Flipping Ferraris ; Contract with buyers will thwart resale of prized 550 Barchetta.

Ferrari of North America doesn't like to see customers ``flip'' their cars.

It's not a fiery end-over-end crash that has the company concerned. Rather, officials worry that someone will buy a new fire-red 550 Barchetta Pininfarina this spring, drive it off the dealership floor and ``flip it''-resell it-to a secondary buyer for tens of thousands of dollars more than the dealer could charge for the same car.

In response, Ferrari requires buyers of the $258,000 Barchetta (below) to sign an agreement limiting resale of the car. Under terms of the agreement, during the first year of ownership the buyer must give the selling dealer or Ferrari North America first rights to buy back the car at its original purchase price. Ferrari is demanding Barchetta customers sign the document before releasing the cars from the dock. Some dealers are using the same generic agreement to limit resale of the soon-to-be-delivered $175,000 Ferrari 360 Spider as well, however Ferrari says it has not authorized that use. In the past, Ferrari limited resale of its F50 supercar by only allowing ``buyers'' to lease the car for two years, forcing them to keep the car or return it to the dealer.

The intent of this special contract is to prevent speculators from hoarding the extremely limited-production exotics and reselling them at a huge markup, thereby inflating the price, Ferrari spokesman Jeff Ehoodin says. Ferrari is also trying to protect its treasured dealer-owner relationship, he notes. This agreement is required even though Ferrari said it had pre-sold the entire production (448 total) of its 550 Barchetta Pininfarina to a handpicked lot of its most loyal and trusted customers.

``There is an agreement only on the 550 Barchetta, and that's because it's a very special car,'' said Ehoodin. ``Only 127 of those cars will be sold in this country and we want them to go to some of our very special, longstanding clients. We want those people who end up with them to not be at the mercy of other forces.

``There are a lot of people who would like to make their little fortunes on Ferrari,'' he said. ``We're trying to do what's in the best interest of our dealers and Ferrari.''

Porsche Cars of North America is considering a similar contract to cover sales of its limited-production models, said spokeswoman Susan Childress. ``We have not done it in the past, however we are looking at implementing some sort of agreement that would do that,'' she said.