Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Ferrari’s Return to Form: The 550 Maranello and 575M

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Ferrari’s Return to Form: The 550 Maranello and 575M · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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As part of Ferrari Fridays, William Ross from the Exotic Car Marketplace
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will be discussing all things Ferrari and interviewing people that live
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and breathe the Ferrari brand.
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Topics range from road cars to racing, drivers to owners, as well
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as auctions, private sales, and trends in the collector market.
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Hello everyone, welcome back to the Ferrari Marketplace.
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I'm your host, William Ross.
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I appreciate you guys listening.
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Sorry for, uh, the delay getting back to you guys.
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Um, had got sidetracked in the month of March with the, uh,
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death of the family for a very close family member passed away.
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So it was unfortunate.
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I had a few things that was scheduled and set up, uh, especially in
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regards to the women's history month.
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So I will still get those out and do those, but I'm going to jump into
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something else here today on this new episode and I appreciate you guys.
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Listen.
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Today.
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We are going to speak about two of my favorite, some of my favorite Ferraris.
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I mean, I, I pretty much love them all.
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There's maybe one or two that I don't like, but anyways, but these things
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are fantastic because these are getting back to the roots of Ferrari.
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Uh, this is when Luca di Monticello took over after Enzo's passing and wanted
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to get back to the roots of Ferrari.
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You know, getting back to what they were building back, you know, in the 50s,
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60s, and kind of maybe in the early 70s.
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Um, so, but today we are going to talk about the 550.
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Maranello and the 575M Maranello.
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Now we could also possibly include the 599 in this conversation because that
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kind of was the last iteration of this kind of car, but in my opinion, in my
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mind, the 599 was such a huge leap from the 575 to the 599, just aesthetic wise,
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technology wise, motor wise, everything, that I really don't want to include
2:03
this in the conversation because It's just such a completely different car.
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Uh, I just don't think it kind of can do justice to this conversation
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because the 515 and the 575 are, they're not identical, but they are
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just so closely related that, you know, this is a conversation that
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these two deserve on their own, just having these two talk about it.
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We'll have one down the road in the 599.
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That's a fabulous car in itself.
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So let's jump into it.
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Ferrari 550 Maranello that was produced from 1996 to 2002.
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Now, obviously with the 550 designation that we're referring
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to them engine size, uh, so just a little under 5, 500 CCs on that car.
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So I think it was like 5, 478 CCs roughly on that.
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So it hence gives you the name of the 550.
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So that was getting produced from the F 1 3 3 engine.
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Which was a normally aspirated dual overhead cam.
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So, 4 valves per cylinder.
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Producing roughly 470 something horsepower.
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478, 475.
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Uh, and kind of putting out roughly, You know, not that
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much less than torque wise too.
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But, um, so this car pulled all through the rev range, which is fabulous.
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Cause the one thing about the five 55 75 is Luca de Monticello
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wanted to get back to that front engine V12 grand touring Ferrari.
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Now at this time, the four or five six also came out, but that was a two plus
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two, so not really kind of fun or fun falling under the same parameters of
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but wanting to get back to building.
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Front engine V12 Grand Touring car kind of back harkening back to the good old
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days when Enzo You know started the company was running it because if you
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started looking at production in regards to late 70s going into the 80s And in
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the 80s everything was rear rear engined, you know, you're at 40s You're 328s 308s
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your 512s 288's all rear engine cars.
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So it got them back to where it was another beautiful thing about this
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You know, it's a transaxle car So kind of harkening back to the 275
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and 365 having the torque tube and putting the transmission in the back
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of the car Gives you better weight distribution on this car because could
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you go do a little canning carving it?
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Yeah a little bit, but you're not gonna you know Really tear into it like say
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you're driving 360 or 430 or something like that, you know Going through there
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in regards is because you know It can be a bit I would say nose heavy when
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you get on the brakes because you got all that weight sitting up front Now
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they did have you know a switch on the dash that you could go into sport mode
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They kind of stiffen up the suspension, you know That was high tech back in the
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day just but the way these were just changed up to damping on it you know
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wasn't like what we have with the Magnet roll However you pronounce that word.
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Dampers now, they're basically magnetic and you know, do the flow in there and
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all that crap and particles yada yada.
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So anyways, you know, this car was made to drive long distance at a very rapid rate.
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So cruising this thing at a buck 20 on the highway feels like you're doing 60.
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So just such a very solid car.
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Like I said, you know, the design of this motor You know, you're pulling
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all the way from the bottom to the top.
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So if you are like cruising on some back country roads, it's got some twisties
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to them, you could just drop this thing into third or fourth gear and leave
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it there and just go and have some fun and driving this thing, just whipping
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through the, you know, whipping through the back country roads, watching the
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cornstalks go by on reference, cause that's what I have here in the Midwest.
