for that. ’cause, especially when you go, you know, from a 360 to a four 30, you got, there’s such a huge jump in regards to performance and just, you know, the driving quality of the car and everything you get out of it. It’s like you would spend the extra 25 grand and jump into a 430 than you would a 360 because, you know, you can get a, you know, mid, mid to low 20, 000 mile at 430, you know, um, you know, in the shit, you know, the 140 range, 150 range, you know, decent, great service, everything like that, you know, whereas why would you spend 120 on a 360? When you could spend an extra 20 grand and get, you know, a hundred more horsepower, you know, you go from timing belts to change. So you don’t have the belts, the situation going on as you do with the three 60 going into the four 30. There’s so many differences between the two. It’s like pay the extra money. Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. And this is where it gets awkward, right? Because up until this part in the show. We were still trying to figure out how Nick and Sean, the other broker from Gotham garage, we’re going to do business and how things were going to work. And they were disagreeing about the strategy going forward and all this kind of stuff. And here we are standing in front of this Ferrari. And by the way, this was the second Ferrari that was proposed in this season. The first deal fell apart and we were just like, Oh, gee drama. It’s not going to work out. They’re not going to do a Ferrari. They’ll go do another Chevelle or something, you know, wait, so what? We’ll move on with life. But now we’re faced with this three 60, the theft recovery car. At 75 grand after all that kind of overproduced, you know, lifting of the price. And as my wife and I were watching this, we’re thinking about it going like something’s not right here. Like, and if I was Mark and Sean coming from the hot rod world, from the customs world, dealing mostly with domestics, we’ve seen what’s happened in the past when they did the Volkswagen, when they did the smart car, when they’ve done a lot of the foreign stuff, there was even a. Kit car going back to our kit car episode, an elite laser nine 17 thing built on a BW bug with a Porsche engine in it. And they struggled with that. And she and I are looking at each other going, this isn’t going to end well. If this Ferrari has a single mechanical problem, they are so done. Yep. William Ross: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, no, uh, the girl on the show was a Constance, um, you know, on the show, I mean, she knows her stuff. I mean, give it that, you know, it’s, yeah, she’s an attractive girl, but you know, you can’t, you don’t hold that against her. She knows her stuff, you know, but yeah, that’s a totally different animal, you know, and working with those type of engines and, you know, especially, you know, mechanics, you know, electronic wise, everything in that stuff. Yeah. They try to tell them that it ain’t no. It’s not no Chevelle where it’s nice and simple and straightforward. You know, it’s, it’s very complicated. You can really screw some things up and cost tons of money down the road. Um, you know, that’s why one day I was kind of surprised about it. Cause my first thought too, I think I said, okay, we’re going to do a, you know, uh, do a conversion to a six beat. You know, that, that, well, those are what made the most sense. Hey, and, you know, yeah, by the kit, they probably figured out cause it’s just cables and whatnot. It’s not too complicated. You get all the pieces for it. It’s not anything crazy. You know, it’s just, you know, reprogramming the ECU and stuff like that. What, you know, again, you know, you have someone that knows what they’re doing, you can get it done. You know, so that was my thought that they’re going to go that route and clean up, but as we both know, they, they didn’t, Crew Chief Eric: no, they didn’t. And that goes back to a previous for our marketplace. Episode where you talked about doing the six speed conversions. You even talked about that on one of our, what should I buy episodes, but more importantly, what we didn’t see was the behind the scenes. If they test drove the car, if they didn’t, everything sort of happened in the parking lot. And you see Nick Smith jump in the three 60 at one point, started up rev the engine and they’re like, okay, cool. We’re going to buy it. And it’s like, that’s it. William Ross: Yeah. Crew Chief Eric: Okay. You William Ross: really didn’t even see the interior Crew Chief Eric: ever, ever at any point. William Ross: Even after they did the car, right? Which was kind of strange. It was like, all right You know, so that’s another thing. It’s like, okay, what shape was that in? I mean, what were you gonna have to do with that? Um, so there again that there’s some head scratchers and you know, kind of just going as some you know It doesn’t seem right here and it’s starting to get a bit Staged kind of I guess you could say or they’re hiding some things And again, it goes back to initially looking at the car and saying it’s a theft recovery and only those couple things are missing, you know, because if you really want to enhance the show and really create that, ah, factor, it’s like, okay, everything should be stripped out of this car, the interior, the seats should be gone, everything should be, you know, be torn out, everything like that, I mean, I’m going to say it’d be a shell of Crew Chief Eric: a He wasn’t even missing an emblem. I mean, everything was there. William Ross: Yeah, I mean, yeah, you’d think that’d be one of the Whoever stole it, whatever, you know, top that thing off and put it on a necklace, you know One of those type of deals, you know, yeah, none of that stuff was missing It’s like this just seemed a bit strange and it seemed a bit staged. So, you know again, it’s like I Enjoy, let’s just see what they they go do here Crew Chief Eric: Exactly. And next they kind of cut away. We’re back at the shop and they’ve got some other projects on the back burner that they’re bringing forward because they need to make money to pay for all this. Right. So they did that. They did this, uh, blacked out Chevelle. They’re working on this pontoon cartoon VW bus thing, which actually I thought. Pretty cool. That was a lot of fun, right? And so that’s the kind of stuff I enjoy watching them build. You’re like, I would have never thought to put those two things together. And then the money they got for it was decent. Although that deal, the way they brokered it, that’s that typical Sean. And I literally called the number they were going to settle on. Cause I’ve seen it so many times. I was like, he’s going to come in at 40 something. The other guy’s going to come in at 20 and then they’re going to do this little game. They’re going to settle on 37 and a half. And that’s how that’s going to go out the door. And it hit right on the number. And my wife was like, man, you need to go on the prices. Right. And I’m like, William Ross: it’s difficult. You know, it’s like, why just cut the cut? Chase, you say this to eight, we’re going to be in the middle anyways. Let’s just call it a day. Crew Chief Eric: Exactly. But that’s part of enjoying the show and being a fan for now, five, six years, you get used to how they do things and you’re like, okay, I see where this is going to go. So again, a little bit formulaic. And then they start, once they get all that out of the way, they start to turn their attention to the Ferrari and what they’re going to do. And there’s a good part of one episode where Mark goes back home. You see one of his Corvettes in the driveway. He’s kind of sitting in his garage and he’s got pen to paper. This is the same sort of scene they used in season three, when he went back to quote unquote, the drawing board to design or bring out his design for the supercar and the bike. And I’m like, Oh man, here we go. And he starts talking about the heritage and the lineage and the Ferraris that are going to inspire his design. And he’s got this whole cork board of photographs that he pulled off the internet and stuff. And I’m sure you paused at that point, William, and you were like, okay, so this is this and this is that. Cause I recognize things like the three 30 P three. I recognize things like the two 50 GTL Ms and stuff like that. And in the background, the pontoon fender Testa Rosas. So there’s a bunch of cars there, like classic Ferraris. And I, and I’m wondering if you had the same thought I had on where this design should have gone, but I want you to talk about the classic Ferraris that he was looking at. William Ross: Well, yeah, my thought was, Oh, I’m like, Oh Lord, he’s going to F this up big time. There’s he started referencing those cart with those bows and whatnot. I’m like, it’s not going to work. I go, first of all, I go, if you look at, especially like the P3 and stuff, and you look at the ass end on it and, you know, regards with the intake stuff of that, you look at a three 60. That cue is there, you know? And so, you know, a lot of those things, you know, nuance wise was already on the car, you know? And that’s, you know, that’s when the styling exercise, you know, people were going back to, you know, honestly retro, but looking back at old designs to bring them forward because they’re so popular. You know, I mean, like the mustang, everything, you know, all these things know Camaros did ’em, so if you look at it, did it, so it’s like, you know, A, you know, how would you, you know, incorporate that in? And, and B is like, how extreme are you gonna go? ’cause you know, are you gonna just get all new body panels made and completely go nuts and have to really start doing some serious, serious, you know, changes and modifications to the chassis. To accommodate everything that you have to do, you know, and as you know, I mean, proportionate is everything, you know, and you know, that those cards aren’t huge. It’s not like you, you know, you got these big long lines. It’s not like some big massive Lincoln or some old caddy or something like that. I mean, it’s a small, small, compact car. So, I mean, no, your lines going from front to back, you know, you don’t have all that much distance to go. So, I mean, You start creating these big bulbous things on the thing. It just really throws all the look off. Crew Chief Eric: Okay. Okay. So I’m glad you brought that up because they brought that up too. And you know, the design masters at Ferrari and this and that, and if you look at a three 60, there’s not a crease on the car, it does have a belt line. It’s very subtle. And that actually was referenced later. There’s a lot of care and thought and imagination that go into the passion of designing a Ferrari, and they’re right. Everything was accounted for. Everything was purposely put on that car and shaped the way it was wind tunnel or otherwise. And you may not like. The 360 design, it is pretty smooth compared to a 458 or 488 or even the cars that preceded it. So the 360 sort of a little marshmallow and that’s okay. So I understand where he’s coming from and that it’s a blank canvas. Maybe we, we can work with this. Maybe we can modify it. And I’m sitting here going and the words are coming out of my wife’s mouth. Saying, well, how do you mess with perfection? Because the Ferrari, when you look at it at that moment in time, the 360 was perfect. It pulled the inspiration from the older cars without being ostentatious, without being ridiculous. And one other comment that they brought up when they were talking about the heritage cars. Outside of the 330 P three, which was a race cars purpose built for Lamont to go against Ford, you know, in the late sixties and all that kind of thing. All the other cars they were taking inspiration from. They kept saying how unique and different they were. And I’m sitting here going, if you know anything about a two 50 outside of Yeah. You know, it’s chassis long or short. They’re basically all the same car, especially when you look at the arch fenders, even the pontoon fender. Testarossa shares design cues and design language with some of the other 2 50 base cars. So they’re not that different. So I’m like, you’re not pulling from a drastically different line of cars and we’re going to pick out this 1 little feature and this other little feature. It’s like they sort of focused on 2 families and tried to run with it. Mhm. Now, you know, we’re discussing these classic Ferraris and we’re talking about another one that was built in the mid 2000s. And I’m thinking to myself this entire time. Why didn’t they go down the rabbit hole of doing some sort of wide body GTLM type of car, some sort of 575 homage, something to the F40, where the heritage would have been a lot closer, it would have been easier, turn it into like a Magnum PI 308 inspired sort of thing, like if you’re gonna go for it, but you go all the way back to the 60s, like, I don’t know. William Ross: Yeah, well, you know, another thing too is. Them, you know, I say using those references and, you know, making those kind of statements, you know, I, you look at, I guess you would say 99 percent of the viewers, maybe 96 percent of the viewers have no clue about that type of history on Ferrari. What not? I mean, they’ll know the Chevelles, they’ll know those kinds of things, the hot rod and stuff like that. But, you know, it’s, you know, the target audience isn’t one that’s going to be as nuanced into history and stuff, but as we are in regards to, especially, you know, racing cars, old Ferraris, you know, Porsches, everything. You know, um, you know, so I, I doubt that was high on their priority list to kind of really put thought into it saying, well, you know, some people are going to catch this and kind of probably say, that’s not their thought process. Their thought process is, wow, these other people are going to think, oh, wow, they’re going to refer, you know, look at these old Ferraris from the 60s. They’re going for millions of dollars. You know, again, it’s just, and that’s, you know, they made that point about the show. Is it scripted bad to a point, you know, but. You know, it’s what they had to do and how much, you know, him going to his garage and doing the drawings and going back. I mean, was that suggestion by producers? Hey, let’s do this. You don’t really instead of him just thinking. Hey, why don’t we kind of go this route with it? I mean, who knows? You know, it’s, um. It’s unfortunate, but I agree with you. I mean, ’cause that was also a thought I had, you know, um, you know, taking a page out of, you know, like what Liberty Walk does with their, those wide body kits, you know, say mantry with the ones or, you know, uh, RWB does on the Porsches, you know, kinda like going something like that in regards to, you know, going wide body on it, you know, and just really kind of going, I don’t wanna say extreme, but going extreme, but, you know, keeping that nuance there. I mean, just kicking out the fender flares, you know, getting it out there, making that stance. You know, lower and wider, you know, really just killing it that way. But, you know, keep it, just work with the lines that are there, but just, you know, take them out more. Crew Chief Eric: And when I thought about it more, it would have been really cool to do a Chinetti tribute and do like a NART design, like get rid of the headlights, give it those GTU, GTP blocks flares. Like you can see in the eighties that they did on the five 12 BB. And I’m like. That would have been really, really slick. And that would have been something somebody wouldn’t like, man, that’s a modern old NARC race car. That’s really kind of cool. And so for me, reaching back to the sixties was a stretch and then some. So what did we end up with? Right. Nick Smith. Is buying new parts or finding parts. I don’t know where, right. A new bumper cover for the rear, the rear grill, the tail lights, everything that was missing from the back of the car. And it seemed like we boiled the ocean to come up with three major changes to the car. Am I wrong? No, you’re right. Yeah. I mean, front splitter, front hood, and then these we’re going to talk about the flares in the bath. William Ross: Yeah. Well, and yeah, front splitter. I don’t know where the hell that came from or what it was. I mean, I’m like, I saw that thing. They put it up there even like touch, like put it up there. I’m like, where’s that from? I mean, if you saw the bracket on the side and everything, and Then, especially when they mounted it and we’re trying to mold it in, I’m like, Oh my God, that’s going to look like, Crew Chief Eric: and oddly enough, the front end was the best part, wherever they got the splitter from, if it came off of a Mustang or they measured something, it might’ve been. An energy and RG branded front splitter kind of generic because the rear wing that they put on it definitely was right off the shelf at Amazon, right? So, but the, so they had to take that splitter that didn’t really fit. And molded into the nose. So on first glance, when you saw it with its color, you know, with the discrepancy in the color between the red of the, you know, that tornado read the Ferrari red of the three 60 and the carbon fiber black, you’re like, that’s going to actually look pretty cool. You know, they, they made some cuts, they slid it in, but then they, to your point, when they put in the turnbuckles and the reinforcement to, to accommodate the extra weight, they made these really boxy. Almost ski slopes on the side with these air ducts that I didn’t understand. They’re not canards. They’re just like, it reminded me of the Audi S1 Pikes Peak that has those sort of like ramp flares in the front that come down to the spoiler. And I’m like, that’s not a Ferrari thing. That’s very German looking. It was really strange. William Ross: Yeah. I just like, I’m like, that doesn’t fit. Crew Chief Eric: Exactly. William Ross: It doesn’t fit. Crew Chief Eric: But the cringe, the cringe moment was when they took the hood off the car. And they’re like, we’re going to put in all the scoop. Yeah. The GT 40 hood scoop. And I’m like, Oh boy, William Ross: they were referencing a lot of Ferrari. And I’m there thinking, well, it was, you know, they said it, but they’re doing, I’m thinking like, you know, the Pista and the new, you know, F8 style like that. But then he started to reference a lot of Ferrari. I’m like, it’s not going to go anywhere. Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. And my wife was asking me, she’s like, how is that going to change the handling of the car? Yeah. Nothing. I was like, it’s either going to handle like ass because it’s changed the aerodynamics or it’s going to do absolutely nothing. And it’s just there for effect more than anything. It’s a bucket. William Ross: It’s a bucket. Cause they didn’t take it out into the front underneath the nose to where the air would come up and go to, they didn’t do anything. They just dropped it in there and some rain catcher. I mean, that’s all it is. And I don’t know if you caught it, you know, and we haven’t gotten to the color. They painted it yet. But if you didn’t, I don’t know if you caught it or not, is they didn’t even paint all the way down into there. Crew Chief Eric: They left it black. William Ross: Yeah. And, and it wasn’t like it was a line or anything, and it wasn’t even like a nice fade to it. It was just like, they were just doing a rattle can to it and just like, there you go. Bad Crew Chief Eric: overspray. It was, that was not well finished for sure. William Ross: No. And it was just, that was another head scratch. And I’m like, seriously? I mean. Crew Chief Eric: But until, until they put. The final touches on the nose again with the uprights and all the stuff they needed to reinforce it. I was like, okay, this can work. I can see this happening like with the splitter and the, and the cutout nose and all that kind of stuff. It sort of had this now for GT. Thing going for it. And I’m like, we’re not pulling from Ferrari’s playbook. We’re still thinking Le Mans. We’re still thinking that era, but we’re in the wrong paddock. William Ross: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Wrong manufacturer people. Crew Chief Eric: And then we moved to the back of the car. Oh, oh boy. William Ross: You know, all they did, you know, I, obviously it was just all fiberglass work, you know, and that was the other thing too. I’m thinking, okay, they’re going to pull off the existing panels and like buy new ones or build new ones or something. No, let’s just slap more fiberglass on there and build them up and make them taller, fatter, and wider that blew everything out of proportion. Crew Chief Eric: I look so bad. Yeah. So wrong. William Ross: I, and I’m watching this stuff going. These guys are not the best fiberglass people in the world. That’s for sure. Crew Chief Eric: Well, and that was something my wife pointed out. If you notice everybody else has got latex up to their elbows and they’re trying not to get any of the resin on them and Mark’s doing it like bare handed and glass, and then they used fiberglass over the carbon Kevlar body or whatever, and then they use that as a mold to do carbon fiber. And then they grafted the carbon fiber fenders to the existing fender, as you were describing, and it’s like, yeah, you couldn’t tell where the seam lines were, but the big giveaway, which gets pointed out by the buyer later, and we’re going to get to that too, is the air duct for the engine. I’m like, guys, you couldn’t take the time to open that up and smooth it out to make the teardrop just look natural. It had this weird, what’s that bad guy in the Marvel movies that has no nose? It looked like him, you know, the red skull or whatever. It just was like, if you chop somebody’s nose off and you just get that diaphragm down the middle. That’s what it looked like. It was weird. William Ross: Well, you know, the other thing too is. I’m sitting there saying to myself, I go, all right, with everything they’re doing and putting on there and doing stuff, they’re adding all this weight to this car. They had added a good two, 300 pounds Crew Chief Eric: by the time they were done. Yeah. William Ross: Yeah. Easily. And I’m like, Oh my God. Yo. And some people I think, Oh, I, it’s like, you know, a person or something like that drastically changes the car itself immensely. Crew Chief Eric: The arrow, the handling, the performance. And to your point, you know, we, we skipped over doing the obvious. Let’s put a six speed in it, do some other stuff, maybe a wide body. All the things we talked about, they did zero performance months to it. And let’s, let’s face it like nothing, nothing, right. But like any exotic, there’s a tax. And I don’t think they could afford to take it to that level and say, Oh, we’re going to do this. We’re going to do that. Plus they’re out of their element. Right? They’ve got a Ferrari for the first time in the shop. And it’s like, well, what do we really do with it? Let’s just do some bodywork. Right? William Ross: Yeah. And, you know, and you look at the car, there’s another thing too, is it wasn’t like it was absolutely necessary. I mean, to me, look at stop the bodywork look fine. Yeah. Hey, you know, take it to a good detail or get it all done up, get some paint correction done and whatnot. You’ll be done with it for the day. Wash your hands, you know, they would have been better off Just doing a wide body can stuff doing some performance mods putting an exhaust on it conversion whatnot And for what they got for they would have probably gotten that for it justifiably, you know, because in the end The guy wasn’t justified. Crew Chief Eric: We’ll get there William Ross: we get there, but it’s just it was baffling the thought process and you know and the scary thought is because now Staged you’re not Is there mine there? Oh, we can do this to some more Ferraris. Crew Chief Eric: Oh, we’ll get there too. But we gotta, we gotta talk about the color. William Ross: Yeah. Yeah. That’s like, Crew Chief Eric: oh, this William Ross: is a sacrilege. I mean, this is, you know, Crew Chief Eric: it’s a factory color just from a different factory. William Ross: Yeah. Jesus. Kia. Crew Chief Eric: Well, that’s not, it’s nine 11 GT three RS green, right? It’s Carrera green. William Ross: Yeah. Crew Chief Eric: And it looks horrible on that car. William Ross: I don’t know if it was the lighting. Yeah. I don’t know. I mean, I don’t, they changed the hue slightly or whatnot because that green on a nine 11 looks spectacular. I mean, it looks great. Crew Chief Eric: And that’s because a nine 11 can wear almost every color. Like, I mean, if you look at the seventies, they came in the assortment of M and M colors from the factory and that William Ross: orange, yellow, Crew Chief Eric: that Kelly green career green is one of those colors in the catalog, right? But Ferraris. If you’re going to do green, you go back to the 308 catalog and you do that metallic green that really dark with the gold fleck in it. Like the, the Ferrari’s where darker colors better if you, and as far out as you can go, is that kind of gangster yellow, you know, the, the, the job, low, whatever they call it, you know, that, that they have that, that bright mustard color. And, and that’s about as, as outlandish as they get. And you kind of think about Ferrari. And you start painting it, these crazy colors like that. And it’s like, well, who the hell do you think you are? Lamborghini, like Lamborghini does that, right? Paint it orange, paint it ink, purple, like all these Chrysler colors that came on the challenger, right? But a Ferrari, it’s like red, black, Navy blue, dark gray. You know, all those, those wonderful colors that they come in. But Carrera green. That 360 does not wear that color well. And I tell you what, even if it was a race livery, it wouldn’t look good in that color. William Ross: No, it was horrendous. And, you know, like I said, once you see it, you’re going to be like, you want to puke. Crew Chief Eric: Let’s talk about the accents, shall we? William Ross: Oh, you know, and I think that’s, those are the only patterns they know is that fucking spiderweb pattern. And as you people, if you watch the preview ones or what I go through, you’ll see it’s a, it’s a common theme on a lot of the cars they do is that they, they redo the grills and whatnot, but putting these spiderweb accents in the ducks in the front and then, you know, and either putting that little Gotham logo or putting, getting the name Gotham on it, you know, on the front. Oh my, and this was gold. Crew Chief Eric: No, not just gold, rose gold, William Ross: rose gold, my bad, rose gold because and that was the color of the wheels to boot too, which sometimes, you know, the rose gold can look good in certain situations on certain cars if it’s done correctly, you know, but on this situation, it just didn’t work because it’s rose gold on, on this just vomit green and but it was the tackiest, tackiest ugliest. Look at you, they, they pull off and you look at their front. You just gotta be, are you kidding me? Crew Chief Eric: So when they put the Gotham garage in rose gold inside of the bucket, right? The rain collector, as you like to call it, that was the flava flave with the big clock around his neck. Like it was so, Out of place. It was so wrong. Like, even if they had just put their big, you know, double G logo with the bat wings, it wouldn’t look right either. It just. To your point, it needed to have a better gradient in the paint scheme. It needed to be subtle, needed to be shadowed, but putting that Gotham garage and the way they sat it, it was partially in the green, partially in the back, it just stood out like a gold tooth and you’re just like, Oh William Ross: God, Crew Chief Eric: this is terrible. William Ross: Drawing attention to the worst. One of the worst things on that front end where they did a shit paint job. They didn’t complete it. It’s like. Let’s put some accent on there that looks like crap and that draws attention to that as well. Crew Chief Eric: Well, and I’m glad you said shit paint job because we’ve watched them paint cars over the years and Mark is an extremely talented painter. I’ve said it before. I will stand by that. Some of the stuff he has done in the paint booth is amazing. I want to reference the Mako Shark inspired C3 Corvette that they did. He did this beautiful. Gradient from just like a shark’s body from a deep dark blue all the way to a silver through these multiple. I mean, it was just gorgeous metallic, you know, and they’re capable of doing some awesome paint jobs. I noticed with this car, we didn’t see it in the paint booth. No, we saw them getting together. Afterwards and they’re pulling Nick Smith in. Oh, you got to get dirty and put your overalls on and everybody gets involved in the big build and all this BS and I’m like, okay, fine. And you watch them and they’re pulling the, you know, the painter, the frog tape off of the car. And at 1 point, my wife pointed out, she goes, look, you can still see the red. They didn’t prime the car. So they did like a Mako spray over on this thing. And I’m sort of wondering, like, is this like a plastic dip? Like they’re going to be able to peel this paint off later kind of thing. Because normally you would see the whole stage, them sanding down the car and doing all this stuff and doing the prep work and blah, blah, blah. And in this case, they kind of blasted through that. And I’m like, Oh boy, all William Ross: that fiberglass work that they did on the tube on the ass end, you know. That’s a shit load of prep work and getting everything. And then, you know, panel gaps, everything. I mean, again, yeah, they, uh, they hit a lot, I guess you could say in regards to process and steps that were taken to get to that end result, which just is just absolute blasphemy. I mean, just, I could not believe my eyes when I saw that thing, when it was done. Crew Chief Eric: But it gets worse. It gets worse. I was just William Ross: about to say, and you think, oh my God, it can’t get any worse than this. Oh, it gets worse. Because, you know, then it even gets more along the lines. You’re thinking this is a stage or whatnot, and it kind of go referencing, you know, the two sales guys. I can see Nick having some contacts and whatnot, just because of his background, everything like that. What, you know, he came up through with, uh, you know, it’s symbolic and uh, was it Sotheby’s or one of the auction houses? Classic Crew Chief Eric: Avenue and all that. Yeah. William Ross: So I could see him having, you know, some of the content stuff, but the other guy, you know, if you look at his resume and stuff like that, a guy, you know, he’s been on a couple of the car shows, but he was mainly, the guy’s an actor. You know, and I’m like, I don’t think this guy knows anybody. So this was somebody getting pulling strings or something or someone they knew, but you know, making those calls and as you know, cause you saw it, but so everyone, you know, just kind of going over it, you know, they stage, they have an event, you know, they call around and try and find a place. They find out there’s a winery, really nice winery, everything like that. And they, so they invite all these people that are prospective buyers and everything like that. Crew Chief Eric: At night, I want to point out. At night, William Ross: yeah, which was a good, yeah, good move. Try to make it as dark as possible. Always Crew Chief Eric: sell a car at night if you don’t want anybody to look at William Ross: the mistakes. Just feed them that booze before you take the cover off. So, you know, they get the stage set, so obviously they corral all these people to come out. You know, and, you know, my understanding would be open bar and whatnot. So, you know, 80 percent of the people come and, hey, they’re just coming for the free booze and snacks and stuff like that. But, you know, kind of given a ballpark is where they’re thinking this thing might be at, you know, they were kind of given a definitive hard number, you know, to get people to go, but, you know, they’re kind of getting out there because people, you know, would want to know that before traveling however far it may be. You know, and you know, the one guy comes out that traveled very far. I mean, I felt bad for these people Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, because when they uncovered the car if you looked if you paused and sort of looked into the crowd The reaction wasn’t all smiles with a big sign that says applause and they all go crazy. There were people are like What the heck is this thing, right? And so there was a lot of hype around the car and in the background the murmurs within the crew is like This is either going to make us or break us because to your point sure doing a ferrari in this color in this way It’s sacrilege, especially in a community that knows those cars wants those cars in their collection with their other ferraris or their porsches Or whatever they have, you know, this is not a toy. This is not a corvette You can dress up like a hot wheels car, which as a matter of fact, they’ve done on this show before. And so for me, I’m, I’m on pins and needles going, man, this is going to go over like a lead balloon and they’re going to be stuck with this car. And this is like three times that they’re stuck with some bill that they just cannot unload. There comes a point, you know, they unveil the car, people are talking and you see people are walking away. You know, I got to get another drink before I look at this thing again. And they’re trying to work the crowd. The whole team is trying to work the crowd. William Ross: Every one of them is. Crew Chief Eric: And at one point, and I don’t know if they meant to leave it in or not, but you hear Constance saying, this isn’t going well. Nobody’s interested in this car. And I was like, dang, that is savage. William Ross: Well, you know, everyone that you’ll walk up to is kind of thing. You go, ah, I’ll have to think about it. You know, it’s just a nice way to like, you’re outta your mind. Oh, that Crew Chief Eric: guy talking about his wife, I gotta run it by my wife. I’m like, oh man. Yeah, exactly. It’s William Ross: like, yeah, again, it’s the, the old car sales stuff, you know, on the purchaser side, you know, using the same excuse. But yeah, I mean, going up to everybody, eh, I don’t think so, whatnot. And Crew Chief Eric: what we’ve left out, the big reveal is how much they wanted for the car, right? Oh, William Ross: yeah. I mean, what was he at? 2 25? Crew Chief Eric: Two and a quarter. For 360. William Ross: Yeah. For 360. Crew Chief Eric: With no William Ross: performance mods. Yeah, depth recovery, which, you know, you’ll find on doing a VIN thing on stuff like that. And if they’re worth their salt, they would have disclosed that too, that this was a depth recovery car. You know, which is a, you know, a big red flag for anybody, especially a Ferrari that, you know, is done by a shop that has no business working on a Ferrari. You know, it’d be one thing if you’re going to an actual Ferrari shop, they got a theft recovery, went through a tooth and nail, everything like that. Every nut and bolt and you can trust the fact is, but then you got these guys. You know, they’re they’re even, you know, how, how many fires they worked on two, one, maybe a best, you know, zero, you know, so that was the, you know, uh, the other thing about it too is I, I want to say the balls on them to ask that. I mean, that is some balls, you know, to stand by that Jane. Okay. Let’s see. Yeah. We want to 25 for it. You know, and if you, in other episodes I watch it, you know, and if you go back and watch other ones, you’ll see, they kind of. You know, as a group or, you know, between Mark and Paul, you know, they kind of usually come up with the number, but then when they get in front of the client, potentially, Paul always jacks the price up more. Crew Chief Eric: Oh, Sean does. