• The Ferrari 400i was by no means formally bought in the US, however many discovered their manner right here as gray-market imports.
• Styled by Pininfarina, the four-seat coupe featured a 4.8-liter V-12 paired with a three-speed computerized transmission.
  
• This instance bought two years in the past for $49,750.

Most well-known for the chrome-festooned 1949 Buick Roadmaster that seems in a lot of the film, 1988’s Rain Man additionally options some fairly alternative equipment within the opening credit. As we speak’s decide from Deliver A Trailer, which like Automotive and Driver is a part of the Hearst Autos Group, is a 1982 Ferrari 400i that is a near-match for the primary automobile Tom Cruise’s character drives within the film. A European-spec coupe imported into the U.S. in 1982, it’s as imposing in all-business black as il Commentadore himself, soft-spoken, however with a 4.8-liter V-12 beneath the hood.

The opening to Rain Man reveals a pink Lamborghini Countach flying by means of the air—really, it is being unloaded from a ship by way of an overhead crane. The automobile is lowered to hitch three different Countachs, each a bewinged adolescent fantasy, as Tom Cruise seems on, dressed like a “Miami Vice” further. The vehicles are gray-market imports, they usually’re being held up at customs by the EPA, which is central to the preliminary rigidity of the movie. Cruise drives away in a silver 1983 Ferrari 400i.

Many Italian exotics weren’t formally bought within the U.S. within the Nineteen Eighties, and grey market importing regularly concerned a bit of hustling. Ferrari by no means bothered promoting its V-12 gran turismo within the U.S. within the Nineteen Eighties as a result of why would you? A nationwide 55-mph velocity restrict and difficult environmental rules made the States an ill-suited setting for such a automobile.

Nonetheless, there have been loads of speed-obsessed Ferrari aficionados keen to leap by means of hoops or reduce corners to get their arms on the forbidden fruit. This 1982 Ferrari 400i evidently is the product of such willpower, because it was imported in January 1982.

The 400 changed the 365 GT4 2+2 as Ferrari’s front-engine V-12 grand tourer and was the primary Ferrari accessible with an computerized transmission. This later 400i received gas injection for its 4.8-liter Colombo V-12, making it good for 306 horsepower. With its wedgy Pininfarina physique and five-spoke wheels, it simply oozes class. This Ferrari is all enterprise.

With 51K miles on the odometer and some discreet stone chips, this isn’t the type of Ferrari you park in a glass-windowed storage and by no means use. That is the type you drive, and if the three-speed computerized may dissuade any would-be Michael Schumachers within the viewers, it is excellent for weekend cruising.

Additional, with 2+2 seating, you possibly can convey the entire household alongside. Though given how pretty these tan seats look, no ice cream cones within the automobile—sorry, youngsters.

This public sale ends on July 13.

Contributing Editor

Brendan McAleer is a contract author and photographer primarily based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British cars, got here of age within the golden period of Japanese sport-compact efficiency, and commenced writing about vehicles and folks in 2008. His specific curiosity is the intersection between humanity and equipment, whether or not it’s the racing profession of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught each of his younger daughters shift a guide transmission and is grateful for the excuse they supply to be perpetually shopping for Scorching Wheels.