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Um, so beautiful car, two seater.
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Uh, and the other thing that is, I guess.
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Very much in demand for this.
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Every 550 built was built with a 6 speed manual transmission.
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No floppy paddle gearbox.
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These were all six speed manual transmission.
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So getting into values on these They're pretty damn expensive now
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five six five years ten years ago.
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You could get these things, you know Maybe not five years ago, but definitely
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ten eight years ten eight to ten years ago You could get these things around a
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hundred hundred twenty grand all day long low mileage, you know great services or
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everything like that Now you're easily 200 to 300 grand, you know, depending
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on mileage, everything like that.
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You know, you got some, like I said, 301s, those are some cheeky dealers
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out there that are really chinking up.
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But you know, hey, they have a low mileage car.
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They're, they'll just sit on it till someone comes along because someone
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will buy it, you know, come in or offer them, you know, something
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close to what they're asking and hey, they'll walk out the door with it.
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So, but normal realistic on these cars, you're about two, 200 to 30 in my
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opinion is where you should be at now.
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Could you get something under 200?
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Yeah, you got to kind of shop around and look.
6:58
Um, you know, but again, a lot of variables you have when you're looking
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at a Ferrari and any, you know, high end car like that in itself.
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You know, obviously service history, most recent service, everything like that,
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because you could find a deal on one.
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Like I was looking online this morning at five fifties and I found a cheap
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one on there for like 140 grand.
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I think it was out of some, you know, some used car dealer in California, but You
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know, it had almost 30, 000 miles on it.
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Uh, but again, now you start getting into services, what's going to have to be
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done, and you can drive that off the lot and then have to take it to your guy and
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drop, you know, 30, 40 grand on a service.
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And that gets you right back where it's up at.
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So, you know, you got to look at everything on the car, you know, any car
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you go by, but the On these things, you know, you obviously want to find that book
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and have, hey, what's the service history?
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How much paperwork you got with this thing?
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You know, is it from day one, the whole nine yards, you know, where
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the caretakers, all the subsequent, you know, previous caretakers,
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you know, how diligent where they are in regards to documentation.
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So, that's kind of one thing to look at, but again, these things are going up in
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value like crazy, because, just because of the six speed manual transmission.
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Now, you know, 10, 15 years ago, you know, people probably dropped in, Oh,
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is this going to be a collector car?
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Oh, you know, people probably not thinking because again, you look at
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the production numbers, they built a little over 3000 of these cars.
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So you're like, all right, how could this be a collector car
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with over 3000 of them built?
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Well, the six speed manual transmission, it's that edge.
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They're not building them anymore.
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Of course, it'll be interesting to see what's happening because something's
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telling me possibly you're going to see a manual transmission come
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from the factory from Ferrari again, Now, will it be the small numbers?
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Maybe the Icona series, I don't know, but don't be surprised if you see it
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happen in the next five years, they do something along those lines just
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to appease their million millionaire billionaire owners, you know, and do it.
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So it wouldn't be surprising, but anyways, so again, a six speed manual transmission
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is the game changer in regards to this car, because it's from the factory, you
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know, it, it, you know, You know, yeah, you have the conversions out there, and
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when we get into the 575, you know, when you start looking at production numbers,
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that compared to the F1 transmission, the 6 speed, you know, EAG does a phenomenal
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job, and the thing is with that F1 transmission, you know, it wasn't built
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from ground up in regards to, okay, how it works, you know, in subsequent, in that
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transmission, You know, they basically took it where there's a lot of pumps and
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whatnot that just basically operate the clutch and everything like that, that a
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clutch pedal would and doing everything and the gear change instead of you, you
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know, going through the gear selector.
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It's just doing everything for you.
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So with the computer and all that jazz, so doing it, doing
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it, it's not too difficult.
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You know, it took EAG some time to perfect it, but they did perfect
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it and they do a phenomenal job.
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But I'm getting ahead of myself because that's when we
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start talking about the 575.
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But anyways, now the 550, Now there's really only two, I'd say two iterations.
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Now on the standard 550, you could get the handling package, which, you know,
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kind of stiffened things up in regards to, you know, your suspension and that.
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Um, nothing really in regards to aesthetics, anything along those lines.
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So that was pretty much it.
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The only other, uh, thing they came out with was a 550 Barchetta,
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which was 448, roughly something like that of the convertible.
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So, uh, with that card, there's obviously.
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body related enhancements they had to do to make, obviously,
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stiffs to reduce cowl shake.
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Um, now those cars are actually through the roof, well, through
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the roof, but are very expensive.
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You know, well, you don't hardly ever see them come up for sale.
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Obviously, a lot of them are always at auction or they're going to be
10:50
off market sales, but you're easily over half a million dollars on those.
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Uh, again, because, you know, Factory six speed manual convertible from the factory.
