My first stop on the way to Monterey was see Mike Pierce of Pierce Manifold in Gilroy California.

Just as Mike started our tour, Eric Sander of GTO Engineering stopped by and joined us.

Mike showed us the “magic” of rebuilding Weber carburetors and the various original test rigs made by Weber back in the day that Pierce Manifold still uses today.

Mike had many original tools and parts for all sorts of Webers and it was neat to see and ask the expert directly about these rarely understood carburetors.

The parts inventory was impressive, and every other bin had something I could use for a car I worked on. I was surprise Mike didn’t check our pockets as we left!

Pierce Manifold also casts many of their own manifolds and supplies all aspects of the Weber carburetor!

My next stop was to get to downtown Monterey to inspect a particular SII 330GT 2+2. I had a client that was very interested in this car at the RM Auction and he wanted me to take a personal look at this car for him since he would be bidding by phone.

The car looked good in the auction catalog, but there is no substitution for seeing a car in person. I had done some preliminary research on this car and found most of the restoration was done local to me in CT. I knew the engine builder and some of the people involved with this car.

My buyer wanted a Platinum winning show car and asked me my opinion if this car was capable of attaining that level of excellence. The suspension plating was very nice and fresh, but there were other places that were slightly off the mark.

The mufflers were missing a couple of specific SII 330 heat shields, and had some extra fiberglass insulation installed. The muffler clamps were wrong, and missing a lot of the correct hardware that usually mounts a correct Ferrari exhaust.

The exhaust was represented as correct, but were NOT the correct exhaust that would be considered concours correct. These looked close, but not quite right.

I called my client and told him I though this car was very nice, and probably 95 percent correct. Fortunately, all the issues I found were bolt on fixes, and I could probably make this a 97 point or higher car to win a Platinum award. When we discussed price and how high to bid, I wasn’t so sure. The estimate was $350K-$450K, and I’ve been watching the market very closely. I felt the SII 330 market was slowing down, and warned my buyer not to get too carried away in bidding too high. I felt $375K-$400 was all the money for this car and if he was going to go past $400K, he should consider bidding on a 330GTC that was a better place to put his money.

We were both absolutely shocked when this car sold for a hammer $670K, $737K including the buyer’s premium! In fact the 365GTC I told my buyer about sold for $682K! I would have went for a driver quality 365GTC any day over a concours lever SII 2+2! Luckily, my buyer came away empty handed and can keep looking for another car.