New Guy - Moving to Italy - Want to Buy First Ferrari - Thoughts?

I've seen those. Great series. Too bad the prices have jumped; tough to find a Urraco or Merak for under $30,000 unless it's been wrecked. Can still get into a 308 GT4, but will take some looking, I think.

Scott

 

Figure it's time to update this thread.

Bought a very clean 1999 318i to use as a beater. Wife has managed to run into an inanimate object with it already, so it's not as pristine as it was when we bought it. Our Infiniti FX-37 finally arrived from Korea (90 day trip), but we try not to use it when going to Naples.

Driving in Naples is INTENSE, and FUN! It's nerve-wracking until you learn how the locals drive. Having said that, we're not in Naples proper very often; live about 35 km north of the city and my commute to work is about 1.5 km.

Found a nice house, secure, with a very large garage - with a little planning, it will fit two cars and a large assortment of tools, toolboxes, sandblast cabinet, drill press, welder, benches, etc, etc.

As for the car search, the CFO and I were definitely not on the same sheet of music. I was thinking Ferrari, but she was thinking Fiat. After realizing that if I bought a Ferrari, I would need to retain a divorce attorney, I immediately plopped down $50k for a sweet 308 GT...just kidding...

I ended up narrowing down my search to one car -- the 1970-1975 Alfa Romeo GT Junior smooth-nose (I prefer these to the step nose or "Scalino"). Second place was the Fiat Dino coupe, but a nice Alfa can be bought at half the cost of the Dino, parts are readily available, and there are 40 GT Juniors for every Dino on the market.

I looked at several, but most were fluffed up turds with shoddy bodywork evident under shiny paint.

The car I ended up with is a 1972 GT Junior 1300. I picked it up for 12,000 euros, or about $13,500 U.S. It's quite original, and appears to have had only one repaint many years ago. The car will need a bit of metal work, but I don't think I will find too many surprises when I strip it down.

It runs and drives now, but as soon as my tools arrive (they're on their way over from the U.S. now) and I get the garage set up, it will be time to set all ratchets to counter-clockwise and tear it apart for a full resto.

Will be interesting working on a DOHC all aluminum engine -- looks like a toy compared to the big American V-8s that I'm used to messing with, but at 2,000 lbs, you don't need 500 hp to get it moving.

Plan is to maintain the stock-ish appearance, but with upgraded drivetrain (2 liter engine of the same vintage), upgraded suspension and brakes, and restored/upgraded interior. I'll bring it back to the states when I'm done.

Thanks for all the input! See below for some Italy pics, pics of my new toy, etc.

Scott

At the Colosseum in Rome. We're about 2.5 hours south of Rome.


Amalfi Coast - Gorgeous scenery and incredible driving! About 30 minutes from northern suburbs of Naples where we live.


Sidewalk cafe - the CFO and I are enjoying our favorite "appetizer" - vino rosso!



Our rental house. You can see Mount Vesuvius and the Mediterranean from the roof.


My new toy!


1.3L DOHC all aluminum 4 cylinder.

 

Todd -

I'm quite familiar with the rule. They beat you over the head about it at the vehicle registration office in Gricignano. That's why I spent a lot of time looking for this car -- we have three already (Infiniti, BMW, Alfa), so if I bought something that ended up looking a lot worse than I thought I can't sell it to buy another one.

Speaking of vehicle registration, for an American buying from an Italian and registering in the American system it's a royal pain in the ass. Much worse than buying a car in the states.

If I wanted another vehicle I would look into buying something and not registering it through the military. Not sure what the drawbacks would be but worth exploring

Scott