The Prancing Skunk (Ferraris Online)

Colleen Sheehan - Owner/Operator for The Prancing Skunk (formerly Ferraris Online)

If it’s time to find a new home for your Ferrari or other exotic, please contact us. This is the perfect time to buy, sell or trade. Our program of newsletters and client-specific e-mails combined with a high-profile web presence and a world-wide client-base culled from over 40 years in the Ferrari business will work for you, just as it has for hundreds of other sellers. With thousands of Ferraris sold, no one is better qualified to help you sell your Ferrari or other exotic cars.

Contact: Colleen Sheehan at sales@ferraris-online.com | (949) 646-6086 | Visit Online!

                 

• Your dad started in Motorsports; what/where/when/how… What kinds of cars? Was he already a body/paint guy? How did he get into the world of fixing crashed cars for insurance companies?
• What’s in a name… What’s the backstory behind “The Prancing Skunk” 
• If you’re going to buy a Ferrari – where should people start? Is the 308 always the gateway? Or are there other models to consider? What would you recommend for the first time collector? Which is the best, which is the worst (per se)?
• Let’s talk about the business of brokering cars – how does that work? Buying, Selling, Consigning? Online versus Traditional. Thoughts on Auctions? 
• 51 years in the business – what does the next 5- 10 50 years look like?

and much, much more!

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Gran Touring Motor Sports Podcast Break Fix, where we’re always fixing the break into something motor sports.

With over 50 years of experience as brokers of exotic cars specializing in Ferrari, Lamborghini Maserati, and collections of other exotics. Ferrari’s Online was founded in 1972 by Michael Sheehan, offering experience as an expert witness regarding exotic car values. Market trends, appraisals, and all aspects of repair and vehicle restoration.

Ferrari’s online is still run by Michael, who is now accompanied by his daughter Colleen, and her husband rj and Colleen is here with us to share their story, starting with how they began Ferrari’s online by fixing crashed exotics for State Farm U S A A and the auto club insurance companies, and quickly growing to be North America’s largest Ferrari restoration.

Joining me from Exotic Car Marketplace along with other break fix episodes, like, what Should I Buy? Italian Cars [00:01:00] is my co-host tonight, William Ross, to help me welcome Colleen to the show. So welcome aboard. Welcome to Break Fix. Thank you very much. I’m glad to be here. Colleen, we normally always started a break fix episode by asking for your superhero origin story, who, what, where, when, and why of the topic at hand.

But in this case, we actually have to start even further. Back before you were born Yes. Talking about your. Your dad started in motorsports. Yes. So let’s dig into that. What kind of cars he got into Peyton Body, all those kinds of things. So take us on that journey. It’s actually such an interesting story and I love it.

It’s just something that you don’t hear nowadays, especially. So my dad hitchhiked from Canada. When he was 19 years old, he came down to California and he started working on VW buses. It happened in a very kind of weird way. Porsche Roker around here would ship parts here to California using [00:02:00] the buses.

And then basically cared about the parts. They really didn’t care about the buses, so my dad started buying the buses from this Porsche guy and would kind of fix ’em up and sell ’em. This was in the late sixties, early seventies, so he helped with the whole VW bus hippie. era. And then after doing that for a little while, he bought his first Ferrari.

When he sold it, he made quite a bit of money on it, and so he decided, I’m out of the VW bus business and I’m gonna start working on Ferrari’s and selling Ferrari. If I might ask, what was that first Ferrari? So the first Ferrari was a pf. . I believe he bought it for uh thousand. My dad’s in the other room.

He bought it for $2,000. And how much did he sell it for? 25. 2,500 in 1960, seventies dollars. So he gotta translate that for inflation. Right? . [00:03:00] So that was really the kickoff of his business. So that would’ve been 1972. Was he racing that Ferrari at that time, or was he racing other? So that was before he really got into racing.

That kind of evolved with the business. So started with the service and sales, and then very quickly after that got into racing. So you’re working on specifically, I guess, restoring exotic cars, focusing on mm-hmm. Ferrari. Starting with that, how do you build that sort of clientele? Was it just because there weren’t so many other people doing that kind of work at the.

Yeah, that’s a big part of it. So back then there weren’t as many dealers and brokers as there are today. It was also, the world seemed a lot bigger, I guess, when you don’t have the internet, if you own an exotic car and you’re in this area and there was no one else to go to, then you go to that guy and word of mouth In a small community, like the exotic car community, word spread really quickly, and that’s kind of [00:04:00] the only way.

To do it back then, how was your dad sourcing all the parts in that, back in that time? Was he actually trying to source ’em back from Italy or was he like just going through junkyards or, I mean, how was he coming about getting all that stuff? Actually, not sure how he got some of the parts back then, especially in the beginning.

I know after years in the business you have all the right connections, but I’m really, actually not sure at first how he first started getting all. Yeah. Cause see that had to be quite a chore. . Oh yeah. I could only imagine. Could be a job in itself. . Yeah, right. Figuring all that out and the early seventies with the business that not many people are doing.

Definitely must have been a huge challenge. And also being in California, a lot of the clients had to have been, let’s call them Hollywood type celebrities. Right. Because to afford a Ferrari even then was grades. , even some of the best sports cars. I mean, you compare it to the Porsches and they were cheap by comparison.

I’m sure there’s some interesting stories about folks that walked in the door wanting their [00:05:00] Ferrari repaired or, or even restored or what have you. So any of those that you can share? Oh yes. One of the things I found very interesting, my dad and I did kind of a breakdown one time, cuz his client base, it actually used to be lawyers, doctors, contractors.

Basically, if you own. A big contracting company built houses, or were a lawyer or doctor, you could afford a Ferrari almost seemed like it wasn’t so unattainable back then. I mean, for a lot of people it still was, but now just the prices. It seems a lot harder nowadays. But some of the people, I mean, one of the things besides.

Restoration and repair. My dad did a lot of the conversions, so like the Daytona spider conversions was a big one. My dad and Stren were actually the two big Daytona conversion people, and they happened to be down the street from each other. That was a really big thing and. Clint Eastwood actually wanted my [00:06:00] dad to convert a boxer for him into a target top, which he did.

