How much should I insure this car for?

Well, it's time to renew my collector car insurance and I think I need to adjust the agreed value on the Dino. It's currently insured for $127K and I don't think I could come anywhere near replacing it for that? I know some of you are looking and are aware of the market, so how much would it cost to replace this one?

This is the summary I sent to the insurance company:


According to its serial number and Heritage Certificate, 2840 was built in late 1971 (Oct 27) and left the factory with Giallo Senape paint and black interior. According to the previous owner, it was imported in 1974 by Al Bertoni of Milano Imports in Gilroy, California, and already had its 40 IDF carburetors at that time. The car was modified from European form only enough to pass the DOT inspection. From what I can tell, this involved only replacing the tiny Euro side marker lamps with the USA style units and fabricating air injection tubing on the headers (which were never actually attached to anything). The car still has metric instruments, and has the beautiful flush British market front running lights style. The receipts in my possession begin in August 1980 at 24,725 km, when the car was known as “Black Bart” and “lived” in the Gilroy area.

Sometime in 1982, at 26,752 km (16,586 miles), the car dropped a valve; and the head and cylinder bore were damaged. In May 1982 it was taken to an independent repair facility in San Francisco. The machine shop to which the heads were sent set the valve seats in 2mm too deep, making it impossible to adjust the valves. Apparently this ruined the heads, as a lawsuit ensued (regarding which I have a thick file of papers) and another used engine was purchased.

The car spent August 1984 to February 1986 at Ferrari of Los Gatos, where a complete mechanical restoration was done. This included a complete rebuild of the engine and transmission including new pistons and synchromesh rings, new Koni shock absorbers, alternator, fan motors, etc.

The body was sent out for painting in red following stripping to bare metal and replacement of all rusty areas in the sills and doors with new metal. In September 1984, the owner traveled to Europe and picked up $1300 in NOS parts at the factory. I have receipts for that as well as from Ferrari of Los Gatos for $14,228 for the engine work, $1800 for transaxle parts alone, and over $5,500 for non-engine mechanical work. The body and paint work was $4,200, while the black leather interior work was $2,000. (Remember this was 1986-- parts and labor were much cheaper then.

The car now has 43,905 km, or 27,221 miles, on the odometer. So it has traveled 10,635 miles since a complete mechanical and cosmetic restoration.
During that time it has not even been washed, much less driven in the wet, and carefully maintained.

THE STRATOS INDUCTION SYSTEM

I purchased the car with a fellow enthusiast friend in July 1987 from Lyle Tanner Enterprises at about 34,000 km. At that time, he offered to pay all costs for parts and labor to return the car to its stock induction system and engine cover configuration in exchange for the triple Weber 40 IDF carbs and Stratos intake manifold on the car. Because we liked the sound and appearance of the car as it was, we declined his offer.

In the early 1970’s Cesare Fiorio was Competition Director for Lancia, which gave him access to the 2.4 liter Dino engine as used in the Ferrari 246GT. The Lancia Stratos used this same engine to win the World Rally Championship three years straight, 1974 - 76. However, to do this it needed different carburetors. The stock Weber DCNF carbs on the Dino are very short, and it is my understanding that they were designed especially for this application, because normal carbs would be too tall for the low-lying engine cover. Because of the compromises necessary in their design, 1) their venturis are too short to provide optimal fuel atomization and cannot be changed, 2) the jets cannot be changed easily, and 3) they starve the engine of fuel on left turns. Any Dino owner (except me) will have experienced number 3. Most mid-engined cars, the Dino included, suffer from trailing throttle oversteer at the limit. This means that as you lift off the throttle, the tail moves out. If you are at the limit of adhesion, this could result in the car leaving the road in a spin. Therefore, this left turn fuel starvation issue is not just a nuisance because it does the same thing as you lifting the throttle.

The Weber IDF (or DFI) carb is essentially the vertical version of the DCOE. Not only is this carb taller than the DCNF, but the Stratos intake manifold is taller, to provide more torque at lower revs for rally use. Therefore, some creative Italian was faced with the challenge of modifying the engine cover to allow the air filter to protrude above the stock engine cover. This was done by making a fiberglass copy of the forward portion of the raised area in the cover and mounting it 5 cm (2 “) above the cover, the cover having an aperture cut in it to allow the air filter to protrude above it. Because of the shadow created, the air filter is not visible within. An air filter assembly with a velocity stack for each carb throat was then created, these being brazed to a flat alloy plate that formed the bottom of the air filter unit. A K+N trapezoidal filter surrounded each pair of carb throats, with another flat alloy top plate sealing the upper surfaces. Recalling the plexiglass velocity stack covers on the hoods of the great Ferrari front engined racers of the 50’s and 60’s, I made a Lexan top plate to replace the alloy one. Combined with a single Fram air filter element, the velocity stacks can now be seen and enjoyed without having to remove the top plate.



