I recently thumbed thorough some old Ferrari magazines from the early 80’s and thoroughly enjoyed the little history lesson. The articles on the cars were the same as always with great emphasis on some little details, “look at those lovely weber carburetors” and “the sound of the V-12 engine…”, yadda yadda.

What was interesting were the advertisements. Todays best known restoration shops had small b/w print ads who today buy a cover page. Guys who started out advertising one car in the magazine only to become “big shots” in the world of sales. Interesting to me were there the private guys who would advertise one car at a time, own a few cars over the course of a year and flip them. Many of these guys are still doing this today.

Most interesting is how much higher quality everything in the Ferrari “world” has become. The magazines are full of high quality writing with historically accurate information (kind of always have been) with beautiful color photos and great event reporting. The cars that they feature are so beautifully restored and all over-restored comments aside, are very accurate and drive as Ferrari wishes they could have made them! Some of the cars that they featured in the old magazines were “restored” with some artistic license, incorrect hose clamps, chrome all over the place in the engine bay, incorrect upholstery and on and on. The cars in the magazines today are generally very nice and correct down to the minute details. The advertisements in the old magazines showcased 100 point restorations on a 275 GTB with no bumpers and strange louvers in the rear quarter panel! 100 points, are you sure?

There is also so much Ferrari “stuff” clothing, toys, F-1 memorabilia, lifestyle gadgets, so many ways to keep the whole image thriving that it made me think about how this relates to the Ferrari (and any collector/classic car Porsche/Jag/Mustang/) values and market. I feel that as the quality of everything increases, the whole market surrounding the brand increases in both quantity and quality. If people enjoy the brand and what it stands for than the demand increases. This is not really a comment on the values of the cars, it just shows that there is more high quality product out there for us to enjoy and be part of, for whatever it is worth.

A man called me one year ago asking for help locating and purchasing a nice Ferrari 308 GTS. He told me that a friend of a friend told him about us, the power of word of mouth exposure!

We spoke for some time and decided that the best series 308 for him was the later Quattrovalvole. I did not have any in stock so I called a good friend Peter Sweeney who at the time had one but a second one coming in one week.

I called the buyer and told him that in one week we would meet at Peter Sweeney’s and see the two 308’s, one red with a black interior and one red/tan. Both cars were well serviced and ready to go but the tan car was just a tiny percentage point nicer. We both really liked the slightly modified lowered Penske coil over shocks and the Stainless Steel exhaust.

I transported the car to the owners home and he called me nearly every day expressing his appreciation for helping him find the car and for how much he enjoys the car. The man was very sick from liver failure and was at the point of his life that he wanted to live his dream.

Not long after buying the Ferrari 308, he wanted another car. He did not know what to buy so naturally I was the first person he called to help spend his money. We decided that for the amount he wanted to spend a Ferrari Testarossa showcases serious performance for the dollar and I just happened to have a sinister looking black car coming in.

With his illness progressing rapidly, the buyer wanted to get the car as soon as possible and had a chance to drive the car 1000 miles before he passed away in early October. He was enthusiastic and enjoyed every experience of car ownership, the pursuit, driving, servicing, cleaning, and preserving by replacing minor worn parts such as the hood release levers that had cracks in the housings.

The black 1986 Ferrari Testarossa is for sale fully serviced two years ago and needs nothing.
The Red 1983 Ferrari 308 GTS QV is for sale with a super responsive suspension, nice interior and having a recent belt service.

Seemingly minor details make a great restoration extraordinary. If we applied the worlds highest quality paint and chrome work on this old Ferrari 166 and installed off the shelf Sylvania or GE headlights the car would look terrible. If all of the chrome was perfect, the wheels shining and engine running perfectly but with modern silicone spark plug wire, ugh…

Anyhow, I have spent probably 15 hours inquiring about a set of proper headlights with corresponding buckets and trim rings. I have emailed photos back and forth to a specialist and made sure that I can get a set of fog lights to match the headlights. After all, I cannot get Marchall type 434’s with Carello Fog lights!!

I finally located a set of Carello headlight to go with the original Carello 6″ fog lights. I am so excited for them to come in. Once we get the parts we can finish off the nose of the 166 Touring Berlinetta and make sure everything fits perfectly prior to painting.

I also ordered a set of Marchall Type 435’s with buckets/retainer/outer trim for the 212 race car project and another set for a 212 Vignale coupe project. I think I just spent $15,000 on lights for these cars!

I am in the process of locating a pair of taillights for the 166, the car had some cheap plastic lens while using the original trim bezel. I was impressed at how well a DOT approved trailer light looked on this car. Photographed is an original taillight and original Marchall type 434 headlight.

We pulled this engine from a ‘79 512BB to do a major service, belts, valve adjust, etc..
I could not re-install this engine into the chassis because it looked terrible from years of deterioration.

BB engine covers are full of louvers and when the car gets washed or driven in the rain water pools on top of the engine and corrodes the block and rusts the fasteners. There is no amount of cleaning that can be done to clean the inner webs of the casting so I had to super clean the block and re-paint. I then sent the hardware off for re-plating and detailed some other things. Gotta love that new wrinkle finish!

The engine is looking great and will probably be the first youtube post of a engine running out of the chassis that I have done. I will post the link here in the next few weeks. Hopefully I will have a number of other engine test stand runs to post before the end of the year. Stay posted.