Here's another for Ninong

[Parrothead]

Here's my ferrari f360 modena owners newest toy.
Sorry about not getting a full body shot from the front, where he had it parked prohibited it. will get one next time I'm there, and I'll get a few interior shots.

Tanks,
Robert

[Parrothead]

Forgot to mention a few things, speedo is rated at 180, power plant is awesome, the pic doesn't do it justice. it's classified 09, and omg, I had to start it. BAD is all I can say. Nothing stamped under the hood regarding engine size, but with it being the SS, I've got to guess at the 5.7 liter Corvette Z6 Power Plant, will get specs further when I actually see the owner, he's floating (350 Cubic Inches for guys like me) I've always referred to the liter descripiton as to how much booze you got to drink before getting the repair bill. Incredible car

Tanks,
Robert

[Ninong]

The Chevy website says the "Corvette-inspired, 426-horsepower all-aluminum 6.2L LS3 V-8 standard in SS."

That's a VERY nice looking car for that price range. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I worked for three different Chevy dealerships in California back in the late 70's to mid 80's before I switched to BMW. All three Chevy stores were sold out from under me with the new owners bringing in their own management. That happens a lot in the car business.

Usually I drove a 4WD Blazer because of my occasional trips to Reno and Tahoe whenever I could take two or three days off in a row but I couldn't help taking a new IROC when those first came out. I once borrowed the owner's son's Corvette for a weekend trip to Reno and got stuck there an extra day when they closed I-80 to ALL traffic due to heavy snow. I asked him if he wanted me to buy chains for it once they opened it up to cars with chains and he told me, "Hell, no, just stay there until it's open without chains." So instead of returning Sunday night, I returned Monday afternoon.

Getting back to Ferrari, back in the 1960's I was just a salesman and working for a Cadillac dealership in Louisiana. The general manager's son (another salesman) took a trip to Italy and actually visited the Ferrari plant and got to meet Enzo Ferrari. He told Enzo all about his father's Super-America (I think it was a super. Maybe it was the other one?). So Enzo let him drive his personal demo. Then Enzo sold it to him for only $21,000. It had only about 6,000 miles on it.

Apparently Enzo had more than one personal demo. Don't forget, this was back around 1968 or 1969, so everything was cheaper then. Brand new Rolls went in the mid 20-grand range, a brand new Cadillac DeVille was only $4,995 and a brand new Mercedes Benz 450SL was only around $12,000. I googled trying to find a photo of that little Ferrari online but I'm still not sure of the model. I know they took the trip in either 1968 or 1969 and the Ferrari demo that Enzo sold him was the previous year's model. So it had to be either a 1967 or 1968. Whatever it was, it was positively gorgeous and smooth as silk.

Anyway, that little Ferrari was really the ultimate toy. It was a pale ice blue, almost aqua, color. I drove it once. It was really sweet and not nearly as hot as his father's SuperAmerica, which used to radiate heat through the floor boards for some strange reason.

I don't know why anyone would let a 29-year-old drive his Ferrari but he did. Both times he was with me. I think he just wanted to brag about how great his car was (and his dad's car). His dad's car sucked. I don't care how rare it was.

One thing that was nice about that guy's trip to Italy was that he also toured the Countess Mara tie plant. Ties that you wear around your neck with a dress shirt and suit. We used to have to wear suits back then. Anyway, he came back with five or six dozen Countess Mara ties and let all of us have them as gifts. He said the dealer's son had paid for them and wanted to give them to us as souvenirs. The dealer's son (in his mid 30's at the time) went with him to Italy and really just wanted an excuse to visit Europe. They charged it all off as a business trip because they visited the Ferrari plant and then Stuttgart to tour Mercedes Benz. BMW wasn't much back then. I think the excuse was that they were hoping to pick up a Ferrari and/or MB franchise. Anyway, the owner's son and the general manager's son went bar-hopping through Italy, Germany and France and they even picked up a sweet little Ferrari to drive early in their trip.

