We sort of set ourselves up for this one. Last week, while writing up another manual Ferrari 456 GT, this is what we had to say about maintenance on modified Ferraris:
At this juncture, the featured 1995 Ferrari 456 GT could end up with an enthusiastic new owner, who might tint the taillights, lower the suspension on 19" wheels, cut out the mufflers, and add Ferrari shields to the front fenders. That owner might not put aside the cash necessary for routine maintenance - we've seen listings where this has been the case.
Which brings us today's feature. It's not a high-mileage example, but the owner has modified it almost exactly as we described last week! From the 19" wheels to the (replaced) exhaust to the (partially) tinted taillights to the fender shields, it's what we had in mind. So, was our assumption that a modified Ferrari would have deferred maintenance true? Not even close! While this car might have had some new issues crop up since its PPI in fall of 2019, we would imagine that most issues were corrected by the seller. The car has 400 miles on its most recent belt service - a far cry from the neglect that would have validated our claim from last week.
This doesn't mean that there aren't some neglected examples of modified Ferraris out there, but we'll refrain from generalizing in the future. We ourselves are in no place to pass judgement. After all, our Milano Verde - our favorite car - is lowered on 16" wheels, and has an exhaust, a couple of silly decals, and even has a vanity plate with an Italian word on it, which we are pretty sure gets us made fun of on YouTube by the Italian commenters. We'd say that our Verde is far from neglected. Live and let live.
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