275 GTB -V- GTB/4 | Page 2 | FerrariChat

275 GTB -V- GTB/4

Discussion in 'Vintage (thru 365 GTC4)' started by Jasonjohnyates, Jul 5, 2011.

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  1. Napolis

    Napolis Three Time F1 World Champ
    Honorary Owner

    Oct 23, 2002
    32,118
    Full Name:
    Jim Glickenhaus
    Tri-X rules.
     
  2. BIRA

    BIRA Formula Junior

    Jun 15, 2007
    950
    Did not have as many 275 as you but had three of them (technically speaking, as I purchased the same car twice, kind of Taylor-Burton syndrome). A short nose and a 4 cam. The short nose was just good, while the 4 cam was one of the most originals one can find.
    As far as body shape is concerned, my SN had the bump on the hood which I think adds visually. And first had bumpers, which I prefer, and later in it's Challenge version, no bumpers. Personally I like a lot the short nose bigger opening reminscent of the earlier Ferraris.
    From engine point of view, 4 cam is a gem, very close in sound to the turbine sound and progression through the revs of a Daytona engine. And the 2 cam is raw, much closer to a SWB engine, I actually broke both, one a 7750rpm (this one at Le Castellet, sorry for the car behind, a dropped valve) and the other at 7500 but both had defects in the rebuilt ( yes both of them had been rebuilt pretty recently,,but before I bought them, my mechanic ,,is much better). More torque on the 4 cam, more eagerness to go up in the revs for the early 2 cams. Did not suffer from lack of torque tube, probably do not unfortunately drive enough to disalign transmission. Although I drive my cars more than most.
    Massive difference are the brakes. 2 cam where redone several time in the original configuration and always not good enough , unlike SWB brakes that are pretty efficient. 4 cams were again very close even if not as good as Daytona.
    So conclusion is if it's about pleasure of driving a real classic, go for the 2 cams, if it is more about power and a more elaborated car, go for the 4 cams. Of course this is with no reference to the price issue. When price is factored, much more complicated...
     
  3. John Vardanian

    John Vardanian F1 Rookie

    Jul 1, 2004
    3,043
    San Francisco Area
    Full Name:
    John Vardanian
    It's a drag when we get off topic, but Kare is friend and I sympathize with his sentiment. His fiery comment was probably a reflection of his allegiance to the mark than it was disrespect. That said, I believe that the "art" of the hobby lies in making the best of what God (in this case Enzo) gave you. To this enthusiast, electronic ignition and such is about as appropriate as an open cleavage on the First Lady.

    john
     
  4. Motob

    Motob Formula 3
    Professional Ferrari Technician

    Nov 11, 2003
    2,238
    Frederick, Maryland
    Full Name:
    Brian Brown
    The conventional Marelli ignition system when properly set up works fine, any plug fouling is due to worn engine components, or maladjusted carburetors. We recommend the use of spark plugs that are one heat range hotter for cars that are driven in slow traffic.

    In my 35 years as a mechanic, I have had to replace one defective conventional ignition coil and two defective condensors. On the other hand the number of defective Bosch, Pertronix, Dinoplex and MSD units that I have replace probably exceeds 50.

    Points and condensors are cheap.
    The last rebuilt Dinoplex unit I sold cost over $1000.

    The Marelli distributors in these cars are built like Swiss watches. To gut them and replace the internals with electronics is akin to putting Seiko guts in a Patek Philippe.

    Brian Brown
    Patrick Ottis Co.
     
  5. Motob

    Motob Formula 3
    Professional Ferrari Technician

    Nov 11, 2003
    2,238
    Frederick, Maryland
    Full Name:
    Brian Brown
    My favorite 275GTB is a torque tube 2 cam with 3 carbs. The open driveshaft cars have more vibration and driveshaft lash, and do not seem to have as much torsional rigidity.
    Roelofs sell a driveshaft replacement with CV joints on either end, but the price gives most people a heart attack.

    The 3 carb cars are much easier to drive around town with better manners/power delivery at small throttle openings than the 6 carb 2-cam cars.

    Finally many of the 275gtb 4-cam cars have the dreaded throttle surge when leaving a stop.

    If you are not completely smooth on the gas, when you step on the throttle, the car surges back and forth until you head is bouncing off of the windshield. The only cure is to either release the throttle and try again or mash the throttle to the floor. Ferrari changed the distributors/advance curves on the later cars to fix this issue.

