550 Maranello article - they'll be £200k before you know it!

[Chris722]

Interesting reading the mot history. Looks like they have been unlucky with nails or haven't replaced. I wouldn't fancy driving with a nail in the tyres!

[cgt2]

JiggyJaggy said:

To be honest you can pick up a 50k miles one for that in RHD for similar money here in the UK. This one looks pretty nice in the colour combo:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...

Which will undoubtedly be SOR in which case I wonder what someone would actually write a cheque for today.

Independent of price discussions I had a 355 in Argento Nurburgring/Blue Scuro and actually it's a lovely combo in the flesh.

[MDL111]

Argento / Scuro is one of my favourite colour combinations
Ferraris look great in Argento - also had a 355 (although with black interior) - looked lovely in the sun and shows of the lines really well

[Cool Hand Luke]

Sold mine 2 years ago - still miss it!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TvpeagaEuNM

[Adz The Rat]

It seems people are still a bit optimistic with these, Ive been offered one but the seller wants ridiculous money for it.

Are RHD cars selling at the moment?

[cgt2]

Adz The Rat said:

It seems people are still a bit optimistic with these, Ive been offered one but the seller wants ridiculous money for it.

Are RHD cars selling at the moment?

Please forgive me but I'm slightly puzzled, I thought you were a dealer as you mentioned in another post that you have sold a load of supercars recently and business is booming, so surely you are better placed to know...??

[Adz The Rat]

cgt2 said:

Please forgive me but I'm slightly puzzled, I thought you were a dealer as you mentioned in another post that you have sold a load of supercars recently and business is booming, so surely you are better placed to know...??

Indeed, though I havent had a 550 for quite a while and it seems to me that most advertised have been sat for a long time.

[harrykul]

Bit of a thread bump: not sure if it's been covered, but noticed that DK Engineering have a 1k mile Argento RHD car for £200k...

[JiggyJaggy]

Wow, and I bet it will end up selling to a collector etc! Makes the sub £100k one's look like bargains!

[Mogul]

I see 1,995 miles Harry and as there can't be many out there like this one, it rang a bell and lo and behold, it is indeed the very car that Silverstone "Sold for (£): 180,000" at Salon Privé last September.

https://www.silverstoneauctions.com/1998-ferrari-5...

The current owner appears to have allowed himself a quick 18 mile run and now wants his money back (it was showing 1,977 miles last year).

Edited by Mogul on Friday 16th June 23:10

[harrykul]

Agreed, though I'm just as guilty: total miles since Sept 15 =3. Mitigating factors though: new baby and the fact that the car is in a different country to me!

Plan to fix this shortly with a CAT Training day at Millbrook to learn more about getting the most of it, followed by a continental run.

[Bluebottle911]

harrykul said:

Bit of a thread bump: not sure if it's been covered, but noticed that DK Engineering have a 1k mile Argento RHD car for £200k...

HR Owen are asking £198,000 for one with 18,000 miles:

http://www.hrowen.co.uk/used-ferrari/550-maranello...

[Mario149]

[redacted]

[phib]

Mario149 said:

I'm gonna play devil's advocate here and say it strongly depends on what you use it for. GT-ing it goes great, you can have a cheeky slide every now and then, nice and benign etc. Going up and down a mountain road like the Trollsteigen...meh. On track, quite fun, but wouldn't be my go to car. Just feels soooo heavy plus no matter what I did I couldn't seem to heel and toe in mine. I thought I was maybe being a bit harsh but then when I had my old E60 M5 on track, it was exactly the same - you just can't hide the weight and "piloting an oil tanker" feeling.

But, track days and mountain road switch backs are manifestly not what they were designed for so it's not really too much of a criticism! Oooof, as usual, I do have pangs of missing mine, but I really struggle with the Ferrari (any Ferrari!) VFM proposition now at current prices when you know how much these cars cost to look after properly with the sorts of mileage I liked to do in them (4k+ / year with a few track days / events)

I have to say this is true, absolutely excellent gt car, amersfoot to surrey 550km in just under 5 hours including the tunnel .. great memories !!!

However I don't miss mine yet, but for spirited driving I have to say I would take the 355.

As for sliding, did that ONCE .... wouldn't like to repeat that though :-)

Phib

[cgt2]

Mario149 said:

I'm gonna play devil's advocate here and say it strongly depends on what you use it for. GT-ing it goes great, you can have a cheeky slide every now and then, nice and benign etc. Going up and down a mountain road like the Trollsteigen...meh. On track, quite fun, but wouldn't be my go to car. Just feels soooo heavy plus no matter what I did I couldn't seem to heel and toe in mine. I thought I was maybe being a bit harsh but then when I had my old E60 M5 on track, it was exactly the same - you just can't hide the weight and "piloting an oil tanker" feeling.

But, track days and mountain road switch backs are manifestly not what they were designed for so it's not really too much of a criticism! Oooof, as usual, I do have pangs of missing mine, but I really struggle with the Ferrari (any Ferrari!) VFM proposition now at current prices when you know how much these cars cost to look after properly with the sorts of mileage I liked to do in them (4k+ / year with a few track days / events)

Spot on! I've owned three 550's and a 575, covering around 20,000 miles total. When you start to push on the weight of the car, particularly in the nose, is very apparent and certainly isn't chuckable in the way a 430 or 458 is, for the type of car they handle well but you cannot escape the weight and size.

