Here are the compression results for the car Robin has graciously offered to look at for me: 200 185 200 200 198 195 205 205 Should I have any concerns about the 185? It's still within a 10% variance, but barely. Valve guides were done About 3 years/6 miles ago.
Welp, I managed to escape the office for a few hours in the middle of the day to take care of some things, including a visit to FoW. They had the four 355's lined up right in front... Red/tan 95 GTS, red/tan 96 B, black/tan 98 B, and grigio/blue 99 spider Fiorano that has finally sold. All four cars looked fantastic with a quick walk around. I did do some poking, prodding, and crawling around on the floor though. Here's my basic assessment on the visual appearance of each.. 95 GTS: Looks fantastic all around, with minor issues only noticeable with close inspection. There's a huge scrape (maybe 3" round) on the bottom of the front air dam that's been touched up, but it still really noticeable, but only if you're a squirrel about to get run over. Don't think there's much to worry about there, since it's bound to scrape every now and then. The paint looks to be in great shape, with no major dings or rock chips that I could see. However, the paint is cracking at the base of both C-pillars. I've heard various things about this, and still haven't figured out if it's a serious issue or not. It's just a hairline split that's maybe 3-4 inches long on each side, right in the crease where the c-pillar meets the rear fender. I know it's common, but can't speak to the severity of it. The wheels are pretty heavily scratched and chipped, but have been touched up. From a few feet away you'd never notice, but if you get close it's pretty obvious they've been around the block a few times. Moving to the interior, the only thing that jumped out at me was a 3" scratch on the side bolster of the driver's seat and a bubbly center console piece surrounding the AC controls. It wasn't as bad as the pictures that were just posted here a few days ago however. Otherwise, the interior was fantastic. One of the salesman, Todd, told me they have a great guy who cleans up their interiors and repairs leather problems on the FoW cars. It's evident too.. the dash is in amazing shape. The passenger side airbag cover isn't shrinking, the vents aren't melting, and the dash leather looks brand new. Aside from the scratch in the driver's seat and some standard 9 year old leather roughness in the seats, the interior was immaculate. I didn't ask to sit in it but the top was off and the windows were down, so I stuck my head in and got a good look around. Aside from the c-pillar issue, the rest of the 'problems' seem to be the kinds of things I'd expect to see on a 9 year old car with 21k miles on it. No show stoppers from a visual standpoint. Of course I'm no expert and my opinions may not match those of others, but I think this car would make a great driver, assuming the mechanicals are up to part (30k and valve guides have apparently been done..) The two Berlinettas: These were closed up, so I couldn't get a good look at the interiors, but all I can say is that from the outside, both are immaculate. I gave them a more cursory walk around than the GTS, but I couldn't really find much. The black one had some minor cracking at the base of the c-pillars.. maybe 1/2" or so. The wheels on both look like they'd never been on the road, there were no noticeable rock chips, dings, etc in them or the paint. At this point I may have just been experience the Ferrari version of beer-goggling, but I couldn't find anything that jumped out at me. So there ya have it.. 3 great cars, with great asking prices actually. I'm sure you could get them to back of the prices a bit, but the GTS is listed for $89,900, and the B's are both listed at $99k... the 96 only has 8500 miles on it, while the 98 has 15k on it. If I hadn't just gone overboard on decorating my new house, I'd have to fight you for the GTS BTW I mentioned to Todd that I'll be at Cavallino this weekend.. he said their truck just left with a Daytona, 333sp, 330 something or other (he rambled off lots of cars with 3's and S's and P's at the end.. could have sworn he said 330 P3 though ) Hope you can make it! -R
Robin - Thanks! This gives me a great idea of what this car is about cosmetically. They are sending me some pictures today of the normal trouble spots you'd expect to see, including the wheels. I am wondering if can get them to swap the wheels with one of the Berlinettas? I reviewed the maintenance history yesterday and it seems to have been well cared for. I need to do a little more research on this c-pillar issue. There was a good write-up in the archives here I need to go back and re-read. My plans are set for this weekend and I am coming in Thursday night. If we don't run into each other at Moroso during the day, I'll certainly see you at Rachels that night. Again, thanks for your help. Anyone - any comments on those compression numbers?
Rob, There's another Fchat user (very infrequent) who bought a red 98GTS from FoW last year. I met him a while back and asked him about his experience with buying from FoW, and he gave me some good info. I brought it up with the salesman last night and he laughed about it because this particular gentleman is a top notch negotiator... apparently worked them for a year before buying. He managed to get a 1 year powertrain warranty, newer wheels and tires off another car, the passenger side airbag cover from another car, some other things I can't remember, and somewhere between 10-15% off the asking price. That's not to say that you'll be able to work the same kind of deal, but you never know... -R