There’s been a couple of the celebrity cars that are pretty cool and occasionally will come across some of the cars that he used to work on. Lots of the D Daytona spiders have. Come back to us and we’ve sold them. Sometimes we’ll get cars in. My dad used to put stickers in the windshield, you know, just the service sticker.

And I sold a 3 0 8 that a guy had bought from my dad and still had all the service records. From the old shop and still had the little sticker in the window and all of that. So it’s fun to see those cars come back around. Yeah. See that’s gotta be really cool. Oh yeah, definitely. Did your dad just like basically self-taught himself how to do the repairs?

I mean, yeah. He had the mechanical aptitude to bail the. Get into it, engine body work. I mean, it sounds like he was pretty much doing everything and anything that needed to be done on the cars. Yeah. And then he did grow the business to where at one point he had 30 [00:07:00] employees, so he had a head mechanic, head fabricator, all the guys.

And funniest part is they’re still around today. They run big shops of their own, and they’re some of the best in the business today. Well, you learn from the best, right? Yeah. You gotta, yeah, exactly. . , right? Sometimes we have to ask, you know, what’s in a name. And so today you guys are recognized as Ferrari Online, but in 1972, you weren’t called Ferrari Online.

Yes. And as the article in Garage Style Magazine was put out, the Prancing Skunk, is that the original name of the company? Where did that name come from? How’s the name of the. Evolved. So it’s evolved quite a lot. The initial restoration shop, my dad’s first business, it was actually called European Auto Sales and European Auto Restoration back in the early seventies.

It was not a common name and it spoke for itself on what he did. So it was kind of, Perfect for the time. Whereas today, [00:08:00] if you look, there’s all kinds of European, you know, sales European something. So as time evolved, FE Online came about because after many, many years in the restoration business, my dad decided he no longer wanted to restore cars.

He just wanted to do sales. He didn’t want a whole bunch of employees, and so he downsized and became Ferrari Online, which was also a name that just kind of spoke for itself for what it was. They’ll do business as Ferrari online, but our official company name is Prancing Skunk Automotive. That whole thing actually came about because of my dad racing back in the seventies.

He would race all kinds of different, Ferr varies, but other cars as well. Eventually, he would buy a big race trailer and he put the prancing horse on the side of it. and Ferrari is a bit touchy. They don’t like people who sell their cars and they don’t make money off of it. , so [00:09:00] they were not a huge fan of my dad.

They tried to sue him over having the prancing horse on the side of the trailer. The actual badge, the Ferrari badge, the shield is non copyrightable, so Ferrari doesn’t own the badge, so the only thing they actually own is the prancing horse itself, kind of as a middle finger to Ferrari. Him and my mom had designed the prancing s.

and that replaced the horse and it’s just kind of stuck around ever since. It’s unique. Where’s the t-shirts for those? I want a t-shirt. . I have hats, actually. I have the stickers that are the exact size of the Fender badges. Oh really? Uh, yeah. So they fit right over the real Fender badge on a Ferrari. And then I have some baseball caps.

I’ve made jackets, all kinds of stuff. I would totally wear a prancing skunk t-shirt. I think that’s fabulous. Yeah. No, that’s fantastic. It also reminds me of the Volvo guys with [00:10:00] the prancing moose like saying kind of thing. Right. So I think that’s, that’s really slick. So let’s dig into the racing just a little bit more.

Mm-hmm. . So you said your dad raced some Ferrari. What kind of Ferrari? And if, when he wasn’t racing Ferrari, what else was he putting on the track? So he raced. Everything. Non Ferrari, so like Formula Ford and Formula Russell, he had a Corvette he named Porky that he raced at the Long Beach Grand Prix. So many different cars, a Curtis, all kinds of stuff.

But as far as Ferrari go, probably my favorite one he’s raced was the 1957 test. Pontoon Fender, Lucy Bell, the white one. The blue stripe and he raced that in the Milli Amelia. I mean, he’s raced the 1970s five 12 M 2 0 6 S P seven 50 Manza. He’s owned a lot of Comp Daytona’s and raced. Numerous comp Daytona’s.

Actually the cool one, so the Comp Daytona’s, one of my favorite cars there was [00:11:00] 15 original Comptons and then a prototype. He actually bought the prototype in the seventies and used it as his daily driver for years. Hey listeners, they have one for sale right now too. Just fyi. . Yeah, we do. . We do. And that one, I don’t mind if it sits in the showroom for a while.

Probably a little selfish on my part, but I just love it so much. ed had to turn some heads driving that into that cars in Crawford. Everybody just went to over. Yeah, a week last week. I saw that post on that. So that must have made an entrance. Oh yeah. It’s loud and you know it, it stands out. as a presence.

But it’s awesome. And I don’t know why I love those cars, so I mean, I know why, but they’re not the most comfortable. They have a heavy clutch, no power steering. They’re really heavy to try and drive around town. They’re meant for high speeds, but I think that’s part of the charm of them, in my opinion. I agree , so coming up through the seventies in the Ferrari [00:12:00] world, you’re still in that sort of transitional period from the classic, I wanna call them the flowing bodies or the round bodies like mm-hmm , which started with like the 57 tu forward, those nice like almost Aston Martin looking bodied Ferrari.

Not to make that comparison, Ferrari or Ferrari . But you get to the seventies and then you got the Dino, which made a huge right turn for Ferrari. and then the dawn of the 3 0 8. Mm-hmm. , I’ve said it jokingly before the 3 0 8 and the 360 as well, were two of the Ferrari that sort of kept Ferrari people in business, just like the 9 44 did for Porsche.

Right. It was like mm-hmm. every man’s car if you were in that market. So during that time, did you guys see a lot of, let’s say 3 0 8 s coming through and things like that, where. The hot ticket item? Yes. The 3 0 8 was Ferrari’s first real mass produced car across the different variants. They’ve made over 12,000 of them back then.

That was crazy. Previously, I mean, the Daytona’s, they only made less [00:13:00] than 1300 Dinos, a couple thousand. That was their first really big production car, and it was a huge hit, and it was definitely helped by the whole Magnum PI thing, but, A lot of people do forget about the Dino 3 0 8, the 3 0 8 GT four, and that was the interim car between the two, which was not as popular.

