DC Ferrari History?

HBL.... or Heishman in Alexandria... Route 1 Jeff Davis Hwy.

I actually met Ed Waterman, the guy who used to run Thoroughbred Motorcars, down in Ft Lauderdale while we were at Cavallino. He runs Motorcar Gallery now down there. Thouroughbred was not an official dealership. Still wish I had bought that blue 330 2+2 for $16K back in the day. That was an interesting time to be into classic sportscars in the DC area as there was no less than 3 dealer in the Wilson Blvd./Little Saigon area that sold cars in various stages of need. Behind Thouroughbred there was a guy that dealt in vintage british cars and Maserati. That was the first time I ever saw a Mistral spyder.... or a Ghibli... very cool.
Across the street was a guy that sold classic muslecars... almost bought a fully restored '56 T-Bird for $9K from that one.

 

I bought a car from Ed Waterman in 1976 when his showroom was in the garage of an office building in the DC area. it was a silver/french blue GTC. Ed and his significant other had driven the car in Europe for a month or so before bringing it over. Car was my only car for 5 of its 9 years in my ownership. The other dealer that had cars was John Levy. Not sure exactly where, but somewhere in the DC marketplace.

Now Ed Waterman is in FL, John Levy is at Shelton in FL and I'm in FL. Is the earth tilting South?

 

Actually where the Porsche dealer is in Arlington.... sold right along side the Ferraris and BMWs.... I remember seeing a blue GTB very similar to the 76 Frankfurt show car on their showroom floor back in 1977. I was amazed how beautiful that car was. Around 1981 my dad was working for the Navy over in Balston so I spent everyday over there hanging around at ASC and the other places.... Yeah... good stuff!

 

Embarrassed to say, but I remember the Ferrari's over at Heishman and the Pcars. Whenever my dad was going down to NAtional for a trip I would go along so I could see the cars for the brief second and of course the trains across the street!
After high school I was driving a 528i BMW for a developer company in the area doing courier work, I often drove by AMSC so I could see the Ferari 328 and 308 in the windows! I thought a couple of times about pulling in to get a closer look but always chickened out. I figured they might give me a chance since I was driving the BMW.

Robert

 

Heishmans sold the Ferrari franchise to American Service Center in Arlington in 1981. Prior to Heishman's it was International Motors in Falls Church (now a Saab dealer) Ed Waterman owned Thouroughbred in Arlington, no affiliation with Ferrari. FOW since 1995.

 

Here is a blog entry about a guy buying a gray 1967 275 GTB/4 from Edward Waterman in Arlington, VA.
He paid $17,200 for it back in 1977. (Not bad for a 10 year old used car).

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2007/04/18/28-days-of-ferrari-day-vii/

Pic of the car: (probably worth a little more than $17.2k these days).
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Toggie,
How do you find this stuff???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am constantly amazed at what you can find and disminate here on Fchat!

Robert

 

Yeah, not sure why, some things just interest me and I poke around a bit to see what is out there.

I also got lucky today on the "Guess the car" thread. Look at posts #1385 - #1391 in this link.
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?p=137501011#post137501011
A 1948 Lancia Aprilia, what's that?!

 

impressive............. most impressive

 

bought my 9 year old dodge challenger in 79 for $600. Just to give some perspective.

 

My memory of Thoroughbred was that the cars were absolutely crammed in a very tiny space. a rickety garage door was all that separated the cars from traffic whizzing by on Washington Boulevard about 8 feet away. It is now a (small) Petco.

the british garage across the street was Motorhead; Jeff Burns moved that operation out to Old Lee Highway about 15 years ago?

 

My recollection of Ed Waterman's place is much the same. Anyone remember the other erstwhile area Ferrari dealer, Schwing Motors on Keswick Rd. in Baltimore? In '73 I remember seeing a new white/blue 246 GT on the showroom floor next to a new white/red BMW 3.0CS (they sold BMW and Saab too) and thinking that they were both lovely, in what turn out to have been unusual color combinations for both cars. In '75 when Schwing lost/gave up the Ferrari franchise, they were discounting Ferraris heavily in order to move them- those were the days. Of course, all you could buy new at that point were 308 GT4s, but still . . .

 

I worked for Ed for three years in the early 80's. It was spelled in the modern (and rare, like the cars) form of the word: Thorobred. Located at 3200 N. Washington Blvd. the building is gone, it's now a small park. The front showroom held about six cars. The back showroom was good for about 25 cars max. We had an auxiliary storage lot in Ed's old location, which was the underground parking garage of a small office building on Fairfax Dr. The technician at the time was the late Peter Lee.

 

Rob,

Thanks for sharing the information! Any old pics to share by chance??

 

Who owns FoW now? I was told the same person that owns FoW also owns the Ferrari dealerships in San Diego and Orange County. Someone else told me that was not true. FoSD did the PPI on mine when I bought it from an independent dealer in SD in March. FoSD was absolutely great to deal with.

 

Wilton Partners | Real Estate | Financial Services | Automotive

CW

 

Ah.....Thoroughbred Motors....loved that place. In 1980 they had a MINT 250 GT Lusso for on $12,500. One of my major life regrets is not finding a way to buy that car. Of course, I was 24 at the time and my salary was less than $20K, and I would have certainly killed myself in that car.....but what a way to go!

 

Thanks.

 

That info is spot on!

My dad used to take the family to a frozen custard place across the street from Thoroughbred Motorcars when they sat on the corner of Wilson & Washington Boulevard. Of course I always wanted to go across the street to see the "cool cars" and Ed always welcomed us while asking me to "please not touch." As I grew older, I came by and he'd let me sit in them.. as I reached driving age and I stopped by often, he'd say "oh, go on back there's a GTC or Ghibli I know you will like! I'd hang around for hours and pass tools to Peter ?? the mechanic who used to work there, and passed away some years back. (those who have been around will know who I'm speaking of as he had his own shop in Leesburg I think after leaving Thoroughbred)

So, it was Ed that I must blame for nurturing this bad habit for sexy exotic cars. We are still friends today and I visit him anytime I go to FLA. BTW, I think he still has that blk 500 Superfast that he's had for years!

 

Here is a front view of Thorobred Motocars circa 1985
Image Unavailable, Please Login