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sean William Ross: does, you know, and get it down. So, you know, it’s like, okay, they’re starting high, Crew Chief Eric: but on the big builds on big builds like this, like the supercar, like the Tesla, the Ferrari, there’s a couple others. He digs his heels in the sand and he doesn’t want to budge on the number. And they mentioned that even during this, when it comes almost down to closing, because we get this dark horse rolling in at the last minute when everybody’s pretty much like, nah, brah, you can, yeah. You can take that thing back on the trailer it came on, right? He’s dig, you can tell he’s digging his heels and he wants that 225. He wants 200. And then they’re, they’re screwing around with the numbers. And at one point, Sean’s playing the same game. He always plays it. I’m like, here we go. And you don’t look on Nick’s face. And again, the editing this season is funny compared to previous ones where they left certain things in. And Nick is like, just rolling his eyes. Like, come on, man. This is not how we do business in the Ferrari world. Like, what are you doing? You know? William Ross: Yeah, well, you know, and you have to start wondering because you watch is like him digging his heels in. Is it more ego, you know, and his mind thinking, you know, no, in my mind, it is worth this, you know, something’s only worth what someone’s willing to pay for it. Exactly. And unless you have, you know, all it takes is two people to create a bidding war, so to speak, and to drive a price up whatnot. But if you have one person that’s dictating market value, it’s going down. I mean, you got one buyer, you’re going to have to bite the bullet. But yeah, I mean, digging his heels in, you know, them getting a little paranoid because, you know, I think those other ones, they, they were thinking too, is like, oh crap, we’re going to be stuck with this car, you know, and then what are we going to do with it? How are we going to sell? Because if you go back, you know, to those. The Bugatti S car, you know, they made an attempt to sell that thing online. He dug his heels in and wouldn’t let it go. And then, you know, luckily they, how legit it was or whatnot, because Nick was the one that brought in the supposed big high ball and roller deal, you know, buyer and Nick ends up being on in season five. So I was like, how much was that kind of plate? So who knows? But, you know, uh, it’s just, you can see the kind of worry and everyone else that I saw, crap, we’re going to be stuck with as well. But again, now we get something that seems a little too TV esque as well. This major collector from the East coast comes rolling in who supposedly is just, it happens to be a town. This was a two week window from them calling on this guy coming in, which is a little odd because something like that, you know, in that timeframe, unless you’re talking something super special. And you know, that they were looking for this specific car. They’re not going to kind of say, drop everything or be able to squeeze something in, you know, this guy’s, you know, if he’s a major collector, the kind of dealings this guy has. He’s not gonna be like, well, yeah, yeah, you know, the auto show’s going on, but I’ll try and see if I can squeeze in and whatnot. Crew Chief Eric: Let’s be real, William. If they had called you, you would have gone. You would have showed up. William Ross: Yeah, yeah, why not? Well, God, I wanted to see what the hell this thing was. I mean, talk about a great YouTube video. That’d have been fantastic. Oh my God, that would have got, you know, went viral. Look at this thing, he’s dropping this thing before the show aired. But, um, you know, so as you saw, and this guy comes rolling in, it was in a Rolls Royce or I’m trying to remember what it was in. Yeah. So when he’s in the backseat, you know, I’ll ask you, Hey, I’m a high ball or roller here and coming in and you know, he comes in, you know, gets out of the car, they greet him, guys, very kind of low key and the covers already off the car. So it wasn’t like they did the reveal to him. So he comes walking up and see this car. Now, again, this guy is supposedly, uh, A major collector. So you have to assume he’s probably got some Ferraris in his collection and Crew Chief Eric: supposedly an expert in three sixties. They said, William Ross: yes. And yeah, and I’m sitting and thinking to myself, if this guy’s a major collector and he’s got anything he could give two shits about a three 60, there’s nothing special about it unless it’s like a three 60 challenge or something like that. You know, um, yeah, it’s just some standard three 60 channel. I mean, three 60 is like. What would he care? I mean, it’s a, I would say entry level, but it is Crew Chief Eric: like buying a three Oh eight. You’re like, whatever. Yeah, William Ross: exactly. Yeah. So him getting is all worked up about it, but no, so he comes walking up and starts looking at it. And again, as we described this card, and as if you watch the episodes, you will see how horrific this car is. And this guy like actually showing some kind of interest in the car, which was absolutely shocking to me that I’m saying, okay, this is just kind of set up now. This is, is not making sense. I. There’s just no way. So as we guys out, we knew where they were starting at at the 225. You know, so they get down to brass tacks and start, you know, kind of discussing that. I know he’s going over the car He’s talking about violence stuff. I mean, he’s really kind of, you know, scrutinizing the car kind of going again Go back. We don’t see the interior at all. I don’t see him open a car door and look inside at all You know, he doesn’t you don’t see him start the car, you know, nothing, you know I’m, sorry, but you’re gonna buy something like that. You’re gonna start it. I want to hear it run all right, let’s drive because I want to see how the transmissions I think is If the F1 trade shot on that, that’s 20 grand right there. You know, it’s like all these things, if you’re going to be spending that kind of money, you know, you’re north of six figures. You’re going to want to scrutinize the hell out of this car. And you’re probably, you know, get a PPI done and do all this stuff. And hey, I want to see records on, on, on, on, you know, I just come strolling in to see this gaudy ass green snot thing sitting there with these rose gold accents, spiderweb accents, saying Gotham garage on it. Going. Yeah. I’m going to put that in my collection. Crew Chief Eric: And offering up 165 grand. And my wife was like, what did he just say? 165. William Ross: I was like, I’m sitting and go, okay, this guy is not legit. I go, there is no way this guy would even start there. I was, I was waiting for like one 20 or one 10 to come out of his mind. Even then I’ve been like, yeah, you guys should probably take that, you know? And, but no, and him started once he did, I was like, Oh God, you know? And so then they came back at the 200. So then he’s kind of scary. He goes, well, you know, and then I think he came to one 70. They came down to one 90. And then he just says, I can’t go any higher than 175 Crew Chief Eric: like, uh, William Ross: yeah. And so, and that’s, again, when Mark’s kind of digging his heels and they’re kind of like looking at Mark going, oh, crap, we’re going to be stuck with this car. And, you know, they do that dramatic effect, looking at Mark, everything like that. So then he starts, you know, going into the spill about, you know, you’re thinking, okay, he’s not going to sell. Then he’s like, well, but. You know, this gets us in the door or dah, dah, dah for this market. Did it in a snap? So yeah, we can do one saying, fine. I’m thinking, Oh my God, if this guy’s, if that guy bought that car, he’s legit and that car is sitting in a collection of five or 10 cars or whatnot. That thing’s like sitting up front or something like that. I mean, people are going to walk in and go, this guy’s got absolute. Stupid taste. I mean, why would you buy that car? Crew Chief Eric: The money it would take to convert it back to a just plain jane 360. You’re completely upside down I mean the hood alone. I can’t imagine after they sacrificed it is cheap, you know In my opinion if you’re gonna mod a ferrari to your point Pull the fenders off, pull the hood off, keep the original parts so you can convert it back to what it was in case it just goes totally pear shaped. But to mod the car like it was an old Chevelle or an Impala or something and say, well, here it is, you know, we shaved the door handles. You’re like, ah, that’s, that’s, it’s hard to come back from that. William Ross: You go out into the market, you know, and again, we’ll refer and referencing like, you know, Liberty Walk, Banstree, RWB and whatnot. They really do not with any of those kits really basically fiddle with. The look of it, they just kind of enhance it and, and just give it a meaner looking stance. You know, they’re gonna get into a fiberglass work here and there. Yeah. I mean, you got some extreme ones where it’s complete new bolt-on kit for, you know, quarters and fenders and whatnot. But, you know, those ones are, you can tell that that’s what they are, but you look at, you know, what those other ones are. It’s like, it enhances it. They, they work with the car, you know, and what those guys did is just, it’s horrendous and it just, I. And it’s like, is that, that’s why I just really think, okay, when he got to that point, okay, that guy’s not legit. It ain’t real. It’s like And I’ve been kind of looking around online trying to find any anything else on this car, you know where did it end up whatnot because you know Either a the guy did buy it and he fucking put it in a dumpster and just like lit it on fire And says, oh, hey, I got some good pr on that or whatnot God only knows, you know, or put it in a you know, smash up dirt car derby or something I mean, I don’t know what you would do that because I would be embarrassed to take that thing to any type of Even to a cars and coffee I mean, because people are going to be like, they know how much you paid for it. They’re going to be looking at you going, you’re the fricking idiot that bought this car. You know, it’s, you know, and if that guy is legit, the people that know him in the industry as, and whoever’s like, they dealt with them or sold them cars or whatnot. I mean, his phone would have been ringing off the hook saying, how in the hell did you pay that? Why would you pay that for that car? But I mean. You talk about getting ridiculed, and you know, he’s probably like, I actually didn’t buy the car, I just threw it out there and whatnot to kind of let them save face. Crew Chief Eric: So, and that’s exactly what we were thinking. I think who ended up with that car is the young guy with the flat brim hat that they brought in at the beginning of the season, who has all that collection of the Lamborghinis and Bugattis and all that kind of stuff, and he bought, Custom Dodge Charger that they built for him. It’s the first car they did in the season. And I was scratching my head going like, why the hell does somebody want like a hooptie charger from 2006? And, you know, and they built him this car that he could kind of take and go hoon around it and whatever. And I’m like. This Ferrari sort of leans in that direction, and he was there that night, and they didn’t pay him a ton of attention. They started the yo, bro. What’s up? You know, you’re here. Thanks for coming to the party. And he was in the background. And even when they negotiated with Poindexter, you know, from the East Coast, if you notice, there was no crowd. William Ross: Yeah, Crew Chief Eric: they’re everyone’s William Ross: gone almost Crew Chief Eric: exactly. And there was continuity issues that my wife and I picked up on in the filming where Mark was wearing different hats and you had to pay close attention and they didn’t, they didn’t even take the time to like brush off his blazer. Like it was, it was a mess, right? And we’re like, what the hell? And we really think that that other guy, and I can’t remember his name right now. Probably ended up with a car because it sort of falls more in line with his style, you know new money You know fancy car just kind of you know fast and the furious type of look at me Look at me look at me and I’m cool with that man If you like if you like cars and that’s your thing, I’m good with it, right? But this other dude, yeah I didn’t believe it for a second. But yeah where we go from here Is what really got my attention and remember they’re talking about this saying we’re gonna do high end cars We want to do jaguars and porsches and ferraris and mercedes benz and all this kind of stuff And i’m like, I keep thinking to myself. This is a weird marriage between nick’s team And mark’s team nick keeps talking about having how he wants to elevate them and i’m like You got to get them to pack up the custom the custom american cars and the hot rods because hot rods and exotics I hate to say they don’t mix. William Ross: No, they don’t. Crew Chief Eric: They don’t, right? So when you look at a shop on the east coast or on the west coast, like a Forza or Prancing Skunk or any of those people that are doing restorations that are working on those cars, or if they are doing modifications to them, they’re within reason. They’re within the right mentality of how you would modify a Ferrari or a Maserati or a Lamborghini or whatever it is. But I just don’t see this working, right? And we’re kind of, I felt like my wife and I, as we were watching this, We breathe the sigh of relief as did the past and everybody else sort of when it was over like, Oh my God, we’re going to put this Ferrari thing to bed and we’re going to move on and hope that season six is better because this is just a train wreck. And then we get this sort of after the credits at the Marvel movie, you just sat through, you know, the Hulk and Iron Man doing their thing. And there’s this extra five minutes of Nick, Sean and Mark. In a private collection. And so why don’t you describe it for everybody? What plays out next? William Ross: That’s a dealer. Crew Chief Eric: Okay. William Ross: DDD has been in that shop a few times. I don’t know if anyone watches DDE, the daily driven exotic YouTube channel, but they actually were in there recently and they’ve been in there before, and I’m trying to remember the name of that dealership. But anyways, yeah, so they show them the next day going to, because they think they’re stepping up and I meet Leo when they’re kind of going around, even before they said it, I’m like, okay, the six 12 Scalietti, okay, that’s a cheap car, you know, while I’m speaking, I go, and, but Hey, if it’s got a six speed in it, you know, Hey, you could do some cool stuff with that very subtle whatnot and get it, you know, but as we saw, it was a package deal for the six 12 F1 tranny. I want to assume because that would have been because price wise where they’re at and a four or five eight. So four or five eight, you know, just a basic Italian. So what names you want a special one, but those are going up in value because that’s the last naturally aspirated Ferrari eight cylinder they’re making they made. And they sound beautiful. Oh, and it’s a fabulous car. And people rant and rant and say, Hey, that’s like the last pure Ferrari, because then you start getting into turbocharged stuff in the four eights and stuff like that. Now the six 12 is kind of one of those ones is a love. Hey, you know, I like them. I think they’re not, it’s a great touring car, you know, a big front end is V12 whatnot, 600 some horsepower. Crew Chief Eric: It’s like the new four or five, six, basically. William Ross: Yeah, exactly. It’s all it was is the upgrade from the four or five, six. It’s a great car, you know? And then they say it’s a package deal and you got to buy them both. Cause they’re like, well, we’ll just buy this one. So now you got to buy them both. Crew Chief Eric: 290, 000. William Ross: Yeah. Joy and I for both. And I’m like, I started thinking in my head, I’m like, if, you know, and then the guy kind of says, oh, there’s some room there or whatnot, I go, if you can get those for two 50 to 65 for both of them, I go, that’s a pretty, not a bad deal. You know, because, you know, you break out that 458, depending on mileage options, what not, how is it done again, because you have no idea, but, you know, that’s 150, 000, 170, 000, right there, that 612, again, you’re in that, you know, 120, 130 range, you know, again, depending on miles, what not, so, and, that’s a retail number, not wholesaling them, but if you can get around there, that’s not a bad deal on those two cars, right? But the scary part is, is what in God’s name are they going to do to these two cars? Crew Chief Eric: That’s where they leave you. William Ross: Yeah. Cause you know, they’re, you know, they, they set that up to for them to, they’re buying the cars. I mean, it’s. If they start season six episode one and they come in and say, wow, we didn’t buy those two cars, I’d be like, I’d be a little surprised. Crew Chief Eric: There’s a moment of