Caught in the Classifieds: Two Ferraris and a Maserati Barn Find
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Three Seventies Italian supercars in need of a little TLC.
Many classic car enthusiasts dream of the barn find, of discovering an original classic car that has been locked away for many years waiting for someone to come along and rescue it from slowly rotting away. A lot of classic car magazines have sections for people to submit their finds and now the internet age means there are website dedicated to barn finds.
One of these is the most excellent Bringatrailer.com, and it was here that I first noticed this rather interesting find. Rather than just one car, here we have three: a Ferrari 365GTB/4 Daytona (now you can see where my interest came from!), a Ferrari Dino 246GTS and a Maserati Bora. The cars are located in the Northern Californian town of Weed (I'll bet the residents get some looks when they say where they live). They were apparently placed in sealed storage in the late Seventies and have covered remarkably few miles, with the Bora not even making it into four figures.
Having been unearthed, all three cars are listed together on eBay with a high bid of $210,000 at the time of writing, though the reserve hasn't been met. By way of reference, a good Daytona on its own can expect to retail for around $300,000 (£183,000) or possibly more.
The pictures show all of the cars are covered in a thick layer of dust, but are basically complete. All the cars are also US-specification cars rather than grey imports, so the Bora unfortunately features the hideous US bumpers which were mandated at the time. The Daytona is in an unusual purple/red colour which I think in Ferrari colour code is Vinaccia or possibly Viola Dino Metallic, and is also sporting the optional Borrani wheels.
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The advert seems to indicate that the cars just need a little detailing and will be ready to go. However, I'd take this advice with a truckload of salt. Any car, especially an aging Italian supercar, that has been standing for such a long time will certainly need major mechanical recommissioning, if not full restoration. Unless the current appreciation in values of Dinos and Daytonas continues, any new owner is at best only likely to break even after purchase and restoration. Having said that, anyone willing to take these cars on certainly gets my respect and admiration for getting these wonderful cars back on the road.
In addition to being featured on Bringatrailer, the find has been subject to a couple of threads on Ferrarichat and you can find those here and here. The eBay listing finishes on the 18th April.
Update: Bidding has now reached $490,000, in the current market that is probably enough to secure a good Daytona and Dino that don't need recomissioning. The vendor has also posted a picture of the Daytona cleaned up and it looks very nice (although how many times has a car looked nice in an ad and turned out to be very rough when you see it) and has indicated it should be running soon.
Update July 2011