Ferrari has never been renowned as a producer of high-volume vehicles. This was especially true during the 1960s, and the 330 GT 2+2 is a perfect demonstration of that philosophy. The company only built 455 examples of the 330 GT 2+2 Series II between 1964 and 1967. What makes this car more unusual is the fact that only 36 of those vehicles were produced in right-hand-drive form. This is one of those cars, and it has been unearthed in an undisclosed location in New South Wales, Australia. It is being offered for sale to settle an estate, and it represents a chance for someone to secure a rare Italian classic. Barn Finder Araknid78 spotted the Ferrari for us, so I have to say a thank you so much for that. If you would like to further investigate owning this magnificent machine, then you will find more details here at Ferrari Chat.
Ferrari has produced several 2+2 models over the years, but from a styling perspective, the 330 GT is one of their more successful efforts. This car is no exception, and it stands out in Ferrari’s iconic shade of Red. However, the vehicle has undergone a color change at some point around 1973 or 1974. When it rolled out of the factory in 1966, it was wearing an attractive color called Azzurro Blue. The current paint is starting to show its age, with quite a few cracks and imperfections. It will require complete restoration, and I suspect that the buyer will probably choose to refinish the car in its original Blue. The storage environment for the car looks like it was quite favorable because there are no signs of any significant rust issues. As always, a personal inspection would be required to determine whether there are any nasty hidden surprises. The wheels that the Ferrari currently wears are apparently the original alloys, although they have also been treated to a color change. It appears that at some point, one of the previous owners did fit a set of the beautiful Ferrari wire wheels, and while these are no longer on the car, it does seem that they will be included in the sale. A bit of investigation has allowed me to unearth quite a bit of the history of this particular car. After it rolled out of the Ferrari factory in 1966, it found its way to the UK. It was delivered to Maranello Concessionaires Ltd, in Egham, Surrey. The first owner purchased the car from that dealer on February 23rd, 1967. It subsequently went through the hands of two further individuals during its time in the UK. In October of 1974, the Ferrari found itself on a freighter by the name of Ramsgate. This ship sailed from the coastal town of Flushing, which is in Cornwall. Its destination was Sydney, Australia. Once in Sydney, it went through the hands of three further owners, with the last one passing away recently. It is now being offered for sale by that owner’s estate. It is also worth noting that Ferrari only produced 36 of these cars in RHD form, and the official 330 GT Register can only confirm the existence of 25 cars today. It is known that one car was parted out, but the fate of the remaining ten vehicles is unknown.
It was no secret that the late Enzo Ferrari held an obsession for V12 engines. Therefore, it is no real surprise to find that type of engine under the hood of this car. In this case, it has a capacity of 3,967cc and a power output of 296hp. Those prancing Italian horses find their way to the rear wheels via a 5-speed manual transmission. What I find interesting about the engine in the 330 is the fact that it has a surprisingly low compression ratio at 8.8:1. This was no accident, as Ferrari needed the 330 GT to be able to run on fuel with a variety of different octane ratings. That meant a compromise was necessary if the car wasn’t going to suffer a catastrophic engine failure brought on by low-quality fuel. Even in this state of tune, it was capable of covering the ¼ mile in a flat 15-seconds and could wind its way to a top speed of 152mph. When you consider those figures, it is worth remembering that at 3,420lbs, the 330 GT was one of the heaviest cars to be produced by Ferrari up until that point in the company’s history. It is my understanding that in addition to the cosmetic changes that have been made to the 330, there have also been some upgrades performed on the engine. It would seem that these changes might be limited to work on the cylinder heads, so there is a chance that the Ferrari remains a numbers-matching classic. It isn’t clear how long the car has spent sitting idle, so there is bound to be some work required before that beautiful hand-built V12 roars into life once again.
Ferrari offered a limited number of trim options in the 330 GT, but none of them featured white leather and red-and-black chequered cloth. This car rolled off the line trimmed in Blue leather, with Light Gray carpet and a Gray headliner. I suspect that the interior was retrimmed when the exterior color change occurred, and I’m not a fan of these changes. The dash appears to be in good condition, as does the wheel. The original radio is still in place, but a Pioneer radio/cassette player has been installed below this in the console. Apart from the radio, the Ferrari does come equipped with power windows. The interior would look beautiful returned to its former glory, and I hope that this is the ultimate fate of this car.
