Framed Ferrari 365GT4 2+2 Press Picture

Finally a worthwhile blog item to bring up. I got my hands on this unique framed picture. I don't recall seeing this particular photo before but it's clearly one taken in the same photo shoot for the official brochure and press pictures. What's even more interesting is the printed text on the back: not for publication before october 5th 1972. This would be truly a collector's item that should go together with the car in question. If you have to ask you can't afford.

 

Ferrari 400 Neiman Key - reserve

When I purchased my 400 it came without a reserve key. Something I only realized when someone approached me and told he could obtain blank Neiman keys. His local locksmith had still a few original blanks on stock.

According to the owners manual:

"Quoting the number printed on the key bow will be sufficient to obtain a replacement key from Ferrari's Sales Organization. Therefore our suggestion is to record these numbers upon delivery of the car".

Based on this text my guess is that the new cars were not delivered with a reserve key. Hard to believe so I could be wrong though.

In any case, as I hadn't one I was very eager to obtain one. So I followed up the instructions to get it. With help from the person in question I received the key today. I'm very pleased with it. Once more my appreciation Andreas for your kind gesture!

1 year of 400 blogging

Today it's exactly a year ago when I started this blog. It was just a start to keep track of some history on my 400 and to build up a little more knowledge. As some of you might have noticed this became rapidly some kind of addiction. Resulting in a daily update since. From time to time I have been looking into the stats and actually they surprised me, if not almost scared me. For those interested here are the stats of a year blogging:

In one year time almost 25k visitor hits. Clearly these were not unique visitors - but still. And also month on month a steep increase of hits. Last month it reached 3500 visits. Apart from sharing this blog with a very few persons at the start I never made any promotion for it.

I have seen some hits from various places but it was dominated by the USA, find hereby the top 10

 

The majority of the referrals were of course realized by Google searches. This is the top 10 of the blog articles that attracted the most interest:

 

Congratulations Peter, your YouTube 400 project was of most interest. And I can only agree with that as it was a very interesting capture of the work you did. Funny to see how much attention Asterix and Obelix attracted, I guess this blog ended up on some kind of comic forum. I'm however clueless why the Auto Becker poster generated so much interest.

So what's next. I have decided not to completely discontinue this blog. But for sure it will be less frequent. Furthermore I will try to make better quality updates instead, but this will simply depend on my mood and time available. I still have a few items on my target list and things to finish on my car.
And I'm sure I will bump into interesting finds soon or later. So watch this space!

And of course there is also the Facebook medium: https://www.facebook.com/groups/8727831092/
And the Fchat forum and the European F400 club. So plenty of opportunity to share and participate if you feel like it.

Last but not least, feel free to reuse anything from this blog or the download folder. Additionally, if you have anything to share regarding the 365/400/412 you are most welcome. If you think I can be of any help then also feel free to contact me.

Oh, one more stat, yesterday I did happen to have posted blog nr 500. I should have paid more attention and had that limited with 100 less ... oh well.

Thanks for reading and keep the 400 going,

Erwin 400

Ferrari 400i press picture

I found this picture for sale:

 

I recognized the picture, it's one produced by Neill Bruce:

http://www.ferraribyneillbruce.co.uk/pdfs/Ferrari%20Road%20Cars%20400%20&%20412.pdf

Ferrari 400 Automatic for sale

For this 400 I make an exception:

http://www.ssmotors.com.tr/indexeng/detay/5694

Simply because it was on my target list:

http://erwin400.blogspot.nl/2013/11/the-hunt-part-v.html

When I found out my car was in the archive of the EPS exhaust manufacturer
(see blog http://erwin400.blogspot.nl/2014/08/eps-uitlaten-exhaust-ferrari-400.html ) I also noticed
this car went to the same company and was listed in the photo archive:

The listed price might be somewhat optimistic but fits in with the rising trend ...

