Motor Klassik Spezial Oldtimer & Geld : Service Kosten Ferrari 365 GT4 2+2, 400 GT, 400i und 412

And another German article submission by Roland. It's now available in the download folder.

Wartungskosten HOCH (no surprise there).

Auto Zeitung 1973 - Der Traum vom Auto : Ferrari 365 GT4 2+2

Yes, another time period German article. Credits goes to Roland's donation. It's now available in the download folder.

I really like these time period articles. From the ones I have collected so far the journalists are quite impressed with the new 365GT4 2+2, both technical and aestethic. The new sharp design was back then well received, even though it might not have fitted the typical Ferrari profile. I can imagine that half way the eighties and nineties this effect faded away and even became impopular or considered outdated.

In any case, this article has some very nice statements:

- Schlicht und ohne Wucht-Effekt: Die Elegant und perfekt verabeitete Karrosserie.
- Dieses Coupé strahlt Faszination aus.
- Gepflegtes Understatement, made in Torino.

The selling price in 1973 is a stunning German DM 89,875,-

For those who can read German, viel spass!

Foto's: What a car!!! Ferrari 400GT

A very cool foto shoot indeed. What a beauty - an extremely rare 400 GT with fab color.
And only positive comments so far. I don't see it listed yet on their own website though.

http://www.autojunk.nl/2015/11/what-a-car-ferrari-400gt

https://www.facebook.com/carcave?_rdr=p

http://carcave.be/

Do's & Dont's : La Transmission Automatique

https://www.blenheimgang.com/dos-donts-la-transmission-automatique/

Think  again:

- http://erwin400.blogspot.nl/2014/12/enzo-ferrari-dino-taggliazucchi-chic.html

- http://erwin400.blogspot.nl/2015/09/ferraris-automatic-revolution-by-david.html

Just coming back to the Blenheim article, the 928 intrigues me from a technical and design perspective. It's certainly high on my wanted list. Just like the 400 it's a unliked model. And if I'm not mistaken also the first Porsche with an automatic gearbox. And just like the 400 the majority of the 928 first time buyers opted for the automatic gearbox (80%). Unlike the Ferrari 400 I have not read many negative feedback about the automatic usage in the 928. Which is odd, as Porsche also equals sports/race car. As known, the 928 was intended to replace the 911, so from that perspective you wouldn't expect an automatic version either. Remarkably the 928 uses a Mercedes-Benz automatic gearbox - initially also a 3-speed. Although I have never driven a 928 it looks like a agile car to me (compared with the 400), so from that perspective I would say a manual gearbox would be more appropiate. Then again, it's not a light weight sports car either. So why does an automatic gearbox suit the 928 better then a 400? Or put it differently, why is it acceptable for a 928 and not for a 400? Both are equally true 2+2 GTs.

Ouch!

For the records, this is a 1979 Auto Carb RHD with 88k miles. I thought this was a new one. But it's a known one and already in my archive.

1974 Pininfarina Ferrari 365 GT4 2+2 press photo

I got my hands on this unique picture. On the back is written 1974. I'm aware of another picture from the same serie. Never seen this one before though.

Ferrari 412 Schedoni luggage / suitcase set

An older tweet I had ignored for a while but still had to update on my blog. It's the first time I have seen an actual Luggage set going for sale for the 400/412 series.

Asta #AGUTTES "Automobile de Prestige et de Collection" 7 11 2015 Set Schedoni Ferrari 412 Vendute a 2.728 euro pic.twitter.com/VqemB4bKlx

— il ferrarista (@ilferrarista) 13 november 2015

Hereby the link to the catalogue with its results.

http://www.aguttes.com/html/index.jsp?id=24230&lng=en&npp=150

For the records, I captured the photos of the Luggage set. It seems it's a set of 4 items, but I think one smaller suitcase is missing, see bottom photo:

 

Targhetta adesiva scatola - Coperichio Scatalo Destra - Fuses box cover sticker

Remember this blog:

http://erwin400.blogspot.nl/2015/08/close-to-perfection-bootlid-bumper-stops.html

At the bottom of that blog you will read that I discovered that one of stickers on the inside of the fuse cover was missing. It was again an item which I figured was difficult to obtain. Untill someone pointed out to me they were listed on Eurospares (Grazie Dedo!). So I checked and simply ordered a pair:

#114251: Targhetta adesiva scatola Dx
#110361: Targhetta adesiva scatola Sx

Not cheap but worth the price in my opinion. I received them yesterday, so on my next visit I will have them placed. Judging on the back of these stickers I sense these are NOS and not new reprints.

