How would you wash your 550 Barchetta?

[MDL111]

I am curious about what other people think

In my opinion the 550 B is severely undervalued given # built and being the last V12 manual convertible

I know they appreciated a lot but not by any means as much as other much-less-limited Ferraris and Porsches

Does this car not have all the makings of a 7-digit car?

I enjoy driving less and less, so am seriously considering if I should sell my Scuderia and my 997 RS and buy one of these

Any owners who would like to share their experience with regards to how they drive / if it is enjoyable as a weekend car or just to compromised regarding stiffness of the shell?

[thegreenhell]

Harry Metcalf has some videos of the one he used to own on his youtube. IIRC he did a big road trip in it in one of them which may be relevant to what you're looking for.

[The Wookie]

MDL111 said:

Any owners who would like to share their experience with regards to how they drive / if it is enjoyable as a weekend car or just to compromised regarding stiffness of the shell?

They're lovely, and hardly any compromise in the stiffness of the shell compared to the Maranello. Yes there's a bit of body movement but not noticeably different/worse than say a 430 Spider or similar and compared to other convertibles of the era they are very good.

OK if you were going to do a track day in it you'd probably notice, but then it's not really the point of the Maranello either!

The windscreen top is a little lower which does obscure your view a bit if you're taller like me, but I just adjust my driving position slightly and in fact the standard fit carbon buckets give you a bit more freedom to do so compared to the chunkier standard seats.

The only real compromise really is the roof, it really does hamper the usability compared to a Maranello. But if you're buying it as a special occasion car for high days and holidays (and even then only when it's not going to rain!) then it won't disappoint

[MDL111]

Great, thank you I highly appreciate the feedback.

I test drove a 550 ages ago (cost 45k) and have wanted one since then and I think this would fit the bill nicely even if I don’t really like convertibles - just looks and feels like a special car

I still think it should cost 7 digits, but seems like - so far - I am the only one, which in today’s market seems weird

[MDL111]

thegreenhell said:

Harry Metcalf has some videos of the one he used to own on his youtube. IIRC he did a big road trip in it in one of them which may be relevant to what you're looking for.

Thanks I watched that - probably a decade ago. From memory also had one with the 599 aperta at the time

[MDL111]

Not sure if falconwood is still around, but I think he has/had one

[MDL111]

Just to add some pics - even if they are not topic related

[MDL111]

[cgt2]

There was a company in Germany that manufactured a far more attractive roof than the pram arrangement. The Sultan of Brunei car that was frequently seen around Regents Park a decade ago had this.

[MDL111]

cgt2 said:

There was a company in Germany that manufactured a far more attractive roof than the pram arrangement. The Sultan of Brunei car that was frequently seen around Regents Park a decade ago had this.

I assume it is this one - that certainly makes the car a lot more useable

https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/mc22/monaco/lot...

[MDL111]

Any views on if rhd is worse than LHD, I can’t remember what the 550 was like that I drove, but do remember in my 355 I sat quite sideways. It looks like rhd is a little cheaper like for like than LHD

[The Wookie]

MDL111 said:

Any views on if rhd is worse than LHD, I can’t remember what the 550 was like that I drove, but do remember in my 355 I sat quite sideways. It looks like rhd is a little cheaper like for like than LHD

There’s no pedal offset to speak of, plenty of room too!

[MDL111]

The Wookie said:

MDL111 said:

Any views on if rhd is worse than LHD, I can’t remember what the 550 was like that I drove, but do remember in my 355 I sat quite sideways. It looks like rhd is a little cheaper like for like than LHD

There’s no pedal offset to speak of, plenty of room too!

Great thanks. I don’t mind rhd per se (prefer LHD, but marginal).

[MDL111]

I still don’t get the value of these - which modern Ferraris are rarer

Top of my head
LaF Aperta
F12 America (or whatever that was called)
599 Aperta
488 Pista (the racing edition thingy, which is just the same car only with different paint I guess)
550 WSR edition (again not really a separate model)
355 challenge (although one could argue that’s a race car)

For some reason these feel under appreciated, and I am not asking up values as I don’t own one and am unlikely to be able to acquire one

And if one looks at the UK with less than 50 cars, there are modern Porsches trading for higher prices and people argue they are super rare to find reasons for the price level

[MDL111]

Maybe I am missing something fundamental here

[Hoofy]

MDL111 said:

cgt2 said:

There was a company in Germany that manufactured a far more attractive roof than the pram arrangement. The Sultan of Brunei car that was frequently seen around Regents Park a decade ago had this.

I assume it is this one - that certainly makes the car a lot more useable

https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/mc22/monaco/lot...

On reflection, I think I'd just go with what the guy in the original post did and never ever put a roof on it. I'll just put a Berghaus jacket in the boot for winter use.