tension as they close it out, leaving us with a cliffhanger, going into season six. And to your point, it’s going to be one of these make or break situations. Either they’re going to buy the cars and they’re going to go both feet into this custom Ferrari spiderweb world, or They’re going to part ways with Nick Smith and, and both my wife and I were kind of like, those are the only options here. And because season five was so rocky with the way they do business so differently. I’m like, I don’t know that I want to watch a season six where we perpetuate this behavior. I can’t, I’ve been saying for a while now, since the show sort of changed in season three, how do we get back to seasons one and two? How do we get back to the red paper clip? How do we get back to that? Classic upgrade and trade mentality where they were scratching at, you know, 1, 500 cars and this and that. And, you know, jokingly, my wife says, that’s when you change over and you just keep watching Tex Mex motors because that’s what they’re doing. So, you know, and that’s a whole nother story for another day. And that, that show also ends with a Ferrari in their stable, a 275 Daytona. But we’ll talk about that another, another point. There’s this hardball moment between sort of almost come to Jesus between Nick and Mark, and they’re staring each other down like it’s the Alamo. And Nick’s like, this is the game you wanted to play. And this is a direct quote. If you don’t dare, you don’t win. And I’m like, come on, man. And then it just roll credits. See y’all next year, right? Well, William Ross: you know, here’s the thing too. And as you hit it, you know, in regards to the business model, you know, I’m bit surprised, especially, you know, if you’re going like that high dollar opening just out of the gate, you know, acquiring what cards you’re going to work on, you know, supposedly the business model is, it seemed like they all have an ownership stake in this because they split all the profits. If that’s the case, then it seems to me that he’s not paying these guys an hourly labor rate or anything. Hey, it’s all based on what we make on the car. So it’s like, you would think if I was in that position, I would have, want to have a big say in what cars we’re doing, how we’re doing it, because I want to be sure we’re going to get, you know, You know, I don’t want to bust my ass on something and make nothing or only make a couple grand. I kill myself for a month. Crew Chief Eric: Exactly. And that’s part of the way this show is structured. Everybody else seems to have a day job. Like, let’s take Tony, the master fabricator at Gotham. So, Tony. Has his own gig. Like I feel like car masters as a side hustle, they get together for your point for a couple of months or six months or whatever it is, shoot the show, get these cars done as fast as they can. And that was the other thing that Nick kept stressing. You got to get these high quality done as fast as possible. And I’m like, those two things don’t go together. If you’ve ever spent any time with a rest. restoration shop, you know, doing these types of things. It takes forever to get these kinds of cars done to the level of like, not even SEMA quality, but even pebble beach quality. You don’t do that in two weeks and then flip it for, you know, six figures. But the point is these guys seem to have, let’s say regular jobs. They’re taking time off to do this. So they’re getting paid on commission, which is totally fine. But when it came down to it at the end of season five, my wife and I kind of looked at each other and said, we’re still fans of the show. We will still be fans of the show. But I think what we really want at this point is a show with Tony, Caveman and Constance, just We’re Those three. And then maybe those two other guys from Nick shop, the fabricators, cause they they’re pretty mild mannered and doing their thing. And they’re very good at what they do. Right. These other people, the front end, the front of house where I’m sort of over it at this point. But that’s not to say I’m not going to watch season six when it comes out. William Ross: Oh, well, no, I got it now. I mean, You know, it’s like, I think, you know, they, them talk about getting into the, you know, restoration and stuff like that. It’s like, you know, I think you have 2 choices in regards to if you’re going to get into high end exotic collectible cars into, I guess you’d say foreign ones, you know, you could either go into your cars that are basically late 80s, 90s and up, but that basically more entails. You know, engine modifications, slight, you know, exterior mods to it. Nothing, you know, I mean, you could get a little extreme, but it has more to do with making them loud and fast twin turbo, dah, dah, dah, that kind of stuff. You see, you know, and go for it now. Then if you go prior to that, you’re talking your, you know, fifties, sixties, early seventies stuff. You know, that that’s going to say concourse driver, whatever, whatever level of person has got. But I mean, you’re talking such a different set of skills between those 2 type of ventures. The only engine person that got his Constance and I, I mean, I don’t, you know, her dad was a drag racer or whatnot. So she’s working on, she probably got the knowledge, ability to slap turbos on and do all that kind of crap. But I mean, you don’t know, but they definitely don’t have the skillset to go into the early stuff. I mean, cause then you’re talking English wheels, stuff like that crap, you know, I mean, but that that’s an art and you know, so you definitely won’t see that. So it’s, it’s really going to be curious to see what they do. You know, I think they only could, you know, and I say they got away with this one in season five painting the green and whatnot. But I think, you know, it would be a make or break in regards to if they, they acquired those 2 to 6, 12, You know, I think that’d be a make or break in regards to how they handle it. Because if they do something as gaudy and tacky as that with both of those, and then they sell them for some stupid number, you know, I think it’s going to turn off a lot of people because they’re gonna be like, okay, this is staged. Crew Chief Eric: A hundred, a hundred percent. And they’re going to lose their audience and they’re going to lose their credibility because the cars they’ve been doing up until this point. Cater to not just a certain demographic, but they cater to a type of collector, right? The people that are interested in that SEMA kind of car or that cars and coffee car, or, you know, some of the other ones that we talked about, even on what should I buy? So there’s a buyer in their current market. And by them jumping out of that, and, you know, if we’re going to do Ferraris and Jaguars and all this other custom stuff, now the show. What does it become? Does it become counting cars? Like I’m not trying to put a knock on Danny Coker, but you know, he’s got his own stuff going on and he’s been doing it for years and he’ll mod anything. And he doesn’t seem to really care. So is, and so we are wondering, is that the direction the show is taking? Is that the direction the shop should be taking? Like, and it’s not questions that I need to answer or that maybe we will ever get the answer to. But it has lost its way. Right. And when jokingly we talked about in season. Three, four, when they built that, that shark of a Corvette, which I enjoyed the paint scheme on the show, jumped the shark at that point. If you go back and watch, you’ll understand what I’m talking about or listen to my review. It makes sense, but it has turned a page. I’m willing to hang in there. I hope that Tony Constance and caveman get more airtime. Maybe they get their own spinoff. It goes back to kind of classic Gotham garage types up because the three of them are, they have great personalities. They have great chemistry on camera. They’re, they’re all smart and they get stuff done and they do good work. And they’re the ones doing the majority of the work at the end of the day. So I want to know more about that. I want to see more about that. But what I think we need to wrap this episode up with William is as. You’re an expert in this space. The moral to the story here is When you take all these layers off, is there a room in the Ferrari marketplace, pun intended, for custom Ferraris? Not this one specifically, but custom Ferraris in the collector space. William Ross: The one moral is don’t send your Ferrari to Gotham Garage. I, you know, again, you know, it’s all personal preference, you know, and like I, I was saying just before is, you know, you got this. You know, I guess you would say demographic where, you know, at a certain point, and I guess it has to do with coming up, you know, playing for that kind of stuff and having that on there. Where these guys are just, you know, taking these cars, you know, they’re, I’d say 40 and under, maybe even earlier, forties and down, you know, as twin to drivers like that. It’s all about power and sound and the crackle, you know, backfire and all that kinda crap. I mean, a lot, some of those cars look good, you know, some of those cars are, are, you know, they’re a bit, I mean, I’m 53, so I, I’m gonna go on inside. You know, it’s, that would just draw me, you know, I, I’m a, I’m a person that says, look, hey, I don’t mind a decent exhaust. So it sounds good. ’cause you know, especially with the flat, flat plate crank V eight. You know, I mean, you know, uh, Fox or eight, whatever, you know, sounds phenomenal, you know, put it to be exhaust on it, you know, put something else on there just sounds good, but you don’t get to really extreme with some of the stuff and twin turns. That’s just not my cup of tea. I’m more, you know, I like to have more stock aesthetic look, but you know, you’re definitely not going to do with anything early ain’t going to happen. You know, I could, you know, it’ll be interesting regards to say, you know, I could see it going from three sixties. You know, maybe a 328 308 still doing some really kind of weird stuff and kind of like, hey, what can we get away with? Because they’re just an abundance. Crew Chief Eric: Kind of like that case swap 308 that we saw in the last couple of years. William Ross: Exactly. You know, um. You know, I, and I seen like some guys, you know, doing their, you know, trying to, you know, do a carbon fiber buyout to kind of, you know, retro tribute to a two, eight, eight, that kind of stuff. And, um, yeah, I, I think there’s a window there for that, but I mean, I think you have to, you can’t just be, I want to say, I don’t want to say subtle. So, cause that would mean like, Oh, Hey, paint the thing green and get these gaudy things on there. You know, it’s more along the lines is, and not going to a complete like singer type level of a, of a build. You know, but almost to a point, you know, it’s like, all right, you really need to improve on what came out of the factory to make it worth it, you know, so it’s like, you know, brand new interior, but take it to the 10th level, you know, and, you know, carbon fiber, everything like that. It’s like, I mean, if you’re going to do it, you’re going to have to take it to a level that’s justifiable, especially for cost or price. You know, if you’re going to do it, but not what they did, there’s just no way, not, there’s just no way, you know, um, you know, and I just don’t see it, you know, it’s, you know, um, like I said, you know, then, you know, then take a new like four or five, eight, you know, four days, that kind of stuff and doing it. I mean, you really don’t see it all that much. Ferraris you see with the Lamborghinis Crew Chief Eric: and Porsches, yeah William Ross: and Porsches and you see a lot of stuff But you really don’t see that much and you know I don’t know how much so much is just who the buyer is the demographic of people that buy them um I don’t know if they’re afraid to get cease and desist from Ferrari because Ferrari is Extremely particular about what you do with your car. I mean they they could give to you know, what’s It’s hey, I bought it with my money. I own it. They don’t care. That’s their intellectual property in their mind And they’re going to dictate what you can and can’t do and you get too nuts You’re going to get a letter from you know, um, you know, so you don’t really know too much um, you know, I know I’m going to reference these dde guys because you know, um, I don’t the main guy and the other guy, you know, um, Dave and damon, you know, they’re kind of leading the show. I mean, they’re all right they’re a little kind of honestly obnoxious, but Mike Essa, who they brought in, who’s the fab guy, drifting guy, everything like that. I watch it for him because I like watching his mind work in regard to how he builds the cars and what he comes up with and you know, modding these cars and that because I mean, he knows his you know, and he really knows how to build these things, right? So, I really enjoy watching his aspect of it and take it. Now, you know, they did that 550. Now, you know, they’re going to do up that 599 and what he’s doing, what they’re doing to it, you know, they’re going to that race car look. You know, obviously and it’s a drifting car, but you know, it’s it’s going more race cars. Look, it’s not this gaudy You know all these appendages anything each each thing serves a purpose on the car. That’s the one key thing It’s not just for aesthetics, you know, it’s not to be obnoxious. It’s serving a purpose for airflow air for whatever You know downforce and what have you so it’s all serving a purpose now, you know They’re doing or I should say he’s doing because he’s the one doing it all You know, a great job on what they’re doing there. But again, I think that’s the correct way to do it. And I think you can see that where people say, well, that’s not something obnoxious and crazy. It’s like taking it race car ish for the street. You know, that one’s going to be a complete drift car, but you know, I think it’s going to turn out great. Like I know the one I just watched, like he just, he wants to fabricate up in the hood, just putting in the vents in the hood. Man, it changed, you want to talk a thousand percent better look to the car with the vents on it, it looked phenomenal, you know, and just, that was a simple thing, they show them cutting out and doing everything like that, and again, it was cool to see it because, you know, they’re cutting into a, you know, 170, 000 car, 106, 000 car, you know, and just having to add what, like it’s nothing, you know, it’s just, it’s neat to watch, you know, and that was what they did at six B conversion on, you know, so that’s the other thing. So it’s, um. You know, I think it’s going to go a certain route, but it’s not going to be something obnoxious. I just don’t, I don’t see it. I don’t see people want, I don’t see a market for it. I don’t see, I think people buy it. It’s just, it’s just a different type of buyer that buys Ferraris. Crew Chief Eric: Well, I think that kind of wraps up our rant on season five of car masters, but you know, William, I got to thank you for inviting me to come on the Ferrari marketplace podcast. I’m looking forward to being back on here, talking about other things and the new direction that the show has taken and you becoming part of the family here at the motoring podcast network. So this has been good. I hope the audience enjoyed it. William Ross: Yeah, guys. Hey, I appreciate you listening. And yes, hey, definitely take a listen to the other, uh, uh, uh, podcast that we got here on MPN. Uh, there’s some great stuff on there. Definitely. Let’s, you know, give those guys a listen. Uh, next episode. We got crew chief. Eric will be on that one as well because we’re doing a thing on the million million. We’re going to have also Jonathan Summers on here. Who’s a great historian. Uh, very, very knowledgeable gentlemen on it. All things meal Amelia and a lot of other races and target floor and that stuff But we’re going to focus on the meal meal because of the ferrari movie that came out which if you haven’t seen it yet Go see it. It’s really really good. But remember it’s entertainment. It’s not a documentary Crew Chief Eric: I feel like there’s another episode in there too. William. You got to do a review There will William Ross: be another one in there as well with that So we got lots of stuff to discuss and chew on so but again, I appreciate everybody listening And you know take a listen to the other Podcast on the network and hey, we’ll be back for more. And we have this set up now. We should have a lot more of these rolling on a more continuous basis. So thanks guys for listening. Appreciate it. And have fun. Crew Chief Eric: This episode has been brought to you by grand touring motor sports as part of our motoring podcast network. For more episodes like this tune in each week for more exciting and educational content from organizations like. The exotic car marketplace, the motoring historian, break fix, and many others. If you’d like to support grand touring motor sports and the motoring podcast network, sign up for one of our many sponsorship tiers at www.patreon. com forward slash GT motor sports. Please note that the content, opinions, and materials presented and expressed in this episode are those of its creator, and this episode has been published with their consent. If you have any inquiries about this program, please contact the creators of this episode via email or social media as mentioned in the episode. Go Behind The Scenes! Copyright William Ross, Exotic Car Marketplace a division of Sixty5 Motorsports. This episode is part of Gran Touring Motorsports, Motoring Podcast Network and has been republished with permission. [...]
