what to do with a 67' 330 GTS with low mileage

jed clampett? will he park them next to the old pick up truck?

 

Seriously? Salvage title is fully meaningless here. Ever seen what certain $50,000,000 GTO's were turned into as a result of spectacular accidents many of them have been in? There are plenty if 7 and 8 figure cars that were at one point almost destroyed and were rebuilt. So a branded title due to small fire like on this a rare vintage Ferrari is at no consequence.

Geno

 

The above may be true but the previously damaged and rebodied GTOs as racing cars wouldn't have had an insurance claim made against them so no Salvage Title would be recorded surely? I did ask in post 58 if the car was previously damaged or stolen as I'd noted that the OP's father had bought it from an insurance company but my question wasn't answered.

Shouldn't it have been a legal requirement for Gooding, the company auctioning the car, for them to have disclosed the "Salvage Title" in their description of the car? Actually, thinking about it I seem to recall that auction companies don't have to disclose anything, but if there is a description offered, it must be accurate, or something like that.

1967 Ferrari 330 GTS | Gooding & Company

 

At least he is consistent. Was he bidding against himself because who else would pay that sort of money. Surely there can not be two financial experts who would invest 2M to make 1.5M total. Then again who knows what the plan is.

 

Do we know for certain this car has a salvage title? If so, I don't know how they can get away with not disclosing that in the auction. I'm pretty sure it is a felony offense in the US if a dealer sells a car without disclosing salvage status.

 

The as found appearance was shown in the photo by the son of the owner earlier in this thread and he said many parts were removed by his father.

Gooding did not show the car in that condition and they somehow put all those parts back on and kept the dirt on the car. They then moved this non-running car to a dirt field for the catalog photo shoot. Why did they do all of this?

Not everyone knows that "dirt is not patina" and that is why Dr. Fred Simeone wrote specifically about this in his book, "The Stewardship of Historically Important Automobiles" on pages 100 and 101.

It is also why I write about this subject too most recently here: Dirt Is Not Patina And Rust Is Not Desirable

 

Dirty, rusty, as found cars are the flavor of the week in an overheated market looking for hidden value.
I don't know if this market is a bubble but it approaches mania.

 

Once I read the name of the owner, I recognized it as the name of someone who earlier in the '50s managed to buy many of the great pre-war cars of history, 540Ks and the like wehn they were just "old cars" not million dollar collectables. So it was predictable he would have , even if a modern car, something also with great styling and engineering, much as Bud Cohen in California who had many special 500 and 540K Merceds had a gullwing as a daily driver. Maybe Ferrari enthusiasts never paid him attention because they thought he was a German car fan only.

Re the salvage title, that was just a way the insurance company could dispose of the car. If it wasn't deemned salvage, it could be asked "Well, then why aren't your restoring it" So they probably checked the prices of the parts and were so shocked that they thought "Let's total it out and sell it for salvage" and did so at a minimum cost compared to Ferrari restoration. So a salvage title in a car's history doesn't always mean it was at one time flatter than a pancake. One man's car fire is just a slight toasting to another (witness the Betz & Peters Testa Rossa, sure the interior of that insurance car sold for salvage was burned but did that stop it from selling for $16 million a few decades later?)

But going back to how the car was sold, I am curious if the first dealer who pounced upon it found it through FerrariChat.com and how so if the seller (the son of the widow) only said it was in the NE US?

The thread is the most remarkable I ever read in FC because of the way the widow's son was pummeled at first, with accusations thrown at him and turned out to be a guy just trying to help mom get rid of an old car.

I think the million reported for the first dealer's purchase was a fair price, you never know if it needs everything including an engine rebuild.

The subsequent discussion of how it fits Dr. Simeone's rules for preserving cars is interesting (discussed in Sports Car Market current issue) but I think these campaigns not to touch cars as found (at least cosmetically) are becoming annoying. I think someone has to draw the line somewhere on advocating non-restoration because ask yourself--would you like Cavallino Classic to be a bunch of dirty, dented, cob-web cars just so we can all be preservationists par excellence? Some of want to see the cars restored (and performing) in their most glorious moments. And if this trend reaches its logical conclusion, the Colorado Grand could be renamed the Colorado Shabby.