A new car arrived at my shop, a 1969 365GT 2+2. It was freshly purchased out of Los Angeles and shipped to NY where the new owner lives. He’s been looking for a Queen for several months and we’ve been talking since early autumn with me reviewing a couple that have come up for sale. He finally found this one for sale and I had a friend of mine in LA perform a Pre Purchase Inspection and things checked out pretty well.

Mechanically the car seemed well maintained, and the receipts supported this observation. The new owner was looking for a driver level car and I think this one would be considered a driver quality plus.

The owner met me after the car was delivered to my shop, and we went over the car together. It was his first drive in a Vintage Ferrari, and I was glad to see he was smiling after the experience. As he was introduced to the car, I was also introduced to the owner’s sensibilities and where we’d like the car to be. We made a list of priorities and a to-do list that worked for the owner. Each owner is different and their needs are different. What might drive one of my customers crazy might not make a difference to another. My job was to feel out where this owner was with this car, and understand where I was to take this car.

First change was to fix the load leveler shocks in the back of the car. Ferrari installed self adjusting shocks in the rear of the car and they often leaked and failed to support the rear of the car. People used to rebuild them with new seals and fluid, but I have often heard fresh rebuilds failing after a few years of use. I feel this was a design flaw that will eventually fail again no matter what kind of rebuild is done. Koni used to rebuild these shocks at their shop, but no longer ofter this service, and that must tell you something about reliability when the company won’t repair their own product.

What they do offer is a coil over retrofit kit that replaces the self leveling shock to an adjustable coil over. The self leveling feature is eliminated, but at least the back of the car won’t be dragging on the ground.

Here’s the video of the first drives I did with this car and my impressions.

I want to thank everyone who has donated to this website so far for the December Pledge Drive. Your contributions remind me that there is great interest in the content that I post and the information I share. It helps grow this community and welcomes everyone to join in celebrating all things Vintage Ferrari. I love to do it, but it takes an inordinate amount of time to do it. Thanks for recognizing this and Thanks again.

For those that want to send a traditional check, my snail mail address is:

Tomyang.net LLC

PO Box 36

Hollowville, NY 12530