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So again, it's all about, you know, desirability and hey, what
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was produced and hey, Rarity, so those aren't cheap again.
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You don't see many of those pop up I believe there actually is one on ebay
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right now that popped up and they're over a half a mil on it Um something like
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that, but so it brings you to see I, I, I, I'm still a bit baffled why anyone puts
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their cars on eBay anymore, especially dealers, but hey, it is what it is.
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But anyways, so between the two, and obviously when I include the
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handling package, there's only those two iterations of the 550.
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You know, again, at this time, they weren't getting
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into, Oh, I'll take that back.
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Now, they, again, when this car was built, obviously, they want, they have benchmarks
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that Luca told them they needed to hit.
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So, there are, they did some world speed record stuff down in Columbus,
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or I said, East Liberty, Ohio, which is just east of Columbus.
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It was a Honda test track, whatever.
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So, they did some world record speed runs.
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Uh, they did like they say, like a distance of 100 miles
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covered average speed of 190.
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2 miles an hour.
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A distance of 100 kilometers average speed of 188.
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And driving for one hour at an average speed of 184 miles per hour.
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So, The one thing, you know, it's, um, you know, they didn't last long.
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So I think it was a few months later after that.
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Um, or maybe even a couple of years after that, I don't know, Lamborghini
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being so they didn't hold too long.
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And again, you know, you're talking to zero to 60 time of 4.
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4 seconds.
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So, you know, this day and age, a Camry can do that.
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But again, you know, it's, it's not about that, you know, it's not about your zero
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to 600, you know, it's just about, you know, it's the experience of sitting in
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that car, smelling the leather, going through the gear selector, you know,
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and driving and just, I mean, being in the car, I mean, that's what it's about.
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You know, it's just really.
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You know, it just envelops you.
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It's such a great car.
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Like I said, I've had the opportunity to drive both of these cars, um, in
13:05
the past, and they're phenomenal cars.
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I mean, absolutely phenomenal cars.
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It's a great, grand touring, I almost want to say daily driver.
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I mean, hell, look at the guys.
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Well, I wouldn't say they're doing it, you know, uh, on a regular basis, but
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the guys at DDE at Daily Driven Exotics, um, you know, they picked up a couple
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of these and they had, they're doing the manual, uh, five, seven fives and.
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What are the 599s?
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Oh, now I can't remember.
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Anyways, I know they had a 550 at one point and they sold it and
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they did a bunch of stuff to it.
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I think actually they're doing 599s.
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But anyways, different story.
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Sidetracked on that.
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My apologies.
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You know, brain fart.
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Early onset dementia possibly.
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Who knows?
13:47
But anyways, um, back to the 550.
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These things are just fabulous cars to drive, you know, and what's beautiful
13:55
about these things, too, is obviously you're talking a mid 90s car, you know,
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these cars were only built from 1996 to 2002, so only about a six year production
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run, so do the math, about 500 cars a year, so, um, you know, they're obviously
14:11
plentiful, but they're out there.
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You know, and like I said, this time the 456 was also kind of out
14:17
there as well, but I mean, there's two totally different animals.
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Um, you know, interior wise on these cars, because this is going
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to get into more talking about the difference between a 550 and 575.
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Now, the beautiful thing about the 550 had the traditional layout, gauge layout.
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Um, you had your, you know, your gear big, that gear stike with
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the chrome knob sticking out there between you and the center console.
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Um, but in that center console up on the thing on the dash, you had three, You
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know, large air vents, but above that you have a gauge cluster that had some
14:45
of your like oil pressures and whatnot.
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But then right in front of you, you had your big speed dial
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and you had your big RPM gauge.
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So everything was right there, right front and center for you to follow and
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do, you know, see what you're doing and keep track of what you're doing.
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And obviously mind your P's and Q's in regards to driving.
15:03
Uh, you know, you say, as I said, is, you know, these
15:06
cars, but, you know, they live.
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Beautifully 80 to 120 miles an hour.
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And obviously that is breaking the law.
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I do not, I am not saying go out and do that.
15:16
No, I'm not going to get in trouble for that, but I'm just saying this.
15:19
That's what they are, man.
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You pop that thing and it's, you know, fifth, sixth gear and you just cruise.
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And that's another nice thing too, is, you know, if you're on the highway, To
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go past, man, you drop that thing down a gear or two, you know, go from 6th to
15:30
4th, that rev just, vrooom, that car, oh man, that thing just sounds beautiful.
15:34
You know, you get a nice exhaust on that as well.
15:36
You know, that's another thing too, is, you know, hey, to
15:39
all their own, I'm a purist.
15:41
I'm all for, you know, getting a newer exhaust on a car, on one of
15:44
these, you know, just for sound, but also it breathes it better.
15:48
You gain a little horsepower and what not, but, you know.
