DC Ferrari History?

Thorobred Motocars circa 1985...This was believed to be the first TR (4.9 litre) in the area. Another first; notice the targa roof (conversion done in Belgium)
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Barcheta- This is the back shop at Thorobred Motorcars. I believe the blue (1964?) 330 2+2 under the Ferrari sign is the car you remember. Yes, the it was offered at $16k
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Thorobred's tiny showroom...An '83 Mondial, '81 Corniche and '85 Excalibur
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Awesome! Thanks for sharing the history and keeping this thread and the memories alive!

 

My dad and uncle ran the Rockville Thorobred store in the late 80's. I have his appointment book here in my office along with a few copies of Lamborgini window stickers. The names and numbers in this book would read like a whos who of DC from the 80's

 

Are the Story's no longer associated with FoW?

-dsd

 

Sadly, I have but one left, it's myself in the back showroom with 04482, the rest were destroyed in a basement flood. Ed, however, has a quite a collection. I'll have to take my scanner with me on my next visit.

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/ptownblog/BackShowroom-Thorobred800.jpg

 

Great pictures. This was after Ed Waterman had sold Thorobred in '83 or '84. The new management threw a lot of money at the place, but seemed to not quite have the expertise to make it successful. It relocated to Rockville, MD and I remember there was a tax auction notice in the Post and that the auction was cancelled at the last minute. It was ultimately out of business by around '86 or '87.

 

Peter Lee, was a great guy and great mechanic. He worked for Patrick Pegues (Ex-ASC) in Leesburg at European Service Center at 306 HARRISON STREET SE.

 

According to DMV, Bill Story is the Dealer Operator, so I'm assuming yes. Bill was a Ferrari Tech at American Service Center when I was there in the mid-80s to early 90s.

 

I believe that was Allen Modney (spelling?) was that hawker on the ground floor.

 

OMG!!!!! That's the car! Wow! Thanks for sharing that! Interestingly enough, that car still lives in the area. I know the owner..... he had it refurbished at Grand Touring back in 06 before they became DEW. I contacted him to ask if he had any interest in selling it but I think his lack of a response spoke volumes.

 

Bill was also the FNA tech rep to the Ferrari Challenge series in the mid-90's. He gave me a signed tech sticker - but only after the last race of the season was finished! I worked with, and learned a *TON* from (!!), his Dad on the Challenge series. And his Mom was actually SFoW's first "hospitality hostess" - GREAT people. I really miss seeing them and think of them often, wondering how they are doing.....

gp

 

Did the Rockville store sell Detomaso? I seem to remember a 16 yr old kid having a Pantera GT5 when new...he was the son of one of the Thoroughbred investors maybe?

LS

 

Lashss, I believe they may have still sold them while in Rockville.
After acquiring the business and while still in Arlington they were selling Detomaso. And I don't think they styed in Arlington very long.

Just before their move to Rockville was about the time I was looking to buy one. A friend and I stopped into the store and one of their jack-ass salesmen made the snarky remark "well you're not supposed to drive it in the snow" in reference to my friend commenting on how low the car was. We actually exchanged a couple of words and I told him to go F*** himself and left.

I bought my GT5-S a month later from a private owner in Vero Beach, Fl. I called Ed Waterman and he sent his transport guy to pick it up. He kept it at his place until the shippers got it the following week.

 

Funny you mention this.. I was in Rockville the day that the tax agents lock it down! Of course I was just stopping b to see what was in the showroom. And the doors were chained and padlocked with notices pasted on the glass.. You could also see a number of file cabinets sitting on the showroom floor with a bar through the handle and padlock on top. The agents were actually just mopping-up. I mean it was the hole plain white van thing. The guy who did the detailing was like wow, we cant remove anything from the building!

Rob, that's right.. Peter Lee! What a great guy he was.

I've met Bill a few times, at number of places I think. Wasn't he also at Algar for sometime? The techs I remember from ASC were Arnie Poundstone and Glen ?? both of whom went to FoW And of course Fernando and crew..

 

You're thinking of Glenn Marquis - now service manager at Audi-Tysons. He also ran the FoW race team for a decade or more.

Arnie, of course, is still at FoW. Saw him just yesterday at an Aston-Martin event at Summit Point (was there with a client's 430 CH).

gp

 

With all this talk of Thoroughbread Motors in Rockville, I had to go and dig out some photos I took when I would frequent their shop in the late 80's (while in High School).