So they went to the Bertoni style body design, which was the very wedgie, angular look. When it first came out, people were kind of like, oh, I don’t know about this. But then they revised it with the 3 0 8 we come to know today, and it had a little more. I don’t even wanna say curve. It just wasn’t quite the same harsh angle.

So it was more widely accepted. And by that time, Bertone started to make a name for himself. I mean, with the Monia Es strato, so a bunch of other cars. It was a very popular look, so it definitely caught on really. Quick before we move on to our next segment, [00:14:00] because I think there’s a whole conversation around buying Ferrari’s and understanding what to buy and things like that.

It’s part of what you guys do, not just a restoration part and whatnot. Mm-hmm. , I gotta ask this pit stop question because you just dropped some vehicles on us that you really like. Mm-hmm. , but our Ferrari. The sexiest cars is, is there a Ferrari that’s the sexiest of all time or is there something for you that is even more beautiful than any Ferrari?

No, it’d be Ferrari. It’d definitely be Ferrari. Pinpointing it down to one. Probably not. Lucy Bell. But the other two 50 OSA pontoon fender, it’s black and it has a red stripe around the nose. That car has to be the sexiest car of all time. It is just drop dead gorgeous. That one I think has to win. I’m of a different school of thoughts.

I mean, I am a huge. F 40 fan. You know, it’s the last car that Enzo Blessed before he left us. It’s just, I don’t know, there’s something just [00:15:00] about that car. I just saw one again the other day in person and it’s just, it blows my mind every time I see one. So that for me is always the top of list. But the 57 test for sure.

Gorgeous car, but the antithesis of that, right, the ugliest car of all time, is there such thing as an ugly Ferrari? If you put it just in the realm of Ferrari, there’s gorgeous Ferrari and then there’s a couple ugly Ferrari. Now if you put ’em in the realm of cars in general, Definitely I would take the ugliest Ferrari over lots of other cars.

There’s lots of other cars that would definitely be, in my opinion, uglier. If I had to pick, please say the Mandel T please. I, I was actually, that was. Clearly what I was gonna have to say, the al is, uh, not high on my favorite list. You, you hear that folks? It is now confirmed by an expert. That’s all I’m gonna say.

Where science killed that car, . But if you take that car and put it up next to a whole bunch of other non Ferrari cars, looks wise, [00:16:00] I would probably still pick that one. , I know the maintenance that comes along with them and a lot of the reliability issues. There’s some that are very well serviced and maintained, but for the most part, I’ve had more of those leave me stranded on the side of the road with an ugly car than uh, actually, you know, do real well for me.

Maybe they just don’t like me either. So maybe the, their feelings. Mutual . That’s a great follow up to where we’re going with this. William was with us recently and we did an. All about buying Italian cars specifically. Mm-hmm. targeted towards the first time collector. So now we’re gonna hone in a little further and, and talk about Ferrari.

We mentioned before the 3 0 8, they’re so plentiful. That’s sort of that gateway into the Ferrari world. If you’re going to buy a Ferrari, Where should people start? Should they start that far back? Is there something more modern? Is there something that’s more of a compromised car to get you into the world of Ferrari?

That then lets you sort of build up from there. What should people consider if they’re [00:17:00] looking to buy a Ferrari that is very much dependent on. Each individual person, some people would probably prefer something a little more modern. 360 s and four 30 s are always kind of a good beginner choice. I’d say a four 30.

Cause they don’t have the cam belts, so the service requirements are a little less. The 3 0 8 is great. If you want a good classic that is fairly reliable. Because they have pretty bulletproof ECUs and they’re not horrid to work on, and parts are readily available cause they made so many, so you’re not gonna get killed trying to find parts.

But I also think that you should buy whatever you’ll be happy looking at in your garage. And happy driving down the street. I deal with so many different buyers. Some of them are investors where they’re buying cars cuz they think in a few years they’ll be worth more. I have buyers who are, you know, just enthusiasts who just really like certain cars [00:18:00] and everything in between.

Say your favorite car is the monk, , you know, or, or whatever it is that you really want, that you look at and it just makes you. That’s what you should go for. My biggest recommendation would be to buy the best car you can afford. Don’t buy something cheaper cuz it seems like a deal. Cuz usually when that happens you get eaten up in deferred maintenance costs and other issues that could pop up.

If you can, depending on the budget, get the best car you can for whatever your budget. The 3 0 8 is a good starter. If I had to pick a couple good starter Ferrari’s 3 0 8 s are great. 360 s or four 30 s are great. So those would probably be my two go-to kind of starters. I’ve got a couple I want to throw at you just to get your mm-hmm.

feedback. So a lot of people don’t realize, but I brought it up before and I brought it up on the Italian car episode. What about the 2 0 8 Turbo? Same body, smaller engine. Oh yeah. No . [00:19:00] Alright, we’ll leave it at that. No, those are just gutless until the turbo kicks in and then it’s, they’re no . That’s so eighties though.

You look at the nine elevens and the Audi Quatros and the Reno fives, and you have to have that period appropriate turbo lag. That’s. What I like to call it. Definitely period appropriate. Pack’s a little punch, but they’re not the worst. But just , they’re, they’re quirky. We’ll get to that. So another one that comes up is the 4 56 GT out of the 4 56 line.

The M series is a bit better because they made some improvements. Basically they had valve guide issues at. Long story short, it would cause a lot of smoking. Quite expensive. If you ever have to fix that, if you have a 4 56 gt, one of the earlier ones, or you’re looking to buy one, my big recommendation is see if the valve guides have already been done, because if not, it could [00:20:00] cause a problem in the future that would be very expensive to resolve.

The M has taken care of those issues with some other upgrades, so overall, just a bit more reliable. They’re both great. So those are definitely a good option and I hear a lot of people say, I’m gonna buy a four 30 scud and put a six speed in it. Or how do you feel about the converted cars? ? I don’t mind. I know that there’s plenty of purists who hate anything converted.

The four 30 s are easy to convert because they made so many factory 4 36. The parts are much more easy to find plenty of good shops that could do that conversion once you get into the more limited edition cars. So we actually just sold today a 5 99 6 speed conversion. The problem with those conversions is they only made 30 factory 5 99 6 speeds.

