Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / The Sheehans of Ferraris Online: 50 Years of Passion, Precision, and Prancing Skunks
Transcript
- 0:00BreakFix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from
- 0:04all over the autosphere, from wrench turners and racers to artists, authors,
- 0:09designers, and everything in between.
- 0:11Our goal is to inspire a new generation of petrolheads that wonder.
- 0:16How did they get that job or become that person?
- 0:19The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.
- 0:27With over 50 years of experience as brokers of exotic cars
- 0:31specializing in Ferrari.
- 0:33Lamborghini, Maserati, and collections of other exotics.
- 0:37Ferraris Online was founded in 1972 by Michael Sheehan, offering experience as
- 0:42an expert witness regarding exotic car values, market trends, appraisals, and all
- 0:47aspects of repair and vehicle restoration.
- 0:50Ferraris Online is still run by Michael, who is now accompanied by his
- 0:54daughter Colleen and her husband, RJ and Colleen is here with us to share
- 0:58their story, starting with how they began Ferraris online by fixing crashed
- 1:02exotics for State Farm, USAA and the Auto Club insurance companies and
- 1:07quickly growing to be North America's largest Ferrari restoration shop.
- 1:11Joining me from Exotic Car Marketplace, along with other Brake Fix episodes
- 1:15like What Should I Buy Italian Cars, is my co host tonight, William Ross,
- 1:19to help me welcome Colleen to the show.
- 1:22So welcome aboard.
- 1:23Welcome to Brake Fix.
- 1:24Thank you very much.
- 1:25I'm glad to be here.
- 1:26Colleen, we normally always start a Brake Fix episode By asking for your
- 1:30superhero origin story, who, what, where, when, and why of the topic at hand.
- 1:35But in this case, we actually have to start even further back before
- 1:39you were talking about your dad, your dad started in motor sports.
- 1:43So let's dig into that.
- 1:44What kind of cars he got into Peyton body, all those kinds of things.
- 1:47So take us on that journey.
- 1:49It's actually such an interesting story and I love it.
- 1:52It's just.
- 1:53Something that you don't hear nowadays, especially.
- 1:57So my dad hitchhiked from Canada when he was 19 years old.
- 2:02He came down to California and he started working on VW buses.
- 2:08It happened in a very kind of weird way.
- 2:11Porsche broker around here would ship parts here to California using the buses
- 2:18and then basically cared about the parts.
- 2:21They really didn't care about the buses.
- 2:23So my dad started buying the buses from this Porsche guy and would
- 2:29kind of fix them up and sell them.
- 2:31This was in the late sixties, early seventies.
- 2:34So he helped with the whole VW bus, hippie.
- 2:38era.
- 2:39And then after doing that for a little while, he bought his first Ferrari.
- 2:44When he sold it, he made quite a bit of money on it.
- 2:47And so he decided I'm out of the VW bus business and I'm gonna start working
- 2:54on Ferraris and selling Ferraris.
- 2:56If I might ask, what was that first Ferrari?
- 2:59So the first Ferrari was a PF Coupe.
- 3:02I believe he bought it for my dad's in the other room.
- 3:07He bought it for 2, 000.
- 3:09And how much did you sell it for?
- 3:112, 500 in 1960 seventies dollars.
- 3:15So we got to translate that for inflation, right?
- 3:18So that was really the kickoff of his business.
- 3:20So that would have been 1972.
- 3:22Was he racing that Ferrari at that time or was he racing other cars?
- 3:26So that was before he really got into racing.
- 3:28That kind of evolved with the business.
- 3:31So it started with the service and sales.
- 3:34And then very quickly after that got into racing.
- 3:38So you're working on.
- 3:39Specifically, I guess, restoring exotic cars, focusing on
- 3:43Ferrari, starting with that.
- 3:44How do you build that sort of clientele?
- 3:46Was it just because there weren't so many other people doing
- 3:48that kind of work at the time?
- 3:49Yeah, that's a big part of it.
- 3:51So back then there weren't as many dealers and brokers as there are today.
- 3:56It was also the world seemed a lot bigger, I guess, when you don't have the internet.
- 4:01If you own an exotic car and you're in this area and there was no one else to go
- 4:07to, then you go to that guy and word of mouth in a small community like the exotic
- 4:12car community, word spread really quickly.
- 4:15And that's kind of the only way to do it back then.
- 4:19How was your dad sourcing all the parts in that back in that time?
- 4:23Was he actually trying to source them back?
- 4:25from Italy, or was he like just going through junk yards or, I mean, how was
- 4:28he coming about getting all that stuff?
- 4:30Actually not sure how he got some of the parts back then,
- 4:33especially in the beginning.
- 4:34I know after years in the business, you have all the right connections, but I'm
- 4:39really actually not sure at first how he first started getting all the parts.
- 4:43Yeah.
- 4:43I can see that had to be quite a chore.
- 4:45Oh yeah.
- 4:46I could only imagine.
- 4:47That'd be a job in itself.
- 4:48Yeah.
- 4:49Yeah.
- 4:49Yeah.
- 4:49Right.
- 4:50Figuring all that out in the early seventies with a business that not
- 4:54many people are doing definitely must have been a huge challenge.
- 4:58And also being in California, a lot of the clients had to have been, let's call
- 5:02them Hollywood type celebrities, right?
- 5:04Because to afford a Ferrari, even then was grades above.
- 5:09Even some of the best sports cars, I mean, you compare it to the Porsches
- 5:12and they were cheap by comparison.
- 5:13I'm sure there's some interesting stories about folks that walked in the
- 5:16door wanting their Ferrari repaired or, or even restored or what have you.
- 5:20So any of those that you can share?
- 5:22Oh, yes.
- 5:23One of the things I found very interesting, my dad and I did kind
- 5:26of a breakdown one time because his client base, it actually used to
- 5:30be lawyers, doctors, contractors.
- 5:33Basically, if you owned.
- 5:35A big contracting company built houses or were a lawyer, a doctor.
- 5:40You could afford a Ferrari almost seemed like it wasn't so unattainable back then.
- 5:47I mean, for a lot of people, it still was, but now just the prices.
- 5:51Seems a lot harder nowadays, but some of the people, I mean, one of the things,
- 5:56besides just restoration and repair, my dad did a lot of the conversions.
- 6:01So like the Daytona spider conversions was a big one.
- 6:04My dad and Strayman were actually the two big Daytona conversion
- 6:09people, and they happened to be down the street from each other.
- 6:12That was a really big thing.
- 6:14And.
- 6:15Clint Eastwood actually wanted my dad to convert a boxer for him
- 6:20into a target top, which he did.
- 6:22There's been a couple of the celebrity cars that are pretty cool.
- 6:27And occasionally we'll come across some of the cars that he used to work on.
- 6:31Lots of the Daytona spiders have.
- 6:34Come back to us and we've sold them.
- 6:36Sometimes we'll get cars in.
- 6:38My dad used to put stickers in the windshield, you know, just the service
- 6:41sticker and I sold a three Oh eight that a guy had bought from my dad and
- 6:47still had all the service records.
- 6:49From the old shop and still had the little sticker in the window and all of that.
- 6:53So it's fun to see those cars come back around.
- 6:56Yeah, it's gotta be really cool.
- 6:57Oh yeah, definitely.
- 6:58Did your dad just like basically self taught himself how to do the repairs?
- 7:02Or, I mean, he had the mechanical aptitude to be able to.
- 7:06Get into it, engine, body work.
- 7:08I mean, I sound like he was pretty much doing everything and anything
- 7:11that needed to be done on the cart.
