400 Cabriolet Stommel auctioned for €96K

The seller bought the car 112.500€ and lost 16.000€ in the resale. The current market is not as buoyant as it was 2 years ago, but there are a few things that do have an impact on the value of this specific car:

First : that's an elegant conversion, probably more refined than a pavesi, but "in person" I would tend to consider that the quality of (all) these cabs is lower than their uncut siblings. Look for instance at the door: definitively not something that would exit from Maranello.

Second : this particular car has received a tremendous amount of work, but it is not perfect either: the leather do show some wear (arm rest of the driver door), some carpets are missing in the trunk, the car does have XWX tires references, but comes with TRXs, the windscreen sticker shows 400GTAutomatic, a few bits and odds in the engine bay are annoying (odd ignition leads without the proper eylets, rusty accelerator levers, etc...). AC not working!

All in all ~100.000€ for a sound 400GT is a good price. Cutting the car does not make it more valuable.

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Pavesi and a few other do add some reinforcement tl the chassis, nothing so obvious on this one. But these reinforcements are probably not necessary.

This Ferrari was chosen because it actualy has a very strong chassis. The front suspension mount for instance is more refined than what I've seen on a daytona, and definitively more beefy. The rear-end is also not likely to flex.

As far as handling is concerned, the consensus is that these cars do not exhibit any bad habits. Perfect weight distribution (50/50), self levelers, a bit longer than its ancestor. Not better than a BB, but less scary.

For years these cars did not receive the maintenance they deserved, and their "bad reputation" is often based on cars with wornout bushings, dead self levellerd and 10 years old TRX. A well sorted out 400 is a very solid performer.

On the French press review dedicated to this specific cab, the driver did like it a lot. Same comment from the journalist who almost destroyed mine 10 years ago...

 

This chassis is not likely to bend. Even the stunt who crashed it over a pile of cars in Marseille did not crush the chassis.

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I notice they painted all the suspension parts black too. It’s a shame they’ve done all that engine work and underside clean up, but not plated the wishbones


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I don't mind the painted suspension, as this would be quite easy to fix. By contrast painting all the heatshied was not a smart idea. You can see that I also painted the aluminium heatshied on my car, but not the asbestos under the floor...

The fact that we are now so finicky about such details speaks volume regarding the level of expectation on these cars...

Back to the subject, my favourite cab is the Lorenz, as the upholstery is modified with great care and attention to details, but I still prefer the car with its factory roof...


(it's a picture I posted before the pandemic ... https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/how-about-some-pictures-of-our-365-400-412s.310857/page-27#post-146810064 )

 

"On top". I see what you did there.