more 400 owner history

Perhaps you recall this topic: http://erwin400.blogspot.nl/2014/08/ferrari-365400412-koni-load-levelers.html Maybe not. In any case, from time to time I do post a cool picture (at least I hope they are) on a few FB pages of my interest. One being the Fiat Dino group. On a Factory photo I posted I happen to notice it got liked by someone called Lapre. Funny I thought; I now come across his name after I briefly met him, wasn't aware he was in this group as well. Not much later I noticed another like from him on the FB page off Iso Rivolta. I shouldn't be surprised he's on these pages given his background. Out of curiosity I checked his FB profile. It turns out it was his son. So from there I jumped to his father's FB profile. Curious as I am I just had a look at his friends and contacts. To my great surprise I see that one of his connections is "Vroklage meubelen". Rings a bell? No?, read this again: http://erwin400.blogspot.nl/2013/10/monday-22nd-october-car-owner-history.html
Perhaps time to visit him, in fact I was quite curious to see his workshop. Another contact I see on his FB friends is someone who recently joined the Dutch Lancia Thema forum. With whom I'm now also connected due to his search for a cool 8.32  Typical how this all comes together. And today I'm contacted via my blog by someone who has an interest in the Koni shocks offered for sale in the workshop of Lapre. So far so good.

A little later I noticed on the FB group Iso Rivolta a posting by K. Vroklage (in combination with a yellow Iso Grifo). I suspect she must be a relative somehow.The above I ignored for a while untill I noticed a new post by K. Vroklage in the Iso Rivolta FB group. Since there are not much woman on these car fora it's quite noticable, plus her posting is quite a unique picture. This resulted in a few reactions by others. Remarkably one guy asks if she knows George Vroklage (the 2nd owner of my 400). She responds on it and mentions it's her uncle. The guy itself appears to be Dutch, who now lives in the USA and owns a car/appraisal shop (www.memorylanecars.com). It turns out he worked in the past on the cars of George Vroklage. How's that?

So I decided to contact both and make an enquiry if they do happen to know or recall anything about my 400 somehow. A few days went by and I thought I was ignored. But by surprise the guy contacted me a day ago. He saw my message but it went lost somehow and he had not time to respond until now. So I asked him again if he knew about the existence of my 400. It appears he knew about the car as he had seen it at the house of Mr. Vroklage occasionly but only from a distance as he never worked on it. I'm very pleased with this confirmation that backs up the owner history of my car. It's another true story.

Update 16-10-2016: I placed another posting in the FB group Iso Rivolta:

http://www.autogespot.nl/iso-grifo-7-litri/2016/01/11

And again this provoked a reaction from her. It appears it was bought new at the time by Mr. Vroklage:

How cool is that?

Bring a trailer : Low Mile Manual: 1982 Ferrari 400i

Just adding this one for the records. Besides that, the comments are Always entertaining to read.

http://bringatrailer.com/2015/11/13/low-mile-manual-1982-ferrari-400i/

Ferrari 400 tail lights + front marker lights.

Earlier this summer I approached someone who bought a salvage 400 for a project. He only required the engine from the car so I figured to approach him to obtain some parts. The only usable parts I noticed were the tail lights and the front marker lights.

Last year someone mentioned there was a difference in color of the tail blinking lights. Something I did not notice before, but he was right. The right side was more dark. I wonder if the particular light simply got dark due to the greasy fumes of the exhaust. Especially because it was also noticed the right tail pipe was smoking more severe then the left side. I link this to the right cylinder bank of the engine which appeared to have quite an off-set on the cam-shaft", see blog update:

http://erwin400.blogspot.nl/2013/11/400-maintenance-camshafts.html

Maybe I'm wrong, I'm just guessing here. Fact remains, they no longer match color wise. Hence I thought to buy them from the salvage car. I also noticed it did had the front marker lights. I figured these items are nice to have on stock just in case. Clearly these were all used items and I was informed they had the usual wear and tear including cracks. I went ahead and purchased them from someone  in the USA which I trusted to be a realiable source (since it was a company and listed). This turned out to be long breath battle of 3 months but with a little help from someone (thanks again Otto!) and a strong push I finally got them yesterday.

Unfortunately one of the front marker lights did had indeed a crack on it. I do happen to have another set of front marker lights and also the same right side does happen to have a crack, so I can not make a good set out of 2 pairs. Bummer. Nevertheless I'm going to make an attempt to refurbish them sometime when my personal situation allows. For now I have quickly dismantled them to make some pictures and look at the part numbers.

These lights consist of very minimal parts. I think it only requires a good sand/soda blasting, new white paint on the inside. Rechrome the reflectors, clean the electrical contacts and fit/glue the lenses. The only part numbers listed are on the lenses. These are by the brand Siem and not Carello as I would expect.