- 7:13Yeah.
- 7:13And then he did grow the business to where at one point he had 30 employees.
- 7:18So he had a head mechanic, head fabricator, all the guys.
- 7:23And funniest part is they're still around today.
- 7:26They run big shops of their own and they're.
- 7:28Some of the best in the business today.
- 7:30Well, you learn from the best, right?
- 7:31Yeah, you've got to.
- 7:35Sometimes we have to ask, you know, what's in a name.
- 7:37And so today you guys are recognized as Ferraris online, but in 1972, you
- 7:42weren't called Ferraris online yet.
- 7:44As the article in garage style magazine was put out the prancing skunk.
- 7:49Is that the original name of the company?
- 7:51Where did that name come from?
- 7:52How's the name of the business?
- 7:54evolved.
- 7:54So it's evolved quite a lot.
- 7:56The initial restoration shop, my dad's first business, it was
- 8:00actually called European Auto Sales and European Auto Restoration.
- 8:05Back in the early 70s, it was not a common name and it spoke
- 8:10for itself on what he did.
- 8:12So it was kind of perfect.
- 8:15For the time, whereas today, if you look, there's all kinds of European,
- 8:20you know, sales, European, something.
- 8:21So as time evolved, Ferrari's online came about because after many, many years in
- 8:28the restoration business, my dad decided he no longer wanted to restore cars.
- 8:33He just wanted to do sales.
- 8:34He didn't want a whole bunch of employees.
- 8:36And so he downsized and.
- 8:38Became Ferraris online, which was also a name that just kind of
- 8:42spoke for itself for what it was.
- 8:44They'll do business as far as online, but our official company
- 8:48name is prancing skunk automotive.
- 8:50That whole thing actually came about because of my dad racing back in the
- 8:54seventies, he would race all kinds of different Ferraris, but other
- 8:59cars as well, eventually he would buy a big race trailer and he put
- 9:04the prancing horse on the side of it.
- 9:06And Ferrari is a bit touchy.
- 9:09They don't like people who sell their cars and they don't make money off of it.
- 9:16So they were not a huge fan of my dad.
- 9:19They tried to sue him over having the prancing horse on the side of the trailer.
- 9:25The actual badge, the Ferrari badge, the shield, is non copyrightable,
- 9:31so Ferrari doesn't own the badge.
- 9:33So the only thing they actually own is the prancing horse itself.
- 9:39Kind of as a middle finger to Ferrari, him and my mom had
- 9:43designed the prancing skunk.
- 9:46And that replaced the horse, and it's just kind of stuck around ever since.
- 9:51It's unique.
- 9:51Where's the t shirts for those?
- 9:53I want a praising skunk t shirt.
- 9:55I have hats, actually.
- 9:56I have the stickers that are the exact size of the fender badges.
- 10:01Oh, really?
- 10:02Uh, yeah.
- 10:02So they fit right over the real fender badge on a Ferrari.
- 10:06And then I have some baseball caps.
- 10:08I've made jackets, all kinds of stuff.
- 10:10I would totally wear a prancing skunk t shirt.
- 10:12I think that's fabulous.
- 10:13Yeah, that'd be fantastic.
- 10:15It also reminds me of the Volvo guys with the prancing moose,
- 10:18like same kind of thing, right?
- 10:19So I think that's really slick.
- 10:21So let's dig into the racing just a little bit more.
- 10:23So you said your dad raced some Ferraris.
- 10:25What kind of Ferraris?
- 10:27And when he wasn't racing Ferraris, what else was he putting on the track?
- 10:30So he raced everything non Ferraris.
- 10:34So like Formula Ford and Formula Russell, he had a Corvette.
- 10:38He named Porky that he raced at the Long Beach Grand Prix.
- 10:43So many different cars, a Curtis, all kinds of stuff.
- 10:46But as far as Ferraris go, probably my favorite one he's raced.
- 10:51Was the 1957 Testarossa, pontoon fender, Lucy Bell, the white
- 10:57one with the blue stripe, and he raced that in the Mille Miglia.
- 11:01I mean, he's raced the 1970s, 512 M, 206 SP, 750 Monza.
- 11:08He's owned a lot of comp Daytonas and raced numerous comp Daytonas.
- 11:13Actually the cool one.
- 11:14So the comp Daytona is one of my favorite cars.
- 11:16There was 15 original comp Daytonas, and then a prototype.
- 11:20He actually bought the prototype in the seventies and used it
- 11:24as his daily driver for years.
- 11:26Hey listeners, they have one for sale right now too.
- 11:29Just FYI.
- 11:30We do.
- 11:33And that one, I don't mind if it sits in the showroom for a while.
- 11:36Probably a little selfish on my part, but I just love it so much.
- 11:39Turn some heads, driving that into that cars and coffee or if
- 11:42you just went to over a week last week, I saw that post on that.
- 11:46I saw that must've made it an entrance.
- 11:47Oh yeah.
- 11:48It's loud and you know, it stands out as a presence, but it's awesome.
- 11:56Yeah, and I don't know why I love those cars.
- 11:58So, I mean, I know why, but they're not the most comfortable.
- 12:01They have a heavy clutch, no power steering.
- 12:03They're really heavy to try and drive around town.
- 12:08They're meant for high speeds, but I think that's part of the
- 12:10charm of them, in my opinion.
- 12:12I agree.
- 12:13So coming up through the seventies in the Ferrari world, you're still in that sort
- 12:19of transitional period from the classic.
- 12:21I want to call them the flowing bodies or the round bodies.
- 12:24Like when it started with like the 57 Testarossa forward, those nice, like
- 12:28almost Aston Martin looking bodied Ferraris, not to make that comparison,
- 12:31Ferraris or Ferraris, but you get to the seventies and then you got the Dino.
- 12:36Which made a huge right turn for Ferrari.
- 12:40And then the dawn of the 308, I've said it jokingly before the 308 and the 360
- 12:46as well, were two of the Ferraris that sort of kept Ferrari people in business,
- 12:50just like the 944 did for Porsche, right?
- 12:53It was like every man's car if you were in that market.
- 12:57So during that time, did you guys see a lot of, let's say 308s coming through
- 13:01and things like that, where that was.
- 13:02The hot ticket item?
- 13:03Yeah.
- 13:04Well, the 3 0 8 was Ferrari's first real mass produced car
- 13:09across the different variants.
- 13:10They've made over 12,000 of them back then.
- 13:13That was crazy.
- 13:14Previously, I mean, the Daytona's, they only made less than 1300
- 13:18Dino's, a couple thousand.
- 13:20That was their first really big production car, and it was a huge
- 13:25hit, and it was definitely helped by the whole Magnum PI thing, but also.
- 13:30A lot of people do forget about the Dino 308, the 308 GT4.
- 13:35And that was the interim car between the two, which was not as popular.
- 13:39So they went to the Bertone style body design, which was
- 13:44the very wedgie angular look.
- 13:47When it first came out, people were kind of like, Oh, I don't know about this.
- 13:51But then they revised it with the 308 we come to know today, and it had a little
- 13:56more, I don't even want to say curve.
- 13:59It just wasn't quite the same harsh angle.
- 14:02So it was more widely accepted.
- 14:04And by that time, Bertone started to make a name for himself.
- 14:08I mean, with the Monte Estrados, a bunch of other cars, it was a very popular look.
- 14:13So it definitely caught on really quick.
- 14:15Before we move on to our next segment, because I think there's
- 14:18a whole conversation around buying Ferraris, and I'm understanding
- 14:21what to buy and things like that.
