WANTED: 250 GT Lusso

[Rudy van Daalen Wetters]

Silver with Connelly red interior might look nice on a Lusso. My 330 GT is black with original red interior and it makes for a sharp look contrasted by the chrome work and Borranis.

Rudy van Daalen Wetters
1963 GTE s/n 4001
1966 330 GT s/n 8705

[330 America]

Art - sorry, I got the story reversed. I thought the car was originally brown, then turned to light blue. The interesting thing is that my 330 America is light blue (currently called California Blue) so having a pair that match could be really cool.

Will email Steve. Feel free to email me pic's directly: spatti@euro-rs.com

[Art S.]

Steve,

You didn't have the story reversed, I just didn't tell the whole story up front. The sequesnce is light silver-blue --> brown --> light silver-blue.

You're right, a matched pair would be nice.

Regards,

Art S.

PS. How is your car coming along? I remember it when it was for sale in England. I was tempted but was talked out of it because of it's issues. I'm glad (at least for the car's sake) that if found an owner that is dedicated enough to really bring it back. I suspect that once you do get both the America done and purchase the Lusso, you'll love looking at the lusso but will prefer driving the America - I look forward to the day you can confirm or deny this prediction!

[John Vardanian]

Since we're talking about one of my favorite Ferraris...

I think the Lusso looks best in your standard silver gray. Typically, whatever color the car debuted in happen to be the best choice for that car.

That said, silver is also a very popular color for the Lusso, which means, if I were repainting a Lusso I would not paint it silver even though it is the best suited color. Metallic blues also seem to have become the second color of choice for this model, as of late.

john

[330 America]

Art - the 330 America is coming along, but not nearly at the pace I want. The problem is that the Ferrari collision shop that took the project in 2004 has largely been on a "start - stop - start" mode of working on the car for a month then dropping it for 4 months when it gets too many new model Ferrari's in for collision work (they are the shop for the major Dallas Ferrari dealer). So what should have taken 1 year has taken 3. I'm talking to Gary Bobileff (San Diego) this week to ship to the car to him this week to get the metal work completed and paint/trim done. The car will come back to Lamborghini Dallas around May 1 for final mechanical assembly and should be done by June 1. The car will have literally been stripped to its frame rails and every piece of rust removed, structure inspected/reinforced, correct Blaupunkt Frankfort radio installed, correct hides (color/finish), correct paint code, correct Marchal lights, etc.

John - so it looks like metallic grey or the silver/blue are the concensus choices and I like both of them. This was the same debate I went through when looking at 550 Maranello's. Bold colors overpower the car and light metallic colors show off the lines. My favorite is Ross Fiorina (metallic burgundy) followed by the metallic grey w/bordeaux interior, followed by TDF Blue with saddle (OK - so I like one bold color).

Stephen does not have a Lusso listed on the RPM/Vermont site, but I emailed him anyway.

[Art S.]

Steve,

Have you considered sending the America to Francois? He restored Peter Kalikow's America, I'd call that a 100 pont car. The quality is equal to Bobileff and you would be able to follow your car's progress by having Tom Y. either send you pictures or post them here for all to see.

Just a thought.

Regards,

Art S.

[330 America]

Art - I don't know Francois but if you/Tom want to connect me to him I can send him a CD-R of the latest pictures of the car for Francois to quote the job.

Steve

[Art S.]

Steve,

That would need to be coordinated with Tom Y.

I would PM him or email him.

By the way, Francois has recently fixed/restored several lussos. You may want to ask him about availability as well.

Regards,

Art S.

[william]

Hi Steve

Black Lusso for sale at Ferraribuy

no price listed, but phone number 704.892.9441

[330 America]

William - thanks for the heads up as I do watch FerrariBuy.com but the problem with black interiors or exteriors in Texas is that you BAKE in the car when driving it, particularly with no A/C in these cars. The other problems with black exterior paint are well known: (1) shows dust/dirt easily, (2) develops/shows swirls in the paint finish from polishing, (3) succeptible to accelerated fading over time. Lastly, my personal opinion is that black does not show off the lines of the car as well as other colors (despite black/tan perhaps looking striking from 20' away).

Don't let the above comments reflect ungratefulness on my part (I'm certainly open to all the help I can get), but I'm looking for other colors.

[Art S.]

Steve & William,

Tom Y.'s former boss (who is one of Francois' clients) has a black Lusso. Nice looking car but besides the faults with black that Steve mentioned, in my opinion, the cars lines are obscured by the somberness of the color.

Regards,

Art S.

[hangten]

Dark Blue/tan price 240,000e= $312,000, seems like its worth a look.

http://www.gtlusso.com/catalog/main.php ... _itemId=58

Aloha,
Mark

[Art S.]

Mark,

Nice car! Unfortunately, it's marked sold.

Regards,

Art S.

[330 America]

Art - I knew there was a reason I visited this site and didn't make an inquiry about this car! This is unfortunate because the car was in a great location (1 hour NW of Nice, France) as I've travelled to Nice many times and on to Cannes.

Here's the wild part about this. An English dealer now has this car (#5301) and is asking 195,000 Pounds for it and is brokering it through Thomas Hamann (car is still in the UK). Tom Yang looked at the pictures I've been sent on the car and there's lots of little items that aren't correct under the hood and lots of black spray under the car (hmmm....hiding something?) At $300,000 its worth the gamble to buy the car because there's lots of upside that can be spent to fix those incorrect things. But not at 195,000 Pounds ($385K).

Keep the good recommendations coming.

[Art S.]

Steve,

I was poking around the internet when I found a picture of the color the brown lusso was repainted to:


The site location is: http://www.upscaleaudio.com/updates/concourse.htm
which is the best i can do for picture credit.

Regards,

Art S.