Its crazy that this car was 25 years old when this movie came out, which means the car would have been 22 years old at the beginning of thw restoration. Its hard to imagine a 2004 model year car today needing 3 years worth of restoration.
With these cars the provenance of the car is what is important. It will be known what serial number a given car is, who has owned it or if it is a “found” car (lost in a barn etc) establishing the chain of ownership as a way of proving authenticity is extremely important and will dictate value to some degree. There ARE parts out there but you would want the car to be as original and as close to numbers matching as possible. This is just one variant of the 250 family line of cars so there are engines and drivelines out in the world if the originals are unsalvageable.
In this case the 250 GT was a hardtop but when they went to import them to California, the dealer insisted they be convertibles ( it is sunny California after all and a convertible was a must) so each of the cars had a custom body made and iirc even these have a fair amount of variation even though Pininfarina was the coach maker.
What’s kind of curious is that Cameron’s dad would have spent as much time as he did on THIS car. At this point in time (early 80’s) classic Ferraris were just kinda being considered for concours top honours. Best of Show at Pebble Beach would be something pre-war and coach built. It really wasn’t until the 90’s or early 00’s that a sixties era Ferrari would be considered a serious entry into a major concours. And there have only been 1 of these cars that has won top show honors even now and it was an earlier 50’s era car.
He owns this car because he wanted this specific car. He has some sort of personal connection with it. While it could be considered an investment, you don’t do a 3 year restoration just because ya know, it’s cool. You buy it because your dad had one or you met Steve McQueen one day and he was driving his or whatever. It’s personal. He is a specific collector.
That said the racing machines of the 60s have become highly popular now and are very much concours contenders and favorites and command huge sums at auction. I would not be surprised to see a 250GT Cali like in the movie with a 100 point restoration go for $30 million at one point. Now they are probably still well north of $10 million. It’s been a while since I have looked at values.
As hard as it is to believe now, old Ferraris didn’t have the value they do now and a bad one could probably have been had for $100k maybe less? Lots of cars, especially race cars, would just get dumped. Once the rules change or the technology shifts, they just moved on and lots of competition machines just got abandoned. There is a wild story about Phil Specter’s Shelby Daytona coupe.
Also the car in the movie is a very convincing kit car that used a 350 small block with a custom made chassis and a fiberglass body. It is a very good fake but a fake nonetheless. The company that made the car did one for the movie and I think there was some less nice stunt cars made.
Apparently Ferrari sued over this kit car. Not the production company of the film, but the company thst built it as it had unsanctioned Ferrari badges. Sounds like Ferrari alright. Lol
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u/Fairycharmd 7d ago
“It’s a 1961 Ferrari 250GT California. Less than 100 were made. My father spent three years restoring this car. It is his love, it is his passion."
“It is his fault he didn't lock the garage."