Saleofcar.com :Ferrari

Ferrari Other (1962)
for sale

Price: US $26,950.00

Description:

Lots to read...but well worth the time.
Up for auction is this early Alpha, 250 GTO conversion on a 1975 Datsun 260Z with 5-speed transmission. First time offered on national/international market. Car runs and drives well, although it has been in secure warehouse storage on and off for many years. This is the first of the GTO kits for the early Datsun 240-260-280 cars and the company got sued and ceased production. Company was sold to a number of other owner/builders through the years.
Recently here on Ebay, there have been a couple of gorgeous and very expensive 250 GTO replicas with lengthened (4) frames from the firewall forward. The reason being, to make the car's wheelbase the same as a genuine 250 GTO (but the width isn't the same)??? Also, heavy Chevy cast iron V8 engines were installed. I'm not an engineer ( I am a retired certified Jaguar technician), but I can state my opinion that the Datsun that this car was built upon is as the engineers designed it to be. A great handling sports car. Adding four inches to a frame, lengthening a steering column (are the welds certified safe for highway use?) and 1.5 times the engine weight on top of that doesn't make good engineering sense. I would be skeptical to drive such a vehicle, especially in an aggressive manner or in any kind of challenging weather. This car's geometry is still as the engineers meant it to be with only a slight modification to the ride height which is both an aesthetic and a handling improvement.
The pictures make the car appear shorter than it is in real life. Sorry about this distortion (possibly my older digital camera or Ebay picture formatting) It looks well proportioned and aggressive. .same length as a standard Z car. Neither this car or the lengthened 4 cars previously mentioned are proportionally accurate to a genuine 250 GTO. Only a Farve, Scaglietti, or Mario Allegretti 250 GTO re-creation built on a genuine 250 GTE or 330 GT chassis with an alloy body will be an accurate replica and these cars are now $1M and up.
There is a dealer in California called Specialty Sales. They have a similar higher-end Datsun based 250 GTO replica short wheelbase with a V8 listed for $150, 000.
So, here we go...the suspension has been lowered 2 inches and the car has a great stance with the wheels and tires filling up the wheel wells just right. This car has 4-wheel independent suspension and is the shorter wheelbase version, so handling is excellent.
The car features a full fiberglass dashboard to replace the unsightly (for this type of replica) Datsun dash that most all of these replicas have.
It has an expensive Weber triple carb conversion.
The knock-on Dayton wire wheels are in very good condition and the tires are in new condition. I purchased a complete new stainless front and back window trim set along with all rubber seals for the windows and other areas and this will be included with the car.
The car will need a paint job due to age and some fiberglass touch ups from minor cracking and some adhesion separation on some edges of the doors and the front cowl. This conversion is over 30 years old, so this is just something that is part of the overall paint procedure.
The hood is hinged at the front and lifts from the rear with the original Datsun latching system which is much more convenient than total removal of the hood like on the lengthened wheelbase replica cars. I installed a new driver's side window regulator, so now both windows roll up and down easily.
The doors have electric solenoid outside handle mechanisms for the smaller push button GTO style chrome handles (these are actually MGB rear hatch handles) instead of the wide Datsun pull lever handles (this in an upgrade to the original kit) ...and these are working well after I did some adjusting and replaced one of the solenoids.
The seats are very comfortable leather Rocaro brand. All gauges are working and even the lighting in the gauges is working.
The car has it's original A/C condenser and compressor still in place, but the under dash ductwork will need to be retrofitted from an A/C vendor/supplier like Vintage Air.
This car is special, as it is the earliest of the 250 GTO replica conversions with the full optional fiberglass dashboard assembly and the very cool triple Weber set-up.
Please note the right front Lucas glass turn signal lens has been installed since these pics were taken.
Does the car have any historical provenance? Since it was the first of it's kind, it surely is similar to the Myers Manx in collectability, the earliest and regarded best of the dune buggy kits.
Is the car fun to drive? Seriously? Yes. I would greatly appreciate you calling me first (478 957 9778) if you are serious to discuss any specifics. If you are an overseas buyer, I suggest the Jacksonville, Florida port and any companies that can do a door-to-door pick up and delivery. They are out there. You just have to do an Internet search on this. I can assist when the drivers show up as I have done this previously with another car with a European buyer. Thank your for your interest.
The title is clear and in my name only...no other dealer re-assignments or previous owners names on the title. No sales tax, as I'm an individual selling my personal car.
This car is being sold with the understanding that there is no warranty either stated or implied. She is in AS-IS condition. I can be reached at 478 957 9778 for specifics.

_{update: 2015-05-26}