Paul Allen Vintage Ferraris | FerrariChat

Paul Allen Vintage Ferraris

Discussion in 'Vintage (thru 365 GTC4)' started by donv, Oct 16, 2018.

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  1. donv

    donv Two Time F1 World Champ
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    I know Paul had some modern ones... 456, F40, maybe even a LaFerrari... but what vintage Ferraris did he have?
     
  2. CornersWell

    CornersWell F1 Rookie

    Nov 24, 2004
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    PA was not known for owning any vintage cars, I don't believe. Neither was BG (although the Show and Display law is attributed to his desire to have a 959). Maybe the most notable MSFT-financed collection is JS'. But, I'm sure there are other less well-known ones.

    CW
     
  3. donv

    donv Two Time F1 World Champ
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    Interesting... there is a post in Silver claiming he owned a GTO in the 1990s, but I'm not sure if that was correct.
     
  4. of2worlds

    of2worlds F1 World Champ
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    GW told me he was restoring a 1957 250 TdF plus a few other cars...
     
  5. CornersWell

    CornersWell F1 Rookie

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    I think he was more into airplanes and yachts.

    CW
     
  6. Lowell

    Lowell Formula 3
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    Here is my Paul Allen story:

    I used to live in Seattle, about a mile north of Grand Prix Motors. I often would ride my bike there, lean it up against
    the inner showroom wall, look at whatever Ferraris they might have, and wander back to the repair shop and sometimes
    look at the insides of some motor that they were working on. Once I saw the heads of an F40 and marveled about how
    small the valves were.

    On one such visit around 1995, I saw an F40 being delivered on a flatbed truck. I asked the parts man who I knew, what was the
    problem with the F40 and who owned it. He told me that it was in for a minor service. He would not tell me the name
    of the owner who wanted to remain private, but he did tell me to ask the parts girl at a nearby Porsche place.
    I rode the bike over to her. She asked me what was on the license plate. I told her “BALZERS”. She told me
    “Don’t you know the name of the Portland basketball team owned by Paul Allen??!!”

    So Allen had the car trucked from about 15 miles away to keep its milage low I suppose.

    I now live in Santa Fe. Allen has a large estate about 2 miles from my house. I have no idea if he
    ever came here.
     
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  7. readplays

    readplays Formula 3

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    Greg Whitten got some seed money for his car hobby from his days working at Microsoft.
     
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  8. donv

    donv Two Time F1 World Champ
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    I doubt it had anything to do with keeping the mileage low. More likely, he didn't have time to bother with bringing it in himself, or it needed something.
     
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  9. Lowell

    Lowell Formula 3
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    Whitten was about the 75th employee of Microsoft.
     
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  10. Bradwilliams

    Bradwilliams F1 Veteran
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    Will Patrick Bateman be bidding on any of his cars? :):)
     
  11. Terra

    Terra F1 Rookie
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    In actuality, he was more like the 15th MS Employee. That's when they were still based in New Mexico.
     
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  12. Lowell

    Lowell Formula 3
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    If you look up Greg's bio, you will find that he joined Microsoft in 1979.

    If you read Microsoft's history, you will find that it moved to Bellevue Washington on Jan 1, 1979.

    But I do take your point that he was probably more like the 30th, not like the 75th employee of Microsoft.

    I was trying to be conservative to respond to a previous post that stated that Microsoft provided him "seed"
    money for his car hobby. In those days, early Microsoft employees got seed money on the order of hundreds of million of dollars.
     
  13. readplays

    readplays Formula 3

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    My post was sarcastic and written in jest. Obviously I agree with you and Terra about his early connection to the company and resultant ability to capitalize on that when it comes to the car hobby. ;)
     
  14. Terra

    Terra F1 Rookie
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    After I saw your earlier post, I directly asked GW the question. It was then that he personally told me he was about the 15th employee, etc.
     
  15. Jakuzzi

    Jakuzzi Formula 3

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    American Psycho's Patrick Bateman? :)-
     
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  16. donv

    donv Two Time F1 World Champ
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    He was talking about Paul, or himself?
     
  17. of2worlds

    of2worlds F1 World Champ
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    Greg's TdF.
     

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