Early '80's Detroit area Ferrari gathering

And the Mangusta with a Chevrolet small block that GM owned and went to Dick R. He still has it and drives it up and down Lake Shore Dr. every nice day.

George

 

I hope this works (never tried to upload/attach a pic before - well, not in a VERY long time...).

Pic of Dick at Ferrari of Washington just last Friday night, for the 50th Anniversary 599 Relay car party. He's pointing to himself in that famous photo of the FCA founders. I had never met him before - seemed very nice, what little I got to see of him.

gp
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Here are a couple shots from Autozone.
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And Kip's Dino.
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Sharp! Eric's GTO in the foreground of the last pic?

 

GTO...check out the black 1962 Pontiac Grand Prix with the gold accents! 421 and 8 lugs no less!!!
CH

 

well John Z was a Pontiac 'guy' before he was a Chevy guy!
CH

 

Cool car for sure - Royal'd up, too, looks like. Though Bobcat emblem was a bit of a take on GP emblem, so kinda tough to tell in that pic.

 

Was told a story that John Z loved the GM Ghibli so much that at one point the motorpool lost track of where the car was. It as at John Z's home.

During the development of the 2nd generation Firebird the story was that John Z would tell the design studio to make the Firebird as pretty as the Ghibli.

Jeff

 

Dick is THE untapped author of this hobby. The stories of his Ferrari involvement would make great reading and he should be encouraged to do this. Even if it's just a serial piece in The Prancing Horse. After this blog he'll never speak to me again!

CQ

 

Dick =

Founding group of the FCA (see the picture on the back of the 599 - those are the founders)
2nd president of FCA
Co-author with Warren Fitzgerald of first real book on Ferrari

 

Great photo, thanks for sharing.

Huge contribution to the popularity of Ferrari in America.

 

There's a few of us here, with both marques..

I kept a 25th TransAm, with the rare 6 speed manual...it's got about a gazillion miles on it now, it's in for new glass and interior....damn white leather.

Hard to find, that and the ten speaker stereo were "special" to the model.

 

I've ended up with an '07 CTS also, from a retired lady banker, so we have a lot of common ground!

Sorry for the hijack.

 

Speaking of 2nd generation Firebirds; John Z commented that it only cost General Motors $1,500-$2,000 to build them back then.
CH

 

I grew up in a Pontiac family. We restored several amazing numbers matching GTO's when I was a kid. Beautiful, awesome cars. This thread somehow went Pontiac

 

I've just stumbled onto this thread...

Anyone know who is still around from this "Detroit era"? My grandfather is Ernie Beutler, a previous president of the FCA. I grew up hearing so many of these names from him... its strange. Of course it didn't mean much to me at the time.

I have some great old "Detroit Ferrari" photos though... thats for sure! Including one of me about 2 or 3 years old sitting in my grandfather's 375 Indy car. I'd love to find out who knew him... He is back in Detroit area now (Novi) after living in California for many years.

Jon

 

Would love to see your photos!!

 

+1 Absolutely!

 

I'll see what I can dig up 😊