That means you really can’t get the original. and the four 30 s had used shift cables, whereas the 5 99 s used [00:21:00] shift rods when the conversion on the car I just sold started. They tried to fabricate the rods, but there was vibration issues. Just couldn’t get it right. They wanted to go with cables, but the owner really just wanted the factory correct.

OEM parts. So we sent the car somewhere else and they were actually able to source the factory original, like from the factory parts and have those installed in the car. Well, that’s great, but then the next problem is the more modern the car, the more complicated the computers. So getting the transmission.

Speak correctly with the rest of the computer and everything actually function without warning lights and all kinds of things going wrong is very difficult to do. Luckily, the mechanic is a computer genius and was able to make everything function seamlessly, so it drives just like the factory. Six speed, 5 99.

But doing that is extremely difficult. Four 30 [00:22:00] s go for it, just cause it’s not hard to do. And I don’t care what people do with their own cars, do what makes you happy. But for stuff like the 5 99. Be aware it’s a lot more difficult and it’s gonna cause some headaches in the future while you’re trying to do it.

The darker side of that conversation, you alluded to earlier when we were joking about the Mundel LT and mm-hmm. , how it leaves you on the side of the road and you know, people are scared of Ferrari. We even talked about this in some other episodes. It’s like an engine is an engine. As an engine. If you can figure out how to take it apart without breaking it, you know, you probably can work on it.

Mm-hmm. , there are some, let’s say, reliability issues with the MUN LT that might be. Stay away from, I’ve heard some horror stories about the 3 48, the 3 55 with the joystick, you know, things like that. Mm-hmm. . So are there Ferrari that are just a little bit more troublesome? I don’t wanna call them bad, I just wanna call them maybe a little bit more temperamental or labor intensive that you should be aware of if you’re shopping.

Yes, absolutely. And that doesn’t mean that just cuz I name one car, they’re [00:23:00] all bad. There’s just certain models that have known. Issues that could go wrong, just like with the the 4 56, the valve guides, it doesn’t mean every 4 56 is gonna be bad. It just means that it’s something to be aware of, and especially if you’re looking to buy one, you just want to do your due diligence.

And no, it could be an issue in the future if it’s not something that’s already been taken care of or other cars, like the 3 55 spider with the top issues. Even if that’s been taken care of before, doesn’t mean it can’t break again. , other cars have reoccurring issues. So there’s no lack of Ferrari models that do have their issues, you know, their problems.

That could and quite often do occur. For me personally, I’ve grown up around these cars my whole life. It’s kind of like, oh, okay, well the dash and the six 12 went out. Take it to the shop, get it fixed. Cuz that’s something, the six twelves, the 5 99 s, they’re pretty solid cars, but the dash is [00:24:00] a weak point for.

It’s happened plenty of times. So for me, I’m just like, okay, well gotta go get that taken care of. But I know for a lot of people who don’t deal with so many cars all the time, it’s a big deal and it is expensive when that kind of stuff happens. Kind of part of the territory though, out of all the cars.

That we mentioned and plenty of others that we haven’t. Is there one that sort of just checks all the boxes that’s great at everything, right? You can take it up in the canyons, you could autocross it, maybe take it to the track. You could show it it, you could drive it to work. Is there one that just does it all?

I think that’s a very individual question. For me, that would be the Comp Daytona. No, I would drive that everywhere. You could take that to the track. Take that to the canyons. Puts a smile on my face every time I start it, but I know a large majority of people probably wouldn’t wanna drive that around everywhere cuz it, you wrestle with it, you know, it is difficult to drive.

Goes back to what I said about buy, what makes you happy. Whatever that car is, that just puts a smile on your face. Let’s go with that one. Well, now we’re gonna switch gears a little bit and we’re gonna talk [00:25:00] about an area of this business that both you and William are familiar with, and that’s the buying and selling of brokering of these cars.

So it’s more than just having a passion and a love and saying, I want that red one. or that yellow one, there’s a whole process to buying a Ferrari. It’s not, let’s say, as easy as, you know, just running down the CarMax kind of deal. So let’s get into buying, selling cons, consigning online versus traditional, and maybe your thoughts on auctions, specifically those that do feature Ferrari.

Sure it’s not just one kind of set thing. We do a lot of consignments. We buy and sell. We sometimes just middleman broker where we know somebody who owns a car and somebody asked me to find them that car, and I kind of put it together. So car’s never on consignment with me, and it was never really for sale.

I just know of buyer and seller and put it together. So a lot of different sides to our. Each car because they’re so different. Each deal ends up being very [00:26:00] different, which is part of the fun of it. It’s never mundane. It’s never boring. Always have to learn something new. It’s always something new and different.

Currently we have behind me the showroom. We have about 4,000 square feet, probably about 25 cars in there. Some. We’ve bought a lot on consignment. Luckily, my dad, since he’s been doing this for 51 years now, he has built a very large client. and I started working with him about 10 years ago, and I’ve been around the cars my whole life.

So when you’re in this business, a lot of people just see expensive cars and think they can make a bunch of money. From what I’ve found, those people don’t really last that long. It’s not like real estate. It’s not like, okay, if I sell a million dollar house, I can get 4%. You have to have a passion for what you do.

Otherwise, there’s lots of options with other dealers and brokers where people can go elsewhere with someone that just kind of meshes with them better. Having a real [00:27:00] interest and passion for these cars does make a huge difference in this business. So now that a lot of things are much more digital.

Going back to the Ferrari’s online part of your name and your evolution, More things are online. You know, the advent of things like bring a trailer have really changed the way we look at buying and selling cars. Yes. Do you see traditional sales still being the thing? Do you have people coming in the showroom or are you doing more things virtually now?

We’ve done things virtually for a long time with so many years in the business, having a good reputation. When somebody calls me asking about a car I have, and I tell them everything I know about it and I’ll tell them everything. I don’t want there to be any surprises if they buy the car when it gets delivered, and I also always recommend they have a pre-purchase inspection done if they would.

Like. Many times people will buy cars either because they know our reputation and they know that what I’m telling them about it. How the car is, or they’ll have it inspected. [00:28:00] If it clears a third party inspection, then they’re happy with it. So for a long time it’s been a lot of just online business, which is why we started doing all the videos with the cars because seeing static photos is nice, but you wanna hear it start.

