Padova hosts the biggest Italian gathering of classic cars, spares, literature, etc twice a year in a vast exhibition centre just outside the historic and beautiful old town and only about 15km from Venice. This was my first visit and it was really like walking into a classic car paradise (well, after the unorganised queue to buy tickets and another Italian budging and shoving queue to get the ticket verified!). There are halls and halls of all types of cars for sale, halls and halls of spare parts new and old and a couple of halls of clubs showing their wares and trying to entice you to join. I got round it all (just) in a whole day and I still didn't get to see everything.
I was also asked to check out the condition of a Dino 208 GT4 that was in the COY's auction for some long distance buyers, they had only seen a couple of pictures on the auctioneers web-site which also didn't go into detail about the condition of the car only saying it was one owner from new and "on the button". I gave the car a good going over and created a detailed report with many photos of the car which was sadly not as good as one was led to believe. For starters it needed a new water pump (so not really "on the button"), it had had a pretty ropey respray, the under tray was cut up and "wrong", the rear end was suffering from damp and was rusty, etc, etc. Needless to say they didn't buy it due to the high costs to bring it up to a decent condition.
There were lots of nice cars to look at in the auction including a Ferrari 250 GT, a Miura, Ferrari 330, various Abarths and this one off Dino 1971 GIPSY Prototype with a modified 2 litre Dino engine producing 220-230 HP - See the Dino Models page for more pictures and info on this car.
Now onto the Fiat Dinos! There were 6 in total up for grabs being sold by dealers mainly, but there was also the private sale of a very good condition red 2 litre Spider (strangely without nose or side badging). This one was up for 53,000 euros:
A green 2.4 Coupé was very strong money at 23,000 euros:
While behind the very attractive (I think so anyway) gold 246GT, this 1968 Red Coupé (just like mine!) was up for 17,500 euros:
The following metallic evening blue 2.4 litre Spider wasn't in perfect condition by any means, but was still up for 48,000 euros although they do point out it comes complete with a bag of tools!
Lastly this rather impressive "brace" of Dinos which complement each other rather well were selling for 17,000 and 50,000 euros (I think you can guess which cars the prices relate to):
So, to sum up, although the Padova show is renowned for being expensive, the value of these cars is on the up generally, so all the more reason to cherish them and keep them well maintained.
I was also asked to check out the condition of a Dino 208 GT4 that was in the COY's auction for some long distance buyers, they had only seen a couple of pictures on the auctioneers web-site which also didn't go into detail about the condition of the car only saying it was one owner from new and "on the button". I gave the car a good going over and created a detailed report with many photos of the car which was sadly not as good as one was led to believe. For starters it needed a new water pump (so not really "on the button"), it had had a pretty ropey respray, the under tray was cut up and "wrong", the rear end was suffering from damp and was rusty, etc, etc. Needless to say they didn't buy it due to the high costs to bring it up to a decent condition.
There were lots of nice cars to look at in the auction including a Ferrari 250 GT, a Miura, Ferrari 330, various Abarths and this one off Dino 1971 GIPSY Prototype with a modified 2 litre Dino engine producing 220-230 HP - See the Dino Models page for more pictures and info on this car.
Now onto the Fiat Dinos! There were 6 in total up for grabs being sold by dealers mainly, but there was also the private sale of a very good condition red 2 litre Spider (strangely without nose or side badging). This one was up for 53,000 euros:
A green 2.4 Coupé was very strong money at 23,000 euros:
While behind the very attractive (I think so anyway) gold 246GT, this 1968 Red Coupé (just like mine!) was up for 17,500 euros:
The following metallic evening blue 2.4 litre Spider wasn't in perfect condition by any means, but was still up for 48,000 euros although they do point out it comes complete with a bag of tools!
Lastly this rather impressive "brace" of Dinos which complement each other rather well were selling for 17,000 and 50,000 euros (I think you can guess which cars the prices relate to):
So, to sum up, although the Padova show is renowned for being expensive, the value of these cars is on the up generally, so all the more reason to cherish them and keep them well maintained.