15:50
Getting anything more crazy than that, putting turbos and all this crap on it.
15:53
No, that's not me.
15:54
I don't, I'm going to be 54 this month.
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So maybe I'm just an old man, but to me, I like purity.
16:00
Um, but like I said, that V12, that thing just sounds, uh, the snore,
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uh, the songs coming out of that.
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It's just, it's a symphony.
16:07
So, but anyways, let's, let's get into the 575 because obviously the 575.
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You get into it, it's a larger displacement car, uh, hence 575.
16:19
So what you get into with that is, you're talking, you know, just a
16:23
little under the, you know, 5700, you know, uh, CC's on the sides.
16:29
It's 5, 748 if you want to be precise.
16:32
So, round that thing up, you got 575.
16:35
So, it gets in there, but the big thing is, it also jumps up in horsepower.
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So, you had your roughly 480 was, you know, roughly in your 550, but
16:44
this, you jump up to 515 horsepower.
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So, you gain a nice amount in the 515, you gain also in torque.
16:52
Um, you know, getting up there, so, which is nice.
16:55
So, it gets it up there.
16:56
Um, Is it top speed wise?
17:00
You know, not worried about that, but the big thing about the 5 7 5
17:04
is that was only built from 2002 to 2006, so it's only four years compared
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to the six years for the five 50.
17:11
But the biggest thing on the 575 is the transmission.
17:17
Now, they only built 2, 056 575Ms.
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Of those, only 246 worldwide, worldwide, were built with a
17:28
6 speed manual transmission.
17:30
Now, obviously, back in that day, everyone was talking, Oh, the F1 train,
17:34
oh, it just paddles, blah, blah, blah.
17:35
You know, everyone wanted the new cool thing.
17:38
You know, and obviously, you know, If you could, you know, hindsight's 2020,
17:43
but you know, I obviously, you know, you go back, if you go back in time,
17:47
you'd snack, snatch up all the manual ones you could, you know, cause you
17:51
said, I mean, you talk about return on investment, but you know, everyone
17:54
wanted to do a big thing, but that is the biggest change you're going to have.
17:57
Our biggest difference on these two is the transmission option.
18:01
So you go from low, you know, 2, 056 cars.
18:06
I'm sorry, 3, 000, a little over 3, 000 cards of the 550, all 6B manuals,
18:10
and then you jump into the 575, bigger motor, you know, just a lot of little
18:16
tweaks here and there, and all of a sudden you only have 246 worldwide.
18:20
built of the manual transmission on a 575.
18:25
So, value wise, you can probably guess, is the manual transmission cars are very,
18:31
very expensive compared to F1 tranny cars.
18:34
They're double, if not triple, depending on mileage and everything,
18:38
history, options, what have you.
18:40
Um, they're very, very expensive cars.
18:43
Um, like you can pick up a 575M with F1 tranny pretty cheaply.
18:49
Cheaply, that's, you know.
18:50
Kind of take that with a grain of salt, you know, you could be in the low to low
18:56
hundreds to mid, you know, 1 51 60 range on a 5 575 M with the F one transmission.
19:03
So now getting to what I was kind of talking about before, though, is What's
19:07
happening with a lot of these cars, because hence such a low production with
19:10
the factory manual, is a lot of people are doing a 6 speed conversion on these cars.
19:15
Um, you know, we're not talking about the 599, but the 599, just for, you
19:19
know, production's sake, the guy to tell you is, out of all the 599s
19:23
built, only 20 ever left the factory with the factory 6 speed manual.
19:26
And those cars are worth close to a million bucks, 900, 000.
19:30
If you go online, there's a dealer got one listed right now.
19:33
I think it's 800, almost 900, 900 grand.
19:35
So rare, rare, rare bird indeed.
19:36
But anyways, back to the 575.
19:40
EAG is pretty much not the only game, but they are the game in regards
19:45
to doing conversions on these.
19:47
Uh, I want to say roughly, if you look at it, I think you're probably about
19:51
30 to 40 grand on the conversion.
19:53
That's if you have them do it, but you know, hey, you
19:55
might as well have them do it.
19:57
Um, I had heard somewhere though recently, there was some, Some financial things
20:02
or something going on with the AG.
20:03
I don't know.
20:04
But like I said, it's all rumors here.
20:06
Say, I don't know.
20:06
But anyways, you know, but you're looking at, you know, 30 to 40 grand to do it.
20:10
So just, let's say, you know, just do the numbers.
20:12
If you can pick up a nice lowest, my lower mileage one.
20:18
that's got great service, you know, documentation, service history,
20:21
everything on it, you know, recent service and that kind of stuff done.
20:24
Um, not saying, you know, you'd have to have a resurface done cause
20:26
AEG can do the service as well.
