Tom Talks: Ferrari 275 GTB/4 #10169 - Tom Hartley Jnr

on this episode of tom talks we are featuring one of my favorite models a ferrari 275 gtb/4 now as a lot of you already know a Ferrari 275 is a model that I'm particularly fond of it's also a model that's been extremely good to me in my business over the years having bought and sold more than 35 different examples in the last 11 years alone and several of those examples we've bought and sold on more than one occasion so I'm fond of them for extremely good reason they were first launched in 1964 it was the first Ferrari Road car to have an independent rear suspension and a 5-speed transaxle it was designed by Pininfarina but body by Scalia T and it was first released in the short-nosed configuration of which there were circuit 240 examples produced it was later superseded round about early 1966 in the long-nosed variant because the short nose cars were found to be unstable at high speeds now you could have ordered the car in either three carb or six carburetor setup and on the long nose cars you also had the option of ordering a steel bodied or an aluminium body version however on the steel body cars you still had all aluminium openings such as doors on it and bootlid but today the ultimate iteration was considered as the ultimate iteration is the more powerful gtb/4 the gtb/4 was launched in 1967 it had dry sump lubrication a six weber carburetor setup it produced 300 brake horsepower and only 330 examples were ever produced now a 275 for me is my favorite 60s Ferrari I think it epitomizes the design and styling of the 60s better than anything else if I had a choice I'm over a short wheelbase or a 275 gtb/4 and I wasn't allowed to sell either I would choose the GT before I think it's a nicer car to drive it's a more sophisticated car to drive you've got a little bit more room in the inside and I think it's a car that's absolutely timeless it's a car that I don't think will ever fall victim from a possible change in demographic of future buyers let's take a closer look now lots of people have asked me over the years how do you tell the difference between a short nose and the long nose variant well if the two cars were stuck next to each other it would be pretty obvious and it would be obvious by the name because the short nose car literally is shorter than the long nose it's more aggressive in in periods however if the two cars weren't sat next to each other a couple of little tips number one is the boot hinges on a short nose car these are inside we're on a long nose car they was fixed externally the rear windscreen is larger on a long nose car and then on a gtb/4 you had this bulge down the center of the bonnet there has been a lot of GTB twos over the years that people have changed their bonnets because they want the car to look like a GT before however as these cars have became more valuable people are now starting to put them back in the original configuration so there shouldn't be too many out there with it now another thing to look for under 275 is whether it's a lawyer or steel bodied and people will say well how can you tell unless I get a magnet out well there is a couple of easy things to look for number one is the seam line the seam line that joins from the roof to the pillar on the front and the back now on an alloy bodied car you will see a seam line that comes all the way along and this chrome strip actually finishes a lot further than it does on a steel bodied car now this particular example I am so proud to share with you today because it's a car that I've been trying to buy for over 10 years and over ten years ago I thought I had it bought but the deal didn't get done now it's a car that was first delivered in 1967 it's one of the 27 UK right-hand drive cars and it's the only right-hand drive car to have ever been delivered new in Verde Pino it's worth also pointing out that the only other right-hand drive 275 that was delivered new invert a Pino was a car that was delivered Newton George Harrison that unfortunately suffered an extremely bad fire in the 80s and we're all uncertain whether it still survives today if it does it's not in a very original form now this particular example has only believed to have only done 19,000 original miles from new now I say the word leaved because on a car of this age is 53 years old unless it's been a one owner car for virtually all of its life which this car has only been a five owner car unless it's been a one owner car for all of its life or virtually all of its life and unless it has MOT s that date every single year it's impossible to warrant in the mileage however we believe it's totally original the interior is totally original and like new and the documentation that comes with the car supports the mileage now it was delivered new in 1967 it was delivered Verde Pino it had the optional extras of electric windows which i think is actually a fantastic extra because if you've ever spent any time driving one of these cars and you want to lean over and it gets a little bit hot in the summer and put the windows down it's much easier to be able to just flick the window switches than lean over um but it gets better in 1970 the car was the car was sold to the music legend Eric Clapton four thousand eight hundred and fifty pounds as how much he paid for it and then it then changed hands and went into the noted collector steven Pilkington now I'm not sure if you remember that name or not but we featured a Ferrari 250 GTO that we sold in 2019 and he was a previous owner to the GTO he sold the 275 when he bought the GTO so it's amazing how this collector car world works and all the cars seemed