    4-cam cars are monsters on the open road, and nothing beats the sound of the 4-cam motor at high RPM.

    The best of the bunch is an alloy body 2-cam comp car with three carbs.

    Brian Brown
    Patrick Ottis Co.
     
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  6. Napolis

    Napolis Three Time F1 World Champ
    Honorary Owner

    Oct 23, 2002
    32,118
    Full Name:
    Jim Glickenhaus
    #31 Napolis, Jul 7, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    Brian

    How many miles have you personally driven a 275 GTB? I drove mine 65K miles. It was serviced by Alberto Pedretti who Mr. Chinetti called "The Greatest Ferrari mechanic there ever was." He and I both disagree with you. The original systems were not up to NYC traffic. Once a Dinoplex was fitted I never had another fouled plug and the car ran like a top. Another thing we replaced were the Ferrari ignition wires. As Coco said to a Judge at Pebble who noted that the Last Ferrari to have Finished 1 OA at Le Mans didn't have original Ferrari ignition wires "They were crap". Alberto fitted the same wires he used at NART to my 275 and the car ran better as well. We got them at the local speed shop in Greenwich where NART bought MANY of the parts they fitted to the cars that got the job done.

    Cheers

    PS. We don't gut anything. We put the original crap in our museum and have the guys in Modena provide a NOS case filled with stuff that works. Unlike some I always point out exactly what we've done to any Judges. Unlike some we also drive our cars in the night stage of the Targa Florio. Should you ever want to do that with a mechanically fuel injected 24 plug car I highly suggest you don't try it with original ignition wires or without a little electronic ignition help. If you foul up the crowds will eat you.
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  7. BIGHORN

    BIGHORN In Memoriam

    Sep 18, 2006
    733
    FLORIDA/NEW MEXICO
    Full Name:
    JOHN F KELLY

    Yeah but the Seiko probably keeps better time
     
  8. Vintage V12

    Vintage V12 Formula 3

    Aug 11, 2004
    1,444
    #33 Vintage V12, Jul 7, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    Car still runs like a top! Thanks Brian for all your help over the years.
    matt
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  9. Napolis

    Napolis Three Time F1 World Champ
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    Oct 23, 2002
    32,118
    Full Name:
    Jim Glickenhaus
    :)
     
  10. SCantera

    SCantera F1 Veteran
    Silver Subscribed

    Aug 4, 2004
    5,112
    Living Falls NC
    Brian's assessment is the same as the craftsman that rebuilt my 330 GTC engine. [re: My More Better GTC]. Although we made some upgrades he convinced me to not go with electronic ignition. He knew my car was going to be driven a lot. His reasoning had to do with failure. When an electronic unit fails you have to call a flatbed while the original system should give you some warning and won't leave you stranded. Like Brian he said he has replaced a lot of electronic units.
     
  11. Napolis

    Napolis Three Time F1 World Champ
    Honorary Owner

    Oct 23, 2002
    32,118
    Full Name:
    Jim Glickenhaus
    We finished the 24 Hours of Nurburgring with no electronic ignition issues. I've driven my MK-IV 40,000 road miles with no electronic ignition issues. I've driven my T 70 Lola 65K miles with no electronic ignition issues. My Tr 155K miles with no electronic issues. I could go on.

    I've also been down to a few cylinders due to fouled plugs many times before we made these changes and it's no fun on the Cross Bronx expressway.

    Everyone should make themselves happy. John did. Malcolmb did and so did I.
     
  12. donv

    donv Two Time F1 World Champ
    Owner Rossa Subscribed

    Jan 5, 2002
    23,988
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    Don
    This isn't that different from the carbs/fuel injection debate among Boxer owners, aside from the fact you can't retrofit (easily) a carb boxer with FI.
     
  13. SCantera

    SCantera F1 Veteran
    Silver Subscribed

    Aug 4, 2004
    5,112
    Living Falls NC
    I agree......just different strokes. I put over 100k miles on my first GTC and never had ignition issues with the original set up. Nor was plug fouling a problem with the GTC. But I can't say the same about the subsequent BB that I had. It would foul plugs in heavy traffic. Going to a hotter plug did help some.....as did an Italian tune-up.