November 27, 2023Community / Ferrari / PorscheWhat if… There was A better way to manage, preserve, share and transfer the history of your classic vehicle throughout its lifetime. Steeped in the latest technology, The Motor Chain, founded by computer scientist and car enthusiast Julio Saiz aims to satisfy that very need. And he’s here to explain how it all works, and why securing and verifying the provenance of your collector vehicle is critical to its history.  Check out the follow-along notes, transcript and more details for this episode at GTM What do we discuss on this episode with Julio? The Car History Paradox “You own the car, but you don’t own its information” What is The Motor Chain? What was the motivation to start the app? What does it do? What are some of its features? Timelines & Blockchains – explain how this works? Cyber Security: Many people can be reluctant to use systems like this because, VIN are often viewed as PII (Personally Identifiable Information) – how are you handling sensitive data? GDPR compliance? If you sell the vehicle, can you transfer it to another owner/user on the Motor Chain Pricing model: Subscription, One-Time Fee, Versions (mobile vs website) What’s next for The Motor Chain? and much, much more! To learn more logon to www.themotorchain.com or follow them on social media @themotorchain on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. @themotorchain_tmc_ on Instagram, and be sure to checkout their YT channel.   For the first 100 listeners to create a new account on The Motor Chain, use our promo code BREAKFIXTMC to receive 25% off your subscription. Start documenting your car now, don’t wait until the time of selling it. The Motor Chain connects collector car owners with professionals and buyers, allowing all parties to participate in a vehicle’s documentation and history. Interactions and transfers are controlled and regulated with Blockchain technology securing trust in the documentation and the vehicle’s provenance. With The Motor Chain, you’ll never have to wonder about the health/status of your vehicles.   [...]
November 22, 2023Ferrari / PodcastWilliam delves into the Ferrari 250 GTO recently auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York City for nearly $52 million. He provides a detailed history of the car, discussing its origins, racing pedigree, and why certain models, like the 250 GTO, have attained legendary status over the 330 LM. William also explains the process of buying high-value Ferraris, including private sales and factors affecting their desirability and price. Additionally, he touches on Ferrari’s latest track-only car offering and hints at future projects and acquisitions. Episode 17 On Ferrari Friday’s, William Ross from the Exotic Car Marketplace will be discussing all things Ferrari and interviewing people that live and breath 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. 00:00 Introduction to Ferrari Fridays 00:36 Host’s Personal Updates 01:31 Ferrari 250 GTO Auction Highlights 02:09 History and Evolution of the Ferrari 250 GTO 06:50 Market Value and Buyer Preferences 16:50 The Process of Acquiring a Ferrari 250 GTO 24:48 Ferrari’s Recent Innovations and Track Cars 29:11 Conclusion and Future Plans 30:38 Sponsorship and Closing Remarks And hello everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. I’m William, your host. Uh, it’s been a long, long time since I’ve recorded one of these. Um, lots going on. I know my other pre was, I kept saying, Hey, I’m going to start firing these bad boys out on a more consistent, regular basis. Uh, but things just kind of get away from you and kind of lose track of time a little bit. Got a lot of stuff on my plate and a lot of exciting stuff that, Hey, I’ll hopefully share with you guys down the road. Uh, A lot of new things happening and whatnot and a possible acquisition. So keep that in mind. So that’ll be coming down the road. So, but again, I apologize. Cause like I said, I know I keep kept saying before, Hey, I’m gonna do these more faster or something. Seem to be quite a decent amount of downloads still. So, which is great. You know, we’ve got quite a few episodes out there. I really appreciate the support. Uh, any thoughts, suggestions? Hey, just shoot me an email. William at the Ferrari marketplace. com as simple as that. So anyways in today’s episode what we are going to talk about That the whole scuttlebutt was, especially leading up to it and after the fact, is the Ferrari 250 GTO that just got auctioned off by Sotheby’s last week in New York City. Anyone that watched that, anyone kind of delved into that and saw, uh, what the car went for, roughly just with all fees and everything, uh, in it, you know, all said and done, just a smidge under 52 million dollars. So, um, it’s, you know, it’s not a bad price for that. Um, you know, it’s, you know, everyone has to understand something about that car, though, is that it started out as a 330 LM. So, I don’t know if many of you are familiar with what that means, but The original 250 GTOs that were produced in manufacture and race, uh, the first, you know, this is where it kind of everyone kind of comes up with the different arguments and everything like that in regards to, well, how many were built, how many, you know, so technically you have, you know, the 36 250 GTOs sold. So, but, after that, they actually then increased the displacement size to a larger 4 liter thing. Now you say, alright, it doesn’t make sense, what is the, uh. The, the designation doesn’t really kind of make sense on that. But, so the increase in displacement, they only made actually four 330LMs. Now the body, really only distinctive change in the body on these was the hood bulge. Because obviously with the motor, the carbs, everything like that, uh, to squeeze that bad boy in there. Because it was significantly bigger engine, uh, in there. That, you know, obviously had to do the hood bulge and everything like that. Common sense would tell you, you would think, well, wouldn’t those four be more expensive or more valuable than the 250 GTOs? Yeah, you would think, right? But no, it’s not the case. You know, everyone seems to refer to the 250 GTO. That’s the one that’s got the moniker, that one’s got the status, the mystique. Everything out there amongst everybody in the marketplace, out there in the automotive world. So, it’s interesting. Because like I said, in my mind, I would think I’d rather have a 330LM Than the 250 GTO, but you know, that’s just me because you think it’s more rare I was like that, but so anyways, so after that car It was, you know driven by Mike Parks, Lorenzo Bandini at some point, you know, races in the 1960s, 24 Hours of Le Mans And but the big kind of I guess say catch or hook I guess you would say is they really tried to press the fact was it was, you know, it was raced by the Scuderia itself Now basically almost all those 250 GTO that were pardon me on that We’re out there and race stuff that were basically, you know done by I want to say, you know privateer teams But pray it’s privateer teams, but like say nart You know, you had the other Scuderia teams You know, you had several other teams out there that actually Race the car under their banner. Now that was kind of, you know, Enzo’s, I guess I would say philosophy, or I guess basically say his, his business mantra, you know, it’s expensive to go race it and race those cars. So his thing is, well, tell you what, this is what we’ll do is I’ll build the cars, we’ll sell them off to who I want to sell them to team wise, because we know that they’ll win. And it’ll just benefit the team and then we don’t have to cover the pay for the cost of, you know, hiring the drivers and all that kind of jazz. Now, don’t get me wrong, they did have several, you know, cars in different categories that they raced under their own banner. Um, but, you know, these, I guess you would say more, how would you say, uh, kind of like, I guess you’d say the cars that you could drive to the track, race to the track and then drive it home. You know, back in those days, those kind of cars, you know, they, it’s, he sold them more off to like these teams and gentlemen drivers and what have you than actual full fledged race cars that they basically ran themselves. You know, uh, like your 330P, or like the 312Ps, that kind of stuff, you know, those kind of cars, uh, you know, your F1 cars, stuff like that, you know, um, you know, your 250LMs, you know, they did make the, obviously the street car and those as well, so, but, you know, they did have their cars at the factory, actually did, you know, race themselves, hired the guys and everything like that, don’t get me wrong, but when they got, Now it’s more for the Formula One side of stuff, but getting into, like, the endurance racing, that kind of stuff, they had a tendency to lean more towards selling the cars to these teams, uh, than racing themselves. Now, don’t get me wrong, again, they did do some of that as well, too, so, don’t come, don’t get yelling at me and jumping down my throat, No, hey, William, they did this and this, and like, I know, I know, I know, I know. So, anyways, the, um, this GTO, you know, had, you know, a nice, you know, History to it. Now I want to say checkered history because you know, there’s some out there that have had kind of a sketchy type of history to them. Now, this is what kind of also gets me is, you know, I’ve, you know, been involved in a few of these transactions, uh, in regards to these cars and the one biggest, I guess, a hurdle you get, or I guess biggest, I say, pushback, I guess, from a, you know, a buyer, you know, obviously these people have a lot of money to be able to pay this kind of dollars for a car. Um, you know, and there you have a tendency, they get what they want, and if they want something a certain way, that’s how that’s gonna be. Um, but, you know, they have a tendency to forget. You know, unless these guys are like, you know, hardcore into this stuff, you know, not just looking for it as a status thing, you know, they just have, they have a car collection, but it’s more just a, hey, look at me, puff out my chest. You know, you got those few guys out there that are true hardcore, like Nick Mason. There’s your hardcore guy, you know stuff like that, you know, Lord Bamford. No, he’s another one You know, these guys know these things inside out and just absolutely adore these vehicles But I know you get these guys that you understand these were race cars. They were raced in period You know, so they got banged up, motors blew up, everything like that. So, I mean, you’re not going to have a car that as it was first built, fresh, nice and clean coming out of the factory is what you’re going to get now. I mean, you know, these things had, you know, led hard lives. They were race cars. And a lot of these people have a tendency to forget that. Now, yes, there are some out there that have, hey, they’re, you know, matching drivetrain, uh, engine, everything like that. But, you know, a lot of these, you know, hey, they had different, you know, new blocks put in, new motors put in, you know, everything like that. New transmissions, because just have, you know, there’s a few out there that, you know, they were pretty banged up, you know, and basically got all new bodies. You know, um, you know, then you had, you know, cause you got your series one. You got your series two, you know, and everyone always wants a series one. So the series two ones, a lot of those got rebodied back to series one. So a lot of these don’t even have their original bodies on them, stuff like that, you know, and God, you know, if, if someone would have kept the original body, put a new, that’s gone back to a series one, but kept the series. Talk about adding value to the car, but anyways, you know, no one, you know, if everyone could, um, see the future and predict the future, you know, hey, know how much money a lot of us all would have. But anyways, so with that, um, okay, let’s let’s check with them. Oh, but anyways, so, you know, people, these guys have a tendency to forget, you know, what these cars were actually utilized for back in the day and, you know, getting into it, you know, these, and again, you know, this is a race car. Yes, you could drive it on the street. Yes, it was, you know, basically done up, you know, and, you know, this was an Enzo’s get around, you know, this was basically, you know, a tip, you want to say evolution of the 250 short wheel base car. Um, you know, that’s how he tried to circumvent the rules and just say, no, this is just an evolution of that car. I don’t know, you know, and being Enzo being Enzo and, you know, these, uh, people running the show, uh, at that night, FIA and stuff, you know, didn’t want to piss off Enzo cause they didn’t want to lose him. Um, we’re just saying, oh, okay. Yeah, we get it with, you know, why? Meanwhile, all these other teams, everybody’s protesting like crazy because they just don’t understand. It’s like, how blatantly blind do you have to be not to see it’s a completely new car. But anyways, you know, that’s Enzo being Enzo. I love the guy. So anyways, um, you know, be what they are. Got to love them. But again, you know, it’s a race car, you know, and again, you know You don’t have all these creature comforts and everything like that. Now what’s great about those cars These are kind of like the 250 short wheelbases and the 275 GTB fours, especially You know, they’re great comfortable cars to drive. I guess so to speak, you know again You’re not gonna have all these accoutrements everything like that, but you know, you can drive them, you know, chug them along You know, you don’t have to like on some of these cars, you know You have to be basically winding the ssssssssh not out of them, you know, to get any enjoyment out of them. These cars man, they pull from the bottom, they’re like, obviously tractors, but, you know, they got, you know, all through the range, they pull, you know, they’re not that bad. The clutch isn’t all that heavy, you know, you don’t have to feel like it’s a tractor clutch or anything like that. So, you know, you don’t have to be all that delicate, you got to be a little delicate, but you know, it’s, you know, it’s not something where, like, it’s a full on race car where it’s either all or nothing. You know, I don’t know how many of you out there might have, you know, ever been in, have raced a race car, driven a race car, but you know, those things don’t like going slow. They’re not happy when they’re going slow. You got to have those things going basically nine tenths, 10 tenths all the way for you really want to get everything out of the car, but to be able to drive it, you know, and not be like, Hey, something’s breaking or something’s wrong with this car. You know, you get to layman is one of these cars like that. They think, you know, the thing’s going to fall apart or something’s wrong with it. It’s like, no, you got driving faster, you know, that’s just what the case is. So, and I guess that, you know, that was makes it fun. Hey. supposed to be going fast anyways, right? So anyways, you know, but with these cars, you know, Hey, that’s what they were made to be able to drive on the street, drive it from wherever, drive it to the track, race it and drive it home. You know, I’m not saying a lot of these people did it, you know, early years. Yes, that was the case. You know, it really wasn’t the thing of, you know, transporters, that kind of stuff. You know, these cars were street cars and he modified them and took them to the track, you know, early days of Le Mans, that kind of stuff. You know, um, great stories about, you know, the Bentley boys, you know, driving from, uh, England down to France and to Lamar, you know, and then driving home. I mean, great, great stories. I mean, those boys had a lot of fun. Um, but you know, stuff like that. Well, you know, as things got more serious, hey, transporters came into play, everything like that. Hey, these cars, you know, weren’t all that comfortable or anything like that to kind of drive on a, you know, 800 or 1500 mile road trip to go racing like that. So. You know, that’s when the day and the age came where ADCs got transported to track and it was like that, you know, they weren’t driven there, which, you know, those are some great times and, you know, we’ll never see that again. I mean, now, now, you know, the argument is people say the McLaren F1 was the last true road car that won Le Mans, that you could drive the track race and go, yeah, technically, but those cars that raced were nowhere near what the road cars were. I mean, those things weren’t even close. You know, people try and make that argument. Oh, I knew that, but you weren’t going to drive that race car from England all the way down to Le Mans and back. It wasn’t going to happen. It’s just, you know, everything that was stripped out of that car. God, I’m trying to remember how much weight they pulled out of the car. It was a significant amount of weight that they took out of that car. I mean, significant amount of weight. Um, you know, if you look it up, take a look and see. I mean, don’t be a head shaker, because you know, you see some of these where they do it. They always took out like, you know, two, three, four hundred pounds, something like that. Well, they took out like, I don’t know, 800, 900 pounds. Something like that. If memory serves me, I’d have to look up and see it, but I know it’s just an insane amount of like, how did they find that much weight there to pull out of there, but they did and God bless him. You know, Gordon Murray, man, that man, he is a genius. And I don’t know how many of you’ve been COC in his new, uh, his new car, uh, the T 50. I tell you what, if you haven’t had the opportunity, Top Gear’s got a great video on it. Um, what’s his name, the editor there, you know, the guy who said thing, but he does, you know, the YouTube videos. You know, and he took down a 900 mile road trip, uh, from, I think it was just somewhere in Spain and to the Pyrenees or something like that. Uh, but a 900 mile trip and you hear that V12 scream. Naturally aspirated that thing that’s just glorious. It just sounds like the old f1 motors back in the day. I mean, it’s just glorious and Straight out of the box from the factory. You don’t have to touch that thing and I’m sorry and they even say it You know put that up against any new, you know Koenigsegg or anything out there. It’s now now the Valkyrie Yeah, cuz it’s basically the same premise and say I Cosworth built to both those motors. So they sound very similar So the Valkyrie’s got you know Could give it a run for its money, but I tell you what, that thing is just absolutely glorious. I mean the sounds it makes, it’s just absolutely glorious. So, but anyways, talking some more about this sale. Again, fees, everything, the end is 51. 