From the Shop and Showroom

One of the Golden Rules of the automobile business is: almost any modification to almost any car hurts its value.  This has become even more valid in today’s collector car environment where originality is prized more than faddish ‘improvements.’  We bought the Testarossa above with period BBS wheels and simply HAD to replace them to originals to sell the car.

Fashion trends permeate virtually every human activity, from ladies wear to home design to…auto restoration. Before there was such a term as ‘collector car,’ the only people who drove old cars were laborers and teenagers. Working people were only concerned that their ride was reliable, but younger drivers took more artistic liberties. During the 1940s, kids would paint slogans on the outside of their prewar jalopies (Kilroy was here!) and hang a fox tail from the antenna. During the 1950s, tastes got more refined and shaving off chrome trim and lowering the ride height became popular, along with building enhanced performance into the engines with multiple carburetors, dual exhausts and other modifications.

When reading ads of vintage cars for sale, there will be the occasional prestigious award-winning examples. And then the opposite extreme: completely rotten carcasses sitting under a tree somewhere.  But, the vast majority—no matter the make or model, from Ferrari to Ford—will be billed as “drivers.” However, when reading many ads carefully, often the ‘driver’ car turns out to have been dormant for years and is, in truth, far from actually being driven anywhere.  So, what really constitutes a ‘driver’ car?

Each January for the past twenty-six years, one of the world’s most prestigious vintage Ferrari events has been held in Palm Beach, Florida on the grounds of the famous oceanfront Breakers Resort. It's known as the Cavallino Classic.  Farland Classic Restoration has had three 1960s Ferraris restored in our shop accepted for judging in recent years. Each was a 1960/61 250 pininfarina cabriolet Series II, and each car won the Platinum award in class, which is the highest accolade the IAC/PFA (International Advisory Council for the Preservation of the Ferrari Automobile) awards, the criteria for which is scoring a minimum of 97 points out of a possible 100. 

Each of us, at one time or another, have started projects that never quite got finished, from model airplanes as kids to more complicated jobs later on.  After the acceptance it wasn’t going to get done, the project was disposed of somehow or finished by hired help and we moved on.

Our team is just back from the 2016 Santa Fe Concorso over a lovely New Mexico weekend. We were happy to bring down our 1962 Porsche 356 Super 90 Sunroof coupe, as well as a 1972 Maserati Ghibli SS Spyder that we restored a couple of years ago. 

Our adjacent blog story outlines the history of the 412’s development by Ferrari, from their earlier, simpler 2+2s to the emergence of Ferrari’s first real luxury car.  One of our clients was searching for one of these ‘80s masterpieces and we were fortunate to locate one squirreled away in a Houston warehouse after the former owner passed away.  

Even early on, Enzo Ferrari catered to a very select, fortunate clientele, many of whom were European royalty, film stars and producers or just really, really wealthy.  It was the patronage of these individuals who bought his road cars that funded Ferrari’s racing efforts.  Many are the one-off, specially-outfitted cars done for important clients, and as the years went by, more engineering effort went into developing cars that were luxurious by intent, like the 250GT Lusso, whose name actually means ‘luxury’ in Italian.

NOW IN THE SHOWROOM

We're proud to offer this great original Colorado E-type for sale. With this machine, you'll find a great-driving Series I Jaguar that has everything going for it. In the same family since 1971, it was repainted several years ago. It also has a newer interior and soft top. Click on the video below to learn more.

Click the video to see our latest update. We're finishing up a beautiful 1971 Volvo P1800, working on a couple of Ferraris and more.