BUYER BEWARE - SWITCHCARS!!

Anyone considering purchasing a car from Doug at Switchcars, BEWARE! You will get exactly what was represented to you and be treated like a human being and a member of a special "club". You will not be treated like a number and you will be left smiling from ear to ear when the car arrives safely from a reputable shipper looking exactly as you expected!

Doug, thanks for an incredibly smooth transaction. Whether it was taking a phone call during his vacation or picking up the phone on a Sunday, Doug is more than just a "dealer"; his passion for cars and his desire to truly make you a repeat client is why I love cars in general.

Also, a special thanks to my friends, Francis and Tony, at Algar Ferrari. As always, they were willing to help in making this happen. Even helping me with a deal that they didn't have to assist on, they were there for me - again, the reason I love cars.

Now for the fun. Most of you know that I have found my way in and out of more cars than Carter has liver pills. I have often wondered why I can't find a car that truly fulfills the need and my soul for more than a few months...sometimes a few weeks Most who know me well, however, know that the Challenge Stradale has always kept a special place in my heart. Having had 2 in my past, I have OFTEN questioned why I always had the pent up desire to have one back in the stable. Well, not only did I find one with FChat roots, but it captures exactly what I wanted in a CS!

Rossa Corsa, OEM stripe, all alcantara, awesome options and a truly beautiful car. My 2 prior CS's with stripe delete and I often looked at the stripe as being "pedestrian", "silly", an "add-on". My wife calls the CS stripe an "pizza box". I gotta tell you guys. This car truly captures what the CS is all about.

Over the past couple of days, I tried to ascertain exactly what it is about the CS that keep many focused on Stockpro's CS market thread. Why is it that those who sell a CS always want to know where the car lands and when it's back on the market. I don't follow the lineage of other Ferraris, Porsches or other cars I owned...so, why a CS?

I figured it out and for me it goes like this. The CS seems to me to be a Ferrari creation which was somewhat of an after thought...a rash decision made by a company that decided it needed to do something with the spare parts left over from the 360 Challenge cars. In building the CS, I almost feel (even if it's not the truth) that the decision to build it came from a gut instinct to "just do it". It wasn't built after a management team or a design team presented an engineered concept to the President. It was just built. It wasn't put through a rigorous artistic design department to fancy covers for the floor boards, or the welds. It wasn't considered that, when crafting the carbon fiber doors, that the door wells should be polished so that it would feel smooth to the touch of the hand. It was just built. Welds were left exposed; carbon fiber left rough and unfinished, a radio? Maybe; maybe not but if you want it, the radio will dangle below the dash.

whether this is just my perception or the truth, does it matter? Perception truly IS reality.

So, consider the Scuderia. the F430 version of the "track car". Why wouldn't every CS owner naturally flock to the Scud? After all, it is better engineered, faster, better or the track and the road, and a more refined, yet raw car. Trust me when I say I am taking nothing away from the Scud in saying this (after all, I owned 2 of them AND a 16M), but the Scud was a creation. A metric on Ferrari's pro forma that showed that, at the end of the 430 lineage, they would build a track version of the 430. It was engineered, designed, considered, developed, processed, built and built for the masses. Again, not that this makes the Scuderia a lesser car or a POS. Instead, it is truly an amazing Ferrari that has incredible presence and performance wrapped into one package.

The CS exposes the weakness which will reside over every Ferrari built currently and in the future. Each will have a predetermined market, price, design and valuation ascribed by Ferrari. The CS to the Ferrari is like the Carrera GT to the Porsche. It is something created without consideration of mass appeal; without consideration of whether the end result would be X% margin. And, if it was, it doesn't feel that way when you drive it.

I think of the cars I have owned in recent years.....2 458 Italias, 16M, 2 Scuderias, Porsches times infinity, 430 coupe, 360 spiders.....the list goes on. Stepping into this CS - a car which was built more than 8 years ago - you feel something different. the shifts are not that of the dual clutch 458, the race mode isn't prompted from a manetinno switch on the steering wheel. Yet, with every blip of the paddle, every turn in a curve and the pure visual bliss of its stance and raw flavor, it bleeds Ferrari passion. A true religion that can't be explained.

I'm hoping many who don't truly understand the following that this car has will take the time to understand it by buying one or at least finding an owner and driving in one for a spirited run. Those who don't understand will profess the attributes of the porsche turbo being a faster car zero to 60; or that the transmission is pedestrian compared to today's pdk or dual clutch technology. Those who understand it, will try to convince others why it is a keeper. For me, this will remain in my collection as possibly the last of a lost breed.

One last note: Andrew (Stockpro), you are always there for a CS phanatic in need; some question why you do what you do. Others don't understand why you do what you do. For me, and for many who "get it", thanks for all the wisdow, guidance and knowledge that you bestow upon the Ferrari community.

So happy to be driving a CS again!!
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i have heard about your buying habits all the way out here on the east coast

 

thanks for the note and looking forward to seeing you soon.

 

as an M owner as well, i can tell you that you won't regret the decision of buying a raw, visual monster like the CS. I use my F-cars so sparingly that the need to be "wowwed" when I am behind the wheel is essential. it is why every Porsche, BMW, MB and other varietal has always been fun but never exhilarating to me. The Scud and the CS pack a spirital punch that makes it so that it is essentially impossible not to be smiling from ear to ear.

One thing that has been said by Storybook and others in the past is that we are all so blessed to even have the opportunity to be enjoying these incredible machines. For anyone who has the means and has sat on the fence waiting for the right car at the right time, find the time to make the decision and go for it. Without question, life is amazingly short - for some, much shorter than expected or than should be. I plan to leave do everything in my power to squeeze every bit of juice out of this lifetime and in order to do that, you have to play as hard as you work. Like Phil Knight says, JUST DO IT@