What started your love for Ferraris?

I had always seen nice cars around here, either driving or parked, and I did admire them but wasn't able to identify the model or even if it was a Ferrari or Lamborghini etc.

Then one day while I was just sitting outside at a bus-stop along a usually busy street which was quite empty at the time, I heard the sound of something very loud approaching at a high speed. It instantly raised my pulse as I waited intently to see what it was, and then from around the bend came a yellow 360 Challenge Stradale at around 70 mph, emitting the loudest, most beautiful exhaust note I had ever heard before. It left me in awe, and when I got home I instantly went online to try identify the yellow car I had just seen with the white stripe going along it. And the rest is history

 

In sixth grade my teacher had a bunch of exotic car posters on the wall that I used to take down and draw copies of in my spare time. My favorite was the F50, which is still my favorite Ferrari. I guess you could say that I had good taste at an early age. I still have that notebook at 19, and the F50 is one of the best drawings in it. I swore to myself that I'd own one someday, but I'm still working on seeing one, which I plan to do at the French Quarter Classic this year.

 

If I am not mistaken, I saw a picture of Gary Payton with his 360 in Playboy and I thought it looked awesome. The next day, I was at the Big Boys Toy Show and they had some there. They were offering them for rent! So I rented one a couple of times and I was hooked.

If anyone has that pic from Playboy of Payton and his Ferrari, let me know.

--Kevin.

 

LA "Times Grand Prix" Can Am race 1966 or 1967.
I had a pit pass and saw the Ferrari P4 up close, it was red of course and the most beautiful piece of rolling art I'd ever seen.They cranked it up as I was watching..... the sound was unbelievable. I think the driver was either Chris Amon or John Surtees? I was hooked.
What a weekend, Jim Hall was there with his high winged Chaparral and of course Bruce McClaren and Denny Hulme in the orange McClarens. The smell of the Casterol and the dust.......unforgetable.

 

Reading Enzo Ferrari's memoirs in the early 60s.

 

Yoshiho Matsuda was my downstairs neighbor when I lived in Tokyo. At any given time there would be an assortment of interesting/amazing cars parked in the parking garage (in one of his 3 spots...we only has one spot). It was great being able to walk down in to the garage and see some of the finest Ferraris (and other cars) in the world...

 

Lived in Torino, Italy from 1958 - 1964. Ferrari was very popular (and successful) at the time and I spent most afternoons after school during the annual Turin Auto Show looking at all the cars -and the Ferraris were always the most stunning - even for a young kid.

Took 48 years, but I drive mine every day now - making up for lost time. Headed for my first factory tour next week.

 

It would have been Amon since Surtees' involvement in the Can Am was in a Lola T70.

 

The sound and shape.

 

Magnum

 

although quite a distraction was present with the car, i cannot believe nobody has mentioned National Lampoon's Vacation with the 308

 

Back in the mid sixties there was a foreign used car dealership up the street from where I lived. They handled 40s and 50s era sport cars including Ferraris. At the time my father was thinking about a 1948 Jaguar drophead. He loved those large headlights. Later in the early 70s my father had a 280SEL 4.5. He used a local Ferrari dealer for tune-ups, etc. As an early twenties car nut I loved those tune-ups. Later I got fixed on the Tony Curtis – Roger Moore TV Show the Persuaders with 2-246GTS and then the Magnum series. All of which sold me on foreign sport cars and especially on the Ferrari. My first attempt on buying a Ferrrai was in the mid 70s where I almost bought a rusty 250GTE for $4000.00. It was rusty but it was a Ferrari.
Later I saw it for sale for $75,000 fully restored.

 

Just wanna say it again

 

As a boy I had a paper route in my hometown back in Ohio. One Autumn day in 1967 as I was delivering the newspaper to one house I noticed an interesting car sitting in the garage. It wasn't until some time later that I found out that it was a brand spankin' new 330GTC. Even as a boy with limited knowledge about automobiles I instictively knew that this was something special. That day my love affair with Ferrari began.

 

I was about ten or eleven, and was in Connecticut, at Miller Motorcars with my dad. He was always a huge car guy, but we were just walking up the street, past the Ferrari showroom. Inside, there was a group of men in suits and ties talking to eachother around a car. Later, the showroom doors were opened, and all the men shook hands. Two of the men then went very quickly out of the showroom and down the street in a yellow car (dont know the model). I recal as plain as day, that all I could hear was the Ferrari. My dad told me that those were not cars for people, but for kings. That has lead me to always reach as high as I can, and even as high as I cant.


FORZA FERRARI
-Jon

 

Here is my story:

When I was about 8 yrs old my parents and I lived in Novi, Michigan. A good friend of my fathers, Mr. Ernie Barry was an engineer for Chrysler. I was told he was traveling on business in Europe. He at some point saw a frame/chassis of a car while driving somewhere. Apparently it was the remains of a Ferrari. He eventually had the frame and pieces shipped to him here in the states. It was a 250GT/L

Mr. B. completly sealed the garage door closed and began the restoration. I do not know how long it took, but I remember him letting me into the garage once to show me the car. I was perhaps 10 years old at the time, which would have been 1979. A few years later, I remember Mr. B. driving the car down the street very slowly. He told me later that the car was almost complete, but the brake sys would lose pressure and he had to pump excessivly to stop, even at slower speeds.

A short time later (1-2 yrs max) I heard Mr. B. had sold the car to "Ferrari." I'm not sure who actually bought the car, but I do remember pedaling my mongoose BMX (very cool at the time) bike as fast as I could to catch a glimpse of the car hauler with the huge Ferrari logo on it as it made its way through the streets of our subdivision.

I wanted one ever since.... and would love to track down that car.

Wayne Ausbrooks followed up on the story and floored us all with this post:

"Sometimes, Moondog, that's all it takes:

S/N 5487 GT
250 GT/L Scaglietti Berlinetta Lusso
Chassis Tipo 539 U
Motor Tipo 168 U No.
Gearbox Tipo 539 U No.
Differential Tipo 539 U No.
Manufactured 1964

The car was originally silver with black leather, first owner unknown. By the early 1970s it was with an American owner living in Germany. In 1972, it was brought to Auto Becker in Dusseldorf for service and never picked up! Proprietor Helmut Becker was never able to contact the car's owner and he sold it on December 12, 1974 to an "M. Lampe."

Sometime around 1975, the car was brought to the US, where it is known to have been owned by Ernie Barry of Novi, MI by 1976. Mr. Barry restored the car to rosso scurro (dark red) with tan leather and offered it for sale in 1983, describing it in his Ferrari Market Letter ad as having a "recent restoration--engine, drivetrain, exterior, interior, exhaust & wheels." The car is pictured at this time in the FCA publication, Prancing Horse (issues #65 and #69) and it was reportedly sold to someone one the west coast in 1984.

In 1989, it was again offered for sale in the Ferrari Market Letter, this time by Ray Van Zelst of Brookfield, WI for $399,000. It was described as: "Burgundy with new tan interior. 3,500 miles on complete engine and chassis rebuild."

It was later advertised for sale (in both 1991 and 1992) by Massimo Conti of Paris France: "Red with tan interior. Perfect. Car is in Italy." The asking price this time was $250,000 and M. Conti's telephone number was given as 0033-1-43340013.

Ciao!"