    But I can't say I have had the pleasure of keeping or even driving a 275 GTB. So maybe the GTB might be happier with the electronic set up. I will defer to those more experienced with 275s.
     
  14. BIGHORN

    BIGHORN In Memoriam

    Sep 18, 2006
    733
    FLORIDA/NEW MEXICO
    Full Name:
    JOHN F KELLY
    two points

    The electronic ignition box on most if not all add on systems (not MSD) is readily bypassed, although I never had to do it. Mine was a Howard unit from the dawn of electronics. My Pors**e 2.7 RS is running the conventional (for 1973) ignition but is getting changed as soon as I get to it.

    My 330GTS did not have the ignition issues my 275 did
     
  15. alhbln

    alhbln Formula 3
    Consultant Owner

    Mar 4, 2008
    1,749
    Berlin, Germany
    Full Name:
    Adrian
    Dinoplex C units might fail due to age (how many electronic devices do you still use which are fourty years old) but the repair is quite simple and straightforward. Most defects can be repaired within an hour and require less than $10-$15 worth of parts. If you treat your Dinoplex C correctly (don't remove the battery terminals when running, no electric welding while connected and no jump start in Normale mode) it will quite likely run for many years after a repair and fresh parts.

    Dinoplex C units are CDI ignitions which create a secondary voltage of around 40-45KV, which is about double of a points only ignition. This helps tremendously with hot and cold starts and avoiding plug fouling, even with a quite rich mixture.

    Points based ignitions run with a primary current of up to 4 ampere (which is not much) and the magnetic field charge time is quite short with higher RPMs. As a result the voltage and spark duration decreases with high RPMs, leading to a high amount of incomplete combustion cycles, which can be easily seen on a motor tester or scope. Ferrari got around this by introducing two distributor/coil setups. They have less parts prone to a defect but i have seen many totalled Marelli distributors because they havent been serviced and greased properly every one to two years, even though they have a much better build quality than most if not any distributors of that time.
     
  16. Napolis

    Napolis Three Time F1 World Champ
    Honorary Owner

    Oct 23, 2002
    32,118
    Full Name:
    Jim Glickenhaus
    True.

     
  17. kare

    kare F1 Rookie
    Consultant

    Nov 11, 2003
    3,627
    Some punk from NY wants sit in a traffic jam in his Ferrari and is having problems. They have a business to run so they make a problem go away. Off course you agree with them. How stupid do you think we are?

    I agree though the wires are no good. Would not use those I've cut open on any car. They may very well have contributed to your problems.
     
  18. Napolis

    Napolis Three Time F1 World Champ
    Honorary Owner

    Oct 23, 2002
    32,118
    Full Name:
    Jim Glickenhaus
    You?

    Very.
     
  19. John Vardanian

    John Vardanian F1 Rookie

    Jul 1, 2004
    3,043
    San Francisco Area
    Full Name:
    John Vardanian
    I hear camshaft wear is pretty aggressive on the 4-cam. Could this be why?

    john
     
  20. Napolis

    Napolis Three Time F1 World Champ
    Honorary Owner

    Oct 23, 2002
    32,118
    Full Name:
    Jim Glickenhaus
    Should anyone with a 275 GTB/S want a pdf. of the owners/shop/set up manual for a 275 GTB/S pm me.
     
  21. 335s

    335s Formula Junior

    Jan 17, 2007
    870
    SF Bay Area
    Full Name:
    T. Monma
    I NEVER do that...but this topic struck a chord in another old man entering the final phases of life and it hit me with an astonishing sense of nostalgia...I can still SMELL those cars, the burning oil, the slide of bald tyres...

    As most of us who read this sort of a post are over 50, and in most cases over 60 years old...it serves as sort of a chance for us orf F**rts to get glassy eyed, and reminisce over cars we owned when our wives were still young and had no kids(that why we had the money to spend on these things fellas-remember?)....quite reminiscent of the sililoquy at the end of field of dreams by "Terrance Mann"....