[MDL111]

Hoofy said:

MDL111 said:

cgt2 said:

There was a company in Germany that manufactured a far more attractive roof than the pram arrangement. The Sultan of Brunei car that was frequently seen around Regents Park a decade ago had this.

I assume it is this one - that certainly makes the car a lot more useable

https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/mc22/monaco/lot...

On reflection, I think I'd just go with what the guy in the original post did and never ever put a roof on it. I'll just put a Berghaus jacket in the boot for winter use.

He is in the UK and used to getting wet - you guys love your convertibles

[The Wookie]

MDL111 said:

I still don’t get the value of these - which modern Ferraris are rarer

Top of my head
LaF Aperta
F12 America (or whatever that was called)
599 Aperta
488 Pista (the racing edition thingy, which is just the same car only with different paint I guess)
550 WSR edition (again not really a separate model)
355 challenge (although one could argue that’s a race car)

For some reason these feel under appreciated, and I am not asking up values as I don’t own one and am unlikely to be able to acquire one

And if one looks at the UK with less than 50 cars, there are modern Porsches trading for higher prices and people argue they are super rare to find reasons for the price level

They're a bit overlooked, perhaps partly because the Maranello is seen as a more mainstream Ferrari (despite being both highly acclaimed and not as high-volume as people think!) and perhaps because they didn't get a huge number of headlines when new.

You only have to look at the F50, overlooked for so many years because it wasn't as pretty or iconic as the F40, then suddenly people started to realise it was a spectacular car and they only made a quarter as many, all of a sudden they went from parity to or perhaps even less than an F40 to double and beyond in a short space of time

[MDL111]

The Wookie said:

MDL111 said:

I still don’t get the value of these - which modern Ferraris are rarer

Top of my head
LaF Aperta
F12 America (or whatever that was called)
599 Aperta
488 Pista (the racing edition thingy, which is just the same car only with different paint I guess)
550 WSR edition (again not really a separate model)
355 challenge (although one could argue that’s a race car)

For some reason these feel under appreciated, and I am not asking up values as I don’t own one and am unlikely to be able to acquire one

And if one looks at the UK with less than 50 cars, there are modern Porsches trading for higher prices and people argue they are super rare to find reasons for the price level

They're a bit overlooked, perhaps partly because the Maranello is seen as a more mainstream Ferrari (despite being both highly acclaimed and not as high-volume as people think!) and perhaps because they didn't get a huge number of headlines when new.

You only have to look at the F50, overlooked for so many years because it wasn't as pretty or iconic as the F40, then suddenly people started to realise it was a spectacular car and they only made a quarter as many, all of a sudden they went from parity to or perhaps even less than an F40 to double and beyond in a short space of time

I agree - in 2014 I was thinking about either buy my apartment or a CGT or an F50 - the CGT is my favourite car Follower by the F50 and they were c 300-350 and 400-450 euros - bought the apartment and didn’t want to take on debt fo buy a car, big mistake as now I will never own either one of them
I feel like the 550B will eventually be the same
I begged by dad to buy one for 140k at the time as I didn’t have the money and needed a daily (therefore bought an FF for 180)
Ah well
I think people will scratch their heads how they did not buy these even at 300 - it seems like a bargain compared to pretty much all other cars

[The Wookie]

MDL111 said:

I agree - in 2014 I was thinking about either buy my apartment or a CGT or an F50 - the CGT is my favourite car Follower by the F50 and they were c 300-350 and 400-450 euros - bought the apartment and didn’t want to take on debt fo buy a car, big mistake as now I will never own either one of them
I feel like the 550B will eventually be the same
I begged by dad to buy one for 140k at the time as I didn’t have the money and needed a daily (therefore bought an FF for 180)
Ah well
I think people will scratch their heads how they did not buy these even at 300 - it seems like a bargain compared to pretty much all other cars

My old man loved them when they came out and bought his when Egham had four of them lined up in the showroom. They were reportedly a gateway car to the Enzo, so I'd assume that the 'preferred customers' bought them, put a couple of hundred miles on them, probably realised that they were quite compromised without a proper roof, and handed them back soon after on sale or return

He kept an eye on the Sunday Times every week and watched them drop from above list, to list, to below list, and further... Eventually one of the four disappeared from the advert, we drove up there that afternoon and went in on the pretence of looking for a 360 Spider (which was bang on fashion, fetching a premium and completely out of stock there at the time!)

The old man gave me the brief on the way up to keep my gob shut, there was a back and forth and eventually the salesman said the magic words 'I'd really like to sell you one of these Barchettas today', the old man bid in the bks, the salesman went away to call the owner, and we picked it up the following weekend with about 50k knocked off the original sale price!

Funny enough the car he also lusted after was an F50, but he never quite could justify it to himself when they were circa 300k, as you say they've gone bonkers now!

You never really know though, best logic is buy it to drive it and enjoy it and hope for the best