Calling NNO-Another story for you.....

When I first started working for Giuseppe Risi he sent me to Ferrari of Houston to train for a while before moving me into Ferrari of Dallas. Real neat dealership with the race shop being in the back and all. We had the 333SP that we had placed first in class and sixth overall at the 1998 24 hours at LeMans sitting right in front of my office where I could drool all over it everyday. I thought I had died and gone to heaven to have the opportunity to work in a place like that.

One day I was sitting at my desk and saw a black 550 drive up out front and and older gentleman and lady get out and come in the door. The very stately lady asked me where the ladies room was and I directed her there. When I came back up front I saw this older gentleman gazing into the cockpit of the 333SP. I walked up and said "very interesting car isn't it"? He said yes that he had always admired them but that he preferred a regular manual gearbox as opposed to the sequential gearbox on the 333. Most people would not even know that the 333SP was sequential unless they are very well read on them. Well, me being new to Ferrari and having studied up a lot on them, I, of course, had to espouse on my vast knowledge of the car. As I talked with him he related some racing knowledge. I asked him if he had much time behind the wheel on the track. He said he had raced some and had really enjoyed it but did not get to do it very often anymore.

About this time I realized I had not properly introduced myself so I extended my hand and said, "I am very sorry, I have failed to introduce myself to you. My name is James Dunne". He grasped my hand firmly, looked me staight in the eye and said, "Nice to meet you James, mine is Stirling Moss". Now, just ask me how redfaced I instantly became. This rookie Ferrari person trying to wow one of the most famous racing personalities of all time on my knowledge. He has probably forgotten more about racing and race cars than I can ever hope to learn.

HIs wife returned about this time and he turned to introduce her to me. He said that he would like me to me his "Lady". Since he has been knighted by the queen and is now Sir Stirling Moss I knew that she should be called by the address of Lady. I addressed her that way and she said, "Oh, you do not need to address me as Lady. I have no royal blood in me and if I did it would have been diluted by the scotch by now". Their relaxed attitude was very refreshing and rescued me from my embarassment.

I had a copy of a coffee table book that he had written the foreward on and had many pictures of him in it. He was gracious enough to sign it for me.

I found out he was in town for the Houston Grand Prix to present Mario Andretti with his "Driver of the Century" award and was returning the car we had loaned him to drive while in town. As he and his wife were leaving for the limo to take them to the airport, in walked Mario and Michael Andretti. I was too overwhelmed to even say much, I just escorted them upstairs to talk with Mr. Risi.........What a day.........

 

Im not a big racing buff, so I had to Google Image search Stirling Moss to get an idea of who you were talking about. After seeing pictures of him driving Mercedes/Maseratis etc., I must say that is a hell of a story! Congrats!

 

He had been driving historics until a couple of years back when he crashed one that belonged to someone else. He crashed it pretty hard and really messed it up. I believe the films show it was probably driver error. Aside from that, for the real racing buffs he is well known as one of the greats.......

 

For what its worth, I'm thoroughtly enjoying the stories as well. Any more that can be shared?

 

HOLY SHIT...!!! What a great story...!!!

 

Great story. On a related item, I had been invited to a friend of a friend's for Thanksgiving dinner back in the early 90's. It turns out the host was Jody Scheckter. Unfortunately, although I was a car enthusiast and a F1 fan, I just didn't have any idea that I was having dinner with a prior F1 World Champ for Ferrari from 10+ years ago. All I really remember is him showing me his custom stereo he had in his Mercedes. If only I knew...

 

Life can truly be good, can't it???

Great story!!!

 

Great story!

 

Great story Jim.....!!!!

 

James, what a fantastic story! To meet one of the all-time racing greats is truly amazing. And then to have the Andrettis walk in shortly afterwards is the icing on the cake.

 

Great story! Thanks for sharing it with us.
I've been thinking about your McLaren story for the last couple of days... wishing it was me.

 

LOL...

Great Story Jim.

I have shared similar experiences out here......

 

I can certainly relate to that. I had the McLaren for three days and only took about 12 pics of it. I invited both the Fort Worth Star Telegram and Dallas Morning News Automotive editors to come out to the dealership and take a ride in the car and possibly do an article on it. The Fort Worth guy said he could not work it in his schedule as he was having to work up a story on two new Korean imports. The Dallas guy said their readership would not be interested in reading anything about a "CAR like that".

Another interesting story. I met Troy Aikman while working at the BMW store in Arlington, Texas. He happened to come into the showroom one day and I just happened to walk up to him, not realizing who he was at that time, and began to talk to him. He ended up purchasing a new 740iL and later bought a 750iL.

One day he called me and told me that he wanted to get his mother a new car. He had earlier in the year joined in with Moritz (the owner of the BMW dealership along with several others) and put his name on the old Jack Williams Chevrolet-Chrysler in Fort Worth. While being dealer principal there he got her a 300M and after a few months she did not like it any longer. So, we ended up picking out a new Sedan Deville for her. The next day Troy came by and dropped off the 300M and picked up the Cadillac for her. As I have always done for years, I went through her tradein to see if she had left anything. You know, toll tag, garage door opener, cell phone or the like. When going through her trunk I found an old rolled up blanket. I started to pick it up and it was heavy. I unrolled it and found a very interesting article in it. I went back inside and showed the dealer what I had found and he just about had a coronary.

I called Troys office the next day and told his mom that I had found something in the trunk that I thought she might like to have. She said that she had gone through the car and anything left in it was just trash and throw it away. I asked her if I could keep it for myself and she assured me that would be all right with her. I could not bring myself to do it and got in the car and drove to her office. I laid the blanket on her desk and unrolled it to reveal Troys Superbowl MVP crystal trophy. She looked at it and said that she had cleaned the big trophy case in the office a few weeks earlier and had completely forgotten about the trophy. I asked her if I could still keep it but she said that it might be best if she returned it to the trophy case before Troy found out it was missing................

Troy sent my son a lot of signed photos and football stuff and this last year for Christmas, five years later, had his secretary drop a signed Cowboy football off at the store for me to take to him. Troy is really a class act guy.

 

WOW! I've seen some crazy stuff in cars (working as a valet for a Mercedes dealer here in Dallas), but nothing of that status. Its good to hear about well-known people who have the character and quality to back up the popularity. So often that is not the case.

Keep 'em comin'. I'm enjoying every one of them.