7 million dollars. And you know, there’s some banter about, well, why’d it go for 80? Why was it 90? You know, all these, you know, the auction house was stolen around. A lot of people didn’t think, hey, is it going to go for 60? Is it going to go for 80? Is it going to go for, is it going to break 100 million? You know, and again, the people that kind of study this and really know say no, because one, it started out as a 330LM, they got, you know, after it was done, then the factory took it back and, you know, redid it as a 250GTO. Now the factory did it, everything like that, so, you know, that gives it some credence, um, and in fact, you know, gives it its value. Uh, but, you know, it’s right, it’s sold right where it should be. Um, Anyone who watches the market, you know, those, they’re a real 250 GTO series one, you know, long as no one’s been killed in it or anything like that, you’re probably in the, you know, 60 to 80 range, just depending on history, whatnot, what’s been changed, everything like that series to a little bit less, you’re probably in the, you know, 50 to 70 range again, depending on the car. Now, here’s a big thing. Uh, some people think wouldn’t shouldn’t matter, but right hand drive ones. Do not bring the money because unless you’re in a country that’s right hand drive, you know, people don’t want it. And even then, people don’t want it to have the right hand drive cars. They want to have the left hand drive cars, which are more in abundance, I guess you could say. Um, I’d have to look exact number wise, but I think there’s only seven or eight, six or seven right hand drive ones. The rest are all left hand drive. Um, but you know, that’s the big thing out there now is, you know, I have, you know, someone, a client that’s looking for one. And there’s a couple of right hand drive ones that we’re probably, you know, could easily get our hands on. He could acquire but doesn’t want a right hand drive car. And again, it goes down to, if you’re spending that kind of money, you’re going to buy what you want. You’re going to wait, you know. Yeah, you know, 99 percent of those cars all get sold off market. It’s very rare that, you know, you bring it to an auction like that. I don’t know what the owner’s thinking was behind that. You know, maybe you just didn’t want to deal with, you know, private stuff and you’re having to deal with lawyers and everything like that. Because basically, I’ll walk you through a process here in regards to how a transaction like this would happen off market. So, you have your client, they start talking, they want a 250 GTO. Then you start, well, you know, you start delving a little deeper. Why do you want one? What do you want to do? Because that’s a big, you know, outlay of cash. Because think about that. Say you spend 60, 70, 80 million dollars. Think of how many other cards you could buy that are significant. Not just in value, but of just, you know, history, everything provenance, just coolness. I mean, you could buy a crap load of cars. You can have a monster. You can get 50, 60, you know, top notch cars. They have an awesome collection with that kind of money. Instead of just dumping it all into one. But Hey, again, when he got that kind of money, that’s just a drop in the bucket. So anyways, you know, you go to this stuff and then, Hey, you call who you know out there that would, Hey, do you know if so and so’s interest on his car or you call them directly, you’ll find out. You know, you kind of just go through the grapevine, figure a few things out. You know, you’re not going to know every single owner and be able to reach out to every single one. It just doesn’t happen. So you got to go to other people that either A, they have direct connection to them or B, hey, they can get direct connection. You’ll find out, you know, so a lot of these guys, you know, they don’t, you’re not, you know, there’s those few out there that, you know, have their cars for eons, decades. Um, you know, and you know that they’re never going to sell their car. So you can immediately eliminate basically almost half of all the 250 GTOs built. Because they’re just not going to be sold. The owners aren’t, they’re not going anywhere. They’re going to get passed out, what have you. Then you got about another, you know, five or six that you really don’t want to touch just because their history and everything to the car, you know, it’s just, it’s just not there. It’s like, no, it’s, you know, it’s car, it’s like checking out car vertical or Carfax on it and go, wow, how many access does this thing have? And then I don’t want to touch it. I think with 10 foot pole, um, you know, you might not see it cause hey, you know. To the eye. Oh, it looks beautiful, but you know what’s been done to it and who did the work and because you got to understand It’s you know far and class each, you know has not been around all that long So you can’t send it to class, you know class each back in 1980s and hey, I want to get classy certified Hey, you guys do all stuff and hey you guys do all you know, I get to get the red book for it You know, that wasn’t it, you know, who did the work on it back then and who did the work on it throughout the years is a big, big factor in value on these things. So, so anyways, so you got about 5, 6, 7 of those that you really wouldn’t even want to touch. So you start breaking that down. So, you basically have, and you get rid of the right hand dry ones in essence, unless they really want a right hand dry one. Um, you know, you only have maybe 8 to 10 of them out there that, you know, that I can say are, you know, hey, these ones are probably you can get your hands on. Those cars actually though, people don’t realize they change hands frequently. Now I’m not going to say like, you know, once a year or something, you know, every year they’re changing heads. But I mean, you know, every year you probably have two of those, maybe three that change hands. Uh, these guys, they came for a couple of years cause it’s a status thing. They’ll go to the GTO only events. You know, they’ll take them to the big ones and stuff like that to say, Hey, look at me. Yeah, I own one of these, you know, and kind of get in that circle, that group of owners. But then they, they move on because one either a, Hey, it’s gone up in some value. So that little investment, you know, in a year, say two or three year time, you know, on say a 60 million investment, they turn around, they sold it for 65. That’s not a bad return rate on sitting on something just for two or three years. You know, um, You know, it’s not too bad. And all the enjoyment and fun you got out of it, you got to kind of factor that in. Because I know someone out there numbers like, Oh, that’s only this kind of percentage rate, interest rate, blah, blah, blah. Well, look at all the things of enjoyment you would have got out of it. All the events you would have went to, all the people you would have meet. Because a lot of that stuff too is these guys, you know, you get in that circle, man, you’re dealing with some of the richest people in the world. And you want to talk about business and networking and transactions. That’s how these people get more rich. They all fucking work together with each other and you know, hey, you want to get involved in this? Hey, well, you know, that’s how these people make, you know, get just keep getting richer and richer and richer, you know They’re all in the same circles and they all work together and they just make money for each other So anyways, so that’s pretty much, you know, how it would go. Well, I mean, it’s not how it goes. I haven’t gotten there yet. So anyways So you got to identify the car. Okay, you find one. So then what you do is, okay, you have the interest, whatnot, and kind of, one big first step now, this is where it kind of gets kind of give and take wise between buyer and seller. Because the one thing you really want to do is, one, prove that the car is actually available and, hey, give me proof of life of the car. Show me a mandate and proof of life of the car. That, hey, you know, and that’s, you know, and this is what kills me because you’ll get some of these jokers out there. They’ll send you photos that they just took off the internet and whatnot. It’s like, come on guys. I need like a photo, not that it seemed like, hey, a kidnapping situation. Take a photo standing next to the car with the newspaper date, that kind of crap. You know, I’ve had people ask that too, by the way, and it’s just kind of you laugh at them. But, you know, take some photos where, okay, you can tell they were standing next to the car. They took the photos, what have you. So kind of get that proof, but then the next step, the lawyers. It just, then you just kind of, Why I say wash your hands of it, but you turn it over to the lawyers on both sides And then you let them hammer it out You know you start working on terms agreements or whatnot and the biggest thing is proof of funds You know the buyers got to show the oh the seller. Yeah, I got the money to buy for this. Okay, you’re legit All right, that’s agreed upon proof of funds are there. Yes, they can pay for the car. All right Let’s get set up a viewing so they can go prove. Hey, yeah, the car is here go to it And obviously, you know, you’re going to have an expert go through it. I mean, obviously your key thing is you want to have Marcello Mussini go through it. Uh, that’d be the guy you’d want. He is the guy for Ferrari. If you really want out there. I know there’s some other guys that are up close to his level, but Mussini is the guy and everyone knows it. So anyways, that’d be somebody you want to have it. So everything goes as planned. Everything’s good. Everyone signs off. Yes. All right. They’ll take the car. Funds are transferred. And there you go. That person’s got themselves a new 250 GTO. Now this is probably over about a six to ten week span all this takes. It’s not a quick transaction It’s not like you’re going down to your local Ford dealer and going to say hey I’ll take that one and two three hours later You know you drive your new car home just doesn’t have like that because there’s just a lot of legality to take now You know technical stuff it goes on with that part of my get a tongue tied there, you know And especially you’ll transfer that kind of money all that kind of stuff. So it takes time, you know It’s actually got to be patient and honestly a lot of these Even, you know, getting it across the finish line to get the funds transferred that they get take deliver new car net. You know, there’s still not till about 567 weeks after that person’s gotten the car into their stable or wherever they have it, you know, and they’ve driven it. What not? They’re going to say, okay, we’re happy they got it because again, you know, we’re A lot of these guys, and I’ve seen it, and thank God it hasn’t happened to me, is, you know, they get the car and then all of a sudden they try and say, this thing is not what you advertised, and they kind of try and balk at it, blah, blah, blah, if something happens, so, you know, they just basically cry. But anyways, so that’s basically how that transaction works. Now, in any even, you know, higher profile, like say F40s, 288 GTOs, along those lines too, any of those, and like say, you know, any car that you’re talking million, two million plus. That’s basically the whole process, how this works. But, you know, with these lesser cars, I say lesser cars, thank goodness, that didn’t sound right, did it? But with the old, say, 288s, F40s, F50s, those kind of things, you know, you know, it’s basically the same process. There’s our, hey, proof of life, everything like that, but it’s going to happen a lot quicker. You can usually do that in a week or two because, as I said, the dollar amounts aren’t all that big. And, you know, getting those cars kind of verified and checked out is pretty straightforward because, you know, 288 GTOs weren’t raced, you know, they had their Evos, stuff like that, you know, a few F40s out there, they had F40 GTs, uh, they had your F40 LMs, you know, those ones are racing and everyone wants the F40 LM, uh, GT not so much, which is weird. But anyways, um, no, you have those. So again, same process, but it just goes a little bit quicker. So anyways, um, kind of GTO. Cause the other thing I want to talk about, and I’m sure a lot of you guys see this now, as we all know, Ferrari gloriously won the hundredth, Running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year and they did it, you know, coming out of the gate with their 499. Car is phenomenal. That is just a one phenomenal car. Now, this was kind of the shocker. I’m going to take a drink of my pop. What Ferrari did, behind the scenes, is they went and built a customer, track, track only, because obviously, you know, not street legal, track only car that you can buy. Can’t race it. It’s not for any race series because it’s not that hardcore, but I mean, it’s hardcore enough. It’s a track only car and it’s kind of, you know, under their program that, you know, where they have the old F1 cars and that kind of stuff that they, they run for you. They’ll store them for you. Just, you ring them up and say, hey, I want to be here. And then they do special events and hey, they talk truck on there. But They built these things and they’re selling them to customers that, Hey, they want to have that experience and they want to drive that. I don’t want to say exact car, but I mean pretty damn close and go out and have some fun with it on track only days because that is the big thing. And I’m sure a lot of you out there that are in the know or you don’t follow what’s going around is, you know, the big blow up and thing now is these, all these private track facilities that you got your garage condo, they have a track, everything like that. And these facilities are awesome. They’re phenomenal. And obviously they’re catering to people with very, very deep pockets. And if memory looking at that, I should have checked this for I think, but I think those cars are seven to 9 uh, cars, modif, modifica, I think as it’s pronounced by Italians, terrible. Um, but anyways, you know, that’s for these guys. I can’t remember how many they’re building. Um, That should do my homework a little bit more before I start doing my podcast, huh? Yeah, but anyways, hey, this gives you guys something to do as you’re listening You can pull it up or have you drive and give you something to kind of look up and you know Check the facts and see it gives you a little homework to do. But anyways, you know So they pulled the obviously rabbit out of the hat. They also dropped that bomb. It’s like god, that’s awesome Yeah, I mean, you know how much fun that would be to have one of those? I mean, it’s a little, it’s a little mom’s winning car, basically, you know? So again, thing is you got to have an expert team to run it. So first you got your expense of the car to every time you go and run it, say you go out to the thing and you do, I don’t know, 30, 40, 60 laps. Let’s just say having some fun that right there will probably cost you. Oh, I don’t know. 40 60 grand got tires, the crew, all the stuff, maybe close to 100. I don’t know. I mean, uh, I’m not in that position to be able to know that, uh, you know, paying that bill. But anyway, so that’s kind of a cool thing that they came out with. So I was very happy about that. It’s neat to see them doing that. But again, hey, it’s a cash cow for him. And I think you’re gonna see a lot more of these. Those type of scenarios were to take in their race car like that and do it. You know, look at what, uh, what’s that, Rodin, whatever they’re doing, those guys out of New Zealand. Uh, you know, basically taking that F1 car and, uh, doing that. And again, won’t be any race series, won’t be anything like that. You know, not gonna be, you know, it’s just a track toy for someone that’s got deep pockets. Now, that one’s, I think, is a little more simplified in, in how it runs and operates as compared to that Ferrari 499. Um, but anyways, that’s the big thing. That’s where things are going. You got people that got this kind of money. They want to have that experience. I mean, they’re never gonna You know, race an F1. They’re never going to do that, but they can get it. They’re never going to race at Le Mans, but they can get that car and have it, you know, and showcase it and run it and do everything, you know, and, you know, in reality, as long as you do what you’re supposed to do with the car and everything, maintenance wise, upkeep, the whole nine yards, uh, which you would assume they would do, you know, their car is just going to go up in value, you know? So these guys that get first in with these cars. Get, you know, I would say asked or get, uh, gifted or, you know, get that, you know, golden ticket that, hey. We’ll sell you one, what you want. And you know, you don’t say no, you buy it. Yes, I’ll take one. Thank you, sir. May I have another scenario? No, because that’s the big thing is being on these lists and everything like that. And you know, you spend all this money on other, other, uh, lesser models and stuff like that, that gets you into the candy land. So anyways, so I thought that was kind of cool, but anyways, all right. I’m going to let you guys go. Uh, I think I’ve rambled on enough. And again, so I’m going to do my damnedest to try and do more of these. Um, and get out there because there’s some other things, you know, I’m hopefully I got planned here in the next week or two, hopefully, hopefully doesn’t fall through to drive that new 296 and I’ll give you kind of a little rundown on how that was and that car is supposed to be a lot of fun, you know, supposed to be their entry level car, which you’re still spending 400, 000 on, but anyways, so we shall see, but again, I really appreciate you guys listening. Uh, and if you want, you know, check out the YouTube channel. Uh, it’s garage 65. I’ve. You know, it’s just, it’s the word garage, it’s the word 60 and then the number five. Uh, so check that out. You know, we’re doing a lot of YouTube channels. I do have the Ferrari marketplace channel as well on the Porsche marketplace channel, but. I kind of dump everything into the garage 65 channel because it just kind of encompasses everything I like going to a lot of the shows like Amelia Island Pebble Beach that kind of stuff So take a look check it out like it subscribe to it Try and go because we’re gonna try and do a lot of fun things In 2024 with it and we got a lot of fun of exciting things coming ahead. So again guys, I really appreciate it spread this around doing everything I can and Everyone. I know you probably won’t listen to us by, uh, tomorrow, which is Thanksgiving, but I hope everyone had a great holiday and, uh, hopefully get this next one, uh, out and, uh, have a great holiday season. Thanks guys. Cheers. Copyright William Ross, Exotic Car Marketplace a division of Sixty5 Motorsports. This episode is part of Gran Touring Motorsports, Motoring Podcast Network and has been republished with permission. [...]