20:28
But if you can pick it up, such as say, 130 grand, or let's
20:32
just run it up to 140, 000.
20:35
So you spend, go on the higher end, 40 grand on the conversion.
20:40
So do the math.
20:41
You're at 170, 000.
20:43
You're still a lot less than the 300, 000 to 400, 000 you're going
20:48
to be in regards to getting a factory manual that these things
20:52
are, uh, asking out there for these.
20:54
Um, you know, there's, I think there's one on BAT right now,
20:58
um, that has one as well.
21:00
So I'm kind of curious to see where that goes, but you know, they're, cause
21:03
they're a So people sit on it and.
21:07
If you go online, I mean, as sure all of you that are listening, you do too much.
21:12
You go on BAT 10 times a day and you're looking at all other things
21:15
in between doing actual work.
21:16
Um, you know, you look at stuff.
21:19
Dealers are getting very cheeky in regards to, you know, I'm rare cards and whatnot.
21:23
You know, they'll ask an astronomical number and you just kind of laugh.
21:26
Oh, they'll never get that.
21:27
But you know what?
21:28
Some point someone's going to just say, well, I guess I got to step up because
21:32
look, they're not getting any cheaper.
21:34
That's the thing on a lot of these cars, especially on something like this.
21:37
They're not going to get any cheaper.
21:39
Is it an investment?
21:40
I say, yes, it is.
21:41
Um, they're only going to go up in value and they're going to get more and more
21:45
rare in regards to availability because as, as the value goes up, the less and
21:50
less you're going to see out on the open market now, not to say you won't
21:53
be able to find one off market, but you know, and you got to probably figure
21:57
a lot of these guys that have these, they get approached constantly if their
22:00
car's at a show or something like that.
22:02
You know, hey, give them a hand on their car.
22:03
Hey, when you want to sell, give me a call.
22:05
I'll buy it.
22:06
You're probably the 20th 30th person has probably said that to him.
22:09
So it's great to have a relationship with some of those guys, but you
22:13
know, it's just becoming a rare bird and trying to find these things is
22:16
getting rarer and rarer and just getting more and more expensive.
22:19
So, you know, sadly I had the opportunity on a five 50, you know,
22:23
some years ago, I should have bought it.
22:25
I don't know why I didn't.
22:26
It was around a little over a hundred grand.
22:29
You know, it had, you know, I think it was 16, 000 miles on it.
22:32
Everything like that.
22:33
Great service or that.
22:33
And I just didn't pull the trigger.
22:35
Why?
22:35
I don't know.
22:35
I'm just an idiot and I should have got it because like I
22:38
said, these things are great.
22:39
Now, obviously let's get into a couple aesthetics difference
22:42
between the 550 and the 575.
22:44
Cause that's the one kind of thing is if someone's walking by and really,
22:49
you know, everyone's not, it's hard to just tell right off the bat.
22:52
And when you glance at it regards to if it's a 550 or 575.
22:55
Five.
22:57
The biggest thing, I guess, kind of dead giveaway.
22:59
I mean, hood scoop, same location.
23:01
It's a smidge, I mean, I don't know, maybe a millimeter, centimeter bigger.
23:05
I mean, it's just a smidge bigger, but again, up close looking at it,
23:09
you never gonna be able to tell, but the big kind of indicator that
23:12
can give it away is the headlights.
23:16
The headlights actually are color matched to the car.
23:19
If you look at a 550 with the headlights that are itself, is actually black.
23:24
So, but if you look at a 575, they're actually color matched to the car.
23:28
So that's a little aesthetic change.
23:29
But then on the front nose, obviously they tweaked it a little bit more in
23:32
regards to aerodynamics and everything like that to make it, you know, cut
23:35
through the air a little bit better.
23:37
but big thing is in a 550 almost looks like little fangs but if you look at the
23:42
grill in the lower corners of the grill whatnot you'll see fog lamps the 575 does
23:47
not have those that are in the grill so that's a big kind of indicator right there
23:52
in the front that kind of is the dead giveaway because you know from the side
23:57
it's kind of hard to tell now when you get to the back a dead giveaway if someone has
24:02
the 575m badging on it now again the 550 never did Um, I could be wrong on that,
24:09
but from what I understand it never did.
24:10
But the 575, some have them, some don't.
24:13
So my guess is if it's an older thing, you could get on there,
24:16
or maybe someone didn't have it.
24:17
But not many have it on there.
24:18
But the biggest dead giveaway on the back, if you're looking at the ass
24:21
end of a 575 compared to a 550, is right where you reach to lift the
24:25
trunk up, the 550 has a notch cut out, little indentation for your hand.
24:31
The 575, it's straight across.
24:33
That's your dead giveaway right there in regards to between
24:36
a 550 and 575 from the back.
24:38
That can tell you if it doesn't have the badging on it.