Ferrari Shell Lego

Today slightly off-record. I'm participating in the Shell Ferrari Lego contest. I have submitted the photo below. I would appreciate any support to get as much votes in order to win a family trip to Legoland. As I spend so much time on the 400 my family deserves something in return ;-)

It's simple, just click on the following link http://stack.la/fqTFK5 This will transfer you to the landingspage with all submitted pictures. Look up my picture and hit the "hart icon" to give me a vote.

If I don't get 100 votes in the coming 2 days I will discontinue this blog. Only joking.

For the foreigners interested in the picture. The contest is about making a photo with the Lego cars at a known hotspot in the Netherlands. I have taken this picture at Madurodam : http://www.madurodam.nl/en/ Which in it self is a known "highlight". Since it's all about miniatures I thought the lego Ferrari racers would fit in nicely. The particular hotspot I choose is the famous cheese market in Alkmaar: http://www.kaasmarkt.nl/welcome.asp?lang=0 It doesn't get anymore Dutch then this. Say Cheese!

Ferrari 412 for sale in Japan

I wonder how many 365/400/412 there are in Japan. Here's another fine exemplar with a good selling point.

http://caesar.co.jp/collection/412bluefe/87fe412.html

Ferrari 412 : living on the edge

I just added this Japanese article to the online section:

http://magazine.carsensor-edge.net/vintageedge/category_767/_8337.html

translation:

https://translate.google.nl/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=nl&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fmagazine.carsensor-edge.net%2Fvintageedge%2Fcategory_767%2F_8337.html&edit-text=&act=url

Ferrari 400 spot : Freddy Heineken

And another spot. Since it's such a beauty I will make an exception for it:

http://www.autojunk.nl/2014/10/ferrari-400i-automatic-5

Car Design News : Concept Car of the Week: Ferrari Pinin (1980)

Why not, another article regarding the Pinin. The article ends with a referal to the 400:

http://www.cardesignnews.com/site/home/new_cars/display/store4/item308371/

If you fancy this, then also read my blog:

http://erwin400.blogspot.nl/2014/01/ferrari-pinin-sergio-pininfarina-enzo.html

Car July 1977 - LJK Setright Drives The Ferrari 250 GT, 275 GTB4, 365 GTB4 Daytona, Dino 246 Spyder & 365 GT4 2+2

I just added this article to the download folder

Ferrari 400 Schedoni luggage valigeria suitcase

Last week I noticed in the stats a high amount of hits on this blog post:

http://erwin400.blogspot.nl/2013/12/ferrari-set-di-valigeria-sets-of.html

When checking further I noticed this was caused by a referral coming Fchat. To be more specific from this thread in the 308/328 section:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/308-328/463302-s-schedoni-luggage-set.html

Apparently someone was offered a specific Schedoni Luggage set which was hard to identify to which model it belonged. But they figured out it belonged to a 400. As can be read, it was unfortunately an incomplete set. If you ever come across a complete set please let me know.

Note the heavy locking clasps on the two bags:

Back to the future - Ferrari Factory visit 1973 - Ferrari 365 GT4 2+2

This is the website I was referring to in earlier blogs:

http://www.ferraribyneillbruce.co.uk/Catalogues.html

It does contain some very cool material. The PDF catalogue Ferrari Factory visit 1973 does contain a section about the 365 GT4 2+2. See hereby the copyright pictures by Neill Bruce:

Because I did fancy the assembly picture very much I got in contact with Neill. I placed an order to get it printed in A4 format. I received it yesterday and it looks great (despite it's a inkjet print). I have it now framed and will put it up in the hallway.

In case you are interested, it costed 20,40 GBP (incl. VAT and shipping). Neill is a very responsive and friendly contact. If you place an order please pass on my regards to him.

Ferrari 400 Auto photo

As per earlier blog, I came across this nice website with an interesting list of photographs. When checking the catalogue I noticed this picture:

 

I recognized it as it was used as a press picture. See my blog: http://erwin400.blogspot.nl/2014/06/ferrari-365gt4-22-ferrari-400-gt.html

 

 

 

 

The picture was also used in this book:

http://erwin400.blogspot.nl/2014/03/book-ferrari-4-seaters-v12-pininfarina.html

 

 

 

 

Autosport 1977 - Road Test - Ferrari 400 Automatic Excitement

I just have added this article to the download folder. And a great quality article may I add. Finally some justified words regarding the automatic version.

