Geöffneter Ferrari - Vier Sitze unter freiem Himmel - Ferrari 400i jetzt als Cabriolet

This advert was posted on Facebook, it's from a German car magazine:

Apparently the company offering this option is "Coerper Auto Exklusiv" I do happen to know this company due to the fact I had a Monteverdi Sierra once (how cool does that sound :-) )

As such I knew they are not authorized to sell new Ferrari's. They are based in Dusseldorf and so was Auto Becker. I obtained this brochure via Ebay a little while ago:

This doesn't mean they can't offer to convert your 400 into a cabriolet. But if so, this was very likely done by another German based company, either Stommel-Con-Moda  or Lorenz & Rankl.

The photo in the advert shows it's a 400i but with knock-off wheels (365GT4 2+2) and a very typical mirror. Someone mentioned it was potentially VIN 17675 now residing in the USA.

When checking I found this website listing:

http://classicvehicleslist.com/ferrari/77709-1974-ferrari-365-gt4-22-custom-convertible5-speed-manuallook.html

Which is indeed a converted 365GT4 2+2 uplifted with 400 looks. And it does mention it's a Lorenz & Rankl conversion (or as they call it: Lois and Rankel):

When doing further checking on the names in the original advert; Ekkehard Zimmermann and Manfred Dahm I found out that Ekkehard Zimmermann is in fact quite well known. On my own blog I found this leaflet which does mention his name but also shows the same 400 convertible:

Design & Plastik by Zimmermann is better known as DP Motorsport. It still exists today, see their website: https://www.dp-motorsport.de/en/ It's very much Porsche orientated but when doing further research his name showed up at a Ferrari 308 GTS conversion, likely the one on the leaflet. I contacted DP Motorsport but never received a response.

On the FB posting the following comment was placed:

The early Stommel Con-Moda conversions had those distinctive door mirrors (compare with 23647, photo from 1985). So perhaps the gentlemen in the article had a connection to Stommel Con-Moda (also based in Cologne).

So it's still unclear who exactly converted this 365 into a 400i and converted it into a cabriolet. As for Manfred Dahmen I was unable to find out anything more.


On the same leaflet above there is also the 308 spider displayed. By pure luck I bumped into this photo today which had more German info on the back. The photo is showing from left to right: Friedrich-Peter Lorenz (58), Helmut Becker (39) and Ekkehard Zimmermann (44)

So all in all, I suspect the conversion was done by Lorenz (and Rankl).