24:40
Um, interior wise, the biggest thing is the gauge cluster and the center console.
24:45
Now again, obviously we have the F1 tranny, it's completely
24:48
different in regards to the center console because there's no
24:50
gear selector, gear, gear shift.
24:52
But, is on the center console part, all you have are those
24:57
three vents that are bigger.
24:58
The gauge cluster above the vents on the 550 are gone, they're
25:02
no longer there, they're just.
25:03
The vents are just there now.
25:05
Everything moves over to the gauge cluster that is right in front of the driver.
25:09
And the layout is completely different.
25:11
Now your tach is basically dead center.
25:13
That's your big thing taking it up.
25:15
Speedometer is off to the right.
25:17
So are all your other ancillary gauges are kind of encircled around it.
25:21
So that's kind of the bigger thing.
25:24
You know, I guess you're trying to make it more, I don't know, driver
25:28
oriented in regards to more sportiness because you're really driving by the
25:31
revs, not so much by the speedometer.
25:34
Um, but, you know, it's, it's, you know, it still looks beautiful,
25:38
there's no doubt about that.
25:40
Uh, it's still a gorgeous interior, and obviously if you have that gated
25:44
manual, it's even as pretty as it gets.
25:46
So, it's just little things like that on the interior.
25:49
And the one big thing is, On the 550, on the center console, the ashtray
25:55
is just kind of black on there, but on the 575, it's a leather.
25:59
They just went to town more with the leather, more alcantara on the interior.
26:02
So they really kind of upped the game in regards to what they did
26:06
on the interior wise and just obviously value wise and whatnot.
26:09
Uh, so get into it.
26:11
Now, the one cool thing is they had four different models in regards to
26:16
the 575, um, when they came out with.
26:20
Now, I don't know if, you know.
26:24
If you want to say the GTC handling package, you know,
26:28
it changed things up in it.
26:29
It changed up the suspension.
26:31
You got Converx, they got the ceramic brakes on there.
26:35
Um, you know, obviously that really improves your braking, but you know, I
26:38
know honestly I'm not a fan, especially in the earlier cars like that.
26:41
I wouldn't want ceramic brakes because back then you had to get
26:45
them heated up before they actually worked as good as they're supposed to.
26:48
And the problem is when they're cold, they make a lot of noise, everything
26:51
like that, so, but, you know, obviously you want to go rarity wise, you want to
26:54
get that GTC handling package on there.
26:57
So, really didn't change much else, those are kind of the biggest thing.
27:00
Um, and it gave you, you know, the bigger 19 inch wheels compared to
27:04
the 18 inches that are standard.
27:06
Um, it's kind of got that weird Almost they're two piece on the car.
27:12
I don't know if they are two piece, but they look two piece.
27:14
It's got the bolt patterns on everything like that.
27:17
Um, but you know, it's got a different look.
27:19
Some like it, some don't.
27:20
But you know, it's a different look to it, that's for sure.
27:22
Now, the big one is again going to the convertible and that
27:27
would be the Super America.
27:29
So again, obviously changing up to stiffen things up, everything like that.
27:32
But what this thing had is they had that electrochromatic roof,
27:36
glass panel roof on there.
27:38
That, you know, it, it can, you know, change color,
27:42
whatnot, everything like that.
27:44
But I tell you what, that thing breaks.
27:45
You break and whatnot.
27:46
Forget about it.
27:47
I, I, I wanna say I've heard it's like a hundred, $200,000 get, you know,
27:50
get it repaired or get it replaced.
27:52
Um, it's, it's just obscenely expensive.
27:56
I mean, it's, again, though, you're getting into rarity of these things.
27:59
Uh, only 559 of 'em were built.
28:02
Um, and 43 of those had a manual gearbox.
28:06
So you wanna talk about.
28:08
big money.
28:10
I want to say those are probably about a million bucks of those 43s,
28:14
the gated six speed manual coming out of the factory on the super america.
28:17
Gorgeous looking car, top down.
28:19
I mean again, you couldn't go wrong, convertible front engine v12.
28:24
Speed manual transmission again, no promise.
28:26
Now you get into rarity, you know, and you know, it's, you know, getting to
28:30
those few people that can afford to buy it, you know, um, you know, yeah.
28:34
Who would love to have that?
28:35
You know, again, you know, uh, I'd love to, I'd love to have a five, seven,
28:40
five over a five 50, just because of all the, you know, you know, a little more
28:43
horsepower upgrades on the staff, but.
28:46
There's no way in heck I can afford buying a 575 manual.
28:49
I mean, I could get a conversion done, you know, that's kind of the argument.
28:53
It's like, what are you going to do with the car?
28:55
I mean, you're going to drive it, you're going to, you know, um, you
28:59
know, just sit and stare at it.
29:01
Me, I want to drive it.