- 14:23It's part of what you guys do, not just a restoration part and whatnot.
- 14:26I got to ask this pit stop question because you just dropped some
- 14:29vehicles on us that you really like, but are Ferraris the sexiest cars?
- 14:34Is there a Ferrari that's the sexiest of all time?
- 14:36Or is there something for you that is even more beautiful than any Ferrari?
- 14:40No, it'd be Ferraris.
- 14:42It'd definitely be Ferraris pinpointing it down to one, probably not Lucy Bell.
- 14:49But the other 250 Testarossa pontoon fender, it's black and it
- 14:54has a red stripe around the nose.
- 14:57That car has to be the sexiest car of all time.
- 15:01It is just drop dead gorgeous.
- 15:04That one I think has to win.
- 15:06I'm of a different school of thoughts.
- 15:09I mean, I'm a huge.
- 15:11F40 fan, you know, it's the last car that Enzo blessed before he left us.
- 15:15It's just, I don't know, there's something just about that car.
- 15:18I just saw one again the other day in person and it's just, it
- 15:21blows my mind every time I see one.
- 15:22So that for me is always the top of the list, but the 57 Testarossa for sure.
- 15:26Gorgeous car, but the antithesis of that, right?
- 15:28The ugliest car of all time.
- 15:30Is there such thing as an ugly Ferrari?
- 15:32If you put it just in the realm of Ferrari, there's gorgeous Ferraris and
- 15:37then there's a couple ugly Ferraris.
- 15:38Now if you put them in the realm of cars in general, definitely I would take the
- 15:44ugliest Ferrari over lots of other cars.
- 15:47There's lots of other cars that would definitely be, in my opinion, uglier.
- 15:52If I had to pick, please say the Mondial T, please.
- 15:55I was actually, that was going to have to say.
- 15:59The Mondial is, uh, not high on my favorite list.
- 16:03You hear that folks?
- 16:04It is now confirmed by an expert.
- 16:08Weird science killed that car.
- 16:10But if you take that car and put it up next to a whole bunch of other
- 16:15non Ferrari cars, looks wise, I would probably still pick that one, but.
- 16:20I know the maintenance that comes along with them and a
- 16:22lot of the reliability issues.
- 16:24There's some that are very well serviced and maintained, but for the
- 16:28most part, I've had more of those leave me stranded on the side of the
- 16:31road with an ugly car than actually.
- 16:35You know, do real well for me, maybe they just don't like me either.
- 16:38So maybe the feeling's mutual.
- 16:42That's a great follow up to where we're going with this.
- 16:45William was with us recently and we did an episode all about buying
- 16:49Italian cars specifically targeted towards the first time collector.
- 16:53So now we're going to hone in a little further and talk about Ferrari.
- 16:56We mentioned before the 308.
- 16:58They're so plentiful.
- 16:59That's sort of the gateway.
- 17:00Into the Ferrari world.
- 17:02If you're going to buy a Ferrari, where should people start?
- 17:05Should they start that far back?
- 17:07Is there something more modern?
- 17:09Is there something that's more of a compromised car to get
- 17:12you into the world of Ferrari?
- 17:13That then lets you sort of build up from there.
- 17:15What should people consider if they're looking to buy a Ferrari
- 17:18that is very much dependent on.
- 17:22Each individual person, some people would probably prefer something a little more
- 17:27modern three sixties and four thirties are always kind of a good beginner choice.
- 17:31I'd say a four 30 cause they don't have the cam belt.
- 17:34So the service requirements are a little less.
- 17:37The three Oh eight is great.
- 17:39If you want a good classic, that is fairly reliable because they have
- 17:43pretty bulletproof ECUs and they're.
- 17:46Not horrid to work on and parts are readily available
- 17:50because they made so many.
- 17:52So you're not going to get killed trying to find parts, but I also think that
- 17:57you should buy whatever you'll be happy looking at in your garage, you know,
- 18:02and happy driving down the street.
- 18:04I deal with so many different buyers.
- 18:06Some of them are investors where they're buying cars.
- 18:10Cause they think in a few years they'll be worth more.
- 18:12I have buyers who are, you know, just enthusiasts who just really like
- 18:16certain cars and everything in between say your favorite car is the Mondial,
- 18:21you know, or, or whatever it is that.
- 18:24You really want that you look at and it just makes you happy.
- 18:28That's what you should go for.
- 18:30My biggest recommendation would be to buy the best car you can afford.
- 18:35Don't buy something cheaper.
- 18:38Cause it seems like a deal.
- 18:39Cause usually when that happens, you get eaten up in deferred maintenance costs
- 18:44and other issues that could pop up if you can, depending on the budget, get the best
- 18:49car you can for whatever your budget is.
- 18:52The 308 is a good starter.
- 18:54If I had to pick a couple of good starter Ferraris, 308s are great.
- 18:58360s or 430s are great.
- 19:00So those would probably be my two go to kind of starters.
- 19:03I've got a couple I want to throw at you just to get your feedback.
- 19:06So a lot of people don't realize, but I've brought it up before, and I brought
- 19:09it up on the Italian car episode.
- 19:11What about the 208 Turbo?
- 19:12Same body, smaller engine?
- 19:14Oh, yeah, no.
- 19:16I Those are just gutless until the turbo kicks in and then it's there.
- 19:27No, that's so eighties though.
- 19:30You look at the nine 11s and the Audi Quattros and the Renault
- 19:34fives and you have to have that period appropriate turbo lag.
- 19:37That's what I like to call it.
- 19:39Definitely period appropriate packs a little punch, but they're not
- 19:42the worst, but just they're quirky.
- 19:46We'll get to that.
- 19:47So another one that.
- 19:48comes up is the four or five, six GT out of the four 56 line, the
- 19:53M series is a bit better because they made some improvements.
- 19:57Basically they had valve guide issues at first, long story short, it would
- 20:01cause a lot of smoking, quite expensive.
- 20:03If you ever have to fix that.
- 20:05If you have a four 56 GT, one of the earlier ones, or you're looking to buy
- 20:10one, my big recommendation is see if the valve guides have already been done.
- 20:15Because if not, it could cause a problem in the future that would
- 20:19be very expensive to resolve.
- 20:20The M has taken care of those issues with some other upgrades.
- 20:24So overall, just a bit more reliable.
- 20:27They're both great cars.
- 20:29So those are definitely a good option.
- 20:31And I hear a lot of people say, I'm going to buy a 430 Scud and put a 6 speed in it.
- 20:36How do you feel about the converted cars?
- 20:38I don't mind.
- 20:40I know that there's plenty of purists who hate anything converted.
- 20:44The 430s are easy to convert because they made so many factory 430 6 speeds.
- 20:50The parts are much more easy to find.
- 20:53Plenty of good shops that could do that conversion.
- 20:55Once you get into the more limited edition cars.
- 20:58So we actually just sold today a 599 6 speed conversion.
- 21:03The problem with those conversions is they only made 30 factory 599 six speeds.
- 21:09That means you really can't get the original part.
- 21:12And the four thirties had used shift cables.
- 21:15Whereas the five nine nines use shift rods.
- 21:18When the conversion on the car I just sold started, they tried to fabricate
- 21:23the rods, but there was vibration issues.
- 21:26Just couldn't get it right.
- 21:27They wanted to go with cables, but the owner really just wanted the factory.
- 21:32So we sent the car somewhere else and they were actually able to source the factory
- 21:38original, like from the factory parts and to have those installed in the car.
- 21:43Well, that's great.
- 21:44But then the next problem is the more modern the car, the
- 21:49more complicated the computers.
- 21:50So getting the transmission to.
