Ferrari F40 LM Restoration

[will2020]

Don't know if you guys have seen this but for any F40 fan it's a treat.

http://www.build-threads.com/build-threads/ferrari...

[ro55a]

Awesome!

The original car was a bit ropy! But what a job, the polished finish on the front splitter made me laugh, what will that look like in 5-10 seconds of driving?

[Pixel-Snapper]

Been following his (Tim) epic build over on Ferrari-chat for a while now. As someone interested in the restoration of cars albet on a smaller scale the level of detail he's gone into it is amazing.

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/288gto-f40-f50-en...

Not sure if he is on PH's though never seen any reference to his user name or thread on here.

[PAUL500]

He spotted the original for sale advert for the car of PH at the same time as me so probably a member.

It was a bargain at £280k not so long ago

[ipd57]

What a fantastic thread. Most involving and so full of pictures. Posting appreciated but the efforts of the owner even more so.

[rubystone]

PAUL500 said:

It was a bargain at £280k not so long ago

No it wasn't.

But it is nice to see him convert it into a proper race car rather than the bodge job it was when the owner converted it from road to race spec.

The question is, where does he go with it once it is complete? It is neither standard road car nor historic race car. But it will be an awesome (if expensive) trackday car!

[Adam B]

PAUL500 said:

He spotted the original for sale advert for the car of PH at the same time as me so probably a member.

It was a bargain at £280k not so long ago

Surely that depends on how much it cost to get it right?

[markst]

and not to be left out.....if you want to read the full Story on this F40, AND read what other UK Ferrari owners have to say then the only place to read it is on Club Scuderia ...

http://www.clubscuderia.co.uk/forum/showthread.php...

[PAUL500]

rubystone said:

No it wasn't.

But it is nice to see him convert it into a proper race car rather than the bodge job it was when the owner converted it from road to race spec.

The question is, where does he go with it once it is complete? It is neither standard road car nor historic race car. But it will be an awesome (if expensive) trackday car!

Of course it was, try finding any complete F40 that has sold for less in recent times. Tim decided to take it to another level and good on him, but the car could have been made good for a lot less money and been a very practical example to own. As it is now it will be one of the best modified examples out there.

The previous owner did not convert it, Hammann in Germany did that many years ago and it raced afterwards before being made semi road legal again, and upgraded to LM spec bodywork in more recent times

[rubystone]

PAUL500 said:

Of course it was, try finding any complete F40 that has sold for less in recent times. Tim decided to take it to another level and good on him, but the car could have been made good for a lot less money and been a very practical example to own. As it is now it will be one of the best modified examples out there.

The previous owner did not convert it, Hammann in Germany did that many years ago and it raced afterwards before being made semi road legal again, and upgraded to LM spec bodywork in more recent times

You are missing the point. It isn't what the car cost to buy, it's what it has cost to turn it into what it is now. This isn't sour grapes or anything like that, I admire what is being done to it and the engineering required to do that. But add up the bills and you'd get some idea of the sunk cost of the car. If he had uncovered the blue Pilot car and spent the money on it, it would be worth every penny of that resto, but it isn't a car with that kind of pedigree.

Pillory me if you like, but I am only expressing what i and others who have followed the thread have discussed.

[hedgefinder]

just curious... was that the car lying in storage at a certain Ferrari dealers in southern parts,owned by an Irish man ?

[PAUL500]

rubystone said:

You are missing the point. It isn't what the car cost to buy, it's what it has cost to turn it into what it is now. This isn't sour grapes or anything like that, I admire what is being done to it and the engineering required to do that. But add up the bills and you'd get some idea of the sunk cost of the car. If he had uncovered the blue Pilot car and spent the money on it, it would be worth every penny of that resto, but it isn't a car with that kind of pedigree.

Pillory me if you like, but I am only expressing what i and others who have followed the thread have discussed.

I am not missing any point or pillorying anyone, You were the one who disputed it was a good buy for the money, which it was. The car could have been recommissioned to a good usable standard all in inc purchase for £300k, therefore a bargain in comparison to any other available F40. Remember this car went to Le Mans and back fairly recently before it was laid up, so hardly a basket case. It was an ex race car, they do tend to be lashed up on occasion in order to complete a race, they are not meant to be show cars. The new owner has decided to go right back to basics and start again, which was not really needed, it was his choice, money no object. You are correct is he went to sell it once finished then I doubt he would recover all his costs, but that was never his aim anyway.

[Pixel-Snapper]

Equally i guess your both right in a way.

However, I'm sure as he (Tim) has said on a number of occasions in the thread, this is a car that he hopes will be in the family for a very long time. Hence lavishing what must be 10's if not 100's of thousands on the restoration as he would like it to be his own spec.

[PAUL500]

Pixel-Snapper said:

Equally i guess your both right in a way.

However, I'm sure as he (Tim) has said on a number of occasions in the thread, this is a car that he hopes will be in the family for a very long time. Hence lavishing what must be 10's if not 100's of thousands on the restoration as he would like it to be his own spec.

I totally agree that the sensible thing financially may have been to use a mint car in the first place, but this one had all the key LM components bodywise, and was set up already for track use, it would have been such a pity to do the work to a standard car.

At a guess Tims bill will be at least £150k if not more, but it will be one hell of an F40 for under £500k when done.

Given the choice of a few thousand mile F40 for that budget and Tims finished car I know which one would sit in my dream garage, and its not the trailer queen.