David Piper restores the Talacrest P4

Hmmm, yeah maybe he now sees the profit in originality ??

I reckon this car will sell for more with a REPLICA P4 body on it than the original CanAm. A lot less people get off on the CanAm than the P4's ... not saying it is right though.
Pete

 

Not his body to sell, John Collins owns this car I believe.
Pete

 

Unfortunately I think this is very true...

 

It is of course a great shame to lose the 350 Can Am car that 0858 was converted into. However, the car was originally a P4, arguably the most beautiful, auto erotic ever made. A P4 is "The Grail" car, the absolute ultimate and the epitome of Ferrari to so many car and race car lovers. 0858 as a P4 contributed to winning the 1967 +2.0 Manufacturer's World Sports Car Championship. Although successful, the high level of achievement of the P4 was not matched in Can Am form. It was designed and made as a P4 so its focus was sharper than that of the Can Am car it was converted into. Had 0858 been designed and been born as a Can Am car it would have been a sharper tool, more fit for that purpose and more successful in that role. Its DNA is P4.

Ferrari is all about passion and such is the level of the P4's beauty (along with P3/4 and 412P) that no other car brings out that passion to the same degree. Its role was complete and its mission accomplished as a P4 in 1967 when Ferrari converted it to a Can Am car and extended its life as a race car, but in so doing a motoring tragedy occurred by destroying something the beauty of which has not been equalled or surpassed. The Can Am is a good looking car but to most people a P4 is immeasurably more beautiful. That the 4.2 litre engine size will be retained will just be a reminder that it also did battle as a Can Am car. Such is the greatness of the P4 in the history of Ferrari, and with only 2 other examples made, 0858 deserves to live in its most successful and beautiful form, and as it was born.

Pictures of Ferrari 330 P4 #0856. Credits Supercars dot net and Richard Owen.
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I strongly disagree with everything above. The car was converted by FERRARI to be a 350 CAN AM, in this form the car won a few races. Part of the converson involved chassis modifying, how is this going to be converted back?

The fact remans there are NO more 350 Can Ams left.

We can argue about passion and its subjective merits.....passion to me is what Jim is doing with 0854 and what he did with 0846, thats my definition of passion. Changing the last remaining variant of a car.....well lets leave it at that.

 

Lastly a tragedy according to who exactly? The 350 Can Am is striking, rare(there was only one left) so what makes converting the last 350 Can Am back to a P4 by any less tragic?

I am sorry but I feel very strongly about this.

 

Then buy it and fix it.

 

I am a wordsmith by training, a lawyer who in spare time writes verse and short fiction. But if I had spent a full day crafting my feelings about this discussion I could not have stated them any better than has Steve.

 

In post 154, one photo shows bungee cords holding down the spare tire. What would have been factory spec to hold down the tire?!....Mark

 

Bungee cords. Classiche sells them for 6K euro's each but NAPA has the same ones for less...

 

I'd have to agree. The car was born as a P4, then by the factory, for a specific purpose, in line with a specific frame of time, converted to a 350 Canam. Thus it ceased to be a P4. Forever. Giving 0858 a replica P4 body, doesn't make it a P4 in 2013. It will be a butchered 350 Canam. And a genuine 350 Canam is always better than a butchered 350 Canam. In every possible way. And therefor, what is going on right now is nothing short of a tragedy. The destruction of a fascinating piece of Ferrari history.

 

I won't call it a tragedy but it is a shame.

 

Made my day

Must admit that both sides make fair arguments, and personally I think I might have followed the P4 route, but the above comment is what it all comes down to.

 

Hello Jim & THANKS!!!...I needed a "Good Chuckle"!!!....Might have to invest in bungee futures!....Mark

 

oh-oh! I had not read this thread through from the beginning when I read Steve Robinson's remarks about the P4, to me truly THE iconic Ferrari sports racer, the basis for my earlier message. Especially telling to me is Jim's comment about the views of Ferrari itself concerning the restoration/conversion/classiche-ification of the car.

 

I disagree. There is no 'fixing it' once the car is destroyed to accept a P4-body.

 

Again, a very valid point. But agree or not, the decision to alter/improve/ruin (choose one) a privately owned car is up to the actual owner - right or wrong, love it or hate it. If anything, Ferrari could have bought this car and done the right thing, whatever that is.

 

Ferrari hasn't and probably still doesn't care about the past unless they can make a euro off it. To think otherwise is naive...

 

It did?

Would not have been many, it was not a good car.
Pete

 

Totally true. Same when Enzo was alive.
Pete

 

Would not Ferrari have made money by restoring back to the original 350 Can Am version?!....Mark

 

It didn't need to be restored back to the 350 CanAm version (now it does??) ... and Ferrari never bid for this old car.

Pete

 

How did David piper end up with all these rare Ferrari race cars? I know it's a bit off the topic, but it seems any time a "P" car is mentioned, his name always pops up.

 

This is "1" of the many things I don't understand. If only Ferrari posses the necessary craftsmen & techniques, as by Jim's G's comments...an English wheel produced body ( in Jim's opinion) does not qualify as a Ferrari 350 Can Am body, then who else but Ferrari can do a restoration that is acknowledged by Ferrari Classice (sp) as a 350 Can Am?

 

It is not David's car. He is advising on the "conversion".

I think we have some confusion here. The car WAS a 350 CanAm and is/has been converted to a P4. I think Jim is saying it should have been left alone.
Pete