Somewhere south of Milan, Italy (late 2010). Image Unavailable, Please Login Photo courtesy of Afshin Behnia
F50 JF at DK Engineering the day before yesterday. It’s time for a big 25th birthday. Discussing how to take her mechanical and aesthetic condition from 92% to 99% ‘Condition’ is only one of many quality dimensions of a supercar (others being originality, maintenance, history documentation, provenance, books, toolkit, accessories…) On most of these other quality attributes, F50 JF scores as high as they get after many years of patient constant, incremental and step-wise improvements. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Hi Jag, and the way she looks is the starting point of a 3-month journey. We can only ponder on how she will be at the end of it…
Beautiful example. Despite what some like to think, you can drive cars regularly AND maintain them at concours level. I’ve done this for years with my cars. It’s a commitment and takes serious dedication, but for those of us that enjoy that level of detail it’s how we derive pleasure in ownership. Definitely not for everyone but I love it.
Here are some more pictures of F50 JF (at roughly 92% on the 'condition' quality dimension) before going in for the Big Birthday to push it further up Image Unavailable, Please Login Note the cloudy lens Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login (Mark McCracken got the torch working after tracing the original manufacturer of the batteries and cleaning the circuitry) Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login A lot of the focus will be 'Under the Skin' - on the usually unseen parts. Image Unavailable, Please Login
As we are on the topic, we skimmed over 2 dimensions of quality (condition and accessories), we might as well add a third one, namely, maintenance. As an example of this, let us look at the annual services received by the car (with corresponding stamps in the Warranty and Service Book). It is not only impotant to have a large number of service stamps but they also need to be spread throughout the life of the car. For F50 JF, it looks like that: 1. Maintained & serviced regularly from delivery to present: A. 1st decade (1997 to 2006): Three services B. 2nd decade (2007 to 2016): Nine services C. 3rd decade (2017 to present): Six services 2. Eighteen services stamped in Warranty & Service book: 1. 1997: 1,000 km Service, Ferrari Auto Becker, 18/8/1997 2. 2000: Annual Service, Lackmann Officina Ferrari, 11/8/2000. Mileage: 5,660 km 3. 2002: Annual Service, Lackmann Officina Ferrari, 29/8/2000. Mileage: 7,530 km 4. 2007: Annual Service, The Supercar Rooms, 28/2/2007. Mileage: 8,941 km 5. 2009: Annual Service, The Supercar Rooms, 25/2/2009. Mileage: 9,381 km 6. 2010: Annual Service, The Supercar Rooms, 9/3/2010. Mileage: 9,589 km 7. 2011: Annual Service, The Supercar Rooms, 5/4/2011. Mileage: 9,710 km 8. 2012: Annual Service, The Supercar Rooms, 28/3/2012. Mileage: 9,873 km 9. 2013: Annual Service, The Supercar Rooms, 7/6/2013. Mileage: 10,042 km 10. 2014: Annual Service, The Supercar Rooms, 15/5/2014. Mileage: 10,187 km 11. 2015: Annual Service, Ferrari Maranello UK, 4/9/2015. Mileage: 10,303 km 12. 2016: Annual Service, Ferrari Maranello UK, 21/11/2016. Mileage: 10,354 km 13. 2017: Annual Service, Ferrari Maranello UK, 29/12/2017. Mileage: 10,356 km 14. 2018: Annual Service, Ferrari Maranello UK, 11/10/2018. Mileage: 10,373km 15. 2019: Annual Service, Ferrari Maranello UK, 16/12/2019. Mileage: 10,373 km 16. 2020: Annual Service, Ferrari Maranello UK, 19/11/2020. Mileage: 10,377 km 17. 2021: Annual Service, Ferrari Maranello UK, 16/11/2021. Mileage: 10,389 km 18. 2022: Annual Service, Ferrari Maranello UK, 25/07/2022. Mileage: 10,391 km. (I bought already a second Waranty & Services book for the future years as the original one is filling up). In many descriptions of cars sold at auctions or through dealers, it says 'last service was on...' which of course is totally besides the point. Also the services are one of the good mileage-traceability checks (given that mileage is so important to many, and so easily manipulated - even on the F50).
Finding the boots is a challenge. Cleaning them while preserving everything original takes patience and skill. Finding boxes is also a story and you also need the two sets of laces which came with the boots (red and black). Finally the original red dust covers need to be present too (and dry-cleaned). Below are some pictures for you, Ndugu. Set 1: Image Unavailable, Please Login Set 2: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Set 3: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Mark McCracken has his name on all the above sourcing and improvements (except the boots themselves which I did, along with more of them, over the years). Finally, here is a special flying boot picture (photography by Wilson Hennessy)... Enjoy! Image Unavailable, Please Login
106520 for sale at Collectors Garage. 179 km. $6,250,000. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login https://www.collectorsgarage.com/vehicles/2200068/1996-ferrari-f50
For clarification, it does have a Warranty & Service book, a Duplicato as issued by Ferrari SpA. Whenever the original Warranty & Service book is not available, a stringent application process has to be gone though via an authorized Ferrari SpA dealer who have to inspect the car and submit a request accompanied by ID photos to Maranello. Once the application has been processed and approved, the factory will dispatch an official replacement Warranty & Service booklet which is exactly the same as the one provided when the car was new, except it is stamped Duplicato where the supplying dealer would normally stamp the book. All the details are filled in apart from the name and address of the first owner. In the case of 106520 the Warranty & Service book has the car's full VIN number, the engine number 43925, and the name of the client listed as Damgaard Nielsen, Denmark (in Italian). It also states that this F50 was delivered on December the 19th, 1996 - quite the Christmas present. Obviously, Ferrari SpA has the Duplicato process in place because the need to replace happens fairly frequently, I have surmised that the originals get left in some sService Manager's drawer or in a file somewhere and forgotten. Many people are unaware that the factory will actually issue a replacement manual. The service part of the manual is blank for any servicing dealers to stamp. Of course, separately, any servicing this car has had throughout it's life can still be documented with individual invoices, so the loss of the original book if replaced by the factory does not negate the car's service history. FWIW I have been involved in the sale of more than one Ferrari Supercar which had a warranty book replaced by the Ferrari factory with a Duplicato manual, and I don't recall that this caused any issues with desirability or price once verified, because the cars were concerned were exceptional examples, of course others may have a different experience. My feeling on this this delivery-miles F50 is it will likely be purchased to sit in a delivery-miles collection and never driven. Assuming the condition is actually very nice (I intend to go and see it for myself next week in Los Angeles), the car is all-original, and the main ancillaries are there, the sale of this car will come down to a question of money.
