Fate of Luigi Chinetti Motors

Maybe after the Enzo book arrives tomorrow I will gain greater appreciation for the challenges of creating a car company.
However the 60's in California must have been a lot more fun than New York was, right Mr Niles?

 

Ed, Ivo mentioned an investor named Blauwise on several occasions? (not sure of spelling).

David

 

I lived in Westport and would go to Chinetti’s in the old castle building looked so big from the street
As I walked in there were like 6 engine stands with 8 and 12 cyl. motors on them and half a dozen f cars
They were really nice and took me in the basement down an car elevator and so many car were down there .. 1968-1970s
I was around 17-18 never forget those day visiting there

 

PERSPECTIVE: the "good old days-New England" circa 1969-1975..

Sunoco 260 was .32/gallon
a pack of Marlboro cigarettes was 25-30 cents/pack...
a 6/Pack of Budweiser was less than a dollar, the minimum wage was under 1.50/hr,
and a 4 bedroom post war ranch was 12-18,000.00

So, those good old days when I was a kid and dragging old racecars out of slate roofed "carriage" houses in CT, MA and NH(while skipping time at Boarding school/College!), always should be kept in its proper focus/view through this rosy prism of retrospection...

A "kid"-such as myself-who used to show up to look at cars to "buy"(usually it was a heap with 4 flat tyres, a puddle of oil under it, no coolant in the radiator, and you poured in the brake oil... only to watch it pour out at four corners......)that hadn't run in YEARS, but had first paint, the UNMISTAKEABLE smell inside the passenger compartment of 1967(as I like to refer to it),
was frequently greeted with skepticism and a mostly dismissive attitude(as in: "oh crap, what a waste of time...this kid is just a car nut, so what's the harm in showing the "kid' THE CAR, for a few minutes..."

Naturally, this mood changed as soon as my backpack opened and I dumped out the stacks of 100.00 bills...in this era, it was before any such thing as: "The drug business"...just wait, those gold chained cocaine clowns arrive in only a few years....

So the assumption THEN became: "well, daddy sure has money!" A 16 yr old with a bag with that kind of cash was NOT a normal occurance, I assure you...and as such, I equally had the door slammed in my face and told to beat it kid, before I call the police!
Happened plenty of times-this despite my arrival in a perfectly painted Luso(just had no floors left-New England salt in the winters)

The moral to this whole thing is quite simple: the only guys who treated me like "one of the Fellas," and that I had found guys where I "belonged", was at Chinetti's...
I don't miss much, but I do remember it with a real fondness..

 

Definitely a different time...

Back in the late 90s (dot com era), I knew a friend of a friend who sold Ferraris for Ron Tonkin. They were explicitly told to not judge the book by the cover...

One day a scruffy fellow walked in, pointed to a car, and said, "I want one of those."

The salesperson asked about down payments, etc...

The scruffy fellow had a backpack full of cash...and a checkbook...and his banker's phone number. His response to the question was, "what would you prefer?"

The scruffy fellow drove off in his new Ferrari...

At least that's the story I heard.

 

Famous tale-or infamous if you prefer....in truth, it actually happened at Ferrari of Los Gatos(during RBB tenure)....and yes, one of my cohorts was there....it WAS sandals and jeans , and he in fact, bought 3,4 or 5 cars in one shot....a true story indeed....

 

The rest of ‘my’ story involved a grandfather who invented a particular office supply item. I love urban legends!

 

I'm sure every Ferrari dealership that's been around for a while has these stories. These days, the worse you dress the more money you have, anyway.

The 21st century version of that is, a guy came into the dealership wearing a nice suit. They ignored him and he went to their competitor and bought a couple of cars!

 

Lamborghinis, no doubt....

 

Bring up this thread to ask if anyone knows where the documents and paperwork from Chinetti orders? I am researching a car I own that had its sale facilitated by Chinetti in 1983-84. Perhaps these papers are all gone but I was hoping they went to storage or were sold to someone acting as repository. Anyone know?

 

Can't say for sure but Francois Sicard a mechanic there had the paperwork? He would be about 86 years old now if he is still around.

 

Francois is still around.

 

Most of the records are safe and intact.

 

Francois left Chinettis in the early 1970s and had nothing to do with record keeping. The dealership was owned by Tom Parker, a wealthy Greenwich socialite, during the time you're investigating and was soon sold to Bob Sharp, a Datsun dealer who moved it to Danbury, CT.
The local Sheriff closed the doors at 600 West Putnam Ave for non payment of rent. All the staff were given a few minutes to gather what they could of their tools and personal affects. Everything else ended up in an old Woolworths in Port Chester, NY.

 

Does anyone have the email address of the old woolworths in Port Chester so that I may enquire about the ordering documentation for my Michelotto group iv? If so please PM