Anyone ever look up the previous owner of their car?

Or “Huh, I was surprised they rebuilt it”

 

I need to take a second just to comment that I don’t understand why the GTC/4 doesn’t get the accolades it deserves….one of Ferraris best exterior designs prior to the Boxer.

 

I've never contacted him, but former world #1 ranked professional golfer David Duval was the original owner of my 360. It was a good buy and brought him luck to subsequently win the 2001 Open Championship.

The second owner of my car was also a professional golfer, Charles Howell III (purchased it from David)
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-2003-06-13-0306130372-story.html

Kind of interesting!
Kevin

 

At least it wasn’t John Daly…..

 

20 years ago I was about to buy a used Maserati 3200 at an official Ferrari/Maserati dealer in Switzerland. To complete the contract the dealer was looking for the VIN and so I opened the glove compartment expecting the registration to be there. I found a booklet where all the drivers that drove the car in the past were noted. About 10 persons… So I told the dealer we have to discuss the price because he was selling me a “whore”.

Dealer looked a the booklet and said: Did you see who was the last person that drove this car? It was Michael Schumacher. It turned out that this was the press demo car which was provided to Michael Schumacher as a daily driver after completing the press tests.


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The letter is in French language since the importer of Ferrari/Maserati for Switzerland was in the French speaking part of Switzerland where Michael Schumacher also lives. The letter says:


Nyon, January 22, 2002

CERTIFICATION


Ferrari (Suisse) SA in Nyon hereby authorizes Mr. Michael Schumacher, born on January 3, 1969, to drive the following car in Switzerland and abroad:

Maserati 3200 GT Chassis number: ZAMAA38A000003255 (VD 388717)


We lend him the car for an indefinite period.
FERRARI (Switzerland) SA
FERRARI (SUISSE) SA 2-8, route de Gingins
General Manager


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I've researched many of the owners of my first Ferrari, my F430. It was previously owned by a man near me very famous for selling at auction one of the most expensive Ferrari's ever sold. Because he died a year after the model year of the car, I wasn't sure if it was previously his or his son's so I reached out to the son on LinkedIn, no response. On my 2nd Ferrari, a 458, I haven't researched the previous owners except the man that sold the car to the dealer where I purchased it. He is a Canabis "baron" living in Colorado. However, the biggest kick I got was researching an old 308 for another member and found that it had been owned by Barry Williamson (Greg Brady from the Brady Bunch). Because we had a question about the car, I reached out to Barry and he graciously responded and gave us the answer we were looking for. As someone whom was a latchkey kid of the 1970's, being able to talk to "Greg Brady" was surreal. The Brady Bunch was my babysitter throughout my childhood when I came home from school.

 

I know who the previous owner was but did not contact them. Personally I would never mind if an owner contacted me about a car I use to own. I'd be happy to talk to them but not all people are friendly.

I bought my 2019 488 used from a Ferrari dealer in December 2019. Car only had 453 mile on it. Previous owner had it a year...basically never drove it. I know more about this car than the previous and original owner.

However when I got home looking through the owners manual goes what I found?.... the CAR TITLE! So I googled the owner just to see. The owner is a prominent doctor...I am completely opposite of him. LOL. Then I called the dealership and texted a photo of the title to my sales guy and they were freaking out...LOL...I fedExed the title to them. UNREAL right?

 

I had a 1958 Cadillac brougham. Which if you don't know what that is... You really should read about it. The car was incredible and twice the price of a rolls Royce in 1958.

Anyways... The cars had a clock in the dash and they almost all broke shortly after delivery. The customer would take the car to the dealer and then the clock would get sent back to the maker for repair.

Many of the dealers would write on the back of the clock the name of the owner of the car so that way the clock could be identified as who's is who's...

Mine had a woman's name on the back. That is very odd because in the 50s it wasn't common for woment to be handling the car dealership and very odd for such an outrageous and expensive car. So her name was researched.

Turns out it was Howard Hughes secretary.

1958 was an odd year for Howard.

 

I tracked down original owner of my Euro QV through Facebook. Took a some digging, and a little luck, but found him. He provided me with great pictures from when it was new. Here are a couple:

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Two other owners are/were on Fchat, so the history of the car is pretty well known. Some gaps but I have names/addresses. Just haven't got around to reaching out.

 

Very cool!