Man, that's a pretty one, with full books and tools........and .........GONE!!!! Did you buy it wspeer?????
The Medio Blue and parchment (aka white) interior are a gorgeous combination. Looks like flares and Campy's are correct which were VERY rare on 246 GT models - more common on the GTS cars, if ~125 can be called common.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this car does not have "flares." This, in my opinion, is a good thing as the flares are inconsistent with the otherwise fluid lines.
this coupe doesn't have flairs. it does have campagnolo wheels, but not flairs. the wheels were added after the car left the factory. i agree about the flares comments, i think it takes away from the look of the car.
Guys I don't think it actually sold as I got an email from the dealer today. Its always very difficult to tell if high dollar cars actually sell and the transaction completes on Ebay.
Still listed for sale on thier website at the same $135K http://www.cooperclassiccars.com/CarPages/72dinogt.asp
maybe i missed osmething, but the auction ended at $95k+ with a reserve not being met. the car is listed on the website and the fml at $135k. i can't imagine that the seller would ask $135k and sell it at $95k.
It seems like someone bought the car, shipped it to Bali, then decided they didn't really want it, and are now trying to sell it for $40,000. http://london.craigslist.org/car/131978125.html That has to be the case, right? There's no way someone would lie, not on the internet?
I'm sorry, but I guess I don't understand a few of the comments made on this thread. First, from the photos I looked at, it seems to me that it does have flares. Therefore, the wheels appear to be correct, although both could have been changed/added later. Second, what about the wipers? They look just like the wipers on my 1973 GTS (according to the import documents and the State of Washington mine's a 1973 with a build date in Sept. 1972). When did the wipers change on the GT? I don't think that car looks that bad. I'd buy it (if I didn't have my GTS). Mark
The Indonesian advertisement, displaying exactly the same pictures and details as the Cooper Dino, was indeed on the Net even while the Cooper car was on offer. The Indonesian scams have been going on for a few months, included a "cheap" 300SL, and was headlined in Sports Car Market. If memory serves, SCM reported someone actually paid a deposit on the 300SL. The Indonesian ad for the blue, 10,000-mile Dino may in fact still be on the Internet. Meanwhile, throughout the auction, the blue 246GT was in Cooper Classic's Greenwich Village gallery (the owner, Elliot Cuker, a close friend of Rudy Giulianni, is also an art dealer). At about the time it was withdrawn from auction, Cuker said there were several parties, including a collector from California, who were seriously interested in the GT, apparently indeed an all-books-and-tools, documented, unmolested, and (except for new tires and the respray) unrestored car. It sold in November at close to the asking price and was shipped out of the US. It is now shown as "sold" at the Cooper website.
they had this car like 4-ever....it seems like a year ago maybe more I went to a cocktail party they had (they run the small "showroom" like a fancy art gallery...this is their new location..having moved in -island in tthe village from the west side hyway that got dedveloped into multimillion dollar condos where the clebs live (and a great rest too!) I saw the car as I im in the market for one and it was not a 135G car...probably sold well but certainly not near the asking...
I was that California collector. Elliot was a great guy to deal with. I was going to purchase the car for $110,000. I heard from Elliot that the car ACTUALLY sold for around $125,000. I decided to purchase an "L" series Dino instead. As a side note, I was going to purchase another car a month ago. The seller sent me a note to use the ebay escrow company. In the middle of the transaction I realized that the web site that the seller linked me to look like the ebay escrow but was in fact a scam that was operating out of Italy. Careful out there. When they sent me the photos as an attachment, the attachment infected my computer and I wasn't able to actually log onto the actual web site of the escrow company. Fortunately I was able to figure it out before I lost any money.
The Cooper Classics 246 and the FerrariChat discussions it generated bothered me (in a good way) the several weeks since the last post by Racy Red (who had the good sense to bid on the car and reported the car sold at $125k to someone else - probably a collector such as WSpeer speculated). NYCFerraris, who had also seen the car, thought it was not worth the $135 asking. I did, too, but then I realize I had factored in the cost of restoration. I had always taken apart the cars I bought, restoring them as best I can to "better than new," and looked at the Cooper 246GT with that mindset. I would have written off the Cooper GT as priced above market and forgotten it, if not for the FChat discussion. Now it has dawned on me. The Cooper 246, except for the paint, seemed completely unmolested, down to the underchassis tubes, which seemed to have never seen a jack. The paint in the inside body panels seemed to be as they left the factory (coarse, definitely not Pebble Beach standard). It was unrestored, could use better detailing, but in remarkably original condition for its age. Should it be restored? Should those quaint parchment-color seats, although unblemished, nevertheless be replaced with new, fresh, better-leather Daytona-option chairs? I thought that was the first thing I would do, as I really like those Daytona covers. Now I'm not so sure. If I had the car, I don't even know if I would replace those scratched stickers in the engine compartment! As WSpeer notes, where else can one find an unmolested, fully documented 246 with all books and tools, with that exceptionally low mileage? The logical next question is: having acquired such a car, should one restore it fully so it looks exactly like any other restored, 100-point car? That is, of course, now academic for the pretty, blue 246GT at Cooper Classics, but there may just be another car again, and I hope I will be wiser when I assess it then! PS: Some weeks back, I spoke with Elliot Cuker of Cooper Classics to try my luck again, and he says he has been looking for an equivalent car, but can't find a coupe in the condition and at the price! He has a nice, original flat-floor XKE though ....