September 8, 2023Ferrari / ProvenanceThe Ferrari 275 GTB is a legendary sports car that has left an indelible mark on the automotive world. With its stunning design, powerful V12 engine, and impressive performance, the 275 GTB is a true icon in the Ferrari lineup. In this extensive exploration of the car, we will delve into its production history, its role in racing, and its enduring legacy. Introduction to the Ferrari 275 GTB The Ferrari 275 GTB was introduced in 1964 as a replacement for the 250 series of sports cars. It was designed by Pininfarina, one of Italy’s most renowned automotive design firms, and it represented a significant leap forward in terms of both design and technology. The “GTB” in its name stood for “Gran Turismo Berlinetta,” indicating its grand touring and coupe configuration. Design and Styling One of the most striking aspects of the 275 GTB was its design. The car featured clean, elegant lines, a long hood, and a distinctive front grille. Its curvaceous bodywork was not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly aerodynamic, a crucial factor for a car of its performance capabilities. Technical Specifications The heart of the 275 GTB was its 3.3-liter V12 engine, which produced around 280 horsepower. This engine was mounted longitudinally in the front of the car and was mated to a manual gearbox. The 275 GTB featured independent suspension on all four wheels, disc brakes, and a rear-wheel-drive layout, all of which contributed to its exceptional handling and driving experience. Production Numbers Production of the Ferrari 275 GTB spanned from 1964 to 1968, during which time several variants were introduced. The exact production numbers vary depending on the specific model, but it is estimated that approximately 970 units of the 275 GTB were built. The Ferrari 275 GTB in Racing Ferrari has a long and storied history in motorsport, and the 275 GTB was no exception. While it was primarily designed as a road car, it also found success on the track, competing in various racing events around the world. 275 GTB Competizione To make the 275 GTB more competitive in racing, Ferrari developed a special competition version known as the 275 GTB/C (Competizione). These cars featured lightweight aluminum bodywork, plexiglass windows, and a modified engine, producing more power. The 275 GTB/C was a force to be reckoned with on the track, and it achieved notable successes in events such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Targa Florio. Racing Achievements The 275 GTB’s racing achievements include victories at prestigious events like the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans in the GT class and class wins in the Targa Florio and the Nürburgring 1000 km. These victories solidified the 275 GTB’s reputation as a capable racing car and added to Ferrari’s already impressive racing pedigree. Evolution of the Ferrari 275 GTB Over the course of its production run, the Ferrari 275 GTB underwent several significant changes and improvements. These changes not only enhanced its performance but also made it more comfortable for road use. 275 GTB/4 In 1966, Ferrari introduced the 275 GTB/4, also known as the 275 GTB 4-cam. This model featured four overhead camshafts, which improved engine efficiency and increased horsepower to 300. The 275 GTB/4 was the first production Ferrari to feature independent rear suspension, further enhancing its handling characteristics. 275 GTB/4 NART Spider A rare and highly sought-after variant of the 275 GTB/4 is the NART Spider. Produced in limited numbers, the NART Spider was a convertible version of the GTB/4 and was famously featured in the 1968 film “The Thomas Crown Affair” starring Steve McQueen. Enduring Legacy The Ferrari 275 GTB’s legacy extends far beyond its production years. It has become a symbol of automotive excellence and remains highly coveted by collectors and enthusiasts. Collector’s Item Today, well-preserved examples of the 275 GTB, especially the GTB/4 and NART Spider versions, command incredibly high prices at auctions. Their rarity, timeless design, and racing history make them some of the most sought-after vintage Ferraris in the world. Influence on Ferrari’s Future The 275 GTB’s design and engineering innovations influenced subsequent Ferrari models. Its clean lines and balanced proportions can be seen in many modern Ferraris, and its racing success laid the groundwork for future competition models. Cultural Impact The Ferrari 275 GTB has also left its mark on popular culture, appearing in various films, television shows, and literature. Its association with style, luxury, and performance has made it an enduring symbol of automotive excellence. Conclusion In conclusion, the Ferrari 275 GTB is a true automotive legend. From its stunning design and powerful engine to its racing success and enduring legacy, it represents the pinnacle of Italian sports car engineering. Whether on the road or the racetrack, the 275 GTB continues to captivate and inspire car enthusiasts worldwide, ensuring its place in automotive history for generations to come. [...]
September 8, 2023Ferrari / ProvenanceThe Ferrari 250 SWB made its debut in 1959 at the Paris Auto Salon, and it quickly became one of the most sought-after sports cars of its time. This two-seat, front-engine, rear-wheel-drive coupe was designed by Pininfarina, with input from Sergio Scaglietti, and it was produced in a limited quantity from 1959 to 1962. The “SWB” designation referred to its short wheelbase, distinguishing it from the long wheelbase (LWB) version of the Ferrari 250 GT. Production History Design and Development The development of the 250 SWB was driven by a desire to create a more competitive and agile sports car for racing. The chassis was based on the 250 GT Coupe, but it was significantly shortened to improve handling. The bodywork was made from lightweight aluminum, contributing to the car’s overall performance. Engine The 250 SWB was powered by a 3.0-liter V12 engine derived from the Colombo engine series. This engine was capable of producing around 240 to 280 horsepower, depending on the specific variant and tuning. It featured triple Weber carburetors and was mated to a 4-speed manual gearbox. Variants There were several variations of the 250 SWB produced during its production run. Notable variants included the steel-bodied road car, the aluminum-bodied Competizione (or “Comp”) version, and the later ’61-’62 GTO-style cars that featured a more aggressive body design. Production Numbers Ferrari produced a total of 176 units of the 250 SWB, making it a relatively exclusive model in Ferrari’s history. This exclusivity only added to its desirability among collectors and enthusiasts. Racing History The Ferrari 250 SWB’s racing history is perhaps even more illustrious than its production history. It quickly became a dominant force in various motorsport events, earning a reputation for its speed, agility, and reliability. Tour de France Automobile The 250 SWB’s name pays homage to its victories in the Tour de France Automobile, a grueling endurance race that spanned thousands of miles across France. Ferrari first competed in the event in 1956 with the 250 GT Berlinetta, and the SWB variant continued this tradition. In 1960, the 250 SWB achieved a remarkable 1-2-3 finish in the Tour de France, solidifying its racing prowess. World Sportscar Championship The 250 SWB also participated in the World Sportscar Championship, competing in endurance races like the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. While it faced stiff competition from other manufacturers like Aston Martin and Jaguar, the 250 SWB often emerged as a formidable contender, securing multiple podium finishes. Goodwood Revival and Vintage Racing Even after its racing heyday, the 250 SWB continued to make appearances in vintage racing events, including the famous Goodwood Revival. These events allowed enthusiasts to witness the car’s timeless beauty and performance capabilities. Notable Drivers The 250 SWB was driven by some of the most legendary racing drivers of the era, including Stirling Moss, Phil Hill, Olivier Gendebien, and many others. These drivers contributed to the car’s racing successes and added to its legacy. Legacy and Influence The Ferrari 250 SWB left an indelible mark on the automotive world and racing history. Its successes on the track solidified Ferrari’s reputation as a dominant force in motorsport during the 1960s. Beyond racing, the 250 SWB’s elegant design and high-performance capabilities made it a symbol of automotive excellence. Collectibility and Value Today, the Ferrari 250 SWB is one of the most sought-after and valuable classic cars in the world. Collectors pay astronomical sums to acquire these rare and historic vehicles, further cementing their status as automotive icons. Influence on Future Ferrari Models The lessons learned from the 250 SWB’s development and racing experiences influenced the design and engineering of subsequent Ferrari models. The combination of a lightweight chassis, powerful engine, and precise handling became a hallmark of Ferrari’s sports cars for decades to come. Cultural Impact The 250 SWB’s appearances in films, books, and popular culture have made it a symbol of luxury, performance, and timeless design. Its distinctive curves and aggressive stance continue to inspire automotive enthusiasts and designers. In conclusion, the Ferrari 250 SWB is a legendary sports car that has left an indelible mark on the world of automotive production and racing. With its stunning design, powerful engine, and numerous racing victories, it represents the pinnacle of 1960s sports car engineering and remains an object of desire for collectors and enthusiasts alike. Its legacy endures not only in the world of classic cars but also in the broader context of automotive history and culture.   [...]
August 22, 2023Ferrari / ProvenanceWhen it comes to automotive legends, the Ferrari 250 GTO stands tall among the most revered and coveted cars in history. Born out of the passion and vision of Enzo Ferrari and his team, the 250 GTO (Gran Turismo Omologato) is a masterpiece that seamlessly marries breathtaking design, innovative engineering, and a storied racing legacy. From its inception in the early 1960s to its current status as a symbol of automotive excellence, the 250 GTO’s production and racing history is a tale of innovation, competition, and unparalleled performance. The Genesis of a Legend: Enzo Ferrari’s Vision The story of the 250 GTO begins with Enzo Ferrari’s unrelenting desire to build not only fast cars, but also vehicles that could conquer the racetrack. Enzo believed in pushing the boundaries of engineering to achieve excellence, and the 250 GTO would embody this philosophy. The goal was clear: to create a car that would not only compete, but dominate in the competitive world of motorsports. A Perfect Blend of Performance and Elegance The Ferrari 250 GTO, introduced in 1962, was designed with a focus on aerodynamics, power, and handling. Its bodywork, shaped by the legendary Sergio Scaglietti, featured a blend of curves and edges that not only contributed to its aesthetics but also enhanced its aerodynamic efficiency. The classic long nose and short tail design not only improved the car’s aerodynamics but also provided an ideal weight distribution for superior handling. Engineering Excellence Underneath the 250 GTO’s sleek exterior lay a symphony of engineering marvels. The car was powered by a 3.0-liter V12 engine that produced around 300 horsepower, an impressive figure for its time. This engine, paired with a 5-speed manual gearbox, enabled the 250 GTO to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in just over 6 seconds and achieve a top speed of around 174 mph. Racing Glory: A. Dominance on the Track The Ferrari 250 GTO’s racing history is a saga of triumphs and achievements. From the moment it hit the racetrack, the car showcased its prowess by securing numerous victories in prestigious events. Notably, it won the 1962 Italian GT Championship in its debut year. This marked the beginning of the car’s unparalleled racing legacy, setting the stage for its dominance in the years to come. The Tour de France Automobile One of the most celebrated races in the 250 GTO’s history was the Tour de France Automobile, a grueling race that tested both the endurance of the drivers and the capabilities of the cars. The 250 GTO’s exceptional performance and reliability made it a force to be reckoned with in this event. It secured victory in the Tour de France in 1963, further solidifying its reputation as a true racing icon. Le Mans Dominance The Ferrari 250 GTO’s prowess on the track extended to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, one of the most prestigious endurance races in the world. In 1962, three 250 GTOs entered the competition and finished 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in their class, an extraordinary achievement that showcased the car’s endurance and speed over a grueling 24-hour race. Rarity and Collectability: A. Limited Production Run The production history of the Ferrari 250 GTO is as exclusive as its racing pedigree. Only 39 units of the 250 GTO were ever produced, making it one of the rarest and most sought-after cars in the world. Each unit was meticulously handcrafted, with attention to detail and craftsmanship that reflected Ferrari’s commitment to excellence. Rising Collectability and Value The rarity of the 250 GTO has contributed to its astronomical value in the collector car market. As of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021, these cars have been known to fetch prices in excess of $50 million at auction, with certain examples breaking records as the most expensive cars ever sold. This value is a testament to the car’s significance in automotive history and its allure among collectors. Enduring Legacy: Icon of Performance and Design The Ferrari 250 GTO’s legacy extends beyond its production and racing history. It has become an enduring symbol of automotive excellence, a manifestation of Enzo Ferrari’s vision for uncompromising performance and breathtaking design. Its distinct appearance, with its elongated hood, distinctive grille, and elegant curves, continues to captivate enthusiasts and admirers worldwide. Inspiration for Future Generations The 250 GTO’s impact on the automotive industry and racing culture is immeasurable. Its innovative engineering, performance capabilities, and racing success have left an indelible mark that continues to influence future generations of automotive designers, engineers, and enthusiasts. The pursuit of perfection that the 250 GTO embodies serves as an inspiration to those who strive to push the boundaries of what is possible in the world of automobiles. Conclusion The Ferrari 250 GTO stands as a testament to the passion, dedication, and innovation that defines the world of automobiles. From its inception as a racing powerhouse to its current status as an icon of collectibility and design, the 250 GTO’s production and racing history encapsulate the essence of automotive excellence. Its legacy continues to shine brightly, reminding us that the pursuit of perfection is a journey worth undertaking, and that true legends are crafted through the synergy of innovation, competition, and enduring passion. [...]
