(West) Palm Beach - Ferrari 400i Automatic

Due to my holiday leave it has been quiet the past weeks. In fact sourcing new material has become a difficulty after 5 years of scavenging. As such the the frequency of blog updates have been declining over the last year as well. So be it, let's see how much more I can squeeze out.

In any case, during my holiday leave I have met up with an interesting owner of a special 400. Once my Florida roadtrip with the family became firm I reached out to him to see if a quick meet and greet would be possible.

It turned out this was possible as he kindly freed up time to make this happen. The plan was to meet up at the nearby outlet stores. Meaning the family could go shopping while I could escape and socialize.

All was agreed and communicated. When waiting on the parking space I could see him driving from a distance. Such a great sight to see a 400 driving in traffic. It really is an unique sight, even more in the USA I would say.

It was however a strange experience since this 400 is equipped with a V8 Chevy engine. Something I have never witnessed before. It sounded very good though but clearly can't be compared with the original V12. I have to admit I'm a liker of American muscle cars, so there you go. American V8 engines are cool. It's for good reasons that Iso, de Tomaso, Monteverdi, Jensen did had their cars equipped with American V8 engines.

And maybe more important, due to this also the upgraded airco system was functioning very good. A necessity in this area. The interior upholstery was completely renewed and very well done. In fact what has not been done on this car. Read his impressive thread on Fchat if you are interested: https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/my-story-46567.481810/ (now added to the side bar location; projects).

So I got a little tour around the area which had indeed some posh locations. A natural habitat for the 400. For the record we did stop at the gates of Trump's Mar-a-Lago country house. Apologies for my tourist outfit.

We had a good lunch at ER Bradley's saloon and enjoyed the cold Peroni's

Afterwards I had a visit at his house to have more car chat and see more cars and memorabilia. The model car collection was impressive, even though I don't collect these myself. But seeing this unique 400 model car collection I got a bit greedy though.

Then hitting the road again but one spot was forgotten; The Breakers which is the location of the Cavallino Classic Concorso at Palm Beach. So we quickly went there:

What a nice place and scenery. A perfect spot for the 400. Would be great to see 400's awarded on the upcoming Concorso's.

This little break out was a very nice addition on my last day of my holiday, it could not have ended any better.

It was a true pleasure to meet up and share the passion. Car aficionados united. 

Otto, thanks once more for the hospitality and congrats on the great end result of your car. It was a wonderful ride! And yes, credits to Michel the mechanic as well!