Ferrari - Then and now !

[RSTarga]

I would much rather have the SUV Ferrari...

I can tell you from personal experience that owning Vintage Ferraris (330GTS, 206GT, 246GTS, 365GTB4 Daytona) is really stupid.

I cannot fit my (2) big German Sheperds with Bicycles in my 28,000 Mile Original Paint 246GTS Dino Spyder...

So what is the point of owning the car?

Get yourself a pair of Jack Russels.

[mvboy]

I think I can chime here as I've owned 3 Ferraris and consider myself one of the seriously dyed in the wool Tifosi nutters. Between the FF and the T14 F1 car, Ferrari is beginning to seriously lose the plot. I say this out of genuine concern, not criticism. I was like Luca yesterday at Bahrain, it was painful to watch. Ninth and tenth? Who spends money on a FF? I probably just lobbed a Baby Ruth in someone's punch bowl but seriously - SLOW and UGLY Ferraris?

[John Z Goriup]

I just love old Ferraris
To me, adorable Ferraris ended with the Daytona or maybe the 308GTB and 512BB. Most of them were Pininfarina designed, almost a sure guarantee for splendid styling at the time, for sure.

However, I feel the most fantastic bodies on a Ferrari chassis were designed in the 50ies by Vignale. Marcel Massini's fabulous book on those cars is a must! Then add the few 250s with Zagato bodies and the two 250s with Bertone bodies, and what a nice theme you have for a collection: the non-Pinins!

Anatol,

Vielen Dank. Von einem Wiener zu einem anderen……….for your gallant defense of high standards and good taste in proper GT cars built for truly civilized Grand Touring, allow me to post a small gallery of ten non-PininFarina Ferraris with bodies by Boano, Scaglietti, Zagato, Touring, Vignale, and Bertone.

JZG

[John Z Goriup]

And the rest……..the last car, a '68 312 P was designed and built by Cigala & Berlinetti, a small builder from Torino, who built #19 in '68, the only Berlinetta-bodied 312 P ever created…….finished 4th in Daytona under the N.A.R.T. colors - some Ferraristi and even some important authors have suggested this may be the most beautiful Ferrari of them all……,.de gustibus and all that.

All photographed at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in various years since '06.

Herzliche Grüsse,

JZG

[Flieger]

More pictures of the 312P, bitte. Vielen Dank.

[Cal]

………….versus the best Maranello has to offer currently.

The End is near.

JZG

IMO the proportions of the FF are pretty bad compared to the breadvan of the sixties.

[John Z Goriup]

More pictures of the 312P, bitte. Vielen Dank.

At the moment these three are all I could locate…………..I'm sure I have more somewhere. I'll post when I find them.

Please forgive the iffy image quality - I had just gotten my first digital SLR and was on a steep learning curve.

Cheers,

JZG

[Flieger]

I'll take that over a P3/4

[Nine17]

OK John, let me add my contrarian 2 cents: The Commendatore loved selling over-powered trucks to the rich in order to finance his racing. As pretty as the original Scaglietti/Bizzarini 250 GTO was, I agree with Lars that the TR was far sexier, especially in full-Dagmar pontoon form; the pastiche GTO 64 looks like inspiration for the FF; the Bread Van isn't a Ferrari at all, but a Drogo re-body of a 250 GT SWB for Count Volpi (with Bizzarini's help). The FF is smack in the middle of a fine and ancient tradition of Ferrari camionette for wealthy posers.

Like one of those aptitude tests, which one doesn't belong? The 312P is a sports prototype. The 312P is a pure racing car, the true passion of the Commendatore. It is a thing of beauty, especially in its native environment of a proper racing circuit, winding-out that sonorous 48-valve DOHC V-12.

See you Saturday!

-- David

[execmalibu]

It was 1980 at the Long Beach Grand Prix when being a Porsche guy (Speedster and a 72 911S) just moments before Clay Regazzoni crashed 50 feet in front of me.

I was asked "What do ALL Porsche owners have in Common?" I said, I don't know... What? Answer "They ALL want a Ferrari!" I replied I can definitely relate.
Five months later I bought the Dino that I still own.

It was 1982 in an underground parking garage of a hotel in a little village called Saint-Paul-De-Vence in the hills above Nice, that I discovered a guy with an incredible Ferrari collection. He offered me an amazing 1958 Testa Rosa for $45,000. Around that same time in history looking to buy 356 parts I stumbled into a tiny body shop by accident in Gardena Ca and there was a 206SP covered in dust sitting in the corner.

If only!