As Mario says where these cars excel is as a fast GT on a road trip, they are peerless in that respect.

[del mar]

cgt2 said:

Mario149 said:

I'm gonna play devil's advocate here and say it strongly depends on what you use it for. GT-ing it goes great, you can have a cheeky slide every now and then, nice and benign etc. Going up and down a mountain road like the Trollsteigen...meh. On track, quite fun, but wouldn't be my go to car. Just feels soooo heavy plus no matter what I did I couldn't seem to heel and toe in mine. I thought I was maybe being a bit harsh but then when I had my old E60 M5 on track, it was exactly the same - you just can't hide the weight and "piloting an oil tanker" feeling.

But, track days and mountain road switch backs are manifestly not what they were designed for so it's not really too much of a criticism! Oooof, as usual, I do have pangs of missing mine, but I really struggle with the Ferrari (any Ferrari!) VFM proposition now at current prices when you know how much these cars cost to look after properly with the sorts of mileage I liked to do in them (4k+ / year with a few track days / events)

Spot on! I've owned three 550's and a 575, covering around 20,000 miles total. When you start to push on the weight of the car, particularly in the nose, is very apparent and certainly isn't chuckable in the way a 430 or 458 is, for the type of car they handle well but you cannot escape the weight and size.

As Mario says where these cars excel is as a fast GT on a road trip, they are peerless in that respect.

Having removed and refitted, bumpers, seats and back boxes I was stunned at how heavy they are. I had to carry a back box in a large rucksack on my motor bike to an engineers, I am sure the army don't carry that much weight on their back !

[Anjum]

cgt2 said:

Spot on! I've owned three 550's and a 575, covering around 20,000 miles total. When you start to push on the weight of the car, particularly in the nose, is very apparent and certainly isn't chuckable in the way a 430 or 458 is, for the type of car they handle well but you cannot escape the weight and size.

As Mario says where these cars excel is as a fast GT on a road trip, they are peerless in that respect.

I too have owned 3 550's.

I remember doing my first non TVR track day in the 550 at Bedford Aerodrome in 1998. It was just awesome! So controllable, slideable and predictable - it telegraphed every intended movement way before it actually did so! So much fun. Even more fun around Cadwell, which theoretically is should have been too big for - fastest car by a long shot through the gooseneck.

I did have a problem with the (initially) titanium studs and the magnesium wheels - which made the drive home from Bedform "interesting". All were replaced FOC by Ferrari.

But by far the best was the 550 Maranello World Speed Record - just so much fun around Spa on many occasions - and the car that I owned for the longest (7 years and over 40,000 miles) - I just loved it! Unlike the two other (which I agree are perfect GT cars - I used to commute from London to Gent in Belgium) - in the WSR, the suspension was a little harsh for anything other than perfectly smooth tarmac.......

Just great cars.....

[cgt2]

Anjum said:

I too have owned 3 550's.

I remember doing my first non TVR track day in the 550 at Bedford Aerodrome in 1998. It was just awesome! So controllable, slideable and predictable - it telegraphed every intended movement way before it actually did so! So much fun. Even more fun around Cadwell, which theoretically is should have been too big for - fastest car by a long shot through the gooseneck.

I did have a problem with the (initially) titanium studs and the magnesium wheels - which made the drive home from Bedform "interesting". All were replaced FOC by Ferrari.

But by far the best was the 550 Maranello World Speed Record - just so much fun around Spa on many occasions - and the car that I owned for the longest (7 years and over 40,000 miles) - I just loved it! Unlike the two other (which I agree are perfect GT cars - I used to commute from London to Gent in Belgium) - in the WSR, the suspension was a little harsh for anything other than perfectly smooth tarmac.......

Just great cars.....

I remember seeing your WSR. Beautiful car which inspired me to look for a pair of carbon buckets in Bordeaux to match my interior (I never did find a pair). The handling was certainly sharper with the Fiorano Pack (which I think all WSR's had) and appreciably sharper compared to my earlier '97 and '98 (non FHP) examples.

[MDL111]

I always wanted to lighten a 550, but by the time I had the money they had gotten too expensive for such a project. I came up with a list that should have taken c 200kg out of it without - hopefully - completely ruining the car and spending ridiculous amounts.... one day

Always wanted one of those 550LM cars - I believe the only one I ever saw resides in Holland

[rubystone]

phib said:

I have to say this is true, absolutely excellent gt car, amersfoot to surrey 550km in just under 5 hours including the tunnel .. great memories !!!

However I don't miss mine yet, but for spirited driving I have to say I would take the 355.

As for sliding, did that ONCE .... wouldn't like to repeat that though :-)

Phib

My 575 has upgraded suspension and steering ECUs and I throw it around like my old Caterhams (well, almost). It's steerable on the throttle and turn-ins every bit as well as my old 996. Maybe I'm not trying hard enough, but I haven't got it out of shape at all.