Munich, March 2, 2002 |
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The hardtop for the 550 Barchetta Pininfarina will be available in April for 18.500,-€ net plus freight charge and
will be sold via Helmut Nossek’s DMS GmbH, |
For the American market, there are currently talks in progress to market the hardtop exclusively via one
franchised dealer yet to be named. |
Andreas Birner |
The 550 Barchetta Pininfarina is topless driving at its best. But as soon as the weather or other circumstances
force the driver to use the small softtop which is standard on the Barchetta, the joy of this extraordinary motorcar
suffers. Despite of the fact that the standard softtop is simply ugly because it has to cover the two roll-bars as
well and hence sports a rather bulky roof line, its usability is very limited: Ferrari guarantees its functionality only
up to a speed of 120 km/h (about 75 mph) — a speed level which is not really the level at which this kind of car
usually ”lives”. The conclusion had since been that this softtop was definitely designed for the use in an
”emergency weather change” only and that the 550 Bachetta Pininfarina is actually meant to be driven topless
only. But not all of the 448 examples are located in the South of Spain or Southern California where precipitation |
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