You wanna see it run through the gears. That was a big part of it. Since everything is going more online nowadays than having a good video is very important. So you mentioned investing in exotic cars and obviously you guys carry brands other than Ferrari. We mentioned in the introduction Maseratis, Lamborghini, and we’ll talk about some of your YouTube videos with some very pretty Porsches as well.

Cuz there’s different car markets, right? Especially in the Italian car market. How does it weather the storm, you know, looking at our economic climate over the last couple of years, has it maintained, has it been pretty steady? Is it rocky? Like what does it look like in the market space? It’s interesting because the market’s cyclical.

What [00:29:00] goes up must come down. Whether it’s exotic cars, real estate, stock, whatever it is, it’s all part of the market. And you have good months and bad months or good years and bad years. The last couple years have been very interesting. When 2020 hit and the lockdown started, sales stopped for about a month.

People who had been in the middle of buying a car with me would call me up and say, my stocks just tanked. I have to back out. Sorry. Which I understood. But after about a month, people started getting bored and window shopping, . There was a real uptick in. And that continued for the last couple years were really good.

Recently, the economy’s seen some rough patches that has had an effect, so sales slowed a little, but what is really interesting to me is. Back to the sales thing real quick. We have kind of two separate [00:30:00] things where we do what we advertise, and then the quiet deals. What we advertise on our website is not everything we have for sale or are in the middle of selling quietly.

We’re always selling all kinds of bigger stuff that people don’t want publicly advertised. When the market recently kinda took a little slump that hit the showroom style cars pretty hard, the 3 0 8 s and that kind of area of cars. But behind the scenes we had more requests than ever for the 2 88 s, F 40 s, F 50 s, all the bigger cars.

Especially of that kind of era right there, the supercar, those have been very popular and seem very untouched by the economy. So not all cars are hit equally when the market is hit in any given way. So it sounds like, if I infer correctly here, that it’s still a good time to invest. In a higher ed [00:31:00] Ferrari, even in today’s climate?

Well, I definitely believe that a lot of these cars are good long-term investments. I can’t and won’t even pretend to try and predict what. Tomorrow’s market may bring, but years from now, the F 40, it is a poster car for so many people, not only older generation, but younger generations too. So when you have the 20 year olds and 30 year olds and 40 year olds who love the F 40 and had that poster on their wall in five or 10 years, when they have their own company and can afford their dream car, then that’s what they’re gonna be buy.

Five years out, 10 years out, those cars are still gonna do really well because they’re the poster car. Now, eventually that’ll change and it’ll become something else. In my dad’s era, the poster car would’ve been, you know, one of the old two [00:32:00] 50 s or a 2 75, or. One of those cars and that was the poster car back in his generation.

And today, if you ask a 25 year old what an F 40 is, yeah, they’re gonna know. If you ask them what a 2 75 GTB four cam is, they might look at you like you just spoke a different language, the generation shift. But this current generation, this. One of that kind of era. Car will last for a while cause the two 80 F 40, F 50, like the big five today have reached quite a few generations.

It appeals to so many people that I think those ones will last for quite a while. And the same could be said about Lamborghini, right? With the Mur and the Kuta and Diags and so on. Yeah. Oh yeah. I agree with everything you’re saying. I mean, it, it’s absolutely correct. I mean it’s, you know, the generation, they know what those cars.

I think it helped too, like with the video games, like at Grand Smo, so for that, putting those in there and having those in there so these kids can play so they know what those cars are. But then to her point also is you tell ’em what a 2 75 4 came is. You’re right. [00:33:00] You’re like, what? Uh, who? Yep. Which unfortunate cuz they’re such a gorgeous car.

I mean it’s a, yeah. It’s what they’re familiar with their eyes and seeing it, what they deal with. And yeah, those things are be good for the next 20, 30 years. That’s how much y’all appreciate. Who knows? But they’ll go up in value either. Yeah. Go up quickly, then level go up. Yeah. It says just keep going up, but if you got the money, buy one.

Yeah. Yeah. , we continue to funnel down in our purchasing here, but our, our buying power increases as I continue down us down this path. So being a motor sports petrolhead, growing up around the racetrack, you’re right, the F 40 was the poster on the. Next to the Testa Rosa and the Kuta and a lot of other cars that were on my wall.

But just to the right of that were things like the 3 33 sp mm-hmm. , you know, the ipss, a GT car, the prototype car. And then you have things like Schumacher’s V 10. Mm-hmm. . So should people also turn their attention towards the Motorsport side of Ferrari for like the F 40 evos and a lot of the challenge cars are [00:34:00] those good investments as.

It very much depends. So as far as the Formula One cars, those have been great investments. We have sold quite a few of those. The prices always amaze me and the prices have only continued to go up. So an F 40 is a dream car, but the Formula One cars, that’s a a different kind of dream. That’s almost even if you are a billionaire.

A dream on a different level because most people can get in an F 40 and drive one if they have the money to buy one. Whereas the Formula One car is not nearly the same. You might not even be able to fit in it. If you do, then you have to be very skilled in order to actually drive it, even if it’s at, you know, six tenths of its potential.

Even just driving it carefully around the track. Some skill. Those are kind of a different level, but on the opposite side, they’re also pieces of art and history. I’ve had lots of clients who buy [00:35:00] them because it’s literally, if you already have everything else in your showroom, what else can you add?

That’s kind of just the cherry on top, and that’d be a Schumacher F1 car. So we’ve had lots of people who have bought Schumacher F1 cars. To have that gorgeous historical piece of art sitting in the middle of their showroom. I’ve had lots of clients who do buy them to race them. There’s a program through Ferrari Clete where if you pay Ferrari enough, they will have your car waiting for you at the track with your race suit and the lunch ready and the mechanic’s all there.

Everything you could need. You just pay ’em a couple hundred grand and uh, you can go racing . We all gravitate to Schumacher, right? Eight time champion. Or whatever. Formula One in Ferrari though, you know, he ran many other cars even before his time at Ferrari. But there’s other drivers that carried the banner too, right?

You got Bar Kelly. Yeah, you’ve got Eddie Irvine, you’ve got Alan Pros, Nigel Mantle Burger. I mean, the list [00:36:00] goes on and on. So do those older Formula One cars carry the same kind of, let’s say value? I mean, they, they have. Provenance. But what do they look like in the market? Or are they all just sort of tucked away?

