Re: official P4/5 pic
Awesome post by Jim Glickenhaus from Pistonheads, where he's been following lively debate on his P4/5
"Hi
Firstly I am very interested in all of your opinions and thank all of you for them.
I am extremely lucky to be able to do what I do and I realize it. I have the utmost respect for anyone who has a car they cherish and drives it with one that they love. If I couldn't afford cars such as I can I'd buy a rusted Frog Eyed Sprite or an old Corvette
restore it with my hands and drive it on the same roads with the same family I do. That is worth something, the rest really isn't. In yesterdays Wall Street Journal there was an article about a woman in Hong Kong who paid 15 million dollars for dancing lessons so as you can see what something is worth means different things to different people and the only way to know at any point in time what something is really worth is by auction. That said once again as I never sell cars that I love what they may be worth some day is not something I really care about. There is an enormous amount of work, engineering, and talent that Pininfarina put into this car to build my dream. In my opinion this was not very profitable for them. It was and hopefully will be again an important part of what they do and who they are and that's why they did it. This is a lot more than a show car. It is a fully engineered, world wide legal, full serviceable, fully technically supported world wide indefinatly, fully supported spares program, and in the end a fully blessed by Ferrari One of One that is now carried in the Factory records as FERRARI P 4/5 by PININFARINA.
I shudder to think what this car might sell for in 50 years should my Grand Kids decide that they no longer Love it as I do.
As for how Ferrari came to bless this car in the latest Car and Driver Ted West goes into this in detail and I think he got it right. The short answer is that upon finally seeing the car they liked it and felt that it deserved to wear their badge. They have fully embraced the car and are offering full technical support to Pininfarina and stand by to provide any parts or technical assistance I may need. The parts and service manuals are available to any Ferrari Dealer world wide and any of them can fully service the car should I need it.
In the beginning, before they saw the car it was as Ted noted: "After-School Sports, Italian-Style" but in the end as he wrote:
"Maranello welcomed this unique car into the fold as a fully badged Ferrari. Under the skin, of course its VIN is indisputably a Ferrari Enzo's. When a kid puts a wing on his Subaru, it's still a Subaru-ditto the P 4/5.
But it's always best when everyone, especially Ferrari, smiles, shakes hands, and they all go off to the seashore."