Here's what I found. ***Disclaimer...these shots were apparently before I got into photography (as evidenced by the fact that I couldn't even get the whole car in the photo). So be gentle with the comments

Photo # 1 - White Lamborghini Countach in the service area.
Photo # 2 - White Lamborghini Countach in the service area. (Notice the White Lamborghini Jalpa in the back of the Photo)?
Photo # 3 - Bricklin SV-1 (this was in the smaller showroom - separate building).
Photo # 4 - self explanatory.
Photo # 5 - Clenet in the service area.
Photo # 6 - Zimmer Motorcar in the service area.
Photo # 7 & 8 - Maserati BiTurbo Spyder in the Service area.
Photo # 9 - Maserati BiTurbo Spyder, Ghibli and BiTurbo 425 in the service area.
Photo # 10 - Maserati Ghibli and BiTurbo 423 in the service area.
Photo # 11 - Not sure why I took this photo, but notice the sales rep's area in the corner and their filing system?

Bill P.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

My account of Thorobred Motorcars (TM) starts in early ’85…Ed had sold the place sometime in 1983-84, to Potomac tax attorney, Stephen Paley, and Rolls Royce salesman, Eric Nelson. Mr. Nelson served as the GM; he had been an ace Rolls Royce salesman out of Baltimore. TM was a unique place where every day was “cars & coffee”. On Saturdays the energy will go up a notch with owners stopping by for a quick “Italian” tune-up and/or a detail job, and Dunkin Donuts coffee (sorry no Starbucks then). The mix of cars was unbelievable, ranging from the truly exotic to the mere ambitious. For a car guy, this was true nirvana. The Clarendon building wasn’t big, but the menu was always deep: Aston Martin, Bitter, Clenet, Excalibur, Ferrari, Jaguar, Lamborghini, De Tomaso, Maserati, Porsche (Gemballa/Ruf/plain Stuttgart), etc. Even a Yamaha-powered jet look alike bike called Pulse. But the showroom was only half of the story. The shop completed the coin with plenty of drama; from an Espada engine rebuild, a Ghibli restoration, a DOT/EPA conversion, and everything in between. By the spring of ’87 the car market was going strong. TM had become a Maserati, De Tomaso, and Aston Martin (unverified) factory dealer. During the spring-summer of ’87, TM sold five or six brand new Testarossas. Everybody wanted to be like Sonny from Miami Vice (kidding) and didn’t mind paying the markup to avoid the two year wait list at American Service Center. Panteras also sold relatively well, but the star of the show was the regrettable Maserati Biturbo. Between late ’86 and late ’87, TM sold Biturbos as fast as Modena could crank them out. The future was looking good and ownership decided that it was time for a bigger place. Around the same time, TR had become a Lamborghini dealer; right around the time when Chrysler had acquired the raging bull. In late ’87 TR moved to Washington street in Rockville, near the courthouse. Despite three quick Lambo sales; one Jalpa and two Countaches; the future started to look less promising. Between Black Monday (10/19/07), the Biturbos awful reliability, plus a questionable new location; TR’s down spiral began not long after the Rockville move. Efforts were made to keep things going, including new investments from the likes of Jerry Cohen (Jerry’s Ford), but no dice. Things came to an abrupt end with the friendly help of IRS agents; and with that, the chapter was closed on one very special car place. I imagine that some settlement was reached as the remaining cars were eventually transferred to Jerry’s Ford in Annandale. Not the happy ending that I wish I could share, but the ride was sweet and the memories will always remain.

 

Bill,

Noticed you posted these a few months back, but I missed them and just saw them. Thanks for sharing and what a cool story.

 

Eric Nelson did a lot of shady tax stuff hence the IRS coming in. He also took off with a Biturbo that the bank was looking for. A few weeks before the IRS came in Mr Nelson had already skipped town.

 

The Rockville store was Pantera,Zimmer,Lamborgini and Maserati along with a various mix of used exotics.

 

The original configuration for Paley's purchase was not Eric Nelson, but a local car business person, who, in my opinion, convinced Paley to purchase it so he could run it. Ed was moving to Florida and I agreed to work for the new owner and his manager. Thorobred, in my opinion, then changed instantly from that of a knowledgeable connoisseur/enthusiast oriented store to all glitz & glamor. I walked out three months later.

I visited the place to chat with Eric after he took over management (I have no knowledge of his buying in, but I don't rule it out) and little had changed except there were more Rollers in the place. If I remember correctly, Eric was complaining about too much interference from above, a possible result of the prior mismanagement of his predecessor.