330 America to be auctioned at Auburn Again!!!!

[william]

A 330 America will be auctioned at Auburn this year. Last year the reserve was not met so its back!!!! I viewed the car last year at auburn and it was beautiful in fact I very seriously thought of placing a bid however timing was not right and I was to late to registeras a bidder. Anyway this is the same car on Michael Sheehan's web page "Cars We Sold" serial number 4975.

The car is in Ft. Wayne Indiana about 45 Minutes from me. I spoke to one of the owners employee, he did not know much about the car other it was stii for sale. I did not try to contact the owner. If any one wants and it can be arranged I can take another look and take some photos. The car can be seen on the Kruse web page lot 2724. The Auction will be Sept. 1-7 I plan to be there. Who knows I may place a bid :)

William

[330 America]

William - do you have any links to pictures of the car or know how much the opening bid might be? What was the Reserve last year that didn't get met? Any ideas?

[william]

Steve, the car can be seen at www.kruseinternational.com click on full calendar then go to auburn 2004 then click on inventory the car can be seen in lot 2724. For better pic's go to sheehans page "cars we sold" www.ferraris-online.com I believe the bid went to 53 to 54,000 last year. I seen the car on Saturday, however, it was not auctioned untill Sunday. I tried to follow the auction on Kruses web site but the site was having problems, go figure. I did call kruse on sunday to register to bid but was told I was to late. The owner of the car lives in or around Ft. Wayne Indiana. From what I'm told he owns several ferrars. he also owns a performance shop in Ft. wayne.


William

[330 America]

William - after I posted my last post, I went to Sheehan's website and saw the car. Looks very clean from 10 feet away, although the piping on the seats was not original (too bad the restorer didn't stick to factory issue) and there seems to be a missing switch on the console and the cigarette lighter is gone from the dash.

At $75K, the car represents a good value given that paint/leather restoration alone can cost $25K-$30K, excluding mechanicals.

[william]

Steve, after last years auction I contacted Sheehan he said the owner would sale for 74,000 I did speak to one of the owners employees at his performance shop about the car he said that they do the work on the cars. I did not bother the owner to negotiate a price. I will tell you that I took photos of the car in Auburn last year and there is what appears to be a large puddle of fuild or oil under the car??? I dont know if it was comming from the car in question or from a car earlier that day. I would almost bet it was from the 330 as they dont move the cars much. the puddle can be seen in my photos. Anyway the car was absoutely Beautiful with the Paint color combo. I to feel this way about the red piping, but I have to tell you the interior still looked nice. I plan to go to auburn this year and see the car.

William

[330 America]

William - after all you're right, we are talking about a 40 year old car -- and a Ferrari at that! Thus, oil leaking is part of the deal, although mine is very tight in terms of miniscule leaking (perhaps 2-3 drops in a week of high temperature driving). My point was that these cars are rare and even at $74K if you had to put $5K-$6K into it to re-do rear main seals, transmission seals, oil sending lines, etc. its not a bad deal for a numbers matching 330 America. I've got $63K into mine including the costs of the car, shipping from Europe, US import fees and $5K worth of mechanical updates/repairs to the motor and suspension to get it road worthy. I'm investing another $25K for the paint, leather, and remaining items -- so I'll be in the car to nearly $90K which many reading this email might think is excessive for a GTE style car, but its market average.

Unless you've got the time/patience to do what Tom's done over 4 years restoring a car, the ONLY option left is to find a clean/original car with a solid motor and gearbox and then allocate about $10K for various mechanical repairs/updates, another $15K for interior re-do, and another $10K-$15K for body/paint -- either way, it ends up being a $60K-$75K endeavor for a good GTE and add perhaps $10K-$15K for a 330 America (because the acquisition cost of the car will be higher). As I posted earlier this year on this site, check the European car websites and you'll see a top condition GTE fetching 65,000 Euro's (about $80K). My goal is still to find a reasonably priced 250 GT Lusso in the next 36 months once the dollar/Euro gets closer to 1:1. Its my dream car and the 330 America was a way for me to "taste" Ferrari ownership under $100K. If I did decide to sell my car in the future, somebody is going to get a fantastic car!

[william]

Steve do you plan on posting any pics of your car? I would love to see it and watch its progress. I'll give you a call sometime to hear more about the car.

William

[330 America]

I probably will post them (if Tom or someone explains how to do it). I've got pic's now of the car prior to restoration (it looks as good as the Sheehan car from 10' away) but the interior and exterior are not the original color -- hence, the change.

[william]

Shaughnessy, Are you talking about s/n 4975 ? or the 250 GTE he has listed now?

From what I was told 4975 was sold before this years Auburn Auction. last year I viewed the car and it looked nice?....Anybody know the new owner? or what the car sold for?


William