Ferrari Expert Witness & Valuation Services

Mike Sheehan has been an expert witness for over 25 years in State and Federal Courts in the United States and Canada, and is often called upon to be an expert witness for litigation and insurance matters.

Mike was the owner/CEO of European Auto Restoration for over 25 years, the largest U.S. full-service Ferrari organization specializing in sales, service, restoration, crash repair, frame repair, assembl and detail, so he is well versed in all phases of restoration, crash-damage and repair.

With over 30 years experience in international brokerage of both individual and collections of Ferraris and other exotic cars, Mike knows import and export restrictions and idiosyncracies for most major markets, and is well-connected with import houses and shipping firms world-wide. He also has direct daily involvement with the true valuation and market trends for the exotic car market.

His years of driving Ferraris both on and off the track allow him to know first-hand how a particular model Ferrari should perform, and his research and years in the field have led to the compilation of a vast database of exotic cars and their histories.

Michael Sheehan

Owner, Ferrari Historian & Expert Witness

On a cold Canadian morning in February 1969, as the sun tried to break through and the early morning snow became a bitterly cold rain, Haight-Ashbury and warmer weather beckoned. In hours, I was on the rain-swept Trans-Canada highway with $10 (Canadian) in my pocket, hitchhiking south. Over the next two years, in a homage to fellow Canadian Jack Kerouac, I made multiple pilgrimages up and down the West Coast.

In 1970, I found myself in downtown San Francisco in need of parts for a 1955 Chevy, when I heard a new-to-me, and hopelessly exotic exhaust rumble from a parking area across the street. The driver was a caricature of a European movie director, wearing a blazer, a cravat and a beret. I crossed the street and fell in love with his car. It was dark blue, had four exhaust pipes, a crossed flag emblem on the trunk, and the chrome script read “Superfast.” I had just seen my first Ferrari, and I was hopelessly imprinted. (Decades and much research later, I found it was 500 Superfast, s/n 08253.)

In 1971, while going to junior college in Orange County, CA, I opened a one-man body shop. Another local shop imported mechanical parts from wrecked 356 Porsches from Germany, using ex-German Post Office VW buses as packing crates that could be driven to the docks in Hamburg. I patched up and resold the buses to Southern California hippies. I did well and eventually moved up the food chain to Austin Healey, and, later, to Jaguar E-type sales and repairs.

In late 1972, I purchased my first Ferrari, 250 PF Coupe, s/n 1447GT, for $2k, at a time when a house in Southern California cost $20k. It taught me the joy of setting 24 valves and syncing double-point distributors. In 1973, I bought my second Ferrari, Vignale 212 Cabriolet, s/n 0125EL, for $850. Now a two-Ferrari owner, I was, by default, in the Ferrari business. In 1973, I moved my shop to Costa Mesa, CA. We were just down the road from Road & Track magazine — and right in the center of Southern California car culture.

In 1974, I purchased Daytona prototype, s/n 12547, an ex-Le Mans, Daytona and Sebring racer, for $14k at a time when buying a used-up and stripped-out race car was masochistic madness. My lame rationale was that the outside fuel filter looked cool, and the roll bar would save me if I flipped it during a late-night run down Laguna Canyon Road.

I began racing, starting with a 206 GT and then moving to Mazda Pro, then Barber Saab, to Trans-Am, IMSA GTO and eventually the Camel-Lite Series. My best — and last — season was 1993, with five podium finishes at Lime Rock, Mid-America, Watkins Glen, Portland and Phoenix. As part of our business strategy, we tracked down, bought, prepared and raced what were then long-lost race cars.

On top of sales, restoration, and racing, I also was the monthly Ferrari columnist for Sports Car Market magazine 1993-2013, Long term contributing author to Ferrari Market Letter & Cavallino magazines, long term author of socio-economic analysis of Global Ferrari price trends, and am the monthly Ferrari market analysis for FORZA magazine from 2006 to date. Today I no longer run a large restoration shop, but rather happily work with my Daughter Colleen at our showroom specializing in the cars I love so much.