2/5/07
Forza Motors and The Panel Shop

I met up with Peter Sweeney at Cavallino, and I promised to stop by his shop when I got back to New York. His shop is located in northwestern Connecticut, and was an hour’s drive south from my home. Pete runs Forza Motors by himself and always has something interesting in his inventory. He tends to deal more with the V-8 Ferraris, but occasionally gets a V-12 car in his shop. The Maserati in the foreground is currently being sold on E-bay.

One of the reasons for my visit was to take a closer look at a fiberglass 308 he’s got for sale. These cars are the “rawest” of the 308 series, with carburation and a lighter fiberglass body. As the 308 series cars matured, they received steel bodies, and eventually went with fuel injection. This car also has the even rarer dry sump lubrication, which is pretty desirable when guys are looking for these early cars.

The interior on this car was pretty nice, and reflected its low mileage.

This is a “Euro Spec” car, which basically means it was not down in power like the cars destined for the U.S. Market.

Although my interests lie in the early V-12 cars, these early 308s intrigue me. They’re fun to drive, and certainly cheaper than the V-12 cars. These cars are also the last of the Ferraris that a guy with regular tools can service. The 348s, and newer Ferraris start needing special tools and diagnostic equipment.

If you’re interested in this car, call Peter at 860-350-1140. He’s asking $49K. He’s also got a red/tan 1980 injected 308GTS (you can see it in the back of the shop in the first picture) for $29K.

I drove an hour south from Forza Motors to see Mark and Steve at The Panel Shop. Mark did the final metal work on my grille a couple years ago. When I picked up my grille back then, I forgot to take my original grille shell, and I’ve been meaning to get it out of their shop before they threw it on the scrap heap. It’s really not useful for anything, as it’s pretty corroded, but I’m sure it will look good hanging in my garage.

The Panel Shop always has something interesting in their shop, so it was a good excuse to pick up my grille shell to see what they’re up to. Steve was working on the aluminum firewall panels for this car.

Up on the lift was this AC bodied car. It was probably a 289 Cobra, but these narrow bodied cars could be AC Aces. Without the engine, it’s hard for me to tell!

Laying around the back of the shop was an assortment of fenders for all sorts pre war cars. The work varied from filling holes in original sheet metal to fabricating complete panels. It always impresses me the variety of work, and the vast amount of skill needed to make this all from flat sheets of metal. This is a shop I’d like to hang out in hopes of learning something!

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