- 21:53Speak correctly with the rest of the computer and everything actually
- 21:56function without warning lights and all kinds of things going
- 22:00wrong is very difficult to do.
- 22:02Luckily, the mechanic is a computer genius and was able to make
- 22:06everything function seamlessly.
- 22:08So it drives just like the factory.
- 22:116 speed 599.
- 22:13But doing that is extremely difficult.
- 22:16430s, go for it just because it's not hard to do and I don't care
- 22:21what people do with their own cars.
- 22:23Do what makes you happy.
- 22:24But for stuff like the 599...
- 22:26Be aware, it's a lot more difficult and it's going to cause some headaches in
- 22:32the future while you're trying to do it.
- 22:33The darker side of that conversation you alluded to earlier, when we were
- 22:37joking about the Mondial T and how it leaves you on the side of the road.
- 22:40And, you know, people are scared of Ferraris.
- 22:42We even talked about this in some other episodes.
- 22:44It's like an engine is an engine is an engine.
- 22:46If you can figure out how to take it apart without breaking it, you
- 22:48know, you probably can work on it.
- 22:50There are some, let's say reliability issues with the Mondial T that
- 22:53might be one to stay away from.
- 22:55I've heard some horror stories about the three 48, the three 55 with the
- 22:59joystick, you know, things like that.
- 23:00So are there Ferraris that are just a little bit more troublesome?
- 23:04I don't want to call them bad.
- 23:05I just want to call them maybe a little bit more temperamental or labor intensive.
- 23:09That you should be aware of if you're shopping.
- 23:11Yes, absolutely.
- 23:13And that doesn't mean that just cause I named one car, they're all bad.
- 23:18There's just certain models that have known issues that could go wrong.
- 23:23Just like with the, the four 56, the valve guides, it doesn't mean
- 23:27every four 56 is going to be bad.
- 23:29It just means that it's something to be aware of.
- 23:33And especially if you're looking to buy one, you just
- 23:35want to do your due diligence.
- 23:38I know it could be an issue in the future if it's not something that's
- 23:40already been taken care of or other cars like the 355 Spyder with the top
- 23:45issues, even if that's been taken care of before doesn't mean it can't break
- 23:49again, other cars have reoccurring issues.
- 23:53So there's no lack of Ferrari models that do have their issues.
- 23:59You know, their problems that could, and quite often do occur for me personally.
- 24:04I've grown up around these cars my whole life.
- 24:06It's kind of like, Oh, okay.
- 24:08Well, the dash and the six 12 went out.
- 24:10Take it to the shop, get it fixed.
- 24:11Cause that's something the 612s, the 599s, they're pretty solid cars, but
- 24:16the dash is a weak point for them.
- 24:18It's happened plenty of times.
- 24:20So for me, I'm just like, okay, well gotta go get that taken care of.
- 24:24But I know for a lot of people who don't deal with so many cars all the time,
- 24:28it's a big deal and it is expensive when that kind of stuff happens.
- 24:32Kind of part of the territory though, out of all the cars that
- 24:35we mentioned and plenty of others that we haven't, is there one that
- 24:38sort of just checks all the boxes?
- 24:40That's great at everything, right?
- 24:41You can take it up in the canyons.
- 24:43You could autocross it, maybe take it to the track.
- 24:45You could show it, you could drive it to work.
- 24:47Is there one that just does it all?
- 24:48I think that's a very individual question for me.
- 24:51That would be the comp Daytona.
- 24:53I would drive that everywhere.
- 24:54You can take that to the track, take that to the canyons, puts a smile
- 24:57on my face every time I start it.
- 24:59But I know a large majority of people probably wouldn't want to drive that
- 25:02around everywhere because it, you wrestle with it, you know, it is difficult to
- 25:06drive, goes back to what I said about buy what makes you happy, whatever that car
- 25:11is, that just puts a smile on your face.
- 25:13Go with that one.
- 25:14Well, now we're going to switch gears a little bit and we're going to talk
- 25:17about an area of this business that both you and William are familiar with.
- 25:21And that's the buying and selling a brokering of these cars.
- 25:24So it's more than just having a passion and a love and
- 25:27saying, I want that red one.
- 25:29Or that yellow one.
- 25:30There's a whole process to buying a Ferrari.
- 25:33It's not, let's say, as easy as, you know, just running down to CarMax kind of deal.
- 25:37So let's get into buying, selling, consigning, online
- 25:41versus traditional, and maybe your thoughts on auctions, specifically
- 25:44those that do feature Ferraris.
- 25:46Sure.
- 25:47It's not just one kind of set thing.
- 25:49We do a lot of consignments.
- 25:50We buy and sell.
- 25:52We sometimes just middleman broker where we know somebody who owns a car and
- 25:58somebody asked me to find them that car.
- 26:00And I kind of put it together.
- 26:02So cars never on consignment with me and it was never really for sale.
- 26:06I just know of buyer and seller and put it together.
- 26:10So a lot of different sides to our business.
- 26:13Each car, because they're so different, each deal ends up being very different,
- 26:17which is part of the fun of it.
- 26:19It's never mundane.
- 26:20It's never boring.
- 26:21Always have to learn something new.
- 26:23It's always something new and different.
- 26:25Currently we have behind me, the showroom, we have about 4, 000 square
- 26:29feet, probably about 25 cars in there.
- 26:31Some we've bought a lot on consignment.
- 26:33Luckily my dad, since he's been doing this for 51 years now, he's
- 26:38built a very large client base.
- 26:40And I started working with him about 10 years ago, and I've been
- 26:45around the cars my whole life.
- 26:47So when you're in this business, a lot of people just see expensive cars and
- 26:53think they can make a bunch of money.
- 26:55From what I've found, those people don't really last that long.
- 26:58It's not like real estate.
- 26:59It's not like, okay, if I sell a million dollar house, I can get 4%.
- 27:03You have to have a passion for what you do.
- 27:07Otherwise, there's lots of options with other dealers and brokers where people
- 27:11can go elsewhere with someone that just kind of meshes with them better.
- 27:15Having a real interest and passion for these cars does make a huge
- 27:20difference in this business.
- 27:21So now that a lot of things are much more digital, going back
- 27:24to the Ferrari's online part of your name and your evolution.
- 27:28More things are online, you know, the advent of things like bring a
- 27:32trailer have really changed the way we look at buying and selling cars.
- 27:36Do you see traditional sales still being the thing?
- 27:39Do you have people coming in the showroom?
- 27:40Are you doing more things virtually now?
- 27:42We've done things virtually for a long time with so many years in the
- 27:46business, having a good reputation helps.
- 27:49When somebody calls me asking about a car I have, and I tell them everything I know
- 27:53about it, and I'll tell them everything.
- 27:56I don't want there to be any surprises if they buy the car when it gets delivered.
- 28:00And I also always recommend they have a pre purchase inspection
- 28:05done if they would like.
- 28:06Many times people will buy cars either because they know our
- 28:10reputation and they know that what I'm telling them about it is.
- 28:14How the car is, or they'll have it inspected.
- 28:17If it clears a third party inspection, then they're happy with it.
- 28:20So for a long time, it's been a lot of just online business, which is why we
- 28:27started doing all the videos with the cars, because seeing static photos is
- 28:33nice, but you want to hear it start.
- 28:36You want to see it run through the gears.
- 28:37That was a big part of it.
- 28:39Since everything is going more online nowadays than having a
- 28:43good video is very important.
- 28:45So you mentioned investing in exotic cars and obviously you guys
- 28:49carry brands other than Ferraris.
