ID? My very old Ferrari..

To illustrate this nose badge thing I compiled this picture. Having gone through about all my Touring pics 0124A is the only car I could find with identical nose badge set up as seen on George's car (the nose badge is about 2 thirds of its lenght away from the front edge, on all others less than half). I included 0144A as we don't seem to have pre-restoration photos and the car could have lived its life anywhere on this planet. Best wishes, Kare
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Am I the only one who doesn't see any difference between the 4 pictures? The nose badge looks identically placed to me with the exception of possible blurriness from camera angles and the grainy look of the enlarged old photos. Certainly the Ferrari factory had a 5 cent dime store ruler to measure exact placement of its name badge on one of the most expensive cars in the world at the time.

 

The badge is clearly closer to the edge on both 0118A and 0144A - but the 10 point question is if it was always like that or if it was modified. None of the period photos I've seen are clear enough.

 

Great thread! It must have been fun back in those days living in LA in college and flipping ferraris! What would 7k back in 56 equate to today and what would this car be worth today? After the mystery of this one is solved, I can't wait to read your next one. Some of you guys have unbelievable knowledge of the history of these cars and to still have the slides from those days is priceless.

 

$7K in 1956 = $53K in 2007
http://woodrow.mpls.frb.fed.us/research/data/us/calc/

 

Interesting. In UK inflation has been much greater.
I got these:

Current data is only available till 2006. In 2006, £1 0s 0d from 1957 was worth:

£16.64 using the retail price index
£17.42 using the GDP deflator
£42.51 using average earnings
£49.94 using per capita GDP
£58.78 using the GDP

If the car had been bought by a UK enthusiast his $7k's worth would have cost the 2006 equivalent of $116k to $411k depending on which basis you use.

 

Thrilling THread, thanks for all contributers!

Nice story concerning the nose bagde setup:
In magazine "Ferrari world No 67" there's a story of an 250 GT TdF (ex Olbrist?) taking part in Tour Auto 2007. After the first kilometers a strange rattling from the front bonnet made the driver stop. It was the nose badge that had come off the hood.

I think the nose badge arrangement is a "soft" clue....

regards, Till

 

I bet whoever installed the badge, did not stuff it with wax. If you don't stuff it with wax and tighten it up, it will very likely damage the paintwork; if you don't tighten it up properly it will shake loose sooner or later.

I do agree; especially with 0118A, as it has been modified over the years and it is possible that the location of nose badge got changed too. Now if somebody replaced the nose badge with one where the two screws are further apart, then it would be likely that the former hole was moved forward and the badge location would change.

It is a little different if we have period and modern day pictures showing the nose badge in same position, which is different from George's photos (this is the case with most, if not all 212 Exports). I think it is much unlikelier that a nose badge would get moved back and forth.

So let's hope somebody finds Le Mans/51 or other period photos of 0118A showing the dashboard and/or the nose badge location.

 

Here is a photo of it in Le Mans 1951:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13313

It was then crashed in Dundrod late in 1951 and seems to have been extensively repaired or rebodied by Touring as 2nd body number tracing back to that time was issued. As photos from Le Mans 1951, with Rutherford in 1954 and as a project car today all show unique long bonnet configuration (with hinges in rear like Berlinettas 0122A and 0126A), it can't be your car.

 

Back in 1956 you could buy a house with 7K, the only type of house you can buy for 56K in California now is an outhouse. IMO 7K was worth a lot more back in those days.

 

If we assume that investing in stocks would annually generate 12% on capital, the dollar of 1957 would have grown into 362,50 in 52 years and 7000 USD would be 2.5M today. With certainly one can say that 7000 USD of 1957 would be something between 56k and 2.5M (equivalents of interest rates between 4..12%). Be careful when trying to narrow it down! Best wishes, Kare

 

This is a 1952 photo (copyright Dan Rubin) of 0018A taken at Bridgehampton.
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This is a photo of the engine of 0118A at Bridgehampton 1952 (same copyright).
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I have a hard time thinking this is the same car, look at the front corners of the hood (ok for you on the wrong side of the pond "bonnet"). They are much more square that George's car, which has rounded corners. All these cars were obviously a bit different, being hand made, but you would have had to rework the entire front end to refit the hood to/from either car....

This is kinda like playing the cartoon "jumble" where you have to find five things different or the same in two pictures.....

 

I think the angle of that photo is playing a trick on you. If you look at posts #130 and #153 you will see what looks like one sharp corner and one round...

 

George, I just rechecked on the ad from Mike Vernola, listing the 4.1 Ferrari for $7375, and it does indeed appear in Road & Track, June 1953, page 46. It does seem unlikely that he held the car for four years before you purchased it. Sorry there is not more information in the ad. They almost never mentioned serial numbers back then.

I remembered seeing another ad from Vernola, and it took me a while to find it, but here it is. This is from R&T, March 1952. I know it doesn't have anything to do with your old Ferrari, but I thought some people might find it interesting.
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By the way, I forgot to post this earlier. It's a picture from R&T June 1952, showing the engine compartment on Kimberly's 340.
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Sorry guys, but I don't think there is much of a case for this car being 118A. Here is annother shot of 0118A and George's car from as close to the same angle as possible. These aren't the same cars unless somebody worked one of them over with a big hammer... Look at the hood lines. 0118A's hood is obviously more "square" towards the front. The radius on the corner of the hood is obviously smaller, and it extend further forward on the bodywork. Not sure, but George's car seems to have more 'roundness" (height) to the cowl area, and that is somewhat apparent in the lower grouping, but harder to see because the Bridgehampton shot is with the entire cowl in white, but look at how high and round George's cowl is, it gets the height without the "square windshield mount edges. It also appears that the length of the front fender ahead of the front wheel is longer on George's car, almost as if the nose of the car was longer overall and more "drooped" coming from the fender line down to the headlights. It also appears (see the second group of photos) that 0118 always had that longer, more square hood line, going back all the way to the 1952 Bridgehampton races.
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