Right side: SIEM 8395
Left side: SIEM 8330

I was actually interested to learn more about the brand Siem. This was more difficult then I anticipated. I figured it had to be another brand that did not survive over time. Random searches regarding Siem + Light + Lenses only revealed some pictures, mostly Ebay related. No Wiki or history website could be found. When checking Ebay I noticed one of the items did had the Original package which revealled the Siem brand with the additional words Fari Fanali Fendinebbia. With these additional Italian words (meaning headlights & foglights) I was able to find more detail. First some nice adverts:

The registered company name is Siem Spa. The company was, just like Carello, eventually absorbed by Magneti Marelli.

(I found the following patents by them: https://www.lens.org/lens/search?applicant=SIEM%20SPA)

A little more digging resulted in finding this advert:

It's an advert from 1967. It includes extra references, their adress, and the name Jodolux. And that's about it.

Continueing with the tail lights. As might be known, these are identical as the ones used on the 308. Except it does have a stainless steel bezel / chrome ring. And these lights are made by Carello. Now I have them in front of me I can have a closer look at them and dismantle them. It consists of various parts. Interestingly the red rear lights does have color difference as well.

 

The black outer mantle case is identical for each of them and all have the part number 12.280.848

 

The rubber ring is also identical for each of them and all have the part number: 12.280.523

(interestingly no matches found on Google)

 

 

 

The inner case of the light does have part number: 120.280.748
(again no matches found on Google)

 

 

 

The lamp holder are of course also identical as used on each with part number: 12.280.040
Furthermore it had another number: P25-2 3/32 CP
(again no matches were found on Google)

The lens appears to be glued. The red lense is one piece with part number: 12.281.718

The orange blinking lense with rear light indication is also glued (it was already partly loose - so I completely took it off. It does consists of different parts. On the inside the inner case is very likely also a glued part (I can feel slight movement) with number: 12.281.722 (again no matches found on Google)

On the outer case the orange lense has part number: 12.281.717
The white lense is very likely also a seperate part that has been glued and has number 12.281.716

Next time I will check what I will do with these lenses regarding the swap out on my 400. To be continued.

Classic Cars Nov 2015 - Willson's smart buys : Ferrari 400

Thanks to Roland (again!) I have this article  now available in the download folder. I guess the rise of the 400 is no surprise for the incrowd. More value increase to come? Time will tell ...

HOSTARO M.O.G.Modeles Ferrari 400 limousine No 5 - 1:43

This model car was brought to my attention. Personally I don't care much for miniatures, although it's  very nice to have one of the car you like very much . I consider myself Lucky not to have this passion as there are so many models out there and you can spend easily a small fortune on them. Over time I have seen many 400 models passing by on Ebay, including the unusual special editions. this is one of them. Out of curiosity I checked the manufacturer. It appears this company was based in Vlaardingen (the Netherlands). But they no longer exists. In case you are interested in this model, it's listed here in Swiss for a 180 CHF:

http://www.tutti.ch/aargau/spielzeuge-basteln/modellbau/angebote/hostaro-m.o.g.modell-ferrari-400-unikat_7811247.htm

Auto Motor und Sport 1983 - Ferrari 400i V12 test vs Jaguar XJS - XJ12 / Lamborghini Countach / Ferrari 512 BBi

Thanks to the donation of Roland I have bought this German Magazine which has a great comparisson article between several V12 cars. It's now available in the download folder.

1978 Ferrari-Treffen

And another nice picture from the Autowelt magazine by Auto Becker regarding a Ferrari meeting in 1978 with a few 400's on it. Click to enlarge:

Kroymans Ferrari Pricelist 1986 - Dutch

 I captured this picture of a pricelist which was put on for sale. The 412 in the Netherlands costed back in 1986 a whopping Fl 327.905,- (Dutch Guilders).  Converted to todays Euro that's € 149.047,- (without adding inflation).

 

Ferrari 400i phase 1 Brochure

Finally I got ahold of this brochure, so now my collection is complete. It's now available in the download folder in the brochure section. Thanks for the PDF Frank.

Motor Sport 1979 - Ferrari 400i Automatic

Thanks to the donation made by Uriy I have been able to purchase this article. It's now available in the download folder.

"This "Gentleman's Ferrari" is the most refined ever and the most effective attempt to combine the characters of ultra-fast sports-GT car and completely docile and effortless town carriage. A Ferrari for all reasons."

1978 Auto Becker - Autowelt - Advert - Pricelist - Ferrari-Fahrer und ihre Philisophie

I got ahold of this very nice German advert by Auto Becker - printed in their own magazine Autowelt in 1978. Click on the picture to enlarge (or save it locally):

Vijf goede Ferrari-beleggingen

Well, the new IPO resulted in this Dutch article in the Telegraaf. It's a small article about alternative ways to invest in Ferrari since analysts question if Ferrari shares are a good investment. And of course the 400 was listed as a buying option as well. With the current prices they might be to late already. Clearly the real thing is better then shares obviously.

http://www.telegraaf.nl/autovisie/autovisie_nieuws/ferrari/24643219/__Vijf_goede_Ferrari-beleggingen__.html