29:02
So it wouldn't be that big of a difference between the 550 and 575,
29:05
you know, you're not talking a huge horsepower difference, you know, and so
29:09
it's not really getting all that much.
29:10
Um, If I had my druthers, obviously I'm gonna buy five 50 because
29:14
they're more plentiful and I get a little better deal on it.
29:16
And if I need to, if I, if I'm gonna do it, I need to do it here in the
29:19
next year or two, um, and have some fun with it, you know, I would.
29:25
Prefer possibly to buy a 430 manual.
29:28
Again, probably go with one that's a conversion done on a 430.
29:33
Just because of cost.
29:34
And again, I'm going to drive my car.
29:37
And getting into that F1 transmission.
29:40
Is, you know, EAG does a phenomenal job.
29:42
Again, how those things were designed.
29:44
It's not a big, huge deal to swap in the 6 speed and drop in the
29:48
clutch pedal and do everything.
29:50
The big thing is the computer, and just getting that computer to understand
29:54
that, hey, it's actually, you know, you're rolling the gears yourself,
29:57
it's not the computer doing it.
29:59
So that's the big thing, and that's the thing that took EAG a long time
30:02
to perfect, is getting that done.
30:04
Now there is someone out there.
30:05
I supposedly did it on four or five eight I think they only did one
30:08
because it was such a nightmare, but that's a whole different story.
30:10
That's a whole nother podcast So but the other one that you know, there
30:15
was a custom 575 GTZ that was built by Zagato That was for a Japanese
30:22
collector Yoshiyuki Hayashi So I want to say they only built the one.
30:28
Oh, I'm sorry.
30:28
There were six built in total.
30:29
My apologies.
30:31
Um, so I was still discussing one off and got, the only way you're going to buy
30:35
one of those is off market and you got another person, you have a lot of money.
30:37
So anyways, I seen them.
30:40
I don't know.
30:40
I'm not a fan.
30:41
I don't like the way you look.
30:42
You know?
30:42
Yeah, I know.
30:43
Zagato is a big, huge name, but I'm not really a fan of what they used to do
30:46
with their cars and how they did it.
30:48
I just thought it was, you know, I wasn't a fan.
30:50
Just wasn't me.
30:51
Now, one thing I want to get into about both these cars for your motorsports
30:57
racing people is, you know, 550, you know, kind of people, you know, some
31:02
guys, some race teams out there, you know, started getting into it,
31:05
uh, and using that car and build it.
31:07
But now the big one that did it, and these things are crazy money now is
31:12
pro drive came in and started with the 550, but then they also did a
31:16
five, seven, five version of it.
31:18
Um, built these for the cars for FIA, uh, GT championship, mainly.
31:25
Um, Now they built, I can't remember how many they built.
31:29
Uh, I was trying to find out, you know, there's very numbers.
31:32
So I'm not going to quote a number, but these things are phenomenal race cars.
31:36
And these things are big money.
31:38
And a few of them got, you know, changed hands recently.
31:41
Uh, there was widely just went through the auction thing.
31:43
And I want to say it was a couple of million bucks.
31:45
Don't quote me on that.
31:46
I could be wrong.
31:47
Um, you know, but, you know, these things are great.
31:51
ProDrive is a phenomenal team.
31:53
Everyone knows who ProDrive is.
31:54
Um, they, you know, the 550, you know, I want to say teething and whatnot, get
31:59
everything going, but man, they had a lot of luck with that 575, I won't say
32:02
luck, but they really knocked it out of the park with 575 and the racing
32:05
program that they, uh, built with that.
32:07
So, but anyways, long story short, there's your two differences between a
32:13
550 Now, like I said, you know, there's not too many differences between the two.
32:18
Big one obviously horsepower, but aesthetic wise, there's not a lot.
32:21
I hope this kind of can give you a little insight.
32:23
So next time you're at a show and you see one sitting there, you'll be able to
32:27
distinguish the two between each other.
32:29
So you know right off the bat.
32:30
Oh, that's a 550.
32:30
Oh, that's a 575.
32:32
Like I said, the big, biggest thing when you look at the front
32:34
is, just look at the headlights.
32:36
A 575, they're color matched to the body, whereas a 550, where the
32:40
headlights are themselves, they're black.
32:42
So that's going to be your biggest indicator and giveaway, but also the,
32:46
you know, fog lamps on a 550 are there in that grille on a 575, they're not.
32:50
And again, from the back, just look for that little indentation on the trunk.
32:53
That's your biggest indicators inside, you know, uh, there's a lot
32:56
of differences, obviously with the gauge cluster center console, but I
32:59
said from outside, they'll be able to tell the difference again, value wise.
33:03
Uh, all five fifties were six speed manuals.