to eventually come back and the pieces of the puzzle go together so I think it's a fantastic story now I bumped into this car about ten years ago it was owned by a gentleman who bought it in 1990 a good friend of mine I didn't know that he owned the car and he was showing me around it and I was so excited because I thought how many were delivered in ver de Pino there's such a fantastic colour Eric Clapton like is there a better is there a better name to be associated so in a celebrity figure to a Ferrari in the UK than Eric Clapton it's like he's our version of Steve McQueen in the u.s. you know he's he's still a huge Ferrari collector he has impeccable taste in watches and in cars and I just loved the story and then when I started to crawl over the car and I could see how original was how originally interior was I was literally in love in love not in a way of being the dealer that I am in love of thinking I've got to buy this car because if I don't buy it I know I will regret it and at the time I offered a million pounds and GTB fours I had bought one only two months earlier for 700 thousand euros and the most money that I think anybody would have ever thought GT before would have been worth then even a right-hand drive car would have been seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds so I offered quite a premium and the gentleman's wife at the time we were Savin a cup of tea in his kitchen and she said are you serious like you you you just want to write us a check up for a million pounds now and I said yes I want to own the car it's a car that I love and I don't think I can sell it tomorrow for a profit so I think that's physically impossible but I'm sure one day I will be able to and I didn't get the deal done then I absolutely failed and it's cost me considerably more money to wait these ten and a half years but we have got it done now now although the car has had a color change and it's no longer in its original Verde Pino it still retains all of its original interior and I love original interior now as you know we restore a lot of 60s Ferraris several - seven fives and a lot of cars mapping virtually all of them don't retain their original interiors before we start the restoration and other times original interiors are so far gone and used that you just can't keep them but this car with only 19,000 miles from new as you can see the interior it's it's literally like new it you could describe it as as do and although there's some fantastic trimmers in the world you have rocky in the UK you have my early in Italy loopy in Italy and all these people we support we endorse we give business to they cannot replicate original interior when you sit in these seats that the firmness of the seat when these beautiful carpets with the correct ribbon on the carpets you know you don't get the correct ribbing these I mean some people can do it but a lot of people don't get the exact correct ribbing and just in general just the - the other thing that's worth mentioning is on the short knows cars virtually all of them had a wooden - with the exception of only a few the car we sold last year chassis oh seven six nine nine that had a leather - room knew but normally otherwise all short-nosed cars had wooden dashes long nosed cars you could have the option of wooden or leather and then um virtually all GTB fours they were all leather dashes now the other thing that's been nice since we've managed to buy this carves we managed to obtain some great period images one really great image is of the car at Prescott in 1969 that the Ferrari owners come day I think it was in the Gold Cup where the car is being driven by its second owner fantastic shot and then we managed to get some really good images of the car in the 80s when it was still in ver de Pino when it was in Pilkington's ownership before he sold the car as mentioned earlier he sold the car just around about 1990 it was about the same time it was the reason he sold it was because he bought the 250 GTO and then it's been in the same ownership since 1990 the car had a color change it went to Argento it's been in several conquer events one several conquer events and then hasn't been seen much for a roundabout the last 20 years had very little mileage put on it in that time the engine was rebuilt a couple of years ago you know the car is in fantastic order it took me a hell of a long time to buy this car I am so proud to have bought it just shows you that I don't give up as mentioned it cost me a lot more money to buy it today than it would have done haven't 10 10 and a half years ago but we don't cry over spilled milk if we don't return it to its original color then any next owner should because Verde Pino is such a beautiful color even though Argento in a gtb/4 is timeless Verde Pino is such a fantastic classy color it's very rare there were only ever two examples right-hand-drive - 75 s invert a Pino this car and the George Harrison car George Harrison car no longer exists this is the only right-hand drive for coming it you know in turning up an event in that car in that color it's it's known straightaway which of the 27 it is it really is a fantastic car and I'm so pleased to have it and own it I'm not sure if we're going to sell it tomorrow or if it's going to take us a while but either way I will not lose any sleep I'm just proud to have got the deal done

Channel: Tom Hartley Jnr Ltd

Views: 21,233

Rating: 4.9410524 out of 5

Keywords: ferrari, Eric Clapton, 275 GTB/4, Classic Ferrari, classic cars, Tom Hartley Jnr, THJ, V12, 60s style

Id: if4woGIQdwI

Length: 14min 40sec (880 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 19 2020