you can never restore originality. once it is gone, it is gone forever. the car shouldn't be restored.
There is no such thing as an original car. At least not once the oil has been changed or tires replaced. If everyone treated the cars with absolute obsession with originality, there would be ZERO such cars running and driving. Terry
In the MG TC series world, where most surviving examples (the youngest having been manufactured in 1949 or so) have been restored and restored again, a big issue was what color the engine compartment bulkhead - very prominent in those cars - should be painted. No one really knew, it seemed, and there were many strong opinions. Some years back, there was a true barn find - an unrestored TC, apparently as originally painted! It settled the issue of the bulkhead color once and for all. I agree with WSpeer that the value of a car such as the blue Cooper Dino is originality, a guide to the collector and restorer as to what the original probably looked like. That is probably why it should not be restored. The owner will just have to derive a different pleasure from the car.
Abstamaria- I was the second owner of this Dino 04866 and owned it for ten years. If you want to know everything about the car, contact me.
Yes, indeed, sixtiestoyguy. I have sent you a private post with my email address. I would be interested in knowing about the car. Many thanks for posting. Andres
Mark, Not wanting to hi-jack the Optima battery thread, I thought you might want to know I bought the Cooper car sight unseen. In late 2005, I had just returned from NY to Manila when I spotted the car on the 3rd page of a Google search. I had been looking for a GT for months, including in Europe and Japan. Surprisingly, there were several GTSs, but no GTs then (although there was a nice yellow 206). And dfinitely no blue ones. I could not fly back to NY but spoke on the phone with the dealer, Elliott Cuker, a nice guy. Since an ad in Indonesia had been on the net for the same car (and selling for much less!), I asked a friend of mine, Sophie, who happened to be in Reno, to fly to NY to see if the car truly existed. The good thing is that Sophie runs Manila's most important annual car show and oversees the sports car club's concours (she races a TR4A too), so knew what to look for. She took photos, appraised the car it turned out quite accurately, and flew back to Reno. I bought the car over the phone, never having met Elliott or seen the car, except in photos sent over the web. I learned later that Elliott picked up Sophie in a Rolls Royce (see picture), so I hope that didn't influence her judgment! Anyway, dealing with Elliott was easy, and #4866 arrived at home shortly. Apart from a dead battery (also a Yellow Top Optima, by the way), the car seemed ok. I dropped in a new ACDelco battery (to be replaced lated with the poor Optima subject another thread) and have been using the car since. Here is a picture after the 1st drive, the car, apart from a quick wipe, still as it was in the Cooper Classics showroom. Except for new hoses, engine compartment clean-up and detailing, Tubis, and more miles, it remains pretty much as then. A previous owner (see preceding post) wrote me a long note on the history of the car, for which I am grateful. In reading the thread on the car before I bought it and joined FerrariChat, it is interesting to note the discussion on where Dino prices were thought to be headed in 2005. My best, Andy Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Sweet Dino, Andy I really like that color & the Campys work well. Very nice. 'love to see more pics in its PI environs. Coop
Yes, I like the color too, Coop. I don't have too many photos of the car here in Manila, but here's one I shot when the car was being photographed for a Shell calendar. I don't know what they were trying to do with that shroud! Anyway, the angle is unusual and shows off the GT's lines well. Best regards, Andy Manila Image Unavailable, Please Login
For those of you wondering why this thread was resurrected by Andy, the reason is that I had posted the following side comment in another posting regarding Optima batteries to Andy - "As you know (via a PM exchange between us), I tried to buy your car from the dealer in New York where you bought your Dino. The problem was that internet ads often have a very long shelf life, and when I called and started to make an offer, they laughed and told me that it had been sold to the PI years ago. Too bad for me, but great for you. Mark" It is still a great looking car, isn't it?
