LONG story about how I became a Mondial Owner

Well, these last 48hrs have been a bit of a whirlwind but the net result is another Ferrari in my garage.....well atleast for a little while until I surprise my step-dad with it. This is a car that he has been commenting about getting ever since I met him 22yrs ago. The 3.2 model was chosen based upon recs here.

And the best part of this whole experience was the overwhelming support and help from FerrariChat members - some of whom I'd never even met before.

It all started with Joe (jjmalez) emailing me on July 1st stating there was a red/tan 3.2 coupe on eBay. I had missed it because the eBay ad did not have mondial in the title or description so my "mondial" phrase search never picked it up. I was excited but then saw the pics of the engine bay and started to 2nd guess my enthusiasm. I posted pics on Fchat of the engine bay and discovered some things missing that I didn't even notice. Thus, I blew off the car and enjoyed my July 4th.

July 5th I receive a call from my step-dad asking about some medical stuff for my sister. She's 18 (very sheltered) and was supposed to go on a 2wk trip to Spain with some friends but missed her flight becuase she had a stomach virus. My step-dad(basically interchangeable with father) decided he was going to cancel his business related stuff and fly with her up to Philly the next day if she was better to help her meet up with the other girls and make her Spain flight. Realizing how he has always sacrificed himself for the betterment of his children, I thought more about this mondial and realized with effort, this car hopefully could be made right. Least I could do would be to fly down to San Antonio and take a look at it.

So now realizing I need to do an inspection on a car that I've only read about and seen once at a car show, I knew I needed help. Merle (mondialmerle) had emailed me and offered to answer any questions I had concerning the mondial. I also spoke with Jonathan Peck at RUF Auto Centre about the car to see if he had any suggestions on what to do when he pulled some magic out of his hat and said he had a good, very honest friend who was in sales at Barrett Ferrari and he would call him to see if he could do a quick PPI for me that evening. Unfortunately, the seller misunderstood me and so Jonathan's great resource was not able to be utilized. Then out of the blue, I get another offer from a fellow Fchat member Jim(Camdon53) to help out in any way since he lived in San Antonio. He admittedly said he did not know too much about the Mondial as he drove a 360 but would be delighted to help out in any way. This overwhelming support further convinced me I was doing the right thing and needed to take a look at his car.

However, at this point, it's early Sat morning and I'm still not feeling 100% sure I can do a thorough PPI by myself when Russ Turner(snj5 - let's refer to him as the Saviour) calls me and says for me to give him a call once I get there so he can go over the car with me. Keep in mind this is the same guy who I had tried to convince him to sell me his car not but two weeks prior

I go over the car by myself with the seller for about an hour and drive it - thinking this is a no brainer and, but for a couple of switches - sunroof & antenna, everything is working and the price is perfect. Well the Saviour shows up and, after a brief hello, literally starts focusing all his attention to the car like a man on a mission and tears into the fuse block. He quickly points out to us how one of the switches is burnt and will need to be replaced. He continues to meticulously go through the car from the front to the rear and back again, pointing out things along the way. Up until Russ showed up, the seller pretty much dominated the conversation but now he was sitting off to the side speechless. Net result is I learned a few things taht need to be addressed before I hand it over to my father and also was able to negotiate the price down even farther based upon the Saviour's 30min PPI.

Well the Saviour takes off to go rescue some other chap from making a mistake while the seller and I go off to the bank to complete the deal. Now my only issue is I've got a nearly 20yr old car that probably shouldn't be driven in the rain because the Saviour discovered it's missing a battery cover, I'm 300 miles from home, it's raining heavily and there are a couple of issues that would make me nervous trying to drive it home.

This is when I talk again to Jonathan Peck and he says don't worry, "I've got a shipper that will call you back in 5 mins". An hour later I'm loading this car into a very nice covered two car trailer with the shipper telling me he'll see me Tuesday evening for a reasonable price. I grab a bite to eat at Rudy's and fly home.

Once I land, I get an email from my dad stating how he wished he'd had time to check out some car that has already ended on eBay but that life was just too hectic so he would just have to wait until the next one popped up. Turns out that the "some car" was the car I had just purchased for him. I figure it couldn't get any better than that. I cannot wait until I get this car taken care of and get to present it to him.

The next step is to contact James Patterson over at Norwoods and see when he can work his magic. So if you're reading this James, expect a call from Frank tomorrow

But the reason why I wrote this long story was to show my gratitude to those who offered their assistance in any way possible to make this gift happen. Special thanks to Russ Turner and Jonathan Peck for, without them, I would not be able to put a hopefully enormous smile on one of the individuals that matter most to me. These guys deserve all the success they have achieved and more. Thank You guys again!

ps - now let's see if James can make me smile with only putting a little dent in my pocket book
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well the "presentation" will be a couple of months away as I first am getting Norwoods to fix up some loose ends and then dropping it off at DetailWerks in Dallas for some minor cosmetic issues.

Then I'll give it to him...

 

ohhh, i've got a little more to do before I can feel sure about that