    I personally took a keen interest as 275s were a special, special obsession for me when a young man... as... while I had a few bucks, had access and exposure, to lots of racing cars, that people get all silly over, the truth of the matter was that I was 3-4 years too "young" at the time, to have gotten my GTO for 3500-6500...
    They were either 12 when I had 10, or 15 when I han 12.5, 18,5 when i Had 15...always a few thou short a few months too soon(or LATE DEPENDING ON PERSPECTIVE!)..
    To ad injury to the memorys...LMs were 10K- 15k at worst, and Testa Rossas were a little tooo funky for my tastes,
    and SWBs were just not anywhere cool enough...

    besides, 275s were WAY better, faster and more fun cars to drive than some beat up old SWB that still had circles on the doors with lights, clouded plexi windows, and fishnets for windows in the doors...all the damn paint was peeling off of all of the damn allluminum, and alloy was such a pain to paint properly...(I painted in college, so I knew...)..

    and EVERY TdF I saw...al I could do(and I'm NOT the only one who has said this tale of chopping and channelling!!!) was think about how to CUT UP THE BODY to make it more into a 275/GTO "modern like car...
    true story...
    tells you how cheap THEY were, and NOBODY thought much of them then, they drove like trucks, smoked like mosquito abatement, and were just plain, beat up, 10+ yr old racing cars that NOBODY but nobody wanted anymore
    {hey...did you hear about that thing in california last summer? sometthing about an antique racing car festival? Monterey, SantaBarbara? anbody hear anything about it?}...hey, some shipbuilder guy from Clevelandd just bought the Yankees..what a moron!!! He paid how much...wow, Cleveland...go figure...

    Sooo, 275s really seemed to be at first looksie, to be a denatured street wise GTO made for the masses( I was in my teens/early 20s, so easy there...)..best of all-they were cheap!
    Charlie had one he'd been trying to sell in Hemmings for 6 months... for $3000, and couldn't get a bite...I had just sold a 1967 911S(C-6 cams and 46MM carbs and black transaxle) for 5500!...So, Lets Have a rodeo ride in one of these!
    But, I wasnn't interested in Charlie's, 'cause it didn't have"six deuces"...more later
    I started answering all manner of old phone calls, and neighbors pleadings about derelict cars from those whose sons had left "that Italian thing" in the "slate floored carraige houses", with flat tyres, for...going on 3-4 years now...Please, can you get this thing out of here before the floor REALLY gets damaged?

    Just to be clear-these "barn finds" were NOT antique cars THEN...they were NOT even "old" used cars...usually, a new battery, a few sets of plugs, clean all battery straps/cables, set of wires, rotors, points, fuel filtes, oil filters, couple cases of oil, 10 gals of Sunoco 260, 3 or 4 new needle and seats, blow out idle jets, set floats, new electric fuel pumps, three strokes of the pedal AFTER oil priming motor...and it fired up like a new car....all fact-no braggin'
    brakes were usually NOT an issue, unless the car was pre-1964, or, the caraige house/garage/whatever had no heat and there was evidence of moisture as calipers seize in a winter there...

    Occassionally, once fired, there was an horriffic noise inside motor and we immediately shut it off...as experience would teach in the ensuing years...these were the sounds of dropped valves and or brass seats which had fallen after an overheating episode...
    Great, lets swap it with one of the motors in the boxes in the corner(why is everyone we call on the phone asking about serial numbers...or is it vin numbers...or, what was the other thing they were calling those numbers-those guys in Georgia are crazy for this, not even the guy in NY cares about that stuff(just the salesman with the beard)...I dont remeber, dont care, what difference does it make? It's not like these were racing cvars and had won 24Hrs of LeMans or something! They were just... an old.... sports car!

    Hey, John, Andy, Greg...whaddya make of this? The nose is longer on these two than on that one...and this one only has 3 carbs, and the 2 others have 6. are they ALL aluminum
    or just the doors and hoods? How can they rust on the floor if they have alloy bodies?
    Jeez, we started to do a clutch and the drive shaft and axles are totally different on tbhis one than the other one....and the really nice car over on that wall with the long nose, alloy body, and 6 deuces, has a tube connecting it to the tranny like Mikes Daytona!
    Why do these have doors for the oil on top of the fenders? whats up with the slots on the rear fenders? Why is the spare tyre inside the car with a gimongous gas tank? Look at that filler pipe-geez, a bomb waiting to blow! check out the wiper in the roof! hey, spokes on these front wire wheels come outside kinda funny...like the ones on the coco's LM
    wow, the aluminum is so thin I left a palm print in it from pushing! Hey!
    The 6 carbs on this one look like the 6 deuces on the LM-not the other 3 cars we've seen this summer...that car is WAY WAY faster...but ck this out-when we went into the trunk-it had a manifold with 3 carbs, and they are 46s!! with funky big air trumpets


