A tail of twist and turns When I purchased my 3rd roll up window 3500GT AM101.916 last April, I knew it had a non matching engine number. I accepted that knowing that the car would always take a 10 to 15% discount over a car in comparable condition, but with matching numbers. About a month after I had the car I got around to having a look at the engine number just to see what it was, and to my astonishment it turned out to be AM101.1449. I could not believe what I was looking at. I had actually owned AM101.1449 back in the mid 80s at MIE. It was a of course a Vignale Spyder parts car that we were parting out. We had sold the engine block and pan to a shop in NY in the mid 80's.. Well, one day I was looking at the prices of cars as they were going up at a very fast rate. I gathered all the parts guys together and informed everyone that we were NOT to part out any more cars such as Ghiblis, 3500s and of course the Vignale Spyder. We were going to pull them in and restore them. We ended up restoring that Vignale Spyder and today it is in Germany. I called the previous owner of 916 who had owned the car for some 30+ years and asked him what he knew about why there was a replacement engine in the car. He said the original engine had an oil pump failure and that it was determined that a replacement block would be a more cost effective way to rebuild the engine. He mentioned the name of the shop in NY that had done the work. So, just for the hell of it, I Goggled the shop which was to my amazement still in business and made a phone call. Sure enough the service manager was still there and remembered the customer and the car from the mid 80s - and to my surprise he said he thought he had the original block and pan laying around the back room some where under a pile of old parts. As luck would have it, he accepted a reasonable offer and the block and pan arrived safely here on Mercer Island today. It is rare when a car can be reunited with the original engine and in this case extremely rare in the way it all happened. AM101.916 is leading a charmed life. 916 doesn't know it yet but over the next 3 years I plan to have his interior done in Italy in rich red connolly leather and paint the car an elegant black with wire wheels. If I could befriend a car, I think I would use the words of Rick Baine in the classic movie, Casablanca AM101.916, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship Ciao, FGM Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Great story Frank. I'm glad to hear that you got the original engine back. I'm sure it would have bothered you to not have it. Black and red should be a stunning color combination. Instead of searching the globe for wire wheels, I think you should paint the roof and the Boranni wheels red to match the interior....sorry, I couldn't resist. These are great cars and I would enjoy restoring another in the future. I can see why you have three of them.
Frank, my congratulations for this catch! Its the cream of the coffee for your fantastic 3500GT! Do you have photos of the parted out Vignale when in your premises?
Agatha Christie would be impressed, four Poirots awarded. So are you going to combine the car's existing engine with the what you just got or end up with two complete engines?
OR...... One in the front, one in the back and give us a 4WD Maserati we will actually like the look of
What an amazing story (and luck!). Looking forward to following the restoration of this one! (and my vote goes to one engine, not two, and chrome wires, not red )
You guys have way to much time on your hands. I am still amazed at how finding the original block all happened. I now have a set of 4 RW3872 wires but need a 5th one before I send them off to Borrani in Italy. Anyone have a lead on who has a spare one to sell? In 2 weeks this car AM101.916 will go on ice until next May. At that time I will pick up where I left off on AM101.686 which is in Palm Desert where we will spend our winter. 686 will be getting some fine tuning, a set of new Pirellis and a newly rebuilt steering wheel done by Luca Spolaore of ilvolante in Legno of Rovigo Italy. Luca was referred to me by Fabio Colina and with good reason. He did the complete job in a little less that 2 weeks. He picked it up at the Canalgrande and delivered it back on time and on budget. The wheel looks like new and his packaging is first rate. Ciao, FGM Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
