More GTO chat

+ Keith Duly

 

I apologize in advance for the thread hijack.
By all means, if you have current GTO info to share, please have at it.

Pretty close with a few corrections- let me unpack this a little bit.

Thanks to sponsorship from Packard Electric Co., Leon Duray's Miller (91 cu front drive chassis #6) was joined by two new cars from Harry Miller; a second 91 front drive, and a recycled-to-new 122 rear drive chassis fitted with a 91cu engine.
Duray was able to field the 3-car team 'Packard Cable Specials' for the 1929 Indy 500.

Pete DePaolo later took the FD cars to race in Europe. Ettore Bugatti then made a trade with him for the cars.
American motorsports journalist/author Griffith Borgeson 'rescued' the two 91 FD Millers from the Bugatti factory in the 60's and repatriated them to the US.

Borgeson loaned the earlier Duray car to the Los Angeles County Museum of Contemporary Art. LACMA tried to keep the car. Borgeson sued and won, and the car now resides in long-term ownership with the Indianapolis Speedway Museum (a charitable foundation, separate and apart from the track itself which Penske recently acquired).

The second 91 rear drive Miller went from Borgeson to Bill Harrah, casino magnate and Western US Ferrari distributor.
In the 1980's when Bob Rubin of Drexel Burnham (investment bank) was buying and selling all kinds of world-class Fcars etc., he did some work for Holiday Inn- the then-owners of Harrah's- and it was at that point he was able to acquire the 'Packard Cable Special' Miller 91FD from them.

Bob Rubin sent the Miller to Chris Leydon in PA for restoration. (I was lucky enough to see it there in 1990).
Bob Rubin's dad had been an industrial arts ('Shop') teacher and it was in his name that Bob donated the car to the Smithsonian Institute, along with cash in the form of a fund for the maintenance, upkeep, and occasional public use of the car.
Bob did receive an early (1900's) Mercedes and one or two other cars (I don't recall the specifics anymore) against his charitable donation of the car and cash.

The unfortunate postscript... the Smithsonian brought the Miller to Monterey in 1993 (Miller featured year). On a pull start for a display run, the museum guys broke the gearbox (as told to me by one of Chris's former mechanics). That was the last public outing of the car and it has apparently not been on display much, if at all, since that time.

"Only a small portion of the Smithsonian's collections (estimated at less than 1%) is on display in the museums at any given time. Many collections are acquired and solely used for research purposes utilized by scientists and scholars from all over the world.Aug 1, 2018. si.edu".

 

Terrific Dave! Many thanks for posting.

 

I'm sorry, my mistake.

This should read, "The second 91 FRONT drive Miller went from Borgeson to Bill Harrah..."

 

Thanks Dave, thats far more accurate than what I could find online!

 

It looks as though 3647 has been repainted... How perfect and glossy was the paint finish?

 

Thank you. That's very good news!! I couldn't tell from the other photo of it which at least on my monitor, looked too perfect. Thankfully it has been left just as it was supposed to be and what was agreed to.

 

Marshall: The new owner has, on my recommendation, used my painter for other cars, and there has been NO discussion related to 3647.

 

Dyke, apologies, guess I wasn't very clear... writing here, or most anywhere, emails & texts...sometimes it's difficult to properly relay thoughts & info without being too wordy, and is the common problem with writing vs. talking. I was referring to discussions between the previous owner and new/current owner that they had about the condition, use, etc., etc.

Glad to know 3647 is staying as is.

 

Cavallino magazine (Dec 2022) has a story on the event. Only GTO owners were invited.

 

Does anyone know who restored GTO/64 #5573GT for Aaron Hsu?

 

See Dyke's post #847 here.

 

Thanks to you and Dyke!

 

#4713GT took part on the 2014 Tornano a Casa tour and is pictured here at Le Mans. It was driven by Lulu Wang. Her and Anthony did sell their 330LMB (I guess you don't need two with the same body) but AFAIK still own #4713GT and #3729GT

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You mean #3769 GT. JS owns 3729 GT, unless he's sold it very recently.

 

You are correct, my spreadsheet occasionally opens the cell below while showing the one above. And its too late to edit!

 

And just for the record, this is 4713GT on the left and 4757GT on the right.
3769GT is Grey metallic with a blue stripe.

 

are you sure? is touch up paint not counted?

 

Ferrari 250 GTO vs 250 SWB with Benoît Tréluyer and Emmanuel Collard :

 

the GTO looks very very new
Some original Veglia dashboard gauges removed and replaced by English Smith’s….non original Webers. What else.

 

Found these old photos I took in September 2008. Seen on the back of a trailer on the side of the 101 near Sherman Oaks. Any guesses?

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