1972 Ferrari 365 GTC/4 or a brownie got a new lease on life…

try not to over restore them. lots of casting imperfections the painters like to correct.

 

fill in hammer nicks

 

Christian - I have a request regarding your C/4.
Once these coil-over replacements were installed, do you know the distance between the ground and fender lip through the center of the wheel?
Replacing the load leveler shocks is a costly upgrade. The distance per factory measurement should be 26-1/2" and 27". I would really appreciate a measurement from you, given all the work you have done to your car. Thank you.
Mike

 

I believe they are adjustable?

 

The set I got has the lower spring perch that is threaded and can be changed. I’ll see if I can find a picture.

 

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nice period sticker makes all the difference
Care to share the supplier please

 

I had these on my previous C/4 15 years ago. They worked well and allowed adjustment to achieve the desired ride height. I have not been able to locate the part number or a supplier recently.
There is a company in the Netherlands that will convert your old load-levers to the Coil over shocks that Christian is using. They apparently restore the ride height, which according to my service manual is 26-1/2" to 27".
One must remember that the a-arms will take all the torsional stress if the shocks don't match in terms of suspension geometry.

 

The best answer would be if Koni started making these again. I’d gladly pay for factory new units.

 

I stand to be corrected but, the whole idea for the self levelling rear shocks was to keep the car from raising the front and lowering the back under high speed motoring. This to help present the sharpest possible profile against the air the car passes through. The same scope was on the 365 GT 2+2. This was developed by Koni in tandem with the engineers at Ferrari. A lot of work was done with Ferrari cars since the mid 60's in this regard. One fix was elongating the cars nose in the 275 GTB for the 275 GTB4. Hence , I think they are an important and holistic part of the car.

 

Christian thank you for sharing the progress on your 365 GTC/4. All done to a very high standard to. The GTC/4 represents a nice counterpoint to the Daytona from that time frame and the assist of power steering can be a benefit for some.
One question has she gotten a chance to drive this manual transmission V12 yet? Shifting those gears with a clutch is slowly becoming a 'lost art' these days!

 

wheels look great. can you share the paint code?

 

Great car. Especially in this color. The sound of the V12 is fantastic. A real Ferrari.

 

Any new bold feature which is created by a designer ( Sapino of Pininfarina in this case ) is always open for discussion by the then purists. The way he incorporated the legislatively enforced rubber bumper design into an elongation of the metal body to me was a masterstroke. The car looks sharp especially in profile. Please note that this was one of the first cars to make use of the new Wind Tunnel technology by Pininfarina. Also what is very often referred to as the " mouth" was a necessity to improve the cooling process of the enlarged V12. All in all it was quite a novelty at the time which incidentally also had an input from Enzo Ferrari who showed his desire to refrain from the previous "Cigar" shapes to a more updated approach in design with Sergio Pininfarina. I am quite fond of this design and also the car as a whole, in fact I am the new owner of 16075 since January this year and I am so pleased I finally made the move from my previous 365 GT 2+2.

 

The self leveling shocks were never a good choice for these cars. If you want the original look, use the replacements CD has chosen. They are the original load levelers converted to coil overs. Fix it once and forget about it.
The coil-over units shown by AK Jim were available several years ago. I spoke with a Koni rep but he could not locate the units or give me a part number. The great advantage of these units is you can set the ride height correctly. I believe 27" ground to fender well-lip is correct. With the conversions used by CD, what you see is what you get. There's no adjusting them. And they cost $3500 exchange, which seems like a lot.
I have heard KYB makes a replacement coil over, but haven't located a part number.
I will continue my search for the same shocks AK Jim used. I've had them before on another C4 and really liked the look as well as the performance. Right now my C4 sits at 26" which looks good, however I have little confidence the rebuilt LL shocks will last. Ultimately, they will need to be replaced.