The Ferrari 330 GT 2+2 is a beautiful car, and this one is a notable example. At best, there are only 35 RHD cars that remain in existence today. However, only 25 of these cars can be confirmed. That makes it a rare car, even by Ferrari’s standards of production. I don’t know whether it will remain in Australia, or whether it might find its way to foreign lands. A spotless and fully restored 1966 330 GT 2+2 will easily command a six-figure value. It isn’t unusual to see prices of US$250,000 being achieved, but figures north of $300,000 are also possible. Those sorts of prices are for LHD examples, so the relative rarity of this RHD vehicle could raise the stakes even higher. The seller doesn’t publicly indicate the sort of asking price he has on this one, but I hope that someone buys it and returns it to its former glory. No classic car should be left sitting in a shed gathering dust. They are designed to be driven and enjoyed, so I hope that’s what happens to this Ferrari.
yup, an engine out type of resto…or wait? How bout usa-izing it?
We like “set it & forget it”? How the Japanese captured our market? No european ownership habits (proudly fiddle, tune, polish, enhance, maintain). Now I am a good ways from rest0mods ona ferrari (“Put-an LS in it!”) but would find it difficult to own a 12 cyl.
Well, there U have it, guess its not for me. Better admire from afar (easily done w/my bank account)! Great year, great make, model !
Seems to me that RHD would make it less desirable. But then nothing about old Ferrari pricing is logical.
I’m not so sure that the RHD is a negative anymore. Many in north America don’t realize that there are more RHD cars/trucks made world wide every year than LHD.
Yes, if this was a FIAT, an Alfa Romeo, Lancia, it would likely have a lower value as a world average. But we are talking about a factory equipped RHD Ferrari. It’s likely there are more interested buyers for a rare car like this one, than the supply.
As more smaller RHD countries have become more stable and have increases in personal wealth, the gap between RHD & LHD value is decreasing fast. And don’t forget that many of these countries require that all the vehicles in their country be RHD. This one won’t require a conversion of a LHD Ferrari that would lower it’s value.
Imagine having so much extra money just laying around that you can park something like this in an old shed and forget it for years. Something wrong with that picture.
Too bad your theory doesn’t hold water.
The father of guy I work with bought a 330 Ferrari in the early-80’s after he got a good job after high school, before he got married and had bigger responsibilities. They were relatively inexpensive then and could be found by someone willing to put in the time and effort to find one, especially if they were willing to settle for one that wasn’t a pristine show car. He used it as a weekend driver for several years, he eventually bought a house and had kids. Rather than selling it, he parked it in their one car garage, where it still resides. The last of his kids is nearly out of the house, so he’ll soon have some extra time and money to get the car on the road. Stories like this aren’t uncommon in the real world, but they don’t fit certain narratives, so they are conveniently ignored.
Steve R
I get a feeling what you and I call cheap are maybe different. What was the price of this car in 1980?
Ken, what does that matter.
Steve R
Steve R, knowledge is fundamental to understanding.
Ken, understanding of what? That you are pushing a false narrative that everyone who owns one of these cars is rich, thus doesn’t appreciate it? I didn’t see any background on the person that owned this car, other than they bought it in the 1990’s. If you know more about the owner, please fill us in. Otherwise it seems like you are projecting your own prejudices onto them, especially since you’ve made this same assumption repeatedly over the last several years.
Steve R
I worked for the Ferrari dealer as a mechanic in the 80s and a lot of Ferrari’s were relatively cheap, particularly in the early 80’s Heck even I owned a Ferrari as a 20 year old mechanic.
250 GTE’s were the cheapest 12 cylinder ferrari and you could find those in the low teens for a decent runner. The 330’s were a step up but still available in the 20’s so roughly about the cost of a new corvette in period. Not pocket change but definitely affordable.
To give you an idea how things have changed we had a 275 gtb alloy 4 cam which I loved that was for sale at 85k, which was a ton of money to me. Think of it as costing about 3 corvettes. Today that car sells for about 5 million or more than 500 corvettes
Times have changed but there are a lot of guys who purchased cars like these when they were younger and had decent paying jobs. Engineers seem to be the most common profession for buying these young and keeping them. Engineers make better than average but not astronomical money.
Steve R, you know what happens when you “assume”. Gotta go, trivia is calling my name.
