The quest is complete for a Rosso Red F430 coupé.

I looked at carguru.com,ebay and autotrader. Initially I was overwhelmed on how to avoid the mine field. Large sum of money was involved and I wanted to make sure I didn't screw up. I realized I needed to hire experts in the field to provide guidance. I found Josh Hill of IAP Racing in Virginia.

IAP Racing provided an invaluable service. I was able to ask Josh questions and get quick answers. He is also very knowledgeable about at least the F430 which I was looking for. I came up with my 1st,2nd,3rd choice.

1st choice was a 2006 with a dealer in West Virgina. Unfortunately due to the dealership not being able to provide any service or recall records I declined to proceed. Quite a bit of energy was expended and with Joshs expert guidance I felt I avoided a possibly risky transaction.

2nd choice was a 2006 f430 owned by an individual in North Carolina. I saw the car on autotrader and saw his post here. Josh and Paul had recommend this car as it had the header recall and other minor work all done and documented. At this point I asked IAP Racing, specifically Josh to go out to North Carolina and inspect the car and provide a PPI report.

Josh drove up to North Carolina and was very impressed with car. He could not finding anything wrong except a small scruff mark under the passenger side bumper and light weeping of oil on the corner of a valve cover.
I felt comfortable with starting negotiations with the owner. The price was not negotiable but was fair(120k). The bigger challenge was coordinating with him to meet and give him the cashier's check. I flew out to North Carolina, finally saw the car, sat as a passenger and got a invaluable lesson in driving it from the owner Pat.

I had also scheduled InterCity,based on the recommendations here, to pick the car up. The car was picked up about 2 weeks ago and showed up this Sunday(12/7). An awesome feeling. I also had to build ramps to my garage .

IAP Racing
Cedar Lane Suite 190
Sterling, VA 20166
U.S.A.
703.997.2112

Hopefully my little write-up helps the next guy in the hunt. I strongly recommend using the services of an expert. With the older Ferraris the service records are even more important and the cost of service can be quite high. Alot cheaper to pay a little to an expert and avoid the headaches and heartaches later.
Duplicate, sorry.

 

I was doing this exact thing, searching for the right 430. I ended up ditching the search because it became an arduous process and decided to get an i8 (similar price to 430) and just wait for the 458 to depreciate enough.

Your 430 is the same color combo I've been searching for a year!

congrats!

 

Thank you. Yes the process was stressful and arduous. Even when I flew out to see the car I wasn't excited. I thought that was strange but then realized that I was so focused on crossing the t's and dotting the i's that didn't have time to get excited. When I saw the car in person I was excited(By this time all the car validation,money issues had been resolved) but that was short lived. Next step was the car to be shipped. Once the car was on the transporter I was giddy. You have a nice car enjoy it. Maybe you can try again?

 

Props to IAP for helping you on your quest. Tell us more about the car, options? F1 gearbox? interior pics if you have them? Congrats and enjoy! Are you in VA is that how you came to know of IAP since they are local to you perhaps?

 

jcpca356 I'm in California. I got pretty much all I wanted hence the 3 month search :

1) F1 transmission
2) Yellow Tach
3) Yellow Calipers
4) Daytona seats( with the red /black strips)
5) Front/back radar
6) Enhanced Stero

 

Forgot :
Clear Bra also included.

Here are a couple of photos Josh took when he went out to inspect:

 

Intercity truck. Plastic on the seats,paper on the floor mat, car cover and finally a plastic cover on the car cover.




Rear view. The
top is a 1973 2.7 Porche 911 factory light weight.

 

^^^ Nice looking car...you and IAP have certainly done a nice job together. Are you local to Northern VA? If so I look forward to perhaps seeing the car around at Cars & Coffee !

 

Northern California so coffee is out unless you want to drive across the country, my treat :-)

 

^^^ whoa that's a hike! How did you find out about IAP from clear across the country, that's an awesome story! So now that the car is with Josh it's gotta get back on a transporter to get over to you! Or I could always drive it out, but ONLY if that offer for the coffee is still good! haha :-)

 

Sunir, I discovered IAP on another website. Read my review and as I mentioned I had phone conversations with Josh and then when I selected the car (North Carolina) he drove up check it out and gave 2 thumbs up. At that point I flew out did the deal and a week later Intercity truck when to NC and loaded the car. I got the car 12/7. So the car is already in CA but come on down and I"ll buy you a coffee; need to stick to Micky-Dees as I"m short on money now but overflowing with happiness and excitement. I will literally start laughing and grinning at work,at home, in the car, at the gym, everywhere! at random times thinking about the car.

 

^^^ You have the joy of F430 fever!! it's contagious soon your friends and family and coworkers will share in your enthusiasm and want rides in the car! :-)

 

Looks great. Especially the driver's seat. Looks like it was well kept with carefull ingress/egress