Restoration - fact or fiction

That COULD be 0734TR which SUPPOSEDLY never raced and which was SUPPOSEDLY restored somewhere between 1978 and 1985 by Francois Sicard.

All other 250 TR's have some kind of vintage racing history as far as I know.

 

could it be this one? not a stitch of racing history (according to Barchetta.cc), but then restored in 78?
http://www.barchetta.cc/english/All.Ferraris/Detail/0734TR.250TR.htm

 

ha - your trigger finger is quicker than mine, Jack!

 

Hehehehe... only this time Bryan... only this time...

 

It sure sounds like 0734, Joel Finn lists it as unraced.

 

It's true, of course, and was recently displayed by its proud owner at a much-publicized exhibition in Boston.

It's rivalled by another true story. In 1952 Ferrari shipped four 375 Indys to Indianapolis for the 500. One was finally qualified by Ascari, but a wire wheel broke early in the race.

Another of the four had been sold to oilman Howard Keck for the race. After it didn't qualify it went in a crate; Keck also owned the Kurtis 500 "Fuel Injection Special" in which Bill Vukovick won in 1953 and '54. The Ferrari remained in its crate until Keck's death (in the very early 1980s, as I recall).

The crate was opened, and inside was a perfect time machine, an untouched 1952 Ferrari. The paint was cracked and crazed, and the leather was dried and cracked, but it was absolutely untouched.

So...a well known "classic car dealer" made the highest offer, and promptly restored the car. Old paint stripped, car painted "resale red." All metal chromed or polished. Brand new leather. Etc. And off to the auction.

Another one gone.

(And, by the way, Frederick Gibbs, the naval architect who owned 0734 and who designed the SS United States, also owned a pristine Allard J2X when he died. His biography is worth looking up on Google.)

O.G.

One other edit: Francois Sicard had nothing to do with the restoration.

 

Very glad that Francois had nothing to do with this. He's a friend and I hate to think, assuming there is a God, that he'd have to answer for this some day...

 

Of course that would mean you would have to answer for Frankenhooker...

 

Yes, it is 0734 TR. However, the car was restored by Chinetti Motors when Gibbs, the original owner still had it. I have documents for that, dated 26 June 1975, and US$ 14'000 was invested for that restoration. Gibbs died in 1978.
MUCH worse, however, is that the car (0734 TR) has lost its original engine! 0734 TR was often stored at Chinetti's while owned by Gibbs between 21 March 1958 and 1978. Chinetti apparently once needed a 250 TR engine and took the one of Gibbs' 0734 TR out. The original engine in 0734 TR was internal #LM 17. A few months ago I was at Ralph Lauren's place and inspected all the Ferraris very carefully. Today the 250 TR 0734 TR has a restamped engine (restamped on the boss to match the chassis) with internal #LM 15 (out of 0732 TR). All that happened during the Chinetti days. I can prove all that with excellent and sharp photographs.
Marcel Massini

 

The story is as follows:

Fred Gibbs had 0734TR restorded at CIM by Fancois when he worked for CIM. The car was dissasembled , painted and cleaned up.. The car was only used on the road and never raced (probably had about 5000 miles on it. This was probably in the 1978 period. in those days,This was not a SIN!!!. The original paint was lifting and Gibbs wanted it cleaned up. At the same time , Gibbs had the Cad Allard J2 with about 2500 miles on it restored the same way. When Gibbs died, the collection sold consisted of. TR 0734, the Allard. An unraced orignial 275GTB/C sn9073 with 3000 miles ,an 300SL Gullwing with 10,000 miles, a chrysler 300B and a pre war old Buick indy race car replica.

 

The "classic car dealer" was Thomas W. Barrett, the date was 1987 and the car was sold in January 1988 at the Barrett-Jackson auction to Anthony W. Wang, price paid was US$ 800'000.
Marcel Massini

 

See post #10!
Marcel Massini

 

I suppose if it is your car you can do whatever you want with it but what a damn shame to ruin original time capsule cars with a restoration. Restore them when it is needed not just to make them shinier.

 

Unfortunately there are people out there who say "If a car is worth a million bucks, it has to look like a million bucks"!
Marcel Massini

 

For me, they are Ferrari killers!

 

To clarify my earlier statement concerning Francois Sicard, he did not perform the restoration for the current owner. 0734 and other Ralph Lauren cars were restored by Paul Russell.

Paul Russell has one of the top restoration shops in the country, but like others in this business his restorations are done to the owner's specifications and requirements.

 

Quite true but as the profit from that one enabled me to buy my MK-IV which I didn't over restore perhaps it will balance out...

 

Old Guy,

I'm certain Paul Russell is excellent, but Francois does restorations to owners specs as well (based on what I have seen in his shop). I have personal experience with this as well on a very minor scale: Francois was a bit grumpy when I wanted to mount rectangular Marchals on the 330 instead of round ones - stating they were not correct, but since I liked them, he mounted them (I have since found a period photo with a 330 with the rectangular Marchals).

Regards,

Art S.

 

Any idea where the original #LM17 engine from 0734TR went? Any developments since 2005?