I spent a day with a customer driving a number of Ferraris back-to-back last week, a gorgeous day about 55 degrees with slight wind. We got to compare a 365 GTC/4 with a 365 GTB/4 Daytona and 330 GTC with a 275 GTB/4. We also drive some other cars like a 246 GTS and a BBI.

What is amazing is how different the Pininfarina built cars are from there Scaglietti counterparts. The Scaglietti cars offered a much more thrilling driving experience in every regard. My customer described it best when he called the Daytona and the 275 GTB/4 as the more “athletic” cars.

The 365 GTC/4 is an excellent and civilized car with a firmly planted feeling as you travel at high speed. The overall build quality of the C/4 is amazing with perfect door fit and a Mercedes-Benz like solid feel. The visibility out of the car is tremendous and the car is a breeze to drive with power steering and great driving position. The engine noise and power is addictive especially when lugging the car through town or out of the door yard when you can take advantage of the low end torque.

However, the car does feel a bit like a German luxury car, a great drive that is not particularly thrilling because it does everything so well, even the power steering is direct and does not feel “numb” as other Ferraris with power assist steering. It is truly a car that needs to be driven for hundreds of miles to appreciate how wonderful the car really is.

The Daytona is a thrill. The car we drive was a converted to Spyder some time ago but was in excellent overall condition (like the C/4) and felt just as solid as a Daytona Coupe. I believe that Stramann did the conversion on the car and it has a few small reinforcements which disallow any “cowl shake” typically associated with convertibles.

The driving position is totally different, you sit further back in the chassis, and it feels that the driver is sitting in a deep soup bowl. The dash and steering wheel are much higher and you have to point your nose high to see over the hood! The build quality leaves alot to be desired, interior details are not as sturdy, doors feel lighter and overall the car feels rivited and glued together versus welded. The beautiful thing is that the car is still very heavy feeling similar to the C/4 and feels planted and stable going down the road.

The engine on the Daytona is amazing, instant throttle response, slick shifting trans-axle and immediate brakes. The non assisted steering is tolerable at slow, not as bad as all of the driving reports claim but at speed the steering is more direct and positive feeling than the C/4. The car has a reported 20 extra horsepower but feels like it has 100 extra HP! What a thrill, from the second you fire up the engine you know that the car is thrilling and you immediate satisfaction and is exactly the opposite the C/4 whereas the more you drive the Daytona the more you want to get out of the uncomfortable seats driving position and overall intensity.

The 330 GTC and 275 GTB/4 are very similar to the comparisons of the C/4 and Daytona except they share the same basic chassis and trans-axle layout. The GTB feels like a race car with tighter suspension and different driving position. They have totally different engines and the GTB engine is more tightly wound and the tachometer needs to be pointing nearer to red line to overtake another car. The GTC can pull from idle to red line in perfect linear progression where you can feel a definite power curve in the GTB’s engine.

The difference in overall build quality between these cars is obvious immediately. The GTB has light doors that close without a solid thud and body work feels shaky even though it is on that wonderful oval tube chassis. The GTC feels more like a car built by adults.

My customer was more moved by the Scaglietti cars, enjoying the thrill because after all, isn’t this why you buy a Ferrari in the first place? He enjoys the confidence of having that extra power on tap and feels the same way as the majority of Ferrari fans, the Daytona and 275 GTB/4 are some of the most beautiful and thrilling cars that have rolled out any production line.

I tend to enjoy the Pininfarina cars more, I like a car that you can get in and drive without feeling beat up and I am not interested in high speed driving. I like to enjoy the sensory element and listen to the noises without having that desire to test the more thrilling elements and get in trouble. I guess I am the boring guy!

Here is a clip of the 1979 Ferrari 512 Berlinetta Boxer engine running on the stand prior to putting it in the chassis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BErLL9y4UW8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_fB9MeRswA&feature=related

It is getting warmer, we had a tough winter but the roads are clean and the sun is shining. As you can see, not a spot of color anywhere, gray, brown and dirty snow banks! Have a look at the red Subaru, do you think its owner lives on a gravel road?

We are at a point where so many cars are nearing completion, as great as it is to see the light at the end of the tunnel on some of these long term projects, it is generally a stressful time. When we are down to the last 5-10% of the project, every little detail becomes heavily weighted because you feel like the project will never be finished. Typically, once you start driving a car many annoying things rear there ugly head such as sticky door handles, leaking axle seals, pretty much anything that we did not address will raise issue!

Here are some more images of sheet metal work to get the 1950 Ferrari 166 Touring Coupe closer to finished. So much of the aluminum is work hardened and cannot be repaired, so it has to be replaced.

This 1951 Ferrari 212 Vignale Coupe has some generic headlights that did not fit well or look good. I located some correct Marchall headlights, buckets and trim rings but like most projects, the were not a “bolt in” installation

When we stripped the paint from the headlight area we found that the aluminum was very thin from over zealous filing and sanding so there was not much good material to work with. Eben made a hammer form for setting up the new aluminum sheet that will accept the headlight bucket.

Headlight trim ring fit is so important on a classic car so great effort was taken to make sure everything looks great prior to paint work. We think that the front end of the car looks so much better with the correct classic headlights. Now, how well will the paint match?