I mean, a lot of them are tucked away, but it depends. So like the Nii Lata, the three 12 t2, that one is very recognizable. Recognizable driver. That one would demand a big premium. Part of the generational shift. People do tend to move towards the Schumacher cars just because that era and the name is so recognizable.

But Nicki Lattas definitely another big name. We did sell Kimmy Reichen car, his championship car, and that one went for good amount. So there are definitely other names that people love and want, and. Remember the names, remember the races. But Schumacher is the biggest, just hands down. He’s the biggest just because of the era [00:37:00] and what he did just sticks in people’s mind.

I mean, he was unprecedented at the time with how many championships, everything and what he did and everything that, mm-hmm. So, I mean, he just stood out. He was a fabulous driver. But you know, I’m a bit older, so I look more back at the older generation guys than what they drove and yeah, just the raw car, I mean there was didn’t have, oh yeah, e Bs, any of that kind of stuff.

So I have a lot more appreciation for those guys back at that day. Like with louder, Jules Villa knew, you know, but then you get back to Jimmy Clark and you know Phil Hill, those guys. Oh yeah. I appreciate those guys that much more just because of one, what they were driving and two, I mean, look how many people died just every weekend.

Oh yeah. So, Big respect for those guys back then, but yeah, Kelly’s correct. The fact is, you know, it’s what people they have in their head and their mind, but they watched racing, then they can afford it now it’s in their living room. Or if they could fit in it, they could drive it. Yep. It’s one of those things.

So, but you know, kind of boils down to personal preference in regards to that. Yeah, I agree that those shoe marker cars, they’re just gonna keep going up in value for a while. Oh yeah, [00:38:00] I agree with you. I like the older cars. That were more raw and harder to drive the older generation of drivers just in the market in general.

Schumacher is, he takes top in the market. Yeah. It’s not my personal feeling, that’s just what I’ve noticed. Lastly, on the conversation of buying and selling Ferrari’s and other exotics, what are your thoughts on the auctions? Feel like they’re seeing a resu. These days you are seeing more Ferrari’s and other exotics showing up at places, you know, like NICU and Broad Arrow and other things like that.

So is that an avenue that people should consider should pursue? Auctions are very interesting because from a buyer’s perspective, you have. A little bit of time beforehand to go look at the car. Maybe they’ll let you start it or they’ll start it for you, but you can’t drive it. You can’t put it on a lift and have a real inspection done.

And then when it comes down to buying the car, you have a [00:39:00] couple minutes. To bid as it rolls across the block and that’s it. So from a buyer’s perspective, it is a fun time. It’s a fun way to buy a car, have some friends there, have a couple drinks bid at the auction. It’s fun. But if you are looking seriously at the car and the quality of the car and you want a good inspection, all that kind of stuff, then you just don’t have enough time at the.

There’s no real way to have a good inspection and to know all the details about the car. There’s pluses and minuses, so if you’re a seller, then the exact kind of scenario works for sellers too, where your car is crossing the block, there’s a couple minutes, and if you have the right buyers in the room, you do great.

If you don’t have the right buyers in the room, it doesn’t sell, or it sells for a low price. With the auctions, it’s kind of a attempt to get. Sometimes it’s a good gamble and you win, and sometimes it’s a bad gamble and you don’t win. [00:40:00] And my point for bringing it up is that I feel that what you do, Colleen, and what William does as well dealing in this market space, is that it’s that personal touch that’s really, really important to say, well, you know, maybe I am the lowly owner of a Mundi lt and I wanna find it a new home and you’re gonna help me do that.

And it’s not that. Well, I’m gonna take it to X, Y, Z auction and hope that it sells and be satisfied with what I get for it. Right. And it’s not always about the money. Sometimes, at least for me, and I know for a lot of other Petrolhead, it’s about knowing that it’s going on to a better place. Mm-hmm. . And sometimes with auctions you can look at it the other way.

You kind of wonder like, did that car get passed up? Like it wasn’t good enough to be sold? Yeah. Through a caretaker. For me, there’s lots of angles in that conversation, but I want people to kind of, They’ve got more choices than to just kind of put it out there. Yeah. Kyle, I mentioned before like her father being in it so long and there’s a reason he has, they both have that rather large, I’ll say black book of names, contacts and network.

So that and, and why those people keep coming back cuz it’s [00:41:00] a relationship. And they trust them to know. The fact is they get a car from them. They know they’re not gonna drive it half a block away and it’s gonna catch on fire. So break down, they’re gonna come back and you know, you get that repeat business as that adage is, you know, that person tells two people.

Those two people tell four, you know? So it is getting your reputation. Go an auction, especially if you had too many cocktails, you get caught in the thing, you end up paying too much money for it. Oh yeah. All right. All you can do is go look at it for a couple minutes and straight. If they start it, to me, I’m, I’m not a big fan of that, and I could never understand why someone would go buy, especially a couple hundred thousand dollars car, let alone multimillion dollar car.

Yeah, add an auction because, I would be scrutinizing the heck out of it to be sure I know what I’m getting, so, oh yeah, I get It’s everyone’s own preference. It is. So if you’re looking at some of the very expensive cars that cross the auction block, I’ve had clients who have asked me to look at a car, talk to the auction beforehand.

So sometimes I’ll contact an auction weeks beforehand to. Extra information and details [00:42:00] on a car for a client. A lot of times they will do that, especially when you get into the higher dollar cars. If they provide more information, they try harder. You’re trying to buy a 360 at auction. They’re not gonna spend days answering every little question you have before the auction.

They don’t care. They have hundreds of cars running through and don’t have time for. That does kind of depend on the car you’re buying at. What do you think the percentage is at auctions? That it’s dealers buying the cars as to compared it to actual person buying the car for themselves? Ooh, it is a good percent.

I talked to people, they, and they asked me about and said, and I honestly, I tell ’em, I go, look, I go, you’re, they’re competing against a majority of those people in that crowd are dealers buying those cars? And they’re used to that. Okay. Looking at a car and valuing what do it, you know, as someone’s buying for themselves, you know, it’s got an emotional investment in it.