- 28:51We mentioned in the introduction, Maseratis, Lamborghinis, and we'll
- 28:54talk about some of your YouTube videos with some very pretty Porsches as well.
- 28:59Cause there's different car markets, right?
- 29:01Especially in the Italian car market.
- 29:03How does it weather the storm?
- 29:05You know, looking at our economic.
- 29:07Climate over the last couple of years.
- 29:08Has it maintained, has it been pretty steady?
- 29:11Is it rocky?
- 29:12Like what does it look like in the market space?
- 29:14It's interesting because the market's cyclical.
- 29:17What goes up must come down, whether it's exotic cars, real estate, stock,
- 29:22whatever it is, it's all part of the market and you have good months and
- 29:26bad months or good years and bad years.
- 29:28The last couple of years have been very interesting.
- 29:31When 2020 hit and the lockdown started, sales stopped for about a month.
- 29:37People who had been in the middle of buying a car with me would call me
- 29:42up and say, my stocks just tanked.
- 29:45I have to back out, sorry, which I understood, but after about
- 29:49a month, people started getting bored and window shopping, there
- 29:54was a real uptick in sales.
- 29:57And that continued for the last couple of years were really good.
- 30:02Recently, the economy's seen some rough patches that has had an effect.
- 30:08So sales slowed a little, but what is really interesting to me is.
- 30:14Back to the sales thing real quick.
- 30:15We have kind of two separate things where we do what we
- 30:18advertise and then the quiet deals.
- 30:20What we advertise on our website is not everything we have for sale
- 30:24or are in the middle of selling.
- 30:26Quietly, we're always selling all kinds of bigger stuff that people
- 30:30don't want publicly advertised.
- 30:31When the market recently kind of took a little slump that
- 30:35hit the showroom style cars.
- 30:38Pretty hard, the 308s and that kind of area of cars, but behind the
- 30:43scenes, we had more requests than ever for the 288s, F40s, F50s, all
- 30:51the bigger cars, especially of that kind of era right there, the supercar,
- 30:56those have been very popular and seem very untouched by the economy.
- 31:02So not all cars.
- 31:05are hit equally when the market is hit in any given way.
- 31:10So it sounds like, if I infer correctly here, that it's still a
- 31:14good time to invest in a higher end Ferrari, even in today's climate.
- 31:19Well, I definitely believe that a lot of these cars are good long term investments.
- 31:27I can't, and won't even pretend to try and predict what tomorrow's market may bring.
- 31:34But years from now, the F40, it is a poster car for so many
- 31:41people, not only older generation, but younger generations too.
- 31:45So when you have the 20 year olds and 30 year olds and 40
- 31:49year olds who love the F40.
- 31:52And had that poster on their wall in five or 10 years when they have their
- 31:57own company and can afford their dream car, then that's what they're going to
- 32:01be buying five years out, 10 years out, those cars are still going to do really
- 32:06well because they're the poster car.
- 32:09Now, eventually that'll change and it'll become something else.
- 32:12In my dad's era, the poster car would have been, you know, one of the old two
- 32:17fifties or a two 75 or one of those cars.
- 32:21And that was the poster car back in his generation.
- 32:24And today, if you ask a 25 year old, what an F40 is, yeah, they're going to know.
- 32:30If you ask them what a two 75 GTB four cam is, they might look at you.
- 32:34Like you just spoke a different language, the generation shift.
- 32:38But this current generation, this one of that kind of era
- 32:42car will last for a while.
- 32:43Cause the 280 F40 F50, like the big five today have reached
- 32:48quite a few generations.
- 32:49It appeals to so many people that I think those ones will last for quite a while.
- 32:55And the same could be said about Lamborghini, right?
- 32:57With the Miura and the Countach and Diablo's and so on.
- 33:00Oh yeah.
- 33:00I agree with everything you're saying.
- 33:02I mean, it's absolutely correct.
- 33:03I mean, it's.
- 33:03You know, the generation, they know what those cars are.
- 33:05I think it helped to, uh, with the video games, like a Gran Turismo.
- 33:08So they have put those in there and having those in there.
- 33:11So these kids can play it.
- 33:12So they know what those cars are.
- 33:13But then to her point also is you tell them what a two 75, four came as you
- 33:17write, you're like, what, uh, who.
- 33:18Yep.
- 33:19Which unfortunately, cause they're such a gorgeous car.
- 33:21I mean, it's like, it's what they're familiar with their eyes
- 33:24and seeing it, what they deal with.
- 33:25And those things are be good for the next 20, 30 years.
- 33:28That's how much you appreciate who knows, but they'll go up in value.
- 33:32Either they'll go up quickly, then level go up.
- 33:34Yeah.
- 33:34And it says, keep going up, but if you got the money, buy one.
- 33:38We continue to funnel down in our purchasing here, but our,
- 33:42our buying power increases as I continue to us down this path.
- 33:45So being a.
- 33:47Motorsports petrol head growing up around the racetrack.
- 33:50You're right.
- 33:51The F40 was the poster on the wall next to the Testarossa and the Countach and a
- 33:55lot of other cars that were on my wall.
- 33:57But just to the right of that were things like the 333 SP, you know,
- 34:02the IMSA GT car, the prototype car.
- 34:05And then you have things like Schumacher's V10.
- 34:08So should people also turn their attention towards the motorsport
- 34:12side of Ferrari for like the F40 Evos and a lot of the challenge cars?
- 34:17Those good investments as well.
- 34:18It very much depends.
- 34:20So as far as the Formula One cars, those have been great investments.
- 34:26We have sold quite a few of those.
- 34:28The prices always amazed me and the prices have only continued to go up.
- 34:33So an F40 is a dream car, but the Formula One cars, that's
- 34:37a different kind of dream.
- 34:39That's almost, even if you are a billionaire, that's.
- 34:42A dream on a different level, because most people can get in an F40 and drive
- 34:47one if they have the money to buy one.
- 34:49Whereas the Formula One car is not nearly the same.
- 34:52You might not even be able to fit in it.
- 34:54If you do, then you have to be very skilled in order to To actually
- 34:59drive it, even if it's at, you know, six tenths of its potential,
- 35:03even just driving it carefully around the track takes some skill.
- 35:08Those are kind of a different level, but on the opposite
- 35:12side, they're also pieces of.
- 35:14art and history.
- 35:15I've had lots of clients who buy them because it's literally if you
- 35:20already have everything else in your showroom, what else can you add?
- 35:23That's kind of just the cherry on top.
- 35:26And that'd be a Schumacher F1 car.
- 35:28So we've had lots of people who have bought Schumacher F1 cars just.
- 35:33To have that gorgeous historical piece of art sitting in the
- 35:38middle of their showroom.
- 35:39I've had lots of clients who do buy them to race them.
- 35:42There's a program through Ferrari cliente where if you pay Ferrari enough,
- 35:47they will have your car waiting for you at the track with your race suit
- 35:51and the lunch ready and the mechanics all there, everything you could need.
- 35:55You just pay them a couple hundred grand and, uh, you can go racing.
- 35:59We all gravitate to Schumacher, right?
- 36:01Eight time champion or.
- 36:03Or whatever, a Formula 1 in Ferrari, you know, he ran many other cars
- 36:06even before his time at Ferrari.
- 36:08But there's other drivers that carried the banner too, right?
- 36:12You got Barry Kelly, you've got Eddie Irvine, you've got Alan
- 36:14Prost, Nigel Mansell, Berger.
- 36:17I mean, the list goes on and on.
- 36:18So do those older Formula 1 cars carry the same kind of, let's say value?
