330 GT Registry

MONTH IN CARS

Barn Finds Ferrari down under, but not out

330GT 2+2 emancipated in Oz after 46 years and a slew of curious modifications

 Ferrari only made 36 right-hand- drive 330GT 2+2s, and one of them has just emerged after 46 years in an Australian garage. The Ice Blue example was registered new in March 1967 to a gentleman in the UK and assigned the number plate OMU 290E. It changed hands once before it was sold to Australia in 1974 and shipped from Ramsgate to Sydney. Rather than jumping into his new Ferrari and tearing up the open roads of New South Wales, the third owner took it home and put it inside, beginning a phase of work to change the car to his own unique specification.

The car is now with Lee Khouri of Supercar Advocates in Syndey, ‘The gentleman changed the trim to a pattern with tartan inserts, re-sprayed the car red and painted the valve covers and the exhaust manifolds. It seems like he did this work over about ten years, but slowly lost interest, and in the end the car was never even registered for road use in Australia.’

Lee received a phone call out of the blue from the family of the late owner, saying only that ‘it’s a Ferrari,’ so he sent his mechanic to inspect the car and was very surprised to hear what he found. ‘The car was located about two hours out of Sydney,’ he says. ‘It’s a country property and the car was literally in a barn.

‘It didn’t seem to be in bad shape, but when it arrived back in Sydney, I realised we had a lot of work to do. Our intention is to put it back to Ice Blue and its original trim, carefully restore the mechanical parts – it hasn’t been started in decades – and then think about marketing it.’

The magnesium Campagnolo wheels were a standard fitment for this model, though were probably not painted gold when new. The long-term owner also kept a set of Borrani wires that remain with the car. It turns out to be the first Ferrari built in 1967, one of just five 330 GT 2+2s with a sunroof. A tricky car to restore?

‘We’ve got one advantage,’ says Lee. ‘We found a fully restored 330GT 2+2 in Sydney to compare it with. We’ll be posting updates on our YouTube channel.’

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