Like Jerry on the HP, this is one of my favorite Ferraris, and it's been disheartening to see how the prices have blown up over the past few years. I remember just a few year ago, you could pick them up for 80k with a stick!

 

Stick V12 is the holy grail, so to speak, and prices have certainly run up. Original (and still) 550 BPF owner. Great car, but I find it runs out of revs too fast. LOTS of shifting. And, I wish it were louder. That said, the BPF is one of the ideal blue-sky day grand touring cars.

CW

 

It's a beauty, absolutely. So cool you have one.

 

It's a pleasure to own.

Years ago, an acquaintance of mine became Pininfarina's rep in the US. He pitched me on one-off projects that they could do. Pretty much anything I could imagine. As an aside, I think this is how Glickenhaus' P4/5 car came to be. And, there have been a number of these one-offs (Clapton's boxer-looking 458 is an example) now offered by SpA.

Anyway, while I wasn't interested in the one-off (prices started at $3MM plus the donor car), they did pitch me on a 10-car run of special BPFs. They'd convert the car to a full 550GT race car. Oh, how I wanted to do that. Price was $750K plus the donor car. I don't think they ever did the run, although that would have been something special!

CW

 

As an aside, one thing I would argue with from the video. Harry states that the Fiorano Handling Package (FHP) was a bit much for the BPF. We spec'd ours with it, based on statements made to us by factory engineers that the BPF chassis was designed to be "optimized" with the FHP. Personally, I've never felt it's overkill. But, the BPF is definitely not as rigid as the coupe.

CW