Ferrari F355 Challenges for sale

Been to the Techno Classica Essen today, one of the largest oldtimer & race car sales fares across Europe. There was just ONE F355 Challenge car, the ex Roberto Ragazzi GT which is currently for sale at EUR 110.000,00 from Springbok.

On the whole fare I was not able to find ONE original Challenge item, wether model-cars, manuals, workshop-handbooks, etc.
Nothing! And that was quite a big fare.

Seems to me all these items are getting more rare day by day.

Glad I got the car and just missing a few minor items, not the other way round...

 

I guess this is very much top of the range price for a 'normal' car that is not exceptionally original (original seats missing) and has a few mods (racing fuel connector).
I am soooooo glad I bought mine last year when prices were still within my range.

Has the "Alitalia" car sold @ 225K ?

 

With that VIN it's one of the early cars that can be road registered (at least in France). Would have been expensive for a track only car. Let's see if it sells.

 

He may have spent half that on the decals

 

Lol.

That's enough decals for two cars.

Robb

 

Wow, steep price but I'm not unhappy about it... ;-)

 

Not complaining about the sale. I just hope that spare parts don't creep up as well. I'd like my running costs to stay reasonable.

 

You mean like 30,000 euros for a set of used challenge brakes?

 

Yes. Did the brakes sell? I have a set of rotors.

 

Wasn't this car for sale previously -- what were they asking for it then?

 

The brakes sold indeed. Without original Challenge brakes on the car, Ferrari will not grant you a Classiche certification. Apparently the same applies to seats or exhaust.

A classiche certification on F355 CH cars is important as there lots of fake or un-original CH cars out there. Most F355 CH that I have seen are all but original. True nice CH cars are extremely rare and valued accordingly.

Also most probably they will become eligible in a number of historic races in the future, so that makes me think that they are still undervalued.

I had a challenge car until recently, and although not a pure race car, I must say I took a lot of pleasure driving this car on tracks. They go faster than most modern-day track-day cars, and they have no electronic assistance, absolute need to master heel-toe technique to go fast, precise handling, great chassis, great brakes... Although quite different, in their philosophy I would put them alonside Porsches 964 RS or 964 Cup (some of which were also road legal...).

 

Interesting comments about Classiche certification. I wonder how it is for 95 Challenge cars that were converted by the dealers. For instance, period race photos of my car shows Momo seats and not OMP Challenge seats. My conjecture is that when the car was converted by FoH, Paul Frame fit in a Momo seat better. And perhaps OMP seats were not fitted at all. Anyway, how will Ferrari Classiche certify such dealer-converted cars? Wouldn't they have to get records from the dealers? Otherwise, I suppose they'll go by the Challenge spec without car-specific historic context.

 

Btw ignominus, thanks for responding about the brakes. I agree with you on these cars' eventual historic race eligibility and valuation trend. Most importantly, I totally agree on how much driving pleasure these 355 Ch cars provide. I've had a few production-based Porsche race cars and I put my 355 Ch above all of them.

 

If your car has a Challenge ID plate from the factory all Classiche certification does is verify that the car is still in the same spec as when it was shipped. It wouldn't be a question of whether the car was a Challenge car or not.

Edit: Just thinking about it, even for the cars that had the kit installed at a dealership aren't the VIN numbers known? That is, aren't all the Challenge car VIN's known by now? If so, wouldn't you just check the VIN to see if it was one of the cars that were converted to Challenge spec? If so, what good is Classiche other than just to say it was currently in the same spec?

 

I just spoke to someone recently about 355 Challenge Certs

He was at the factory and spoke to the main man, cant remember his name
3 levels of Classiche for the 355

Bone stock berlinetta
Bone stock with all the Challenge parts installed
Full race period correct AS it was raced parts meaning it could be raced 10 years ago

 

The third one is what I'd go for if the certification becomes more important to me. Aesthetically, aside from some new but period-correct decals, I intend to maintain the race patina as-is. Mechanically, I intend to keep things as-raced in period but in trackworthy condition.

To KMR968turbo, I would view Classiche as indeed for clarifying that the car is in the same spec as raced. As mentioned earlier, the one thing would be the seats on mine, which showed Momo seats instead of the spec Omp Challenge seats when it was racing in 96.

 

Sorry to ask this question in the ”for sale section” but since the matter of authenticy is touched. How do you determine whether a 355 challenge car is genuine or “just” a berlinetta fitted with challenge parts by its owner and not by an authorized dealership? Correct parts (big brembos, speedline-wheels, rear wing, correct towing hooks, correct OMP seat, etc), specific serial num-bers, warranty papers, or maybe it’s the sum of the whole?

Are there one single way to determine whether it’s genuine?

Thanks for helping out a rookie.

 

All serial numbers are known