USA FERRARI F40

.....To the benefit of you and every F40 owner in the country! Sounds like a win-win to me... any owners complaining that their cars are worth more now?

And its not that any of us needed this thread to decide that the F40 is a great car, nor did anyone read this thread and think: "I think I need to go out and buy an F40!" LOL.

If your notion is that this thread was soley designed to boost values and cause sales, then it is amazingly successful! Meanwhile back down here on earth I will humbly suggest that this thread is merely an enthusiasts plaything where we can admire the USA F40 and learn a few things about maintaining & running them.

Joe
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You said it perfectly: I was into concours once-upon-a-time, and in fact enjoyed them, and Ive just sort of... moved on. He clearly was offended by that and deduced that by moving on Im looking down on concours (talk about a split personality). Deal with it. Maybe I dont have as much time as I used to, to dedicate an entire day waiting upon a grassy meadow polishing dust off my car's paint waiting for a judge's call at 4pm. The morning driving events seem to suit me fine.

Anyway as you stated, "Lets get back to F40 discussions". Well spoken, and we will.

Maybe these two (reposted) images of me in our F40 with my son at Laguna Seca's corkscrew will help you understand why for me there is NO better way to enjoy one's Ferrari than to drive it! THAT is exactly what the cars were built for in the first place!

Joe
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I finally found the image of that very last car, chassis number 93627.

Joe
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At least one long-term owner has driven the car every day over a period of time...

Joe
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Here is a nicely polished car waiting patiently upon a grassy meadow....

Even at standsill it looks like its doing 200mph.

Joe
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Thanks for the link.

Joe
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So would I...


Joe
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..... Is an important and very interesting part of this hobby of ours.
Someone has to do it and the keepers of the production lists end up helping to define what/which/where/when as it relates to the car's individual histories. As their histories become established and known, the cars become more revered, valuable and ultimately enjoyed for what they are. Registries have become established for most limited-production variants of Ferrari and authorities like Massini et al are consulted by collectors and experts worldwide. If one is passionate about a variant, its great to be able to know what is out there and be knowlegeable. Ten years ago I helped found the www.lamborghiniregistry.com and I realised my chassis number collecting where it relates to Miuras was something Ive been doing for decades and is really second nature to me. Im afraid it has spread to other marques and variants and I for one have been tremendously helped by Marcel Massini in this area (thanks Marcel again).

Joe
www.joesackey.com

 

Is something I did for well over a decade especially in my local Newport Beach Concours. A half-dozen First Place in Class trophies/ribbons/plaques are a fond reminder of good times with the family, and indeed meeting fellow enthusiasts as you put it. In fact some of my local car buddies were met at these Concours. After all youre there all day so there' adequate time for cameraderie.

Jas, I assure you that my sentiments that Concours events are mostly a thing of the past for me were not meant in any way to belittle Concours or look down upon them - apologies if I came across like that. They are fun and those who love them really love them and I understand that completely. So did I at a point in my life. But we all evolve and sometimes its just to seek something new or take on other challenges...

In my own particular case a few factors contributed to my evolution. Firstly, I didnt relish driving and manouevering the car over the grass to the display location at some events and in fact I had witnessed a few low-slung cars get damaged in that process. Then too, as with many things in life, the thrill of winning wore off a little. After a while I didnt feel like one more trophy would make a difference. Further, in my own specific case, I was getting to a point in my life where I often didnt have an entire day to dedicate to a car show for business & family reasons, and you often are not allowed to remove your car from a concours event till the end of the day. Also, in my experience and in my region, I found that the very same cars often attend these concours events. If you do a fair few of them, it gets a little old seeing the same old cars and the same old people vying for the awards. Sure the cameraderie is there too, but lets face it, they are there to win awards and when they dont, not everybody is a good sport about it. Lastly, and most importantly, I DID in fact encounter lots of politics and egos at play when it came to the judging. I dont even have to go into detail here but anybody involved with cars and shows will quickly agree that the nature of concours events means this is and will always be an issue to a degree. in fact there is a thread right now in the vintage section entitled "Over restoration and the joke of concours". In that thread our fellow F40 & 288 GTO owner DM18 comments: "I philosophically dissaprove (of the judges attitudes) and no longer think much about concours". Napolis responds to that: "I agree!". So you see Im not the only one who has tried the concours thing and after a while just thinks ehhh, its not for me anymore, I could be doing something else, like driving the car, and I dont have to spend ALL day doing that, and yet I can also get to meet like-minded enthusiasts on driving events (I recently went on a driving event and got to meet 6 other owners who also are passionate about owning an F40).

So its just am matter of two words: Personal Preference.
Driving is not better than Showing, but obviously I prefer to do that rather than show the cars because I feel thats a more meaningful use of my time, I get to use the car for the purpose for which it was built, I get to meet fellow drivers, all the while being able to use the second half of my day for doing something else with my family (that is important to me). I suppose I asked myself: will one more ribbon add more value to my life? LOL. Am I proving anything by winning a prize with an ultra-low mileage as-new car? I couldnt come up with a "yes" to any of those questions so now I just drive. Would I rather be cleaning grass off my wheels and dust off the paint, or negotiating a hairpin bend in second gear? A no-brainer for me.

Make no mistake concours are great events and I might still be tempted to put the old 1971 Lamborghini Miura SV in something special like the Quail event in Carmel Valley, but for the most part, Im just a driver these days. No disrespect at all to the concours guys. Fair enough?

Joe
www.joesackey.com

PS - This is one of my favorite (many times reposted) images depicting how many of us like to use, enjoy & appreciate our Ferraris.
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Excellent. Thanks in advance for sharing...

Joe
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These sent to me with a message: "Post Now". Happy to oblige...

Joe
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Clearly the talented ones have more time on their hands than I.

Thanks KP. Very cool effects...

Joe
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My real point was that when production of the USA cars started it was for just 100 cars, but, as demand and orders flooded in, they had to draft the techical school force in to keep up. A few astute observers (myself humbly included) have noted that the early cars are very well put together as they were built by the experienced workforce and they wanted to make sure the quality would fly with the ever-more-strigent USA DOT. Those who prefer or own the later cars will tell you the opposite of course, citing the "they got better with experience" theme, but that notion doesnt apply with USA F40 production.

Joe
www.joesackey.com