Oh yeah. I don’t think a lot of people realize that in those auctions, that there’s a just ton of dealers that are in there buying cars just for inventory. Oh yeah. It happens a lot. And you [00:43:00] know, dealers buy cars at auctions and sell ’em at auctions. Dealers a lot of times will have very close relationships with auction.

So there’s a good percentage of that, which isn’t a bad thing. I mean, there’s nothing fake about it. If a dealer buys a car at auction, he thought it was a good price, and so he buys it. If he’s selling one at auction, he thinks it’ll be a good auction for that car, and that’s how he sells it. It’s very upfront.

At least, yeah. Sometimes when you see the sell through rate at auctions, you have to take that into account. You know, Monterey Car Week. Yeah. Isn’t all just this huge chunk of end user buyers that put their money in the auctions. It’s time for another pit stop question. So you can’t talk about Ferrari without talking about motor sports.

We’ve crossed that threshold several times in this episode, so I wonder, Colleen. Mm-hmm. , Ferrari’s have been run in a multitude of different racing disciplines from grassroots sports, car racing through World Challenge and imsa. In GT three and GT four, obviously they had prototypes back [00:44:00] in the day and then in Formula One.

So if you had to turn on the television, say I’m gonna watch a Ferrari race this weekend, what discipline of racing would it be in? And. So honestly, my favorite form of racing to watch is rally cars. Oh my goodness. There we go. . Hallelujah. Finally, somebody . I felt like I’m the only person on the planet that likes W R C.

Oh no, it’s incredible. Ashley, I love the Alania rally. Those are incredible. I grew up in the Groupy era, so for me, I had a soft spot for it. Group B, I mean, I understand why they had to cancel it, but that was one of the best forms of racing to ever exist. Seeing as Ferrari never actually got into rally racing.

They made a couple cars trying, never got one in, so it’d have to be F1 just because the history behind formula. Today’s races, they’re fun to watch, but I personally, I end up [00:45:00] watching clips from old races more than I do new races of just about anything. I just love the older era and probably the older era.

It was much more visceral and raw and d. It’s still dangerous today, but I’m happy they’ve made such safety improvements cause I definitely don’t wanna see any drivers get hurt or killed. But back in the day, it was just so dangerous and raw. These guys knew when they strapped themselves into these cars that they may not go home that night.

That in itself is just incredible to me. And they go out there and go so fast, do so well it, they’re incredible. So I think I’d rather just watch old F1 on rerun. So with the hundredth anniversary of Lamont’s right around the corner, what are your feelings on how Ferrari has teased us? About a new prototype coming and competing in the L M D H class.

What are your thoughts on Ferrari [00:46:00] returning to Lamont’s? I would love it. When I first saw that car, my phone started going nuts right when they released it, and I had four people texting me photos of that car. and I was just like, what is this? And I got very excited. That’ll be fun to see. I bring it up because Ferrari has been an important piece of history across not only the automotive industry, but in motorsports as well.

To me as utilitarian and perfect as Porsches can be. Right. They’re an engineering company at the end of the day. Mm-hmm. . But a lot of times people forget the Ferrari is. They’ve always pushed the envelope and forced, let’s say, the rest of the Italian makers to follow them in suit being all partnered together.

But also, I can’t find a single brand that doesn’t say I built a car to compete with Ferrari. Mm-hmm. , it just, it doesn’t happen. It doesn’t matter if you’re, you know, an American brand, Japanese brand, you know, German, whatever. Everybody’s comparing themselves to Ferrari, and so I’m really [00:47:00] curious to see what they do at Lamont and some of the other endurance races.

Because for me, I think it transcends even what they do in Formula One. Cuz Formula One has this recipe that they have to follow. It’s like a spec race, you know? It’s like all the Miatas are the same. Yeah. But in endurance racing, the car doesn’t have to run for 90. It has to run for 24 hours straight, you know, at Lamons or at Rolex or whatever.

So I really want to see how they take everybody into the next hundred years. Mm-hmm. of sports, car and prototype racing. So I, I’m with you. I’m super excited. I’m stoked to see what happens. Mm-hmm. and I, I bet they’re gonna surprise everybody. And people forget that Enzo Ferrari did not care about his street.

He only cared about the race cars. He basically sold street cars in order to fund his racing. So it is literally the heart and soul of Ferrari is their race cars. And when that didn’t work anymore, he just got fiat to pay for it. That’s what I’ve heard. , no, exactly. That’s exactly [00:48:00] what he did. He was like, okay, sure.

I’ll, I’ll sell to fiat. They’ll take care of the street cars. I don’t care about anyways, so I just can keep running the race shop . Exactly. It’s the art, it’s the passion. It, it’s all of it. It all wraps up into everything we’ve been talking about here and why these cars are so sought after and why there’s people like yourselves that specialize them and keep those legacies going.

So that’s super. I. Now as we kind of round out the conversation here about Ferrari online, now the prancing skunk, you guys, as I mentioned before, cater to more than just Ferrari. Mm-hmm . So let’s talk a little bit more about some of the other cars that you sell and some of the cars that you feature on YouTube.

And like I said, I’ve been watching you drive around in some really cool looking nine elevens lately. So what else is on the docket that you guys are, are interested in and are willing to, you know, sell and work with people? All kinds of things. We have sold so many random different cars. So currently in the showroom, just this week we got in two Paneras.

[00:49:00] We have a couple of C1 Corvette’s of 59 and a 62. We have a Ford model A. We’re sort of going back to what you’re doing. with social media, and that’s why I bring up these YouTube videos and some of the other cars. Mm-hmm. . So tell our audience, maybe they’re figuring this out for the first time or maybe they’re already followers.

Take us on the journey of what you’re doing and what you’re posting out on social media and what you’re trying to showcase with respect to the prancing skunk across the different platforms. Basically for the YouTube channel, that is all the car reviews I do on mostly cars I have for sale sometimes like the 2 88 gto that.

Posted it was car I had just sold and it was local to me. So the buyer let me do a video before we shipped it off to them. So that was great. Sometimes I’ve done videos on like when me and my dad go racing and stuff like that, but 95% of the YouTube channel is car reviews. I don’t like being sales pitchy [00:50:00] with the videos.