I’ll use myself as an example. I bought a ’57 Porsche 356A in 1982 for $2700 after working a couple summers in high school. I bought it from the second owner who was going through a divorce. I fixed it up as much as I could and drove it maybe a hundred miles and then parked it, meaning to get to it at some point.
Joined the military, got a decent job, got married, etc etc etc. Forward to 2001. Car still sat where I parked it, in my dad’s garage. I hadn’t touched it in nearly 20 years, so I sold it for $10K. Today, it’d be worth about seven or eight times that.
Yeah, I wish I still had it, but life got in the way. I’m sure there are hundreds of stories like mine.
Around the early to mid 70’s I had a chance to buy one of these for about $6500-7000. I could just about squeak out that amount from my teachers salary and anything I could borrow from my parents. It was, and had been sitting in a shop for a number of months that I walked past nearly every day and which I’d peek into from time to time to see what wonders were lurking in the dark confines of the old place. I spied this lovely, in very dark blue, up on jacks, out of the active part of the shop. After a long period of lusting (several weeks) I got up the nerve to ask about it and the shop owner told me it had been sitting for a long time and that the owner couldn’t afford to do the brake job on it. Would I be interested in buying it? Naturally, I thought ‘How much could a brake job cost? Imagine my crushing disappointment when he said “Somewhere over $3K”. That put the kabosh on my owning a Ferrari. Had been fun to dream and lust over that car though. So, they could be had relatively inexpensively back then and I would say they were actually affordable. Just not by me.
@wizzy
You forgot to mention that 7 grand in the early to mid 1970s had an equal purchasing power to 40-45 grand today. Thats a hell of a lot of money to me for a 20 year old, least desirable ferrari with problems that haven’t been on the road in a couple years….
Wizzy, the equivalent of 20K (today) for a brake job? There is no excuse for that, that is elitist. Maybe class warfare is not such a bad idea. I remember reading a magazine article years back where a guy drove a Ferrari cross country for a delivery. He said that for every thumbs up on the road, he got four or five scowls directed at him. Apparently many people see such things as smugness and a put down to them. And, for the car asking price itself, that would have bought you TWO brand new regular cars at the time, obviously not for the average guy, as has been hinted at here.
Your responses to Ken Jennings are spot on.
Is this the model that gets canibalized to make 250GTOs?
Its sickening that a ferrari replica is more expensive than a real ferrari from the same era.
Freedom is a dangerous thing.
I was right! Also lots of other cool info on this model in this link (not affiliated)
https://www.classicdriver.com/en/article/cars/collectors-index-says-classic-ferrari-watch-right-now
Mostly it was 250 gte, there are some differences between the 250 motor and the 330 motor. The 250 gte and gto shared the same basic motor. The gte did run only 3 carbs while the gto ran 6.
You have to remember these cars use to be cheap.
Kevin, you are correct. In 1970’s Europe these cars were hard to sell. I know, because I found a 1963 GTB 2+2 sitting in the used car lot of the local Alfa Romeo dealership, it’s tires low, and clearly not run for months. As I expressed interest in the car, and promised a US Dollar sale, the staff serviced the car and we took it on a test drive.
I bought the car 2 days later, for US$1,200. That’s right, $1,200. I kept the car for about 6 months, and when I got ready to return to the USA, I sold it to another Army member for a whopping $1,800.
They were not just expensive to repair, but when you add fuel costs and the extremely high yearly registration & taxation costs, the operating costs became huge. Back then, the yearly tax was based on a complicated series of rates calculated on the engine cc size and the number of cylinders. The car I had was a 2.5 liter 12 cylinder car. It was a luxury class vehicle, and that made the taxes even higher.
The reason replicars cost more is that those you can actually use without fear of taking a part with you everytime you park it. Why do you think these cars change hands incessantly, only to be left parked and forgotten someplace? Certainly not because of their quality workmanship. These italian exotics are like a beautiful woman with a raging case of AIDS.
So, if they are not to be driven, why own them? The obvious answer to that is a slap in the face of every true automotive enthusiast.
I’d love to have it. There is nothing like the sound of a Colombo V12. I’d make it run and drive and enjoy it until I could find a Brit or Japanese person to trade me for a LHD version.
Whilst there is a fishing village called Flushing in Cornwall (pop. 670) there are definitely no transatlantic ships sailing from there!
I think you’ll find the Flushing it was shipped out of is in the Netherlands, where it is better known as Vlissingen.