- 36:24I mean, they, they have a different.
- 36:25Provenance, but what do they look like in the market?
- 36:28Are they all just sort of tucked away?
- 36:30I mean, a lot of them are tucked away, but it depends.
- 36:33So like the Niki Lada, the three 12 T2, that one is very
- 36:38recognizable, recognizable driver.
- 36:40That one would demand a big premium.
- 36:43Part of the generational shift.
- 36:45People do tend to move towards the Schumacher cars just because
- 36:50that era and the name is.
- 36:52So recognizable, but Nikki Lotta's definitely another big name.
- 36:57We did sell Kimi Raikkonen car, his championship car, and
- 37:01that one went for good amount.
- 37:03So there are definitely other names that people love and want and remember
- 37:09the names, remember the races.
- 37:11But Schumacher is the biggest, just hands down.
- 37:15He's the biggest.
- 37:15Just because of the era and what he did just sticks in people's mind.
- 37:20I mean, he was.
- 37:21Unprecedented time is how many championships everything and what
- 37:24he did and everything like that.
- 37:25So, I mean, he just stood out.
- 37:26He was a fabulous driver, but you know, I'm a bit older.
- 37:29So I look more back at the older generation guys and what they
- 37:33drove and yeah, just the raw car.
- 37:35I mean, there was, didn't have ABS, any of that kind of stuff.
- 37:38So.
- 37:38I have a lot more appreciation for those guys back at that day, like with
- 37:41louder, Jules Villeneuve, you know, but then you go back to Jimmy Clark
- 37:44and, you know, Phil Hill, those guys.
- 37:46Oh yeah.
- 37:47I appreciate those guys that much more just because of
- 37:50one, what they were driving.
- 37:51And two, I mean, look how many people died just every weekend.
- 37:54And so it's.
- 37:56Big respect for those guys back then.
- 37:57But yeah, Kelly's correct.
- 37:58The fact is, you know, it's what people they have in their head and their mind,
- 38:01but they watched racing, then they can afford it now it's in their living room or
- 38:06if they can fit in it, they can drive it.
- 38:08It's one of those things.
- 38:09So, but it kind of boils down to personal preference in regards to that.
- 38:13Yeah.
- 38:13I agree that the Schumacher cars, they're just going to keep
- 38:15going up in value for a while.
- 38:16Oh yeah.
- 38:17I agree with you.
- 38:18I like the older cars.
- 38:20that were more raw and harder to drive the older generation of drivers
- 38:26just in the market in general.
- 38:28Schumacher is, he takes top in the market.
- 38:30Yeah.
- 38:31Not my personal feeling.
- 38:33That's just what I've noticed.
- 38:35Lastly, on the conversation of buying and selling Ferraris and other exotics,
- 38:39what are your thoughts on the auctions?
- 38:41Feel like they're seeing a resurgence.
- 38:43These days, you are seeing more Ferraris and other exotic showing up
- 38:47at places, you know, like Meekum and broad arrow and other things like that.
- 38:51So is that an avenue that people should consider should pursue?
- 38:56Auctions are very interesting because from a buyer's perspective.
- 39:02You have a little bit of time beforehand to go look at the car.
- 39:07Maybe they'll let you start it or they'll start it for you, but you can't drive it.
- 39:10You can't put it on a lift and have a real inspection done.
- 39:14And then when it comes down to buying the car, you have a couple minutes.
- 39:18To bid as it rolls across the block and that's it.
- 39:22So from a buyer's perspective, it is a fun time.
- 39:26It's a fun way to buy a car.
- 39:27Have some friends there, have a couple drinks, bid at the auction.
- 39:31It's fun.
- 39:32But if you are looking seriously at the car and the quality of the car and
- 39:38you want a good inspection, all that kind of stuff, then you just don't
- 39:42have enough time at the auctions.
- 39:44There's no real way to have a good inspection and to know
- 39:48all the details about the car.
- 39:50There's pluses and minuses.
- 39:52So if you're a seller, then the exact kind of scenario works for sellers too,
- 39:57where your car is crossing the block.
- 39:59There's a couple of minutes.
- 40:00And if you have the right buyers in the room, you do great.
- 40:03If you don't have the right buyers in the room, it doesn't
- 40:05sell or it sells for a low price.
- 40:07With the auctions, it's kind of a attempt to get lucky.
- 40:11Sometimes it's a good gamble and you win.
- 40:13And sometimes it's a bad gamble and you don't win.
- 40:17And my point for bringing it up is that I feel that what you do, Colleen,
- 40:21and what William does as well, dealing in this market space is that.
- 40:24It's that personal touch that's really, really important to say, well, you know,
- 40:28maybe I am the lowly owner of a Monday LT and I want to find it a new home
- 40:33and you're going to help me do that.
- 40:34And it's not that, well, I'm going to take it to X, Y, Z auction
- 40:38and hope that it sells and be satisfied with what I get for it.
- 40:43Right.
- 40:43And it's not always about the money sometimes, at least for me.
- 40:46And I know for a lot of other petrol heads, it's about knowing that
- 40:48it's going on to a better place.
- 40:50And sometimes with auctions, you can look at it the other way.
- 40:52You kind of wonder like.
- 40:53Did that car get passed up?
- 40:54Like it wasn't good enough to be sold through a caretaker.
- 40:58For me, there's lots of angles in that conversation, but I want people to kind
- 41:01of realize they've got more choices than to just kind of put it out there.
- 41:05Yeah.
- 41:05Kyle mentioned before, like her father being in it so long and there's a
- 41:09reason he has, they both have, that rather large I'll say black book of
- 41:13names, contacts, networks, and why those people keep coming back because it's a
- 41:17relationship and they trust them to know the fact is they get a car from them.
- 41:21They know they're not going to drive it half a block away.
- 41:24It's going to catch on fire or some breakdown.
- 41:26They're going to come back and, you know, you get that repeat business.
- 41:28As that adage is, you know, that person tells two people, those two people
- 41:32tell four, you know, so it's getting your reputation, go to an auction,
- 41:35especially if you had too many cocktails, you get caught in the thing, you
- 41:37end up paying too much money for it.
- 41:39All right.
- 41:40All you can do is go look at it for a couple of minutes and straight.
- 41:42They started to me.
- 41:43I'm not a big fan of that.
- 41:45And I could never understand why someone would go by especially
- 41:48a couple hundred thousand dollar car, let alone multimillion
- 41:51dollar car at an auction because.
- 41:53I would be scrutinizing the heck out of it to be sure I know what I'm getting.
- 41:56So again, it's everyone's own preference.
- 41:59It is.
- 41:59So if you're looking at some of the very expensive cars that cross the
- 42:03auction block, I've had clients who have asked me to look at the car,
- 42:08talk to the auction beforehand.
- 42:11So sometimes I'll contact an auction weeks beforehand to get.
- 42:15Extra information and details on a car for a client.
- 42:18A lot of times they will do that, especially when you get into the
- 42:22higher dollar cars, if they provide more information, they try harder.
- 42:26You're trying to buy a three 60 at auction.
- 42:29They're not going to spend days answering every little question
- 42:32you have before the auction.
- 42:34They don't care.
- 42:35They have hundreds of cars running through and don't have time for that.
- 42:40Does kind of depend on the car you're buying at auction.
- 42:43What do you think the percentage is at auctions that it's dealers buying the
- 42:47cars as to compare and it's an actual person buying the car for themselves?
- 42:53It is a good percent.
- 42:54I talked to him and they asked me about it and I asked him, I go, look,
- 42:57I go, you're They are competing against a majority of those people in that
- 43:00crowd are dealers buying those cars.