33:06
So you're probably, you know, for a decent one, one that's got history,
33:11
everything like that, one that you're going to want to buy because you
33:13
know, that way you're not into it.
33:14
You're going to be close to 200 grand on it.
33:17
Now, can you find them cheaper?
33:18
Yeah.
33:18
Like I said, I know there's one going on, you know, uh, I found it on, it was auto
33:21
Tempest did a search, the dealer there had one for like 130, but you know, it
33:25
had almost 30, 000 miles and God only knows history or anything like that.
33:30
There's a reason it's cheap.
33:32
That's one thing you got to remember.
33:33
You know, it's kind of that edge.
33:35
If it's too good to be true.
33:37
Um, so just do your due diligence.
33:40
You know, hey, maybe you're handy with the wrench.
33:42
Because with these cars, you're still on that verge of where you
33:45
can do a lot of the work yourself.
33:46
Um, you know, as long as you have a brain on your head and you've got
33:49
patience, you can sort some things out.
33:51
Same on the 575, same thing.
33:52
You know, it's still, I'd say, basically, it's a basic car.
33:55
But, you can still do a lot of stuff yourself.
33:58
Now, then getting the 575, now we're getting to F1 trannies.
34:01
And obviously, compared to a 6 speed manual, hey, the, uh, with the F1
34:07
transmission, mid, mid 150 range, a little bit less, uh, on there, depending on
34:12
mileage, but, you know, 6 speed manuals, you're 300 plus easily, because as I
34:16
said, they only did 246 worldwide, 6 speed manuals, so, again, do your thing,
34:19
like I said, now, look into, hey, if you're considering it, put some serious
34:24
thought, what do you want to do with this car, I mean, the car's going to
34:27
hold its value, as long as you maintain everything like that, so, I mean, F1
34:30
transmission 575, You know, you maintain it, you drive and have some fun with it.
34:35
Hey, you do everything.
34:36
You might lose a couple of bucks.
34:38
Hey, you might keep your, you know, you might make your money back.
34:40
Who knows?
34:41
But.
34:42
You're still going to have fun with the car, or hey, if you want to drive
34:45
a lot, you want a 6 speed manual?
34:46
Get a EAG, get a conversion done.
34:49
You're still going to be ahead of the game compared to a factory
34:51
manual, and it's still going to basically have the same feel and
34:54
stuff like that to how you drive it.
34:57
Some people do say when you drive a factory man, you're compared to what each
35:00
has, you know, again, this is if you have that field, that sense, you can do it.
35:05
Some people say, oh, you could definitely feel the difference.
35:06
Some people, you know, it's all about the click, clack, click,
35:09
clack, going through the gears.
35:10
Um, other people say, I can't tell the difference, you know, but Hey.
35:14
It's so my new, what's the, you know, Hey, have fun with the car.
35:18
You'd be under the, in the car under 200 grand and then kind of, and
35:21
I don't know if I mentioned much to say any service or whatnot, e.
35:24
g.
35:24
They can fully service the car as well.
35:26
So while they're doing it, they can go through the whole car.
35:28
Well, so, um, just don't be surprised when you send it down there, you walk
35:32
out there with the 60, 70, 000 bill.
35:34
If you're doing the conversion.
35:35
So again, it's all about preference.
35:38
It's all about your drivers.
35:39
Like I said, um, I think the five 50 is a great value.
35:42
Great purchase.
35:43
Now it's going to hold its value.
35:44
It's only going to go up in value.
35:45
I mean, how fast, I don't know, but I want to say is that five 50 is, you
35:50
know, if you're in the market for a front engine Ferrari, Obviously, definitely, I
35:54
would put some serious thought, I'd buy a 550 just because of the gated manual.
35:58
Um, now going between say a 355 or 360 compared to a 550, 570, I mean
36:04
it's all about preference of what you're going to do with the car.
36:07
You know, again, these, these are front engine V12 Grand Touring cars.
36:10
They're made that you'll go drive long distances and whatnot
36:13
in comfort, um, and have at it.
36:15
So it's just about personal preference.
36:17
So go out there and look, but again, hey guys, I really
36:19
appreciate you guys listening.
36:21
I hope I gave you a little insight into these two.
36:23
Transcribed Uh, like I said, I got some other ones got all
36:25
lined up here in schedule.
36:26
So we've got some more coming here and try and get some more
36:28
of these out on a weekly basis.
36:29
Guys, again, appreciate you listening.
36:31
Check out the modern podcasting network.
36:34
Um, sorry, motoring podcast network, uh, NPN.
36:38
Uh, we're gaining some momentum here in regards to who's on board and that stuff.
36:42
So we've got a lot of cool things coming down the pike.
36:44
Keep the right side up.
36:46
Keep the rubber on the road.
36:47
Thanks guys.
36:47
Until next time.
36:48
Have a good one.
36:55
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