    Wow, look at all the nose damage...on almost all of them...some of it incredibly bad/severe....the worst groupings were the ones with the DOHC engines...
    they had entire sections of noses missing...WHY...????
    some cut clean across the noses at the radiators-no lites, bumpers, just wrinkled frame horns, and an otherwise "perfect" car-(exceptingh the ubiquitous cracks in the glass....(LOL...)....remember, usually, you pour the brake fluid up top...and watch it run out at at least 4 corners and bell housings if APPLICABLE..


    so began my in earnest self taught classes on 275s and all variants/sub-variants which I could discern...as all it took were a few drives to realize that Enzo did NOT create all 275s equal....if few at all....


    The pool of up close and personal cars include the at least a dozen which I owned-be it for imediate profit, or, dorve it for the summer and sold it to pay for my sophomore tuition at an Ivy League School(tuition, room, board, lab fees, and incidental extras was an easy 45-5500.00/year...that ought to calibrate our ages out there ...) or evaluated for others, or bought and sold for others....I remeber the first time I heard "broker" and said: "who the hell is going to talk to that guy, one who has no money, or, he has NO idea what he's talking about with respect to the machie? He's just trying to make as much money as me-and I'm buying the friggin' thing-I hated then in 1980s- I hated them in the 1970s, and I hate 'em today! :)





    It WAS New England/Long Island ...after all, carriage houses, in the back of storage rooms in shoe and old clothing manufacturing mills/wherehouses, "junk car" ads in the Boston Globe, local papers, something called the "Wantadvertiser in eastern Massachusetts, the ByLines in NYC, parked in gas stations with tarps over them, in Italian repair shops
    {as the LM became a 8-10 yr old racing car, they soon came with shag rugs, crank windows, a stereo, attepmt at a/c, and butcherd 330 bumpers onto it...they were really like this back then!!!...} The butt ugly Drogo long noses and all-but we didn't know what that meant-just ANOTHER 275 that'd been whacked in the nose, and slammed back together-although it WAS an LM...

    The "DOHC" models were not yet 5 years old...they still had first paint...and to think of the number of cars with 4 colors already, rotting interiors, and severe floor rust in ealy steel snort noses(pre-plastic floor trays)...the differences began to become pretty glaring physically, and, in some cases, from behind the wheel...

    Next Installment-DRIVING A 6C....
    FROM MY LOFT IN the Triangle below Canal St.(WHAT IS TODAY CALLED TRIBECA-I had an indoor elevator to carry my Ferrari up to the 6th floor!), to Hahvud-every weekend, and until the snow was too deep to pass...and back again....every week....not another car was this reliable until I had an MB 500 7-10 yrs later!
    {I changed engine oil on the first Saturday of every month, plugs on my return side trip/leg back to NYC-every 2 weeks...N6Ys were a .25/plug item, ignition wires every 6000 miles along with points and rotors, caps at 12K...new radiator when I got car-automatic-along with pump and hoses and clamps(think of all the cheney clamps I tossed out) 260 was 39 cents a gallon at cheapest and 54 cents at highest after 1st embargo(gino's dad owned several sunocos, gas was NOT a problem}

    Sub chapter comments on a NAPOLIS/Jim topic: an alloy dry sump 275 as a "city" hot rod in early-mid seventies-talk about a pig in traffic-jeeeez....but I LOVED it on the coney island xpway(where years later I rolled a Daytona in a light rain-"the DUI I should've gotten!")...I learned quickly that PERFECT radiators with auxilliary controlled electric, 2 stage fans, a fan on the oil cooler's trombone fins, new plugs and a capacitive discharge ignition making the points into switches, and not asking them to pop 50KV firing line at idle(ignition wires came from some pals at the magnet lab at MIT)...
    this "purity crap" makes me ill...without these mods, this car, would NEVER have survived living and driving the life it did in NYC-it was MY car, and I did what I saw fit to MY car to get the most out of it I could-it was my commuter car after all...a 2002tii was the city car in Boston area...I couldn't drive the Ferrari in Boston without getting hassled by Police(I never stopped...they knew it was me, but they couldn't prove it-at night-at speed...so they hassled me, constantly, until my buddy with a 4 number plate put his tag on it...we were NEVER stopped again as long as I owned the car-which wasn't for long-hysterical irony of fate, the buddy with the plate had a cousin in Watertown with a steel 6c interim driveshaft car-bit of a dog, but the genuine article none the less-which he sold for 14,5--I almost cried...
    I sold 6 monthds earlier to another guy in-Watertown-cash money American-for 9800...thought I'd held up an armoured car...
    {remeber class...I bought at 3000.00...which was really a gtc which I'd parlayed from a non-driver to a runner, in an afternoon, for a 2200 PROFIT, so really it was an 800.00 275/6c, alloy, with an oil door on top of fender....}
    This was HUGE money for college guys NOT selling drugs!!!{although my wife insists this is heroin for me}
    Biggest kick in the nads-having sold the 275 and told Dad I was paying Harvard tuition myself, he blew a gasket...he was so happy that I was "doing the proper"..that he turned my trust back on-

