Tuesday, 30 July 2024

BAT : Ferrari 400i Cylinder Heads and Camshafts - no reserve

It's holiday season, so not much news lately. Maybe a nice opportunity to obtain some spare parts if you were looking for these:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/cylinder-heads-2/

Tuesday, 23 July 2024

Magazine France : Enzo Numero 25 : Un week-end autour de Biarritz en 365GT4 2+2 + Cavallino Market

A double whammy in this edtion of the French Magazine: ENZO

A great article about a Ferrari 365GT4 2+2 in Biarritz with a supporting article about the French Ferrari historian Cyrille Jaquinot who runs Cavallino Market: www.cavallinomarket.com

Now available in the download folder:

Monday, 22 July 2024

Magazine : Italy - EpocAuto N7/8 Luglio/Agosto 2024 - Ferrari 400 Automatica Comfort Al Massimi livelli

Ferrari 400 Automatic Comfort At The Highest Levels

Now available in the download folder. Thank you Marco!

Saturday, 20 July 2024

Dutch Ferrari 412 parked outside at a farm

This Dutch 412 Automatic is spotted somewhere in the Netherlands and posted on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/Swz4ftMQ2ktyNZKX/

It's unknown to me where its located and the person did not respond to my PM. Someone in the comments mentioned he know the location as well since it was in his village. So when checking his FB profile I now know it's located somewhere in Doornspijk Just adding it here for the records. License plate PB-86-KX. It's new delivered in NL as well - 1986. The last MOT was in 2006. It changed to the last owner in 2016. Curious to know the story about this car.

It's listed in the Dutch register:

https://www.ferrari-register.nl/ferrari/home/stradali-nuovi/365-400-412/412/zffyd24b000060481

Thursday, 18 July 2024

Otsuka Maxwell Design : Ferrari 412 Restomod project - multiple episodes

Meanwhile this project is still moving on:

https://erwin400.blogspot.com/2023/05/project-converting-gated-manual-812.html

Maybe best to follow their channel, below just a few episodes:

https://www.youtube.com/@omd_sd/videos

Wednesday, 17 July 2024

Pininfarina Classiche vs Ferrari Classiche

On the 3rd of April Pininfarina announced the following on Facebook: https://fb.watch/t5pORe2TLv/

Pininfarina Classiche invites you on a timeless journey through automotive heritage.

Created to certify production specifications for cars crafted at Pininfarina facilities throughout the years, the Pininfarina Classiche program encompasses classic cars and 'youngtimers' designed and manufactured by Pininfarina for Fiat, Lancia, Peugeot, Alfa Romeo and few more Pininfarina iconic cars.

Ensure the authenticity of your beloved classic cars: mail us at classiche@pininfarina.it. For additional information, please visit www.pininfarina.it/classiche

I was immediately triggered and made an enquiry regarding my 400 and supplied them with all the information about my car.

As can be read on their website, all the known models are listed with prices. Except for Ferrari:

The next day I got a response from the head of Pininfarina Classiche stating they will look into it.

We had a few more email exchanges about some further details and checkings. Apparently they also received many requests from other Ferrari owners when I asked for an update. So far they only released in phases announcements to Fiat owners, Lancia owners, Alfa Spider owners and Peugeot owners. Nearly 3 months later I finally got the news they found the details of my car in their archive but they were pending on the outcome of Ferrari verification since they control the chassis, engine, gearbox details. Next they finally revealed the price quotation for their Pininfarina certificate for the Ferrari models/years:

In my case a whopping € 2.500 for an A4 certificate.

I did happen to been in Italy just a few weeks ago and I spoke with someone who is in very close contact regarding this matter. So when I mentioned to him I was waiting already for a few weeks regarding my Pininfarina certification request he said that Ferrari is very protective regarding anything on their brand so they are unlikely wanting other parties get any financial gain from it. And I expect Classiche certifcation is simply part of that as well.