I agree with Kevin & Steve: in the late ’70s, the local mechanic at Crain-Daly had a 12 cylinder hardtop(don’t know what model) and wanted $4000. It was a good running car, but at that time I wasn’t doing much work on cars so I passed. Martin George, from our Atlanta SCCA and rally head, bought it and did some minor work on it.
Have no idea what became of the car after that
I think you’re confusing replicas with datsun based ferrari kit cars. A replica of a 250gto is handmade out of aluminum hammered over a wooden buck and english-wheeled out. Uses all ferrari components from the donor so has all the drawbacks of a real ferrari. (Using your weird analogy the woman with aids died but she infected a new host and the virus still lives)
A great replica might cost over a milion dollars (there is a guy i NZ literally hammering them out on a buck)
Last time a real 250gto sold it brought nearly 50 milion dollars (not five but fifty!)
The point i was trying to make is i’d rather have this 330 and try to bring it back to life than spend 2-10 times more on a 250 replica that has no history cause its brand new (other than the donor parts). New car smell in a vintage ferrari? No thanks!
20 years ago I drove a RHD 330GT 2+2 through Melbourne Australia hitting 130 mph once or twice.
I had the chance to buy one of these in 1971 for $4000. Went to the base credit union for a loan but was refused because I got out in less than six months!
I would have shipped over for that chance. Signing bonus, if there was one, might have paid for the car! I got off active duty in mid ’73 just so you know I know it might have been a big ask at that time in history.
I did think about it! I was offered a VRB of 4. Could have bought it and had money left over. Wife thought the car and I would be very happy.
Your responses to Ken Jennings are spot on.
Basic psychology here. Tribilisim, group mentality. No one wants to consider other ideas, only want to hear what they already believe. Santayana was so right, rest in peace my friend.
The original color, Azzurro Blue, a light blue metallic similar to celestial blue, is very handsome and appropriate for a GT. The red, not so much. I would repaint it blue and refit the original Borrani wire wheels. That’s the classic look. This isn’t a Ferrari race car.
How much does it cost to ship a car from Australia to the East coast of the United States????? Anyone ever do it on here??? Does anyone know????
Because shipping rates are rather volatile, it’s very difficult to get guaranteed rates more than a few days in advance, but from what I’ve been able to find out, it varies from about $1700 to more than $2,500. The differences are partly due to an unknown port of exit and the entry port in the USA.
If you are serious about doing this, DO get a quote for the car inside of a 20′ shipping container, with the car well secured down, also suggested are inflated bladders on either side of the car. [it can be a very rough ocean out there]. Also make sure you get specific insurance for the car. The insurance the shipping co provides covers only the car’s value if the ship sinks.
Real good information Bill and a lot of it I would not have thought of!! Thank you!! I appreciate it!!
There is a cheaper alternative called RO-RO [roll on – roll off] but the car has to be driveable under it’s own power to make it onto the ship. However would anyone want to ship an expensive [especially a high performance or exotic] car where the dockhands are able to drive it around, even before or after shipment, while it’s still sitting in the parking area?
In 1989, with the fall of the iron curtain, I shipped a Tatra V8 from Germany to Baltimore by Ro-Ro, it had a freshly rebuilt engine and new clutch disc when I dropped it off in Bremerhaven, but when I picked it up in Baltimore it had a smoked clutch, completely burned away. I believe the driver didn’t know how to shift the gearbox, and drove it out of the boat in 4th gear.
So beware, if it’s an unusual or older vehicle, ship it in a container where it won’t be driven or even seen by dockworkers. And always obtain private shipping insurance to cover your investment!
As an independent appraiser and court-recognized forensic mechanic, I’ve been called in to report on a couple of cars that were damaged during container shipment, when the ship battled difficult storms. In these cases, the cars had been secured only by chocking the wheels and putting the e-brake on. When the ship was rocked from side to side, any container contents, if not tightly packed, was damaged from the violent rocking of the ship. Imagine a car in the container, lifting off the floor and being repeatedly shoved against the 4 walls. It ain’t a pretty sight.
John Lennon had a ’65 in 330 GT 2+2 in the same “original” color of this one (blue). Also RHD… I think it’s the only other blue 330 GT with RHD that I’ve seen for sale. His, of course, sold for gobs more.
Supercar Advocates got this car and outline the full story. https://youtu.be/FXFNdyKtPG8