Upon purchase, it seemed to us that there was some question about how the carbs were adjusted; so we took the car to a chassis dyno. We discovered that 1) the carbs were not jetted optimally, 2) the stock fuel pump was starving the engine at high revs, and 3) the points ignition system was breaking up at high revs. The dyno owner, who specialized in vintage racers and classic cars, suggested that we replace the stock fuel pump with a Holley unit with pressure regulator and upgrade to electronic ignition. We did as he advised, using an Allison photocell trigger and Jacobs coil and wires for the ignition, and brought the car back for over three more hours of dyno time. During this session, the carbs were rejetted and the fuel and ignition problems were confirmed to have been cured.

About 10 years ago I purchased a stock intake manifold, air box, 3 DCNF carbs, and 3 rebuild kits for them from Bill Rudd Motors. This was mainly in case the state smog laws became more strict and I needed to revert back to a stock setup. I also have a USA spec smog air pump with its special alternator and large mounting bracket for the same reason. Fortunately, even the “referees” I took the car to had never seen a Dino before and therefore never said anything about my induction system not being stock. Now California exempts all cars 1975 and older from all smog checks, so it is not a problem.

Some maintenance notes:

10/87 Valve clearances and chain tension of rear banks checked. All OK.

5/88 Right rear brake pads were dragging. Caliper, rotor, and brake line replaced.

9/89 Replaced clutch, pressure plate, and cable; resurface flywheel, alternator rebuilt.

7/90 Replaced exhaust system rearward of headers.

2/97 Foam in driver’s seat replaced.

7/97 Adjustable rev limiter added to electronic ignition. (This was done not because I flog the car, but rather to prevent engine destruction in the event that the throttle jammed.)

11/98 Brake booster rebuilt by White Post Restorations, vacuum valvereplaced.

10/99 Installed remote battery shutoff switch with removable key and remote Battery Manager connector. (This seems trivial, but the battery on these cars is below the spare in the the front compartment. Since these cars are not driven frequently, one must therefore drive without the spare, so you can disconnect it between drives, or pull out the rather heavy spare to get to the battery to charge it every so often. The latter is a real nuisance and will eventually result in the battery being dead when you want to take the car out for a drive or being stranded somewhere.)

3/00 Detailed engine compartment, checked all valve clearances (front and rear banks). Cams and chains tensions inspected by Drew Kelley of Italian Motors-- all fine.

9/00 Rear suspension bushings replaced, suspension arms and springs powder coated. Rear wheel wells refinished. Door panels replaced.

1/2010 43475km CHANGE COOLANT AND MAIN UNDERCAR COOLANT HOSES, REBUILD ALTERNATOR W NEW STATOR, REPLACE VOLTAGE REGULATOR, ALTERNATOR BELT, REPLACE RADIATOR FAN TEMPERATURE SWITCH W 175 deg ONE, BYPASS ALTERNATOR 60 AMP FUSE AT ENG COMPARTMENT BLOCK, REPLACE R INNER CV BOOT CLAMP, REPAIR HEADLIGHT SWITCH

4/2011 Steering rack rebuilt, front calipers rebuilt, all brake hoses replaced.
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The engine cover would not be replaced to return the car to stock. You would just have to butt-weld in a piece to fill in the relatively flat portion that is missing.

As you know, there never was such a thing as a "replacement Dino engine cover" because these cars were all made by hand. I once spoke with an expert body man with experience who said it's easier to make a new piece from scratch than to make one fit from another car. His price for a new entire piece was like $1-2K, IIRC, but that would not be needed.

The insurance expert suggested $175K because in his mind the unique features make it MORE valuable.

What would a car like sell for in stock condition? Because it could be returned to stock for what the Stratos stuff could be sold for, I think that's probably a reasonable way to think of it.

 

I went with the $175K value, as I realized it probably would actually cost that much to replace the car.

All cars have a range of prices, of course. There is the "you-have-3-dealers-at-your-door-with-cash-in-hand-on-the-first-day-the-ad-comes-out" price and the "it-took-me-2-years-but-I-got-what-I-wanted" price, and a reasonable market price in between.

I'd want to get a sum that meant I could replace my car reasonably quickly.