'Condo find Ferrari' heading to auction

For sale: 1971 Ferrari GTB/4 Daytona Berlinetta. Ran when parked…25 years ago. It’s hard to imagine, but it’s true.

Patrick Sinn of Toronto bought the Bordeaux Red coupe in 1971. He was stuck at the airport in Geneva, waiting for a delayed flight, and popped into the Geneva Motor Show at the adjacent convention center where he saw one of the cars on the Ferrari stand and fell in love.

As he tells it, he changed his plans, flew to the Ferrari factory in Italy and ordered one on the spot for $18,000. A few months later, he returned to pick it up, drove it around Europe for a few weeks, then sailed home with it on the Queen Elizabeth 2 cruise liner. The two of them are a well-travelled pair, indeed.

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And it didn’t stop when they got home. Over the years, Sinn put over 58K miles on the Daytona -- quite a bit for an exotic car owner. But when his father died in 1989, he had to relocate to Hong Kong to sort out his dad’s shipping business. Expecting a short stay, Sinn had the car covered up and put on blocks, and left it in his condo’s garage.

That quick trip lasted six years, and by the time he returned home, Finn says he was too busy to enjoy the Ferrari, and never got around to taking it out of storage, while its existence became a legend among local car enthusiasts. Now 77, it recently dawned on him that the car was just going to waste, so he finally decided to dust it off and sell it.

While not technically a “find,” since he’s always known where it’s been, the so-called “condo find Ferrari” will be offered at the RM Auctions Amelia Island, Fla., event in March. It hasn’t been cosmetically restored, but has had enough work done to ensure that its 352 hp 4.4-liter V8 still runs. The car features a five-speed manual transmission, well-worn leather seats and an 8-track tape player with a copy of “Disco Rocks” still in it.

According to the Hagerty price guide, a 1971 Daytona Coupe in perfect condition is worth $750,000 or more. And although this one needs a little work, its single-owner history and all-original condition will likely be worth a premium in this era  of “barn find” fanaticism, while the backstory will certainly have city dwellers everywhere on the lookout for the next “condo find.”

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