Where's Preston Henn's 275/GTB/C?

Would be curious to know also. That's an important car and honestly shouldn't be hidden away.



"That is an important artifact and it belongs in a museum" ( anybody remember Indiana Jones and the Last Cursade?)

 

Yep. Preston certainly wasn’t selfish with it.

 

Anything that lets the people who loves these objects interact with them has to be good

 

2nd semester recently began - back to school?

 

Must have insured it with Allstate. It's in good hands.

 

Good to know, but no need to elaborate, especially on interwebs.
Privacy matters.

 

Good hands? Like the same good hands that have been caring for the car for years now?

 

Tenny, yes, I'm parking the SE30 in the new student section, hopefully you will park the F40 next to it so I don't get door dings!
Doing a doc series on some IMSA stuff and this car is part of it. - Keith

 

Should be on a race track and not in a museum.

 

Lol. You’re kidding. Not unless an insurance company would cover the entire value. You’re going to put the most valuable car in the world on a race track. Sure.

 

Of course. That is where it belongs. The idea is not to hit anything. If you can afford this car, then you can afford to fix it, just don't burn it down to the ground. If you don't drive it , you don't deserve it. Go buy a model if you want to look at it.

 

I am in your camp and believe cars are to be driven – That being said I have several friends that I respect who own great vintage car collections where driving them is not paramount . They are passionate caretakers who love and obsess about their toys. They spend countless hours with their cars. After being friends with them for years I realize they get just as much pleasure from the cars they own as I do just in a different way. Who am I to judge or criticize?

 

While I’ve always been advocating the use of any and all (road going) vintage cars in a manner they were built and intended for, I’m a little bit on the fence when it comes to cars purely intended for racing.
I can appreciate their use in some vintage events, etc, but in my mind they are just historical artifacts which had a brief time and place in it, which ended when they became uncompetitive.
What’s even worse, is when these old “war horses” get severe technical modernization’s and upgrades to try keep them “competitive”(?) or “winning”(?) in some vintage exhibition events, i.e. “pretend” races.
I mean, if someone with vintage race car(s) claims being a true custodian/guardian of “history”, they should have enough sense to keep the car(s) mechanically/technically exactly as they were during their “active career” (safety related improvements obviously notwithstanding).

 

Truth is driving old bangers any distances cost money. These are old, old, cars. Stuff happens.

 

You can only ever control your own driving. Even on the track with classic racing where drivers can be suspended and/ or expelled drivers own red mist can cause all manner of carnage. Even Goodwood in the UK has moved to racing replicas to avoid permanent damage to irreplaceable objects. As for road driving I have spent a lot of time on slow moving steam trains and nothing worse than those who follow anything (be it trains, the tour de france or classic cars) and just have to get the shot/ video and forget all about road rules, lets just do a no indication stop on a busy state highway to get that perfect video! No easy answer to what you do with something as rare as a car like this

 

Many old race cars were pretty fragile when new. Mercedes with all their magnesium parts and witches brew fuels are one example. In many cases I am just happy to see and hear them run.


I was at Laguna Seca when they put a rod through the block in a W154. I think it was Joel Fins car. One of the Mercedes museum mechanics was looking at it and clearly curious. In my broken German I told him what happened. He had a very long face. W154 blocks (I think it was a mag block) don't grow on trees.

 

An interesting view of this on the part of the manufacturers. When AUDI brought an Auto Union pre war car to Monterey Phil Hil was set to drive. The museum curator was there giving Hill instructions. Hill was warming the car up in preparation of a few parade laps. He didn't like how Hil was running up the RPM a little to warm it. He reached in and physically pulled Hills leg up and foot off the accelerator and ordered him out of the car. The curator drove it himself. He did about 2 five minute laps.

A couple of years later when Mercedes brought a W196 for Hill to drive Hill asked Mercedes for instructions and limitations they said "The redline is marked, don't exceed it. If it breaks, we hand made it, we can hand fix it."

I was there on a Thursday with no one around on another year and at the end of the day Mercedes rolled a W125 out to the hot pits and warmed it up. A Chevy sedan showed up and an old German guy looking very infirm walking with a cane gout out, put on a fabric helmet and was helped into the car. He revved the engine, side stepped the clutch and went down the pit lane at full throttle sideways. That old German ripped off 2 or 3 laps driving like a wild man. When he came back we found out as I recall that it was Herman Lang.

 

I TOTALLY DISAGREE!
Go ahead, ask me why.

 

Why?

 

Here’s the right attitude:

At Goodwood….

Interviewer: Nick, aren’t you concerned about crashing your £12M car? (His GTO. This was more than ten years ago).

Mason: Well, they don’t cost £12M to fix.

A few years later at Members’ Meeting I watched him take a front corner off of his McLaren F1LM….on a demonstration run.

 

Some time in the 80's or 90's Fangio demoed one of his former 50's F1 cars at Donington Park circuit in the UK.
He was coming onto the pit straight in a beautiful slide every lap and a true racing history fan on pit wall was absolutely loving it: Mario Andretti.

He was also one of the event guest stars and decades earlier, before emigrating to the new world, had seen Fangio, Ascari etc race at Monza.

 

It’s an opinion that isn’t necessarily universally shared….

 

That’s Bobbo. He’s put about 200k on his 330 GTC. Drives it to Lows, grocers, model airplane events, well, just about everywhere. He’s a driver….

 

Was that the Gunnar Nilsson memorial race in 79? pretty sure Fangio was there, last race of Hunt my hero before retiring, I was about 11, fantastic day with the Procars as well.

 

Not sure but could well be and Mario would certainly have attended that.