I don’t want it to seem like an advertisement. Part of my thing is I love older cars. I have so many friends in the car world who all love the latest, greatest hyper car, pagan or whatever, and they’re cool. They’re nice cars. But I like the old one. I like classic cars that have a soul and a personality.

They tell a story and just have a real history to them. And I just don’t feel like enough of this generation appreciates the older cars. Cause at some point, yeah, sure. People are, you know, makers are coming out with thousand horsepower, 1500 horsepower, all kinds of crazy stuff. What are you gonna do with.

It’s unusable at a certain point. I think that the history behind the cars where all these supercars started, you know, 50 years ago, that is so much more interesting to me and so much more fun to drive. And so I try and kind of give the history on these cars and [00:51:00] some fun facts and you know, just all the details that might get younger people more into some of the older.

So that’s what I like to do on the the YouTube. And what I especially appreciate about what you’re doing with them is they’re not just model cars in a showroom. Like you see that all the time. Like everybody’s got this video review that they’re trying to do. You take ’em out and you drive ’em. Maybe not all of ’em.

Yeah, but a majority of ’em are taken out and they’re driven on the roads. Cars are meant to be driven. They’re meant to be appreciated and enjoyed. Mm-hmm. . So I really respect that. I really like that. And I hope that the audience does too. And that’s one of the fun things I look forward to every time you put something out is where’s she driving this thing next?

Where, where are we going? Like, what adventure are we up to? So that’s a lot of fun and I really like that. Yeah. You know, you guys just celebrated your. 50th anniversary in 2022. So that begs the question, what does the next five, 10, and maybe the next 50 years look like for you guys? What are some exciting projects, some changes, some things that are coming up.

As we talked about [00:52:00] earlier, my dad used to have a big restoration shop and he shut that down a long time ago before I joined the business. But we are actually currently looking into adding a little service center. Kinda like how my dad did at first start small, work our way up, decide how many people and, and all that as we go.

You know, start with one and get bigger eventually, and we’ll see where that takes us. I don’t like putting too many plans set in place. I’d rather just start, see how that goes, and then maybe add on. Time goes, but my dad and I are also getting more serious into racing. We’ve always done it together for fun.

So he did some of the West Coast Trans Am last year. We both wanna do it this year, more heavy into racing and the little service center. So those are two big projects we have coming up. Well, if you’re running in TransAm, Camaro or Mustang, well actually, um, Ferrari [00:53:00] really in TransAm. I know, I know he ran his, uh, Lamborghini Gallardo last year in it very, they have A X G T class, Gedo GT three, and then I’m working on getting the 4 58 challenge Evo and we can run together , it’ll be a blast.

And we definitely get some funny. You know, from all the, the other guys in TransAm, they’re kinda like, what are these guys doing here? But did you miss the World Challenge Paddock? Like, what? What are you guys doing here? Right? Yeah. TransAm East, it’s like A or B, you know, pick which one you want, but good for you guys.

That’s awesome. We’ll definitely be rooting for you. So with that, Colleen, any shoutouts promotions or anything else you’d like to share that we didn’t cover thus far? One thing. So, uh, Personal Instagram is all about cars too, so it’s Colleen and then Comp Daytona. So Colleen 365 gtb four C, just like the Comp Daytona, and it’s like 95% car stuff.

So my husband runs the far Verizon online page, but since I [00:54:00] run my personal one, I do stories all day, every day, just kind of around here and cars we get in and that kind of stuff. So it’s more behind the scenes of like what we’re doing around here in case anyone’s interested in that kind of stuff. No real promotions.

I’m just happy that I get to share my knowledge on these cars and all the fun things that I have learned over the years, or even just learn as I go. There’s so many fun unique things about these cars, and being able to share that with people and find other people who are just as passionate is one of my favorite things, especially about the social media aspect.

There’s so many people who love seeing this kind of stuff, and it just makes me happy. The. Be able to share it and then they share my passion and I’ve made lots of good friends. Thank you to all those people who have become my friends over the years and share my passion. And I look forward to meeting lots more gear heads and I love this, this automotive world [00:55:00] and the amazing people you get to meet today.

The prancing skunk known to many of us as Ferrari Online has a 4,000 square foot warehouse filled with the highest caliber vintage automobiles consisting of racing memorabilia, and an extensive amount of rare and unique Ferrari. The front office pays homage to Michael’s racing days with photos and memorabilia of.

Decades of his racing past. While they love to collect, they also broker sales and are not only Ferrari historians, but expert appraisers of Ferrari, keeping on trend with exotic car values regarding Ferrari, general vintage market values, market trends, and all aspects of repair and restoration. You can learn more about Ferrari’s online by checking them out@www.ferrari with an s-online.com, or follow them on social at Ferrari’s Online llc, on Facebook and LinkedIn, or at Ferrari online, on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

And with that, Colleen, I can’t thank you enough for coming on Break Fix, sharing your story and your passion for Ferrari. And I [00:56:00] again, have to congratulate you guys for hitting. 50 year milestone and here’s to another 50 years as a staple in the Ferrari and exotic car community. So thank you all for what you’re doing and keep up the good work.

Thank you so much. This has been awesome. I really appreciate it, . Fantastic. Thank you much. Have a good night guys. Thanks. Yep. Bye.

If you like what you’ve heard and want to learn more about gtm, be sure to check us out on www.gt motorsports.org. You can also find us on Instagram at Grand Tour Motorsports. Also, if you want to get involved or have suggestions for future shows, you can call our text at (202) 630-1770 or send us an email at crew chief gt motorsports.org.

We’d love to hear. Hey everybody, crew Chief Eric here. We really hope you enjoyed this episode of Break Fix, and we wanted to remind you that GTM remains a no annual fees organization, [00:57:00] and our goal is to continue to bring you quality episodes like this one at no charge. As a loyal listener, please consider subscribing to our Patreon for bonus and behind the scenes content, extra goodies and GTM swag.

For as little as $2 and 50 cents a month, you can keep our developers, writers, editors, casters, and other volunteers fed on their strict diet of fig Newton’s, gummy bears, and monster. Consider signing up for Patreon today at www.patreon.com/gt motorsports. And remember, without fans, supporters, and members like you, none of this would be possib.

Bonus content available as a #PITSTOP mini-sode.

Consider becoming a GTM Patreon Supporter and get behind the scenes content and schwag!