what to do with a 67' 330 GTS with low mileage

I just love the look of a well-worn vintage Ferrari. In a world of over-restored trailer queens parked on lawns, cars like this say "I have a story. Let's go drive and I'll tell it to you!"

Sadly, I'm afraid the family may see the auction result and feel quite sick. This may easily go for a good number of college educations more than they received.

 

Clearly from the pictures the removed parts were reinstalled. Did they get it running as well?
Wrong steering wheel & shifter knob??

 

They obviously took it outside to photograph it, so why didn't they at least hand wash and rinse off the grime on the body and tires? Trying to make it look more authentically old?

 

I would be nice to rename the thread to include/apend the SN..

 

I think the motivation/intent here is to depict it in its 'frozen in time' (i.e. time-capsule) state, in the vein of a historic document, etc.

 

I find it fascinating that this is the subject I wrote about today and found this thread by accident.

Read this and let me know what you think.

A Ferrari Sleeping Beauty Has A Coating Of Grime, Spots Of Surface Rust And A Blackened And Cracked Windshield

 

David Gooding estimates $2 million as it is. I think the family could have done much better. $1 million is a low ball number in the market today.

 

That's an estimate that can very well be achieved, but it's not what has been taking place in the market. Good cars were selling for $1.5-$1.7 just months ago before the car sold. They should of put the car together to show that nothing is missing before selling it, which would create more value. Others estimated the car was worth $700K-$1.2MM when the car was introduced to us...

 

The estimates of $700K-$1.2MM did not take into account the Gooding 'barn find, dirt, grime, spots of surface rust and a blackened and cracked windshield and the Exciting Candidate for a Concours-Quality Restoration' factor - did they?

The opportunity to pay $2 million for a car that needs a $400K restoration and will then be worth $2 million is just too much for someone to pass up.

Take a look at these other Gooding success cases:

1966 Ferrari 275 GTB Alloy Long Nose - Preserved

A Dirty 1965 Ferrari 275 GTB Sells At Gooding For Big Bucks

More Dirt Pretending To Be Patina

 

An interesting example of "barn find" versus restored valuations will play out at Gooding among 300SL's. Two gullwings, same colors, same auction, one very original and one very restored: Unrestored or pristine? A tale of two Mercedes-Benz gullwings to play out at auctio | Hemmings Daily

 

i feel bad for schlegele.
his mom asks him for some help, he proceeds to gather the info to optimize the situation, and then she sells it out from under him at a price that is likely to be half of the ultimate price at auction. this is the kind of thing that creates family feuds for years afterwards.

either the mother was in severe financial straits, and the sons would not help her out, or she was not listening to her sons, or just wanted to spite them.

in any case, i really wish one of the sons had been able to put the car back together, with all of the parts they had in storage, and got it running, AND THEN decided how best to sell it. we might have had another ferrari fanatic on our hands, and the family would have realized so much more.

net/net, the mother (ultimately the rightful owner, i know) made a poor decision.

 

I think whomever gave you those estimates had motives. No way it was worth that little in a retail setting. Too late now, the seller left at least $500K on the table, so she got some bad advice from someone about the car's true value.

if you'll look at my first post on this subject, I suggested the car be auctioned at Gooding for a $2.5 million return. Ii may end up not fetching that- perhaps only 1.5 or 1.8, but the seller would have done much better heeding that advice. Someone duped the seller out of lots of money.

 

The Gooding web site does not publish an estimated price range for this Ferrari but David Gooding was quoted in an article in the “New York Times” where he said he expected the car to sell “in the neighborhood of $2 million.”

The elderly widow of the owner of this Ferrari who had this car in her garage for 45 years gets “about $1 million” while the auction company and the dealers get another $1 million if Gooding’s estimate is correct.

If my math is right then the elderly widow is paying about a 50% commission to sell an investment that her deceased husband made in 1969!

That’s something to think about.

 

If this Ferrari sells for a $2 million hammer price then Gooding collects $300,000 in commission combined from the seller and the buyer.

The elderly widow who owned this car for 45 years has potentially left about $900,000 on the table because she could have hired Gooding instead of the dealer who bought the car from her and her commission would have been 5% or $100,000 - plus transportation and some other small fees.

 

I would be surprised if this actually sells for $2m, but then again I'm far from an expert and am probably wrong. I'm much more curious about what will be done with the car after it sells than I am about the selling price.

 

Agreed. I tried to guide the son as best as I could. The focus was also on capital gains tax. If they would of sold the car for more bucks that would of gone a long way to pay the tax...

 

Selling commissions are negotiated, it can be more than 5% or it can be zero; there is no way of knowing. The buyer's commission is a straight 10%. Many owners will not sell at auction because they do not want to sale to become part of the public record. For all we know the widow may have received payment in some creative manner.

 

Gooding lists the car as a '67, I have it as a '66; can anyone else weigh in with certainty?

 

Probably sold new in 1967 or originally titled as a 1967.

 

Oh, I'm aware of how it happens - there are a ton of pre-1980 Euro cars here in the states that are wrongly titled as being a year newer than the car's actual age. But I'm wondering if Gooding (and/or anyone else) has information that suggests that it's actually a '67 and not a '66. It wasn't imported to the US until March, 1967, and the serial number falls right between other cars that were built in December, 1966.

 

Saw this on Yahoo and passing it on:

'Lost' Ferrari could fetch $2 million at auction

 

It is impossible to drive a barn find with 40 years of storage without doing a full restoration. Of course the mechanics have to be done. But the body too. After 40 years in a barn, specially if the car was driven before, and even if it has limited mileage, there is a lot of rot damage.
So to recondition the car would mean to dismantle it fully and do the minimum metal work which may include a large part of the bottom of the car and then reassemble the car with no new paint job and no chrome no electrics no etc done.

From experience this is not really possible and I have more experience on preservation than most as shown on 424(564)MD. But putting a new exhaust on a rotten floor is impossible! And if you start working on drivetrain and transmission you need for example to change the brake and fuel lines and if the bottom is corroded it is impossible. So the alternative is to do a full restoration and keep just the exterior paint and chrome as is but do the bottom metal work, the electrics etc. in my view this is no longer preservation, it is a full restoration that looks like it is preservation but everything that is needed to make the car work as new is done except the paint and external aspects and of course interior too is someone like sitting on derelict leather soiled by 40 years of storage.

Of course this is the issue of barn find , although they are usually garage find, but they would have to be bubble find in an isolated cocoon to ensure that everything is preserved as new and does not need to be attended to make the car workable.

Again this is based on experience, for the well known Mondial referenced above where we erased the top coat of paint by hand to let the original paint re appear.

It just also happened that the second car mentioned in the list above, the 65 GTB is also mine and undergoing a full restoration as a result of the above mentioned ( mental) process.

 

Agree completely; the hype and ridiculous $$ paid for the GTS is just ******* silly. Congrats to the middlemen who made the easy money.

 

As I said in my article on My Car Quest - A Ferrari Sleeping Beauty Has A Coating Of Grime, Spots Of Surface Rust And A Blackened And Cracked Windshield,

"So which is it – an example for Ferrari collectors and restorers or a candidate for a concours-quality restoration? It can’t be both."