- 43:02And they're used to that.
- 43:03Okay.
- 43:04Look at a car and evaluate what to do it.
- 43:05You know, as someone's buying for themselves, you know, it's got
- 43:07an emotional investment in it.
- 43:09Oh yeah.
- 43:09I don't think a lot of people realize that in those auctions, that there's
- 43:12a just ton of dealers that are in there buying cars just for inventory.
- 43:15Oh yeah.
- 43:16It happens a lot.
- 43:16And you know, dealers buy cars at auctions and sell them at auctions.
- 43:20Dealers a lot of times will have very close relationships with auction houses.
- 43:24So there's a good percentage of that, which isn't a bad thing.
- 43:28I mean, there's nothing fake about it.
- 43:30If a dealer buys a car at auction, he thought it was a good price.
- 43:34And so he buys it.
- 43:36He's selling one at auction.
- 43:37He thinks it'll be a good auction for that car.
- 43:39And that's how he sells it.
- 43:41It's very upfront.
- 43:42At least.
- 43:43Sometimes when you see the sell through rate at auctions, you
- 43:47have to take that into account.
- 43:48You know, Monterey Car Week isn't all just this huge chunk of end user buyers
- 43:54that put their money in the auctions.
- 43:55It's time for another Pit Stop question.
- 43:57So you can't talk about Ferrari without talking about motor sports.
- 44:01We've crossed that threshold several times in this episode.
- 44:03So I wonder Colleen, Ferraris have been run in a multitude of different
- 44:09racing disciplines from grassroots sports car racing through world
- 44:13challenge and IMSA in GT3 and GT4.
- 44:16Obviously they had prototypes back in the day and then in formula one.
- 44:19So if you had to turn on the television and say, I'm going to
- 44:22watch a Ferrari race this weekend.
- 44:24What discipline of racing would it be in and why?
- 44:26So honestly, my favorite form of racing to watch is rally cars.
- 44:31Oh, there we go.
- 44:33Hallelujah.
- 44:34Finally, somebody, I felt like I'm the only person on the planet that likes WRC.
- 44:41Oh, no.
- 44:42It's incredible, especially I love the Lancia rally cars.
- 44:47Those are incredible.
- 44:49I grew up in the group B era.
- 44:51So for me, I have a soft spot for it.
- 44:52Group B.
- 44:53I mean, I understand why they had to cancel it, but that was one of the
- 44:58best forms of racing to ever exist.
- 45:00Seeing as Ferrari never actually got into rally racing, they made a couple
- 45:04of cars trying never got one in.
- 45:06So it'd have to be F1 just because the history behind formula one.
- 45:12Today's races, they're fun to watch, but I personally, I end up watching
- 45:18clips from old races more than I do new races of just about anything.
- 45:23I just love the older era and probably the older era, it was much
- 45:28more visceral and raw and dangerous.
- 45:33It's still dangerous today, but I'm happy they've made such safety improvements
- 45:37because I definitely don't want to see any drivers get hurt or killed.
- 45:41But back in the day, it was just so dangerous and raw.
- 45:46These guys knew when they strapped themselves into these cars that
- 45:50they may not go home that night.
- 45:52That in itself is just incredible to me.
- 45:56And they go out there and go so fast, do so well.
- 45:59They're incredible.
- 46:00So, I think...
- 46:01I'd rather just watch old F1 on rerun.
- 46:04So with the hundredth anniversary of Le Mans right around the corner,
- 46:07what are your feelings on how Ferrari has teased us about a new prototype
- 46:13coming and competing in the LMDH class?
- 46:15What are your thoughts on Ferrari returning to Le Mans?
- 46:18I would love it.
- 46:19When I first saw that car, my phone started going nuts
- 46:23right when they released it.
- 46:24And I had four people texting me photos of that car.
- 46:28And I was just like, what is this?
- 46:30And I got very excited.
- 46:33That'll be fun to see.
- 46:34I bring it up because Ferrari has been an important piece of history across
- 46:40not only the automotive industry, but in motor sports as well, to me as
- 46:44utilitarian and perfect as Porsche's can be right there, an engineering
- 46:49company at the end of the day.
- 46:51But a lot of times people forget the Ferrari is too.
- 46:54They've always pushed the envelope and forced, let's say the rest of
- 46:57the Italian makers to follow them and suit being all partnered together.
- 47:01But also I can't find a single brand that doesn't say.
- 47:05I built a car to compete with Ferrari.
- 47:08It just, it doesn't happen.
- 47:09It doesn't matter if you're, you know, an American brand, Japanese brand, you
- 47:12know, German, whatever, everybody's comparing themselves to Ferrari.
- 47:16And so I'm really curious to see what they do at Le Mans and some
- 47:20of the other endurance races.
- 47:21Because for me, I think it transcends even what they do in formula
- 47:24one, because formula one has this recipe that they have to follow.
- 47:28It's like a spec race.
- 47:29You know, it's like all the Miatas are the same, but in endurance racing, the
- 47:33car doesn't have to run for 90 minutes.
- 47:36It has to run for 24 hours straight, you know, at LeMans or Rolex or whatever.
- 47:40So I really want to see how they take everybody.
- 47:43Into the next hundred years of sports car and prototype racing.
- 47:47So I'm with you.
- 47:48I'm super excited.
- 47:49I'm stoked to see what happens.
- 47:51And I bet they're going to surprise everybody.
- 47:53And people forget that Enzo Ferrari did not care about his street cars.
- 47:58He only cared about the race cars.
- 48:00He basically sold street cars in order to fund his racing.
- 48:05So it is literally the heart and soul of Ferrari is their race cars.
- 48:10And when that didn't work anymore, he just got Fiat to pay for it.
- 48:13That's what I've heard.
- 48:13No, no, exactly.
- 48:16That's exactly what I did.
- 48:18He was like, okay, sure.
- 48:20I'll sell to Fiat.
- 48:22They'll take care of the street cars.
- 48:24I don't care about anyways.
- 48:25So I just can keep running the race shop.
- 48:28It's the art, it's the passion, it's all of it.
- 48:30It all wraps up into everything we've been talking about here and why these
- 48:33cars are so sought after and why there's people like yourselves that specialize
- 48:37them and keep those legacies going.
- 48:39So that's super important.
- 48:40Now, as we kind of round out the conversation here about Ferraris
- 48:45online, now the prancing skunk, you guys, as I mentioned before,
- 48:48cater to more than just Ferraris.
- 48:50So let's talk a little bit more about some of the other cars that you sell and some
- 48:54of the cars that you feature on YouTube.
- 48:56And like I said, I've been watching you drive around.
- 48:58out in some really cool looking nine 11's lately.
- 49:01So what else is on the docket that you guys are interested in and
- 49:05are willing to sell and work with people on all kinds of things.
- 49:08We have sold so many random different cars.
- 49:13So currently in the showroom, just this week, we got into Panteras.
- 49:17We have a couple of C1 Corvettes, a 59 and a 62.
- 49:22We have a Ford model.
- 49:23I was sort of going back to what you're doing.
- 49:25With social media.
- 49:27And that's why I bring up these YouTube videos and some of the other cars.
- 49:30So tell our audience, maybe they're figuring this out for the first time,
- 49:34or maybe they're already followers.
- 49:35Take us on the journey of what you're doing and what you're posting out on
- 49:38social media and what you're trying to showcase with respect to the Prince and
- 49:41skunk across the different platforms, basically for the YouTube channel.
- 49:46That is all the car reviews I do on mostly cars I have for sale.
