1964 Ferrari Other for sale $295,000

This is what I wrote for the Ferrari Life 330GT Buyers Guide

Its 1964 and youre quite all that. Not only the head of a company but someone who knows what wine goes with dinner and the best place to stay in cities around the world. A foreign car to most Americans in 1964 was a Volkswagen Beetle; you however bought yourself a Ferrari. A legendary and race proven marque that the wisp of a dealer network, and a reputation for unreliability and expensive maintenance did not put you off of. In fact, the addition of two extra seats from the normal Ferrari arrangement allows you to take the kids on you high-speed jaunts on the un crowded highways of the early 60s and makes the car practical.

You had to really know something in the back then to buy a Ferrari. Crocket and Tubs didnt exist, drug dealers werent flashy and the whole gold chain Ferrari thing was twenty years in the future. Clothed with fantastic coachwork by the acclaimed Pininfarina, to own one of these exotic 12 cylinder cars you were a man of style and grace. ,You had to have a good bit of confidence to buy a car costing $12,000, the price of 10 Volkswagens or a house in many places. You were buying into world of achievement where everyone in your neighborhood would know you had a Ferrari, even if many of them really had no idea what one looked like.

1964 was half a year before Ford introduced the Mustang, and in a way Ferrari got there first with the 330GT. A fast, fine handling, four seat Italian Pony car writ to perfection. One that really can handle as well as it looks and actually reach 140 and not just have that printed on the speedometer dial.

You get in the airy and roomy four-seat compartment; notice the very British wooden dash (a body colored metal dash was used on some of the earliest cars, a holdover from the more 50s era look of the GTE.) The seat adjusts both as to angle and distance from the pedals. If its the first time in the car you try out the pedal travel and notice there is quite a bit. The floor mounted Series One cars have a comparatively easy amount of pressure needed, with the Series Twos you are going to get a work out on your right leg.

As with all Ferraris of the era, after you turn the ignition key to the first indent, you flip the second switch, (unmarked except for a simple A) in the row of rocker switches. This starts the electric fuel pump nervously clicking away. As that slows to a tick you pump the gas pedal a few times, turn and push the ignition key. Vrooom! The beast springs to life.

After a few minutes or so you turn the heavy steering and, keeping the revs under 3000, drive off. Depending on the weather, the water temp needle should start to move after five minutes or so. In the meantime the car feels its era, with the smell of fuel and oil, the long clutch travel, and the deliberate definitiveness of the gear change. After the oil needle moves off the peg, on a 75 degree day this will take about 15 minutes, you start pushing it a little more.

All the period clichandeacute;s come to mind. The cars size and weight shrink around you and the controls feel more and more right as you spend time in the car. Even the little finger sized indent on the black plastic gear knob feels perfectly placed. The steering, quite heavy at rest, is perfectly tactile on the move. There is some play of course and you will find that it weights up on a tight curve,