1984 400i Auto Chassis 53277 On Ebay

This looks like just the kind of car the daily driver shopper should jump on. Not sure why the seller rates the paint at 70 or 80 percent. Digital photography tends to make paintwork look a lot better than it really is. So that is a question mark. But I'll bet the reserve is $25,000, or that the seller would take $25,000 if the eBay bidding doesn't go that high by the end of the auction. The fact that it's Cali registered is a big plus for buyers in the Golden State, but I think if the Smog Check is more than six months old the buyer will need a new one to transfer the title. Anyway, this looks like one of the better mid- to high-20s cars you're going to see.

 

I'm pretty sure I have recently seen this car twice at FastCars while my 355 was getting some minor repairs done. If it is the same car, IMO the seller is being very modest about its cosmetic condition. It looked very nice to me. A "7" in the world of Ferraris is usually an 8.5 or 9 in the normal world of 29 year-old cars!

Anyone who is really interested in this car should contact Craig at Fastcars about its condition and a PPI. He is an Fchat sponsor.

 

Here's a picture I snapped last month while it was parked outside of FastCars.
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Came down in $$, BIN @ $25K, start the bidding war @ $20K

 

The second auction topped out at $21,600: Ferrari : Other AUTOMATIC in Ferrari | eBay Motors

A third auction of this car ended on February 2 with a winning bid of $22,500. Ferrari : Other AUTOMATIC in Ferrari | eBay Motors
"Well bought" I think is what they say in the auction biz. I would definitely be owing this car if I hadn't already bought my '83 a year ago.

The original Buy It Now was $28,500. For the second auction the BIN was $25,000. I don't know what the BIN was in the third. But the auction lasted only 5 days. Doesn't that suggest that the auction was automatically terminated when the winner offered the BIN? (That is, $22,500?)

It's interesting that the winning bidder did not participate in the first and second auctions.

I think we have to admit that $22,500 is the fair market value in February 2013 of a good-running, California registered 400i auto. Maybe it would be a little higher in a face-to-face deal, where the eBay uncertainty discount would not be in effect.

 

Hi all,
The original buyer backed out and I purchased the vehicle.
Let you know when it arrives.....

 

Luckeeeee. I think you got a good deal. The fact that this car is driven and hasn't sat unused for decades, and that it was owned by an apparent car nut (owning 10 cars iirc) are really good portents. I hope the as-delivered product lives up to that expectation. Are you a Californian?

 

I hope sooooo! I am from the toronto canada area and car should be here within 3 to 6 weeks just in time for spring. I will not let this car sit too long and will surely drive her good.
Hope she does me good.
Any tips you can give me as first 400i

 

I really don't have a lot of seat time with my '83, but one thing that comes to mind is to wait until the oil temperature gauge starts to move before you rev past 3000. Another thing is to adopt a stoic attitude, because any 30 year old car is going to have its needs and is going to have things malfunction from time to time.

Since I have got my car roadworthy I must admit I have been hammering it fairly regularly and it seems to love it. I've gone on three biweekly Saturday morning group drives with other F-car owners in the SF Bay Area, and I have no trouble keeping up with the 360's and 458's and whatnot, in the twisty low-speed canyon roads we've got (35-55 mph territory). Last Saturday we had 41-42 cars! (One Lambo, one Aston, and one Noble; also a '59 California Spyder and a 330 GTC, so my '83 was not the oldest, as it had been on my first go-round with this group.) These 400s handle very well for their weight. My skills are not up to performing four wheel drifts, but I'll bet the car could do so with composure in the right hands.

The first to second shift comes at about 35 mph, so I get to flat pedal it to that shift point on a regular basis and sometimes I get a tire chirp at the shift. Once I even got sideways when this happened on a damp curve, but I easily caught it. At 4200 lbs vs. 4.8 liters and 310 hp, these cars have a poor power to weight ratio, so you get to floor it a lot without going too fast. There is of course a down side to that: very poor gas mileage. At $4/gallon for premium, these Saturday morning drives cost me $40-$50 for the gas. Oh well, you can't take it with you.

 

Curvy feeders (on-ramps) with no grading drama on the outbound lane shoulder is a good place to start, iirc, you've got an auto so I'd manually shift that box. You'll find it's got a mild understeer to it, just put the hammer down & point her where you want to go...feels so gooood Fortunately, these aren't tail-happy 2+2s.

 

I would agree on that, in fact, the 400i's understeer is very mild and for the most part I find the handling very balanced.

My favorite place to have fun with this is an off ramp of the Merritt Parkway (northbound Exit 40B onto Route 7 North for you local types) which is a fairly large and, unusually for an off ramp, constant radius, exit ramp where I can push the 400i at close to 60 mph in 3rd gear with a very comfortable but thrilling tour around the exit ramp. Sometimes I keep the wheel turned over and take the corresponding entrance ramp back onto the southbound Merritt Parkway and other times I put the hammer down and continue on Rt 7 North towards Wilton.