The author also interestingly mentions the fact there is a 10% mismatch on the speedometer when driving 150 mph. Something I mentioned earlier as well. Here you can see supporting evidence using the GPS:

 

Update: Hmm, turns out the upload of a HD movie on this blog gets loaded onto YouTube and decreases the quality a lot. Not sure for now how to improve this.

Paris Motor Show 2014 - Cars and Fashion exhibition

this blog was triggered by a FB update on https://www.facebook.com/groups/8727831092
Why don't you join? It's becoming lively again with nice postings.

http://www.mondial-automobile.com/en/visitors/discover-the-show/cars-and-fashion-exhibition/

In any case, this particular update reminded me about the following YouTube clip:

1979 Ferrari 400i (ex personal car of Gabonese President) displayed as guest star and surrounded by Crazy Horse top models - Salon du Coupé et du Cabriolet - April 2004.
Music from "Once Upon a Time in America" (Morricone)..

William Vaccari - il tubista - Ferrari chassis 365GT4 2+2

Last week I ran into this photographer website which held very interesting photo’s regarding different brands, including Ferrari.

One of these pictures was about the chassis building for the 365 GT4 2+2. This was done at Vaccari. I had not heard of this company before. Yes, I’m still a novice. I quickly checked and can see they are still around, but now under the name “Vaccari-Bosi”

Their website http://www.vaccariebosi.com/veb/index.htm does contain a nice history on the company and how they became supplier for Ferrari. Apart from this I wasn’t able to find much more on this company or any other supporting material. So I guess this is quite a unique picture:

The GT4 2+2 chassis was built by Vaccari, and here fibreglass bulkheads are rivetted to it, before it goes to Pininfarina for body fitting.

 

You would expect a little more interest and information since they have build a lot of frames for many Ferrari models.

At the time when I was about to buy my 400 I had taken the morning off for a inspection to be done by a independent specialist. I asked my manager permission to take the morning off. Of course he was interested in what I was up to. So I told him I was going to buy a car but first wanted to have it further inspected. So the next logical question was about the car brand. Since he asked about it I simply told him. Not sure if that was a clever thing to mention.

In any case, the inspection took longer as expected and also resulted in finalizing the deal in the afternoon (not something I had foreseen). As such I called my manager to inform him about the situation so I could get the afternoon off as well. Which was not a problem.  He kindly informed my team as well. Not knowing he briefed them and stating the reason as well; he bought a Ferrari.

 

As my purchase raised a bit of interest I figured to share by email a little information (prewarn them it was not red, not curvy, automatic, disliked model, etc) and some supporting pictures about the car. One of the pictures included was a detailed shot from underneath during the inspection. My manager replied with the following; “I might be one of the rare likers. Especially the welding of the chassis is a piece of craftsmanship".

Typical techie response. Although I'm working in a ICT environment my manager had a background in mechanical engineering. But he was so right.

Ferrari 400 dash ready for patterning

Just catched this, could be potential interesting. Didn't check it further yet.

Ferrari 400 dash ready for patterning pic.twitter.com/vf16Crr1vc
— M&K Auto Upholstery (@MKAU5) 3 oktober 2014

Modern Motor Jan 1977 Supercar! Speed at a pinch Ferrari 365 GT4 2+2

I just added this article to the download folder. Happy reading everyone. Note the remark regarding the automatic transmission. Later this week another road test - stay tuned.

 

 

Update: typical I just found this magazine cover in my archive. Same license plate. Judging on the location and wheel postion likely a picture from the same photo shoot.

 

 

Ouch - Empty body Ferrari 400i

I just added this company to the parts section: http://www.ital-spares.com/

 

Update 31-1-2016: I just noticed this body got offered for sale on Ebay for € 5.500,-

 

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Ferrari-365-GT4-2-2-original-body-no-chassis-original-Karosserie-ohne-Rahmen-/201513885878?