- 49:51Sometimes like the 288 GTO that I just posted, it was car I had
- 49:56just sold and it was local to me.
- 49:59So the buyer let me do a video before we shipped it off to them.
- 50:03So that was great.
- 50:04Sometimes I've done videos on like when me and my dad go racing and stuff like that.
- 50:10But 95 percent of the YouTube channel is car reviews.
- 50:15I don't like being sales pitchy with the videos.
- 50:19I don't want it to seem like an advertisement.
- 50:21Part of my thing is I love older cars.
- 50:25I have so many friends in the car world who all love the latest, greatest hyper
- 50:30car Pagani or whatever, and they're cool.
- 50:34They're nice cars.
- 50:35But I like the old one.
- 50:36I like classic cars that have a soul and a personality.
- 50:41They tell a story and just have a real history to them.
- 50:44And I just don't feel like enough of this generation appreciates the older cars.
- 50:49Cause at some point, yeah, sure.
- 50:51People are, you know, makers are coming out with thousand horsepower, 1500
- 50:54horsepower, all kinds of crazy stuff.
- 50:57What are you going to do with it?
- 50:58It's unusable at a certain point.
- 51:00I think that the history behind the cars.
- 51:03Where all these supercars started, you know, 50 years ago, that is
- 51:08so much more interesting to me and so much more fun to drive.
- 51:12And so I try and kind of give the history on these cars and some fun
- 51:18facts and you know, just all the details that might get younger people
- 51:24more into some of the older cars.
- 51:26So that's what I like to do on the YouTube.
- 51:29And what I especially appreciate about what you're doing with them is.
- 51:32They're not just model cars in the showroom.
- 51:34Like you see that all the time.
- 51:35Like everybody's got this video review that they're trying to do.
- 51:38You take them out and you drive them.
- 51:40Maybe not all of them, but a majority of them are taken out
- 51:42and they're driven on the roads.
- 51:43Cars are meant to be driven.
- 51:45They're meant to be appreciated and enjoyed.
- 51:47So I really respect that.
- 51:48I really like that.
- 51:49And I hope that the audience does too.
- 51:51And that's one of the fun things I look forward to every time
- 51:53you put something out is where's she driving this thing next?
- 51:56Where are we going?
- 51:57Like what adventure are we up to?
- 51:59So that's a lot of fun.
- 52:00And I really like that.
- 52:01You know, you guys just celebrated your 50th anniversary in 2022.
- 52:06So that begs the question, what does the next five, 10, and maybe the
- 52:10next 50 years look like for you guys?
- 52:13What are some exciting projects, some changes, some things that are coming up?
- 52:16As we talked about earlier, my dad used to have a big restoration shop and he
- 52:20shut that down a long time ago before I.
- 52:23Join the business, but we are actually currently looking into
- 52:28adding a little service center here.
- 52:30Kind of like how my dad did at first, start small, work our way up, decide
- 52:34how many people and all that as we go, you know, start with one and get bigger.
- 52:39Eventually we'll see where that takes us.
- 52:42I don't like putting too many plans set in place.
- 52:47I'd rather just start, see how that goes and then maybe add on as.
- 52:51As time goes, but my dad and I are also getting more serious into racing.
- 52:57We've always done it together for fun.
- 52:59So he did some of the West Coast Trans Am last year.
- 53:02We both want to do it this year, more heavy into racing
- 53:06and the little service center.
- 53:08So those are two big projects we have coming up.
- 53:11Well, if you're running in Trans Am, Camaro or Mustang?
- 53:14Well, actually, um, Ferrari.
- 53:17Really?
- 53:18In Trans Am?
- 53:19I know, I know.
- 53:20He ran his, uh, Lamborghini Gallardo last year in it.
- 53:23They have a XGT class, Gallardo GT3.
- 53:27And then I'm working on getting the 458 Challenge Evo and we can run together.
- 53:34It'll be a blast.
- 53:34And we definitely get some money.
- 53:36You know, from all the, the other guys in Trans Am, they're kind of
- 53:40like, what are these guys doing here?
- 53:42But did you miss the world challenge paddock?
- 53:44Like, what are you guys doing here?
- 53:45Right?
- 53:45Yeah.
- 53:46Trans Am East.
- 53:47It's like a or B, you know, pick which one you want, but good for you guys.
- 53:50That's awesome.
- 53:51Definitely be rooting for you.
- 53:53So, with that, Colleen, any shout outs, promotions or anything
- 53:56else you'd like to share that we didn't cover this far 1 thing.
- 53:59So, uh, my.
- 54:01Personal Instagram is all about cars too.
- 54:04So it's Colleen and then Comp Daytona.
- 54:06So Colleen365GTB4C, just like the Comp Daytona.
- 54:10And it's like 95 percent car stuff.
- 54:13So my husband runs the Ferrari's online page, but since I run my personal
- 54:18one, I do stories all day, every day, just kind of around here and cars
- 54:23we get in and that kind of stuff.
- 54:25So it's more behind the scenes of like what we're doing around here in case
- 54:29anyone's interested in that kind of stuff, the real promotions, I'm just
- 54:33happy that I get to share my knowledge on these cars and all the fun things
- 54:38that I have learned over the years, or even just learn as I go, there's.
- 54:44So many fun, unique things about these cars and being able to share that
- 54:48with people and find other people who are just as passionate is one
- 54:52of my favorite things, especially about the social media aspect.
- 54:55There's so many people who love seeing this kind of stuff and it just makes
- 55:00me happy to be able to share it.
- 55:02And then they share my passion and I've made lots of good friends.
- 55:06Thank you to all those people who have become my friends over
- 55:09the years and share my passion.
- 55:11And I look forward to meeting lots more gear heads.
- 55:14And I love this, this automotive world and the amazing people you get to meet.
- 55:19Today, the prancing skunk known to many of us as Ferraris Online has a 4, 000 square
- 55:25foot warehouse filled with the highest caliber vintage automobiles consisting
- 55:29of racing memorabilia and an extensive amount of rare and unique Ferraris.
- 55:33The front office pays homage to Michael's racing days with photos and
- 55:37memorabilia of decades of his racing past.
- 55:39While they love to collect, they also broker sales and are not
- 55:43only Ferrari historians, but expert appraisers of Ferraris.
- 55:46Keeping on trend with exotic car values regarding Ferrari, general vintage
- 55:50market values, market trends, and all aspects of repair and restoration.
- 55:54You can learn more about Ferrari's online by checking them out@www.ferrari with an
- 55:59s-online.com, or follow them on social.
- 56:03at Ferraris online LLC on Facebook and LinkedIn or at Ferraris online
- 56:09on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
- 56:11And with that, Colleen, I can't thank you enough for coming on Brake Fix, sharing
- 56:15your story and your passion for Ferraris.
- 56:17And I again have to congratulate you guys for hitting that 50 year milestone.
- 56:21And here's to another 50 years as a staple in the Ferrari and exotic car community.
- 56:26So thank you all for what you're doing and keep up the good work.
- 56:29Thank you so much.
- 56:30This has been awesome.
- 56:31I really appreciate it.
- 56:33Fantastic.
- 56:33Thank you much.
- 56:34Have a good night, guys.
- 56:36Thanks.
- 56:37Bye.
- 56:42If you like what you've heard and want to learn more about GTM,
- 56:45be sure to check us out on www.
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- 57:02us an email at crewchief at gtmotorsports.
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- 57:05We'd love to hear from you.
- 57:07Hey everybody, Crew Chief Eric here.
- 57:09We really hope you enjoyed this episode of BreakFix, and we wanted
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