One time when I was continuing straight North off the ramp, I was really hammering it and was up to about 80 as I entered the flow on Rt 7 (this is the "high speed" section of Rt 7 before it turns into a slow slog past shopping centers and lots of stop lights). The sound of the exhaust was just magical as the V12 screamed and pushed me and the car forward like a locomotive.

The only problem was that there was a State Trooper headed South on the other side of the guardrail divided highway and he must have seen or heard me because I saw him nail his brakes in the breakdown lane, raising a cloud of dust. His problem was that his first opportunity to turn around was 1/2 mile further south, meaning that he had to go more than a mile in order just to get to my position when he saw me. I turned right at the first opportunity onto the local streets and ducked behind an office building where I could see if he managed to pick the right direction that I had headed. Either he picked wrong or he realized that he couldn't find me with the lead that I had. Just in case he could radio another unit nearby, I took it nice and slow through the back roads out of the area.

Net, net, the 400i is a surprisingly balanced handler with no bad habits of under or over steer. A real joy and one that feels comfortable at the limits of its handling.

 

Congratulations !

acquiring a V-12 Ferrari is a always a very special occasion indeed !

it's a beautiful car and i'm sure you'll be very, very happy with 'her' !


brett

 

Any thoughts about shift kits in the tranny? How about a manual reverse valve body?

 

I have seen some with the rear bumper really close to the back; is there a kit available for this?

 

I think the bumpers closer to the body are a Euro feature and the way the car was intended to be. The bumpers slightly further away are a US federal crash protection feature IMO. Not aware of anything but probably easy to reverse id desired. I looked at the brackets on mine and they seem to be simple science (metal).

Congrats and welcome to F-chat. You have a very attractive car. Enjoy it on the open roads.

 

My rear bumper is a little loose and I would like to "Euro-it" back to original spec. It looks like during the EPA/DOT federalization process they just took long pieces of tube steel and ran them through the trunk and attached them someplace to the frame? Does anyone have a pic of what the inside of the trunk where the bumpers attach looks like on a Euro/correct car?

 

I'm sure a shift kit and a little looser torque converter would be some great additions to your car.

I will have to say, in some ways it's almost a tragedy to take a certified car out of CA. In sure once you liscence it somewhere else it will never again be allowed back there.

 

any thoughts on a manual reverse valve body and stall converter. anyone know what stall would fit correct.

 

I just love stories like these John. You can imagine what was going through that trooper's mind when he 'knew' he had to go down a piece before he could make on you ($!*%#$@!).
Oh, & remember the traffic signals back in the day?! With all the ever advancing technology/future improvements in leaps & bounds, it seems that efficiency has done a U-turn...now they're mere stop lights Talk about impeding progress...

Hey guys, 'all' of these cars were Euro spec.. Even though they introduced fuel injection with the hopes of easing the export of these to the US market, so few of these were made that they could all be bought up in the Euro market alone with little difficulty. Now sure, various US conversion shops did 'their' thing to the 400's to satisfy the DOT/EPA & the extent each one took varied. There is enough room for a box tube to be welded behind the front bumper without projecting it out past its original factory mounting set-up. The rear bumper would be a totally different story. If you remove the carpet where you can access the tail light wiring, you'll find bolts that you can loosen to adjust how far out or in you want the rear bumper to sit. One word of caution...with bumpers that have the rear fog lights in them, you have to watch that the terminals of them don't ground themselves to the body. A piece of rubber inner tube tacked over the the terminals will isolate them, this way you can push the bumper as close to the body as possible...I think this is where they look best.

 

That's great info about the rear bumper and will certainly do as soon as I get.
Also is the bumper outer skin made of metal or rubber material and is it paintable to match the cars color.
Also anyone know about what stall rpm for the tranny converter and what would be a better suited stall matched to the power curve of the V12.
Any help is appreciated.

 

From what I understand, the bumpers up to the 412 are of an elastomeric material...& yes, they are paintable. Chrysler used this material during the same era. These bumpers were injection molded around a box tube. I'm thinkin' that Ferrari switched to fiberglass on the 412 not so they could paint them but so that they could make the bumpers a little more robust (not sure if they carried over the inner box tube construction though). It doesn't take much to dent the thin box tube inside, and there are tricks to hammering them out to make it new again so long as it hasn't been crushed

 

I have a brand new rear in the box. Shows the number for the 412 looks the same as my 365 GT4/2+2 It is a black urethane/rubber material and is unpainted. The new frnt bumper was a light tan endura type bumper. I painted it black to match original which was a rubber molded over metal. Are the latest replacements from Ferrari fiberglass?

 

does anyone know what stall rpm converter was placed in the GM TH400 transmission and can anyone tell me what stall would be a better match with the V12's torque curve?

 

I remember a while back Ken mentioning fiberglass bumpers & thought it was from the 412.


http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/365-gt4-2-2-400-412/248405-bumper-refinishing.html