212 Speciale

Just unearthed this old thread. My father owned 0147E from 1973 until 2004. Found this shot of me from summer 1987 sitting in the engine bay after my brother and I removed the engine for rebuild.
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Fiatosca,
You have a PM.
-M

 

Motion Products 2015
US/Canadian border 2016
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East of Pouleson, Montana........sans windshield.
Great story for another time.
-M
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Here is 0147 E listed for sale in Motorpsort Magazine in December 1971 with Paul Weldon Automobiles Ltd, Dorset.

Paul
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This advert was from shortly before my father imported the car from England. Silver over black but the engine rebuild to which the ad refers was a real mess. The car never ran well so it was rarely used from '73 to '87 until we had the engine rebuilt by an over matched mechanic in 1987. Ran great for a few years but it didn't last so we sent it to Wayne Obrey in 1999 for a proper overhaul.

 

I'm not at home right now but was reading my notes on the car this morning when I posted the above advert, a different UK dealer offered the car in 1973 but can't recall that dealers name from memory right now. I'll look this evening (or Marcel might post sooner)

Paul

 

I will ask my father today. If memory serves we had purchased three cars from the same dealer, including the ex-Peter Sellers 250 GTE. Online info lists the dealer name as The Halfway Garage but that does not ring a bell with me

 

The Halfway Garage was in Berkshire, UK and sold it to your father in 1973.

Marcel Massini

 

Yes Marcel I spoke with my father this morning and he confirmed that it was the Halfway Garage. He is also going to dig up some photos of the car from the time he purchased it.

 

Your father confirmed it to me in writing about 30 years ago when I researched for my book "Ferrari by Vignale".

Marcel Massini

 

Right now I'm in the process of relocating (continents) and I found this long lost photograph in an old box, a search on JWT76C led me to this site. I do notice there have been no posts since 2016.

Anyway, in 1972 or thereabouts my father took me, a 14 year old schoolboy, to The Halfway Garage in Berkshire to see this Ferrari. I don't remember driving in it although he probably did. To my enduring disappointment he decided against buying it. I do remember it was described as supposedly rebodied by Scaglietti which comes up in the Paul Weldon advert in an earlier post. Clearly they had that wrong.

I'm fairly sure I got this original photograph, along with some now lost sales data, after the visit by writing to The Halfway Garage pretending to be a buyer. It may have been priced at £1,500 although that seems a lot for 1972 or 1973.

Ten years or so later I went to the same dealer to view a well priced but quite tatty Lancia Aurelia B20 for myself, history repeated itself and I didn't buy that one either.

Apparently the garage got its name from being about halfway between Newbury and Reading, two large towns in Berkshire.
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We have photos somewhere of the car in same location just prior to my father's purchase in 1973. Was at my parent's home a few weeks ago and the JWT 76C license plate is still mounted to our garage wall!

 

Love the photo and your story. Thanks for sharing. Recent breakfast ride through Lodi, Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago.
Cheers,
Mark

 

For me this Ferrari has always been the one that got away, although of course my father should take the blame for that by not buying it. Back in the '60s he had a string of Jaguars, I can remember an XK140, an XK150, a Mk II and on the day of viewing we most probably drove to The Halfway Garage in an Alfa Romeo Giulia saloon. At the time he must have decided the Ferrari was just a step too far, maybe he spotted the mechanical issues mentioned by fiatosca.

Before finding my old and thought to be lost photograph yesterday, I hadn't seen it since well before the internet came along. Occasionally and probably after seeing something in a magazine I've made searches for Scaglietti Ferraris, because that is what I thought it was, obviously nothing ever came up. So it's a real plus to find out about it now.

With what I'm finding on the internet and without knowing it I seem to have been following the Ferrari around, at a long arms length anyway. After thirty years of living and working in the Middle East (Arabia) I'm now in the process of relocating permanently to my place in England that is just 5 miles up the road from Paul Weldons old premises at Henstridge Aerodrome where the Ferrari was for sale in 1971. A friend I've known since the '70s now has a vintage aircraft business at Henstridge flying Tiger Moths.

Along with that and back in 2014 I spent 48 hours in Costa Mesa with nothing particular to do workwise. Looking at some photographs I took on the day I can see I snapped what I think are now Michael Sheehans premises at 110E, 16th St. My photos show it was a martial arts centre in 2014 so Michael Sheehan must have relocated there since then and I don't suppose the Ferrari was ever at that location, unless Michael Sheehans website is fifteen years out of date. I was in that part of Costa Mesa searching for the premises of a particular motorcycle dealer, I have a Laverda 3C that back in 1975 was a demonstrator for Champion Motorcycles of Costa Mesa.

Once in a while I get to drive past The Halfway Garage, coincidentally my parents now live not that far from there, these days it's a shiny Shell gas station. Looking at googleearth I think the old premises were demolished sometime between 2005 and 2010. There is still a business several miles further up the road towards Newbury with the same name but so far as I can tell they just do repairs and servicing for newer cars.

My memories are completely disproportionate to my tenuous connection to the car but this Ferrari really did make a huge and lasting impression on me nearly fifty years ago.

Thanks to fiatosca and owner MarkL for their replies, I thought the silver grey colour (color) really suited it, but from MarkLs photo taken in Wisconsin I'd say it's looking even better now.

Michael