    moral of story...boy sees Ferraris, Falls in love with Ferraris-WASP family disapproves of floozy Italian stufff: "wrong kind of money-"new" money, "LOUD money"..cuts oil money trustfund,
    Now boy can't afford Ferraris without playing used exotic car mechanic/dealer/hustler when cutting classes at Harvard-GPA slipping as I spend more time at track-now boy threatend with revocation of Medical School spot despite having matriculated. Fazzazos has gotta go...
    Boy sells loves of life, all tools, parts, spares and cares-for TIDY profit-{this Montery Historics is getting BIG, my buddies Dad's LM-the one I said no to last year at 10K-now 60K and it needs EVERYTHING, and its not original engine(I got "it" finally)...
    Boyz family embraces new found maturity by turning money back on....for now....
    Boy has money from family, money from sold Ferraris, and NO FERRARIs-but, big bag of money, and a life sentence as a Harvard schmuck.... with a destiny as a thoracic sugeon to be told by some insurance pin head bean counter how much I can make(that was a mouthfull! and it was told me from chief of Surgery at "The Med School"(not telling which one!)
    What a future I have to look forward to...hey Dad....keep the money...

    I'm going to Italy...I can buy these things called Boxers for 15G and I can make them us legal for 3500 my cost(me and 2 guys from chem dept got hired by some guy from MIT to see if we could defeat a patent in colloidal catalytic Pt chemistry-said we could-but wouldn't...but figured out what he was up to, That would be Chemistry-or as I like to call it: the PHYSICS of LIQUIDS and GASES...Full control of Boyles gas law...and the grey market and the 1980s was upon us....closed loop fuel controlled algorithm based Ics-all in being stochiometric, which when tilted a smidgen to the fat side... gives us rippin' performance, a smidgen lean... gives us awesome oscillating windows ideal for staedy state three way catalyst gas conversion utilizing zirconium dipoles.

    Dad-Keep the money-I'll make my own(at the highest point, we had 100 cars in port, 100 on ships, and 100 being trucked to ro/ros-bankrolled this with profits from my seeing who and what T Boone Pickens was..)...we didn't even speak for another 9 years, my Mom died in this period...was it the money, was it the 275s, was it an overbearing antecedance...after certifying 288GTOs-even looking at carbs made me ill...it all seemed so long ago...and it was gone-even Mom was gone...and all in the twinkling of an eye....

    and an alloy 6c with a torque tube sold for 1.35 million USD last I looked....and I passed in 1972/3/4/( we are not spring chickens fellas-It would take me an hour to really try and remember exactly which year it was) on the LM which sold at Ferrari factory auction in 2008 for 8Million...at that time..for a straight up trade with a "normal" 6c alloy interim(hot hot 210 motor in it) for the-see math above- what would really pencil out to be 800.00 dollars...????
    was it worth it? In the end-0what I CAN tell you ios this:
    ALL 275s had under braked chassis capacity for this sort of a car in 1964/5/6/7..the real short coming was the booster...the third, forth and fith time I drove DOHC 275s in anger, it suddenly became obvious why all the noses were so crashed in...as you careen down the off ramp of the interstate, you pump the brake once tom scrub off some speed-NOW the booster is empty-and there is NO vaccuum in the manifold-think cam timing children-when I hit the pedal hard........NOTHING happens{or damn near nothing hapens}, and I go creening through the stop sign, practically tilting the car onto 2 wheels(dont know why I didn't flip or roll here-honestly-as I avoid centerpumching the lady in the vista cruiser wagon and the Econoline plumbing truck. Another half an hour screwing around on clover leafs and my big mystery was answered...its been brakes all along-or more precisely, and in MY opinion, the limited vaccuum capcity of the booster. IF used progressively and unceasingly-NO problem...but pump 'em, and you dump the vac and all bets are off untill enough engine manifold vac refills capacity of booster...its plain and simple.... PHYSICS

