Yahoo Autos 1982 Ferrari 400i Is Today's BaT Auction Pick
The Ferrari 400i was never officially sold in the United States, but many found their way here as gray-market imports.
Styled by Pininfarina, the four-seat coupe featured a 4.8-liter V-12 paired with a three-speed automatic transmission.
This example sold two years ago for $49,750.
Most famous for the chrome-festooned 1949 Buick Roadmaster that appears in so much of the movie, 1988's Rain Man also features some pretty choice machinery in the opening credits. Today's pick from Bring A Trailer, which like Car and Driver is part of the Hearst Autos Group, is a 1982 Ferrari 400i that's a near-match for the first car Tom Cruise's character drives in the movie. A European-spec coupe imported into the U.S. in 1982, it is as imposing in all-business black as il Commentadore himself, soft-spoken, but with a 4.8-liter V-12 under the hood.
The opening to Rain Man reveals a red Lamborghini Countach flying through the air—actually, it's being unloaded from a ship via an overhead crane. The car is lowered to join three other Countachs, each one a bewinged adolescent fantasy, as Tom Cruise looks on, dressed like a "Miami Vice" extra. The cars are gray-market imports, and they're being held up at customs by the EPA, which is central to the initial tension of the film. Cruise drives away in a silver 1983 Ferrari 400i.
Many Italian exotics weren't officially sold in the U.S. in the 1980s, and gray market importing frequently involved a little hustling. Ferrari never bothered selling its V-12 gran turismo in the U.S. in the 1980s because why would you? A national 55-mph speed limit and tough environmental regulations made the States an ill-suited environment for such a car.
Still, there were plenty of speed-obsessed Ferrari aficionados willing to jump through hoops or cut corners to get their hands on the forbidden fruit. This 1982 Ferrari 400i evidently is the product of such determination, as it was imported in January 1982.
