I am looking to buy a 550. mainly a 98-99 ( due to high import tax this model is OK) Does anyone know of any good sites in US? I have searched for some cars in Europe since I live here, but some prices in US seems to good not to check it out. Mainly looking for 550 with Carbon seats, and hopefully with sports exhaust and low milage. Not interested in red cars Mainly black but I like other colours as well. Anyone knows if the carbon seats 550 are a special model or just an option? thanks a
Try here: http://sanfranciscosportscars.com/1998-ferrari-550-maranello/ The business is owned by the former sales manager of a local Ferrari dealership who I have nothing but good things to say about.
Please note that American spec cars are different from European cars, and selling the car on in Europe would be an issue later. It sounds like you are importing into Europe? Can't imagine why. American 550's are not cheaper if you take import duties and shipping into account, let alone a flight out there to inspect the car. I would seriously consider buying European if I were you, even in high-tax Holland I know a very nice 550 for EUR63k (that's $82k) for sale at this moment. There is not a single US car you can import for that kind of money, let alone a nice one. Onno
+1 Trying to find a 550, anywhere in the world, with carbon seats is hard enough. Finding an example that isn't red with those seats is neigh on impossible. I'm not sure who made the option seats at the time, as Ferrari used several different manufacturers over the years (for the 360, Sparco was used, the 575, recaro and for the 599 GTO, Sabelt). You can get the seats from them and have an individual company retrim it exactly how you want it and emboss the Ferrari logo (for instance, if your interior is black with red stitching, it isn't going to look nice if the seats are all black and have sparco written across them). That's what I'd do. With the exception of barchetta's, I can't find a single EU 550 at the moment with the racing seats. Not sure how many 550s there are with the factory sports exhaust option, but an alternative can be a tubi exhaust, or my personal favourite, a combination of quicksilver mufflers, hyperflow cats and an X-pipe, can be heard here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7VL9MQvlLI&playnext_from=TL&videos=aK0QuFHeK9w EDIT: check the websites www.mobile.de , a massive market place with many Ferrari's etc on it, and www.autoscout24.com.
I have found a black one with carbon seats. Looks very nice, but the photos are few and very bad. looks like they used an Iphone inside a dark room. They are also very slow with answering, and answer just 30% of my questions. Hopefully they will answer me and supply better photos. I guess the carbon seats are much lighter than the original too. I didnt come with the original car cover. but I have a spear one
Should I assume that you are referring to the black 550 with carbon seats at Smith Volvo in San Luis Obispo, Calif? That is a 31,000 mile example that is on consignment and they are very firm on their 70K price because it is a consignment. I inquired on this car a couple of times and they are very slow to respond...probably because the dealership owner was the one who finally responded. Looks like a nice car with the BBS wheels and other goodies.
The standard seats including the electric stuff are very heavy, around ~40 KG a piece IIRC...and you have two of them. Carbon ones, with manual adjustment, shouldn't weigh much more than 10KG each, so you shave off the weight of a medium sized woman on that alone! Taking it a little further, the actual back boxes of the car are very heavy too, 19 KG EACH! Get some lighter ones made up and you can save an additional 35 KG or so (get them made out of titanium ). That's 100KG saved, which is quite a lot if you think about it, through very little work with barely any visual effect. If you keep all the original parts and swap them back before selling it shouldn't hurt the resale either, for those who care about it.
Nope! the car I am referring to is in Italy. I just got a short mail from the shop ,and they are going to supply me with more photos. Problem is that Car cover is missing, and the service book too!!!!!! A Ferrari without a service book around here is very hard to resell if it´s not for free!! Any suggestions? Is it possible to get a new service book from ferrari? and get it documented as long as you can recall which ferrari dealer who took the service? Give them the new, and let them stamp the new one? weight reduction is good Buying a titanium exhaust should lighten my wallet as well
No buying a good car because it is missing a cover you probably won't use is not sensible A service history to my eyes is more important than a service book
For an entire system, yes...Back boxes alone shouldn't be expensive at all You can also get a very simple system made up of stainless steel, any shop should be able to do this for you. Not sure how loud it will be though...Although with all the catalysts in place it won't be THAT loud.
Bas, amen- Personal opinion is it is a waste of time spending big bucks reducing weight on a 1700+ kg car with that much torque. Lose 50 kgs and it is less than 3% of weight. Even less with one or two people in the car. You would not even be able to feel or measure the difference in acceleration or cornering speed. If you like the sports seats, great, but buying them or a titanium exhaust for a 550 or 575M is more or less a waste of money compared to the regular seats and an aftermarket stainless steel system if weight loss is why you are buying them. Plus it is nearly impossible to keep titanium from tarnishing, so you need SS or chrome tips at any rate. This is not some svelte mid-engine car. It is a very fast, very comfortable grand tourer. You would go a lot faster overall by putting FHP in the car so you could go faster around corners than miniscule reductions in weight.. Taz Terry Phillips
Of course the car cover is no big deal. It was just a fact. I would have bought any good ferrari without a cover. But.... when the service book is missing there are a lot of bells ringing in my head...even red flashing lights!! If they cant find the book there is no way that I am going to buy that car! Weight reduction is not a thin that I would spend money on. I like carbon seats and weight reductions come with them. However I have to pay around 60.000 EUR only in tax for a 98/99 550.( based on the buying price, horse power, engine cccm, year of registration and weight) so any weight reduction (like carbon seats) means less tax.
I totally agree that if one wants a light, nimble Ferrari, it's better to start of with a light, nimble Ferrari in the first place . IIRC this is based on the factory quoted weight written on the registration document...
tax is calculated with factory numbers, but have scheccked the weight several times and found the imported car lighter than the figures from factory. Then you just send a approved document of the actually weight and you get money back The links of the car with BBS wheels didnt appeal to me. I dont like the BBS wheels, and they changed the gear knob and did something terrible to the shelf behind the seats. I got mail form Italy today telling me they were going to supply me with more photos, and that they had called the owner of the car who had all the books for the car including the service book.
I have found a black 96 550 with upgraded fiorano and Carbon seats. Interior is Daytona style seats and shelf. car has only 20.000km. The plan is to have a look at the car within 2 weeks. Hopefully this is the one
finally I have bought a 550. It didnt work out with the black one, but found a very good grey metallic with red leather. Car has low km, and is in a very good condition. Fiorano, tubi and carbon seats. Will drive for about 15 hours tomorrow
Congratulations. Please post some photos. The sport seats were much more common in Europe than in the US. Taz Terry Phillips
