Anyone hear of Francisco Mir?

Hi,

I am trying to find out a little history on the defunct Santa Monica dealership "Diagnosis and Service" (it was located on 3134 Santa Monica Blvd.). My car was originally sold there by a person named Francisco Mir. (I posted a similar thread in the Southern CA section). I Googled this name and came up with a little racing information from the seventies on Francisco Mir and the "Diagnosis and Service" race team. I am just wondering what happen to the dealership - did it change names, did it just close-up, etc? Who owned it? What is in its location now?

Would like to find out if any of their records were archived somewhere (turned over to FNA? - I'm checking that too).

Thank You,

Anthony

 

Ferrari closed the Franchise. I had a friend there in the latter days and could tell many stories but should not do it in a public forum. Francisco was recently the service manager or possibly a service writer at a small Toyota dealership about 10 miles from here in Northern California.

I doubt Ferrari has many (any) records except those that a dealer is required to share during normal business.

 

I bought my brand new 1977 308 from Fransisco. He suppsedly had connections with the Old Man and had the general distributership for South America. He was a very charming fellow but I think he got a little over extended as as the 80's prices began to move.
His shop was where the Ferrari team came for the Long Beach F-1 Race and prepared, in those days the teams didn't neccesarily come together on the same plane.

 

I was with Mir around this time and it was an interesting place. Mir had some involvement at Ferrari, maybe with the Daytona comp program, maybe at LeMans, maybe assigned to Pozzi. Things were always slightly unclear. Cars, both standard cars and USA models, came to Mir's through Ferrari Argent, nominally a South American distributorship [Mir was from Argentina]. Steve Schlendering and I worked on a purple Boxer which had been sold to Japan. He had a closed door "race" shop on Olympic which was extremely well equipped, quiet, and clean. There was a dyno, a Bosch injection bench, a complete machine shop. I learned alot while there. The dealership, which was somehow separate from other Ferrari USA dealerships, was on Santa Monica, in a converted gas station. There are so many stories about Frank, later Francisco. He was a wizard with Weber carbs and fuel injection.

Mir's shop was the base for Ferrari during the Long Beach GP. We picked up the race cars at the airport, and I drove the Ferrari red Chevy box van back. The mechanics arrived early, and we had a wonderful long lunch before getting to work. Steve and I shared a FISA pass [thanks again Steve] and after the race helped round up the Fiats and get the F1 cars back to the airport.

--Carter

 

Having worked for Frank on several occasions (1968 - 1980) here is what I think. Franky was the owner of Diagnosis and Service and had three Authorized Distributorship's: Ferrari, Magneti Marelli and Bosch. I believe the "Old Man" was Frank's Godfather and he lived in the Ferrari home while attending school in Italy. There was a large (3'x4') photo of the Old Man with his arms around the shoulders of two young teen boys: Dino and Frank. D and S was the most amazing shop I ever worked in. It was the first shop I ever saw with a distributor machine. Years later I had one in a shop I owned and managed. Prior to opening D and S Frank worked as a tech at the MBZ dealer in Santa Monica - W. I. Simonson. Bosch and Mercedes-Benz were the bread n butter in the 1960s and 1970s. But Frank had his finger in a Ferrari clothing line, Italian mosaic tiles and other imports.

Tom O'Brien

 

I just revisited this old thread! Thanks for the information Tom! I also came across a thread from 2010 that indicated Francisco had passed away.

My car was sold from D & S in 1976 and had Francisco's name/signature on the paperwork. If anyone has any photos of this dealership from the seventies, I would love to see them.

Thanks Again,

Anthony

 

Do you have a better view of this Francisco Mir logo: D&S Racing Team ?

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Bought my 85 Lotus Esprit from him. The showroom on Wilshire was off the charts. First time I walked in, he had 2 288's 2 Countachs and a host of everything else. Also his restaurant Boh on Montana in Brentwood was amazing.

 

I haven’t seen this thread until now. It’s great to read the stories/history about guys in the Ferrari business. There were some pretty unique personalities and it just adds to the already “never a dull moment” history of the company.

 

I also worked for Francisco in the late 1970's at the service garage. Because of his explosive temper he went through many employees.
We were converting gray market vehicles to be sold in California and I was documenting the procedure for California Air Research Board. Getting into the Ferrari pits during the Long Beach GP was sure a plus.

 

his shop did warranty work on my daytona. small item as i remember.