In the past I once made a blog about the Ferrari Classiche certification:

https://erwin400.blogspot.com/2016/10/my-400-original-colour-setting-ferrari.html

In that specific blog I wrote a price quote of € 300,- I'm not sure where that number comes from to be honest but I'm sure I must have been poking around and obtained that figure from somewhere. And I'm not even sure it was or is still an option to have a paper archive check done only. As far as I'm aware a Classiche check now needs to be done by an approved appointed dealer and does include a physical inspection as well to confirm originality and approved Ferrari parts are used.

On the Ferrari website not to much detail is provided:

https://www.ferrari.com/en-EN/auto/officine-classiche

So I reached out to an owner who has this Classiche certifcation paper obtained in the past for his 400 to get the facts straight. He claimed indeed he has paid about € 300,- for that paper only. Likely he was also the source at the time from whom I obtained this figure from. This is already quite a few years back.

I definately recall a classiche certification figure from around € 2.500 or more for the Ferrari 400 but as said, that is a full report and inspection of the car. I believe the prices are also different per Ferrari model and age. So I thought to simply make a new online request. Details regarding Ferrari Classiche can be found here: https://www.ferrari.com/en-EN/auto/officine-classiche

From there you can choose an approved Classiche workshop. So in my case I selected Kroymans in the Netherlands:

https://hilversum.ferraridealers.com/en-GB/ferrari-classiche

When making an enquiry I filled in my details and in the next step I had to choose my model:

As can be seen, the 365GT4 2+2, 400, 400i and 412 are not listed. I nevertheless choose the 400 superamerica and added in the comment field it's meant for a Ferrari 400 Automatic. We are now two weeks later and still no response from them (and I don't expect anything either).

Meanwhile my friend obtained the following details from a Swiss dealer:

- The Classiche certification process involves a technical examination of the originality of the various components of the car: exterior, interior and mechanical.

- The examination is carried out at our facilities in Swiss, in direct contact with the Ferrari Classiche department (1 week).

- We must hold the car until the formal approval by Ferrari (3/4 weeks).

- Any parts that do not correspond to the original specifications require replacement with Ferrari spare parts, in order to bring the car to its original perfection.

- The price to certificate a Ferrari 400 is 3.300CHF (about € 3.700,-) to be paid as follows: 1.650CHF in advance, to open the practice, and the balance when the formal approval is given.

Clearly I'm only interested in the certification paper rather then doing this full examination. More or less I would like some kind of birth certification which holds the basic information about my car like, build date, color, VIN etc. I can provide these details to them with supporting photo's and they can approve that and issue the certificate. This is how my friend had arranged it at the time: "I remember that I had sent numerous images of the car to Maranello, its curriculum vitae and photos of the various numbers of the chassis, engine, gearbox and differential..." (he had a very good contact with someone in Ferrari Classiche and that person is retired by now). So I sense his certificate was an exceptional favor. Currently it's simply not a possibility.

Besides this, I know my car is not original, mostly the tailor made stainless steel exhaust system. So if that requires replacement for original parts (ANSA) it will cost a small fortune to obtain certification. So that's a no go.

So to have some kind of birth certificate without doing a full Ferrari Classiche inspection the closest you can get will be the Pininfarina certificate. Then again, this will cost you almost as much as a Ferrari Classiche certification.

Clearly Pininfarina has to pay Ferrari to get these verified details used for the certificate. They only build the carrozzeria and have no details about the engine and gearbox. It's all about the property rights and money. It's simply business for both of them.

If any of you does go for the Pininfarina certificate I'm interested to hear from you.

Tuesday, 16 July 2024

Auction Bonhams : 1978 Ferrari 400 Automatic

Somehow this one showed up on my radar earlier this week, while it was sold on an auction last year:

https://carsonline.bonhams.com/en/listings/ferrari/400/3fe7f75c-9ae5-4cd7-a2ba-242d3005b4b9

Update 20-7-2024: Turns out I had created a blog about this one with more much more details:

https://erwin400.blogspot.com/2023/05/auction-ferrari-400-automatic-rhd-sir.html

Adding it here only for the records and the special mention of the 1st owner skills during WW II :

"It has an even rarer ownership history, once being the property of a Lord of the Realm who was highly decorated for his bravery and flying skills during WW II. At under 57k on the odometer it will also be considered very low mileage for its age and in the era of the ULEZ the car qualifies for historic status."