sydney ferrari shop
12/21/05
Sydney Ferrari Shop: Part I
Not far from Cronulla Beach in a suburb of Sydney was a small garage
that specializes in Vintage Ferraris. I heard about David Levy from
Terry Healy in Brisbane, and was given David's number to call while I
was in Sydney. David was nice enough to see me for a visit, and gave me
directions to his shop. I rang up another web friend who actually lives
in the same area for a ride to the shop and some company for the
morning visit. Adam is an Alfa guy, and was more than happy to take me
to Mr. Levy's shop.
Tucked away in the back of an unmarked building was a stash of Ferraris
in various states of repair. Greeting us at the door was a Long Nose
single cam 275GTB that was being put back together after an engine
rebuild.
Next to it was a brown 330 GTC that was also getting some engine work
done. David Levy seems to specialize in GTCs as he's owned one for 35
years. In a modest fashion, he decribed himself as a fabricator and
machinst, but I could see from his work he was much more.
In another part of the shop we found another GTC being built from the
ground up.
A third GTC was in Levy's shop getting a full restoration. When I
considered how rare Vintage Ferraris are, and how few of them made it
to the land down under, I began to realize how amazing it was to see
three GTCs in the same shop with a fourth one not far away in David's
home. Perhaps it was only a Vintage Ferrari Fan that would care, but I
was impressed.
We spent a bit of time comparing notes on these cars, and David showed
me many of the parts he has made for Vintage Ferraris. Some parts he
made because he was disappointed with the quality of what was
available, and some parts he made because there just wasn't a source
anymore. He's made shutters and mounting plates for the twin
distributors in a V-12 so they will fire a MSD ignition box, along with
many necessary parts for RHD conversions. David also claims to have
made better head gaskets and timming chain case gaskets, and uses them
on all his rebuilds without any leaks. He also showed me sets of valve
lash adjusters he designed and made for Vintage V-12 engines. These
adjusters have the ball socket feet much like the ones found on
Porsches, but are the correct diameter and thread pitch to screw into
the Ferrari rocker arms. With some minor machine work on the rockers,
these adjusters can make Ferrari valve trains much more reliable, last
longer, and cut down on wear and tear. I've seen similar modifications
on other cars, but these adjusters were manufactured specifically for
the Ferrari V-12. If you thought about doing a similar mod, I would
talk to David first. His e-mail is:
dlevy@people.net.au
to be continued...
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