August 22, 2023Ferrari / ProvenanceThe Ferrari 288 GTO stands as a true icon in the realm of automotive excellence, revered for its exceptional performance, exquisite design, and intriguing production history. Born during the golden era of supercars, the 288 GTO (Gran Turismo Omologato) was not only a masterpiece of engineering but also a symbol of Ferrari’s dedication to performance and innovation. This article delves into the fascinating production history of the Ferrari 288 GTO, exploring its origins, challenges, innovations, and enduring legacy. Origins and Purpose The roots of the Ferrari 288 GTO can be traced back to the late 1970s when the FIA introduced a new set of regulations for the Group B racing category. These regulations required manufacturers to produce a limited number of road-legal versions of their racing cars, paving the way for the birth of the “homologation specials.” Ferrari recognized the potential of this regulation and decided to develop a car that would not only dominate the racetrack but also capture the hearts of enthusiasts worldwide. Development and Design The development of the 288 GTO was spearheaded by Chief Engineer Nicola Materazzi, with a clear goal in mind: to create a road-going supercar that retained the essence of Ferrari’s racing pedigree. The 288 GTO was based on the Ferrari 308 GTB, but it underwent extensive modifications to transform it into a high-performance powerhouse. The car featured a widened body, aggressive aerodynamics, and lightweight materials, resulting in an exquisite blend of form and function. The heart of the 288 GTO was its engine—a twin-turbocharged V8 that displaced 2.8 liters, giving the car its name. This powerplant generated a remarkable 400 horsepower, propelling the car from 0 to 60 mph in just under 5 seconds and reaching a top speed of around 190 mph. The engine’s power delivery, coupled with its unmistakable exhaust note, created an unparalleled driving experience. Challenges and Innovations The production of the Ferrari 288 GTO was not without its challenges. As with many ambitious projects, Ferrari faced obstacles that needed to be overcome. One notable challenge was the stringent Group B regulations, which required the production of a minimum of 200 road-legal units. Ferrari’s limited production capacity meant that achieving this target was no small feat. Nevertheless, the company’s commitment to excellence drove them to find innovative solutions. To meet the homologation requirements, Ferrari embarked on a production run that spanned from 1984 to 1985. The chassis was built using lightweight materials such as aluminum and composite panels, ensuring structural integrity while keeping weight to a minimum. The aerodynamics of the car were carefully refined in wind tunnels, resulting in enhanced downforce and stability at high speeds. Legacy and Influence The Ferrari 288 GTO made its official debut at the 1984 Geneva Motor Show and garnered immediate attention from enthusiasts and collectors alike. Its performance capabilities and limited production numbers ensured that it would become a sought-after classic in the years to come. However, the 288 GTO’s production history took an unexpected turn due to the cancellation of the Group B racing category in 1986. Ferrari’s plans to race the 288 GTO in competition were abruptly halted, altering the car’s trajectory. Despite the shift in plans, the 288 GTO left an indelible mark on the automotive landscape. Its innovative engineering, stunning design, and visceral driving experience paved the way for future Ferrari models and established the foundation for the brand’s subsequent supercars. The success of the 288 GTO also set the stage for Ferrari’s ongoing commitment to producing limited-edition, high-performance vehicles that push the boundaries of technology and design. Conclusion In the annals of automotive history, few cars have captured the essence of performance and exclusivity as profoundly as the Ferrari 288 GTO. Its production history is a testament to Ferrari’s relentless pursuit of excellence, even in the face of challenges. From its origins as a response to racing regulations to its lasting legacy in the world of supercars, the 288 GTO continues to inspire enthusiasts, collectors, and engineers alike. As a symbol of innovation and passion, the Ferrari 288 GTO remains an enduring icon that stands as a testament to the art of automotive engineering. In conclusion, the production history of the Ferrari 288 GTO is a captivating narrative that reflects the determination, creativity, and ingenuity of Ferrari’s engineers and designers. From its ambitious beginnings to its influential legacy, the 288 GTO remains a shining example of the intersection between technology and artistry in the world of automobiles. [...]
August 5, 2023Alfa Romeo / Community / Ferrari / Lamborghini / Mercedes-Benz / PorscheA gorgeous island just south of Sicily, Malta has another reason for car fanatics to visit, the Valletta Concours d’Elegance. The capitol city of Malta, Valletta is a tremendous place to host a Concours – the scenery is spectacular, the architecture is absolutely unreal, and the weather is pure Mediterranean. Held in June at St. George’s Square, a multitude of cars converge to the delight of onlookers and the scrutiny of the judges. This year, Chris Cachia’s 1961 Jaguar E-Type Roadster took the Best of Show Award, a tough award to achieve, thanks to the multitude of competition ranging from all nations, genres, and years.  Take a look and maybe plan a visit for next year, June 2, 2024. VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS FROM THIS EVENT The post Days in Malta appeared first on Garage Style Magazine. [...]
April 28, 2023FerrariRM SOTHEBY’S ANNOUNCES EARLY CONSIGNMENTS FOR MONTEREY 2023 RM Sotheby’s returns to Monterey for the 26th time with the announcement of notable early consignments including the iconic Steve McQueen Ferrari 275 GTB/4, a significant private collection of rare European-designed cars, and a coveted 2021 Ford GT Heritage Edition finished in one of Ford’s most iconic race liveries Delivered new to Hollywood for motoring icon Steve McQueen, the famous 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 by Scaglietti will cross the block in Monterey A 2021 Ford GT Heritage Edition, one of just three delivered new to Canada, this supercar will cross the block in Monterey having covered fewer than 785 km (~488 mi) at time of cataloguing Six rare European-designed cars, offered from a discerning Private Collection, highlighted by a 1938 BMW 328 ‘Special Competition’ Roadster and a 1955 Ferrari 250 Europa GT Coupe by Pinin Farina, will also go under the hammer in Monterey  RM Sotheby’s is set to make a thrilling return to the Monterey Conference Center and Portola Hotel for their 26th Monterey Auction, with a lineup of major consignments that include the iconic Steve McQueen Ferrari 275 GTB/4, a private collection boasting six stunning cars of European design, and a coveted 2021 Ford GT Heritage Edition. After last year’s $239M record-breaking sale, the auction house promises additional significant consignments to be announced in the coming months.   Early Auction Highlights 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 by Scaglietti – Delivered new to Hollywood for motoring icon Steve McQueen, this Ferrari was owned by McQueen for more than four years. Restored to McQueen’s specifications from 2010 to 2013 by Ferrari Classiche, this desirable late-production example built with long-nose body configuration has been exhibited in Maranello’s Museo Ferrari and at the Villa d’Este Concorso d’Eleganza. The subject of numerous feature magazine articles, it presents a unique opportunity to own an exceptional example of an iconic Ferrari GT with full Ferrari endorsement and unsurpassed Hollywood history (Estimate: $5,000,000 – $7,000,000).   1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Spider by Scaglietti – The 49th of 121 examples built, this example is faithfully presented in the original factory color scheme as one of two cars finished in Nero over Beige Scuro color combination. Certified with a Ferrari Classiche Red Book, this beautifully presented example of Maranello’s rare open tourer continues to benefit from a comprehensive restoration completed in 2000, was a platinum Award winner at the 2013 Cavallino Classic, and was presented at the 2018 Salon Privé Concours d’Elegance (Estimate: $2,800,000 – $3,200,000).   2021 Ford GT Heritage Edition – A wonderful homage to the 1966 24 Hours of Daytona-winning #98 Ford GT40 Mk II piloted by legendary drivers Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby, this 2021 Ford GT is one of just three such Heritage Editions delivered new to Canada. Coveted by many but only owned by a select few, these Heritage Edition GTs were the exclusive purview of Ford’s highest echelon of company VIPs. This one-owner example, having covered fewer than 785 km (~488 mi) at time of cataloguing, offers a fantastic opportunity to acquire one of Ford’s legendary supercars in a rarely seen specification (Estimate: $1,100,000 – $1,500,000).   Offered from a Private Collection From the rare and incredibly significant 1938 BMW 328 ‘Special Competition’ Roadster, one of only three ever made for the German national racing team, to the striking 1956 Chrysler 300B Coupe Speciale by Boano personally commissioned by the legendary Gianni Agnelli, this collection boasts exceptional provenance, meticulous restorations, and multiple awards. With each vehicle in museum-quality condition, these cars represent the pinnacle of automotive craftsmanship and history.   1938 BMW 328 ‘Special Competition’ Roadster – One of three specially configured examples supplied to the German national racing team, this Special Competition Roadster is one of the most significant BMW competition cars ever offered at auction. The example boasts 52 years of single-family ownership and has been forensically restored to its as-raced 1939 configuration. With its remarkable provenance and winning pedigree granting irrefutable eligibility to many of the world’s most exclusive concours and road rallies, 85335 would be a marvelous, eminently usable addition to any finely curated collection which celebrates BMW, Le Mans, or other significant pre-war sports cars (Estimate: $1,900,000 – $2,900,000).   1955 Ferrari 250 Europa GT Coupe by Pinin Farina – One of 35 examples built and one of 27 featuring Pinin Farina’s beautiful series coachwork, this two-time Platinum Award winner at the Cavallino Classic boasts a comprehensive mechanical restoration and former ownership by very distinguished collectors and has been fitted with a properly specified Type 112 engine newly built by Ferrari Classiche. Still arresting in the handsome livery of midnight blue over tan, this striking Europa GT offers further exhibition opportunities or may be enjoyed in touring events (Estimate: $1,400,000 – $1,800,000).   1956 Chrysler 300B Coupe Speciale by Boano – One of only two Boano creations built upon an American chassis with an American powertrain, this example was personally commissioned by Italian industrial titan and style icon Gianni Agnelli. It boasts remarkable provenance and benefits from a meticulously cared-for restoration in champagne gold with English Hunt Club Green leather roof over an English Ivory interior with green accents. Awarded 2nd in Class at the 2019 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance; Best of Show, 2021 Cavallino Classic Sports Sunday and 2021 Ocean Reef Vintage Weekend; and Best in Class, 2022 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, this 300B by Boano is suited to a caretaker possessing cultivated taste (Estimate: $950,000 – $1,250,000).   Other cars offered from the Private Collection include a 1950 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Super Sport Villa d’Este Coupe by Touring—one of approximately 36 examples built, it boasts a 2021 restoration by Rizza Classic in Italy, managed by noted Alfa Romeo 6C expert Raoul San Giorgi (Estimate: $825,000 – $925,000); a 1947 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Super Sport Cabriolet by Pinin Farina, the ultimate development of the legendary Alfa Romeo 6C with documented history from new, including 52 years under the care of one Verona, Italy family (Estimate: $650,000 – $750,000); and a sought-after 1955 Lancia Aurelia B20S GT Coupe Series 4—a wonderfully restored example of one of the finest post-war gran turismos (Estimate: $200,000 – $250,000).   “We achieved an absolutely exceptional result in Monterey last year with over $239 million in sales, and our team is determined to keep the excitement for 2023 high with our first Monterey consignments. We’re thrilled to announce the former Steve McQueen 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 as our first major consignment, a perfect car to kickstart the coming lineup. But that’s just the beginning, as we’ve also secured a private collection of exceptional cars, including the historically significant 1938 BMW 328 ‘Special Competition’ Roadster. In addition, we have some modern supercars coming, like the 2021 Heritage Edition Ford GT—the diversity of our offerings is one of the many reasons why our auctions are so highly attended. Our team is committed to bringing only the best of the best, and we’re confident that this year’s auction will be no exception, with cars from all eras. Stay tuned for more exciting announcements in the coming months.” – Gord Duff, Global Head of Auctions, RM Sotheby’s   FOR MORE NEWS FROM RM SOTHEBY’S: #RMSothebys #RMMonterey [...]

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For Sale: Ferrari

Lot  - COMING SOON - FERRARI 250 TR REPLICA
COMING SOON - FERRARI 250 TR REPLICA

Beautiful 250TR re-creation available. Absolutely stunning build. As accurate as one could be.

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Expires on: 2025-02-28
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