Ferrari movie trailer has me researching my wife’s great uncle’s cars

Wow, great first posts. Welcome!


All the best,
Andrew.

 

Neta pictures. Mind sharing one of those great stories or two? I'm sure we'd love to hear and reminisce

 

Some of the cars pictured are replicas.

As for the 121 LM, Shelley had 0532 LM, which he had bought 1986 from Don Walker in TX. In 1996 0532 LM went from Shelley via Tom Ranum in Ft. Lauderdale to Symbolic Motor Car Co. in La Jolla, CA/USA.

Marcel Massini

 

Pure car pr0n...welcome!

 

Oh, my gosh. George was one of my oldest and best friends. We were friends for many years in south Florida. We participated in the Highlands Classic and other events together, Goodwood Revival, Cavallino, etc, it’s so nice to see him remembered here. His collection was quite eclectic and, shall we say, George was not a slave to fashion, in automotive terms! And no, he didn’t mind having replicas…or a hotrod cut Daytona that he flogged on track days. He was a regular entrant at Amelia Island. George was a close friend of PPP until they ultimately had a falling out. George had a nice picture of Leno “keying” the 121 at Pebble Beach. He and the also deceased John Kelly and I had many great times together…

George and Olivia…

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The Porsche Speedster is authentic and was built by Gerry Sutterfield or his son Tom. It had a 912 motor as I recall. George also had a 356C Cabriolet. I think the DP 911 is authentic. In addition to the Indy roadster he had an Alfa Romeo IndyCar, ex-Bobby Rahal, I think; also an XK120 OTS and an XK-120 FHC. He had a very rare Cadillac V-16 roadster circa 1940, that he displayed at Amelia one year. One car that left him before we became friends was the 250 California, rebuilt from a tangle with the mangroves in the Florida Keys. Marcel will know the chassis number and the story.

He was a friend of George Arents, Wayne Sparling, and other luminaries in the Ferrari sphere in those days. George and I shared the same mechanic, Tom Straubinger who was in Royal Palm Beach at the time but has since moved to N.C.

 

My recollection of the DP cars is that they were mostly body kits and maybe sport seats, etc. George’s car was not a “935” in the accepted sense, that is, of a purpose built race car.

 

Pics in #3, 4, and 5 look like they were shot in Norwood's shop - the paint pattern on the background wall(s) looks similar if not the same. Bob was an associate of Don Walker, and was a dealer for the DP 911s.
Those DP cars were more than a body kit - chassis, suspension, and engine mods were part of the package, and interior if desired, based upon the Kremer LM cars. Boost "turned up to 11", so that big single turbo often came on like a golf ball leaving the tee (an "interesting" experience, if nobody warns you). They were built in the mid-80s until ????.

LOTS of interesting non-Ferraris passed through Bob's shop.

 

Quite possible as George’s replica Ferrari came from Norwood, although it may have passed through other owners prior to getting to George. My recollection of his DP is that it was not especially . Presumably they could be spec’ed in various states of tune. I’ll check with his mechanic to see if he remembers.

I should have mentioned above that George had an incredible scrapbook of the cars he had owned. He never seemed to keep anything for the long term. If he got bored or something caught his eye he’d sell something and move on. George was a very enthusiastic guy and very trusting. Sadly, he was sometimes taken advantage of because of that.

 

Thinking back, I wonder if his V16 Caddy might have been restored by Al DeAlesandro, a friend of my parents. He had a house down by our horse farm that had, hidden by trees about 200 yards behind it, his "hobby shop" with 4 or five bays to restore the grand tourers of the 20s-40s. In high school, these were my first exposure to the rare V12 and V16 touring cars from Cadillac and Lincoln, and I still hear almost nothing of them today.
Ask if that P4 had a flat-12 from a Boxer. I recall that Bob later started a small run of "P4"s with V-12s a few years after I left.
Was George in Dallas much?

 

The Cadillac was “restored” by Harbor Restorations or Harbor Classics, in Pompano Beach. I put it in quotes because he was very unhappy with their work. One of the doors didn’t even fit properly. He was fit to be tied. I think they closed up or left town shortly after.

I don’t think he ever went to Texas when I knew him. When he was younger he traveled the country by car, selling products for his father’s business, Shelleymatic.

 

Picture 2 is a 250 GT Lusso, and Picture 3 is a 330 GTC.

 

I bought some front end body work wall hangar art from a guy in South Florida who said they came from George Shelley. Anyone recognize what this would have been off of? Trying to piece the story together from photos of his collection. I also have a cobra nose that supposedly came from him.

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login