You would be amazed at some of the deals (in retrospect) that went down forty or so years ago. I started in 1965. Fats Domino traded in his white Rolls Royce on a Cadillac because he said he didn't like the A/C in the Rolls. We only gave him $17,500 for it and it was only a year old. We had to cut him a check for the difference because the Cadillac was a lot cheaper than the Rolls. Another problem he had with it was that he had solid gold monograms of his initials on both front doors and those kept getting stolen. He still lived in a bad neighborhood back then. I think his insurance company told him after they paid him for the second set that they would no longer pay for solid gold trim on the outside of the doors. You can even get the Spirit of Ecstasy straight from the factory in solid gold (extremely expensive) but at least it retracts when you park the car.

[Parrothead]

Thats alot of horses, I did look underneath, and it does have the suspension to handle them, he does have the 6 speed manual transmission, so I would be willing to bet that off the line it would give his turbo carr. also a 6 speed, a good run, and it would proably beat the Modena, he has already stated that the Porsche will eat the Modena for breakfast.

This is one Bad Car. I like it alot.

As for the cadillacs, my dad owned a 1968 Cadillac Fleetwood with the old school 472 cu inch powerplant. I wanted to buy it from my dad when I turned 16 but he wouldn't sell it to me due to the front end getting ready to fall out from under, he said it would cost to much money to fix. I love to find another one like that. That was a luxury ride. Thanks for the other info. enjoyed reading the post

Tanks,
Robert

[Ninong]

Believe it or not, a brand new 1968 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham was only about $8,000 back then. The front-wheel drive 1968 ElDorado (it was a brand new model in 1967 and rode like a tank!) was around the same price. I once had a guy come in and pay me in cash with eight $1,000-dollar bills. That was the one and only time that ever happened to me. We almost wanted to take them to the bank and have them checked before we delivered the car. Besides, they smelled kinda funny if you know what I mean.

The $1,000-dollar bills are no longer in circulation. They were withdrawn years ago.

[Ninong]

Thanks for the other info. enjoyed reading the post

Tanks,
Robert

I have lots and lots of 'war stories,' if you know what I mean, but some of the funniest ones I can't post because the identities of the famous buyers would be too apparent. The Fats Domino story was nothing embarrassing, if you know what I mean. Besides, he's passed away now.



P.S. -- Back when I was working at the Chevy store in Monterey, we used to look forward to October. We called it "harvest time." A lot of deals were for cash that smelled funny (but a different kind of smell). That was back before the IRS had us report all transactions over $10,000 cash.

Even after we had to report cash transactions over $10,000, some customers were incredibly dumb. Dumber than you could possibly imagine.

See 5324 (b).

[Parrothead]

I know what you mean, alot of money back then came from alot of differnt places, not really talking about friday paychecks, I've got several clients that proably financed their current business' with some of that funny smelling money.

Robert

[Ninong]

See Edmunds review of the 2010 Camaro. Sounds like a very nice little car in that price range... for people interested in that particular type of car. I'm a bit too old for anything like that now but not too old for a BMW 335i as long as it has automatic transmission.

It's not fair to compare the Camaro with the BMW because of the price difference but my main point was that you give up a lot in comfort when you squeeze yourself into a Camaro or Mustang, or even a BMW Z4 roadster, compared to a nice spacious 335i. The 335i (coupe or sedan) is the perfect combination of luxury, comfort AND sports car handling.

[Parrothead]

Here's a surprise, I am 6'2" @ 180lbs, client is 6'3" maybe a little taller and about 240 or so, there is ample, ample space to get in and out and leg room up the wazoo, the car sits higher than a vette, I was pleasntly surprised getting in and out of it. needless to say I was impressed.

Tanks,
Robert

[Ninong]

Robert,

Just for you. If you're very, very good very, very lucky in the lottery, Santa will bring you one next year:


Ferrari 458 Italia

Click the picture to see all 39 images.

[Parrothead]

Nice ride,

If you all over there in LA. would stop sending all this damn rain over to jax, I could probably buy one, can't work in the rain.......

That is nice though

Tanks,
Robert