    There are a couple of topics which I've skated past thinking that due to the much higher degree of technical specificity required to spew THAT stuff out correctly...I shall wait until another oppprotunity to post to cover those topics: Carbs and distributors, combined with exhaust reversion waves multilevel harmonics in valve trains, and lastly, but not least importantly: Flame fronts , and what is 2,5 isopentane anyways?
    POP QUESTION-which 2 engine families did Ferrari engineers utilize the largest camshaft basecircle-and why-and how successful(or NOT) was it, and why was it continued, expandedd, or...was it ceased-bonus points if anyone knows all the answers to this one!
    HINT-huge tip-think of "275s"....
    In the face of all hope being lost
    it's like Yoda said:

    "There is another...."
     
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  22. ggjjr

    ggjjr Formula Junior

    Nov 11, 2003
    870
    Detroit
    Full Name:
    George
    That was interesting. As my two year old says: "More, please!"

    George
     
  23. Texas Forever

    Texas Forever Seven Time F1 World Champ
    Rossa Subscribed

    Apr 28, 2003
    75,372
    Texas!
    Many thanks for your post. I, for one, really appreciate hearing about winds of the old days, probably because I can't stand how people today make shrines out of these old cars. I guessing we are close to the same age. However, I spent my wayward youth fooling around with British motorcycles, which makes me even more masochistic than you were.

    But when I talk to old Ferrari hands, the stories I hear are like yours. Let's face it. Ferraris, like many things, back then were basically kit cars. No two were built the same, and none were built to last. So please keep it up. I'm sick of reading about whether screw heads should be lined up the same. Crap, you were lucky to have screws!

    Thx, Dale
     
  24. Napolis

    Napolis Three Time F1 World Champ
    Honorary Owner

    Oct 23, 2002
    32,118
    Full Name:
    Jim Glickenhaus
    Those were the Days my Friend.

    We thought they'd never end.

    Empty chairs.

    Empty tables.

    I remember those days like it was yesterday, when they dropped the National Speed Limit to 55 and as a rail against the wind I drove my 275 alloy long nose 6 carb from Boston to NY in 2 hours. I remember watching the muffler internals blow flaming red out of the tail pipes in the rear view mirror lighting up the black night of the Wilber Cross. It looked like Midnight at the Fillmore East and smelled like what Robert Smelled as the Grunts Surfed...

    :)
     
  25. readplays

    readplays Formula 3

    Aug 22, 2008
    2,344
    New York City
    Full Name:
    Dave Powers
    @335s
    @Napolis

    I had an uncle who brought cars into the US before there really was a 'grey market'. I remember as a little kid going to his pole barn out in the country (Brown County, OH- 1hr east of Cincinnati) and seeing my first Ferrari among a number of other european stablemates.

    I had another uncle (both of them married in via my mom's sisters) who also lived at the farm and was huge into trials riding on motorcycles. Taught me to ride when I was 12.

    I asked him one time in the late 90's what Fcars had been there. I remembered a Daytona.
    He talked about a 275 GTB/4 and specifically, driving it back from a party. I guess Mike wasn't in shape to drive so he gave Steve the keys.

    When I asked him what it was like to drive (after I'd been wowed by a drive in one in college in the 90's) he was rather nonchalant.
    He said that Mike had torn the mufflers off going over a cow-catcher on the drive in to a party at someone else's farm. Accordingly, for Steve, his memories of it were mostly as a "really noisy 5 year old italian sports car".

    Ahh.. the good old days.

    Steve died at age 48 in the year 2000 in a head-on on a two-lane highway in KY, coming back from a southern motorcycle tour with his buddies. When I think of him, I often like to picture this young guy in one hellaciously loud 4cam out in the country.. back when they were just semi-old cars.
     

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