355 Engine noise when cold?

[voicey]

rubystone said:

Where's he based?

You could always PM him. I'm not sure if he wants/is allowed to have a link to his workshop but he's based in the Northampton area.

I know quite a few people who travel up from London to take their cars there, including me to get my annual stamp in the book.

[red_slr]

As others have said be very, very cautious.

I was convinced a 355 I found was "the one" and I almost took the risk on it - but in the end bit the bullet and paid for the inspection. Net result was it had some bodywork (wing) which ok not to serious - but then came the real sting - the engine needed a re-build.

The next one I found was in perfect mechanical order - having already had a comprehensive engine re-build at major cost - but the more I asked about the car the more I found out about its history and after a few e-mails back and forth he coughed that it had been in a crash.

I don't know why - but for some reason 355s often have history.

I guess these are 20 year old cars now, and you must really buy with your eyes wide open when you start to look at costs of £10,000+ for an engine refresh. A full rebuild... well that's a whole other ball park!