Lone Vintage Ferrari at the Corkscrew Hillclimb

This year, the Reunion organizers changed the 47 year schedule that resulted in Sunday no longer a race day. Event was "officially" over on Saturday at 6:00pm. But... I suppose demand for tickets for an event that was, in effect, over, management's potential to see actual dollars could not go answered. So a "Hillclimb" event was added to Sunday. Going UP Laguna'a Corkscrew. Genius idea, really.

As for Ferraris, two street cars, a LaFerrari and a 1970 365GT 2+2 were entered in the group of 54 cars (most entries were vintage race cars from the Reunion).

And yeah, that's my 365. Why do track days in a 2-ton Ferrari "luxury" car? Because in 2002 when I bought it, a 250 LM was just not on my cross-consideration list. Still isn't. And guess what? On the track, it hauls ass with that great engine and the handling is fantastic. I first tracked it in 2004 for the FCA Annual at Laguna and this was my chance to get the car back on the track. (Although I did get to do some laps on Wednesday going the right way around the track...)

Run what you brung!
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Marcel Massini strikes again!

I swear, stuff I've thought to be accurate for decades is consistently nullified by doing an innocent, little "double-check" online. And not by
Wikipedia, but by that omnipresent, omniscient, organic, human-matter encyclopedia: Marcel Massini.

Just now, I intended only a quick double-check before I replied to V12addict's questions. To see if maybe the Perspex headlight covers were maybe not British only and maybe on some other countries as well. Maybe Macedonia had a covered headlight regulation - who knows? I just wanted to maybe add to my existing super-secure knowledge on 365GT headlight covers.

But then I learn from an old Marcel Massini F-Chat post that the covers were NEVER factory equipment! (Minus one stupid car). And no, I won't state the VIN number. Not because I couldn't, because – of course – MM included that data as well, but I refuse to memorize or share it right now - just my little personal rebellion against MM consistently, constantly telling me that what I know is incorrect.

And this didn't even stop at the headlight covers! I also got schooled (re-schooled) on .... Brown.

I always thought I knew the name of the light brown on Steve McQueen's Lusso, but it turns out to be a shade of Ferrari brown I've never heard of – Marrone Italver (Chestnut Metallic).

Damn You Marcel Massini!

I swear, if he told me the Earth is flat, that Laguna Seca is flat, I'd believe him. (By the way, the Earth's VIN # is 000E76Q.)

The worst part is that I had written my whole thing - and only then did I do the double-check. And what I wrote was so thoughtful and informative. I even managed to toss in a little within a discussion on Brown and Plexiglass.

But, due to the evil MM, all of that was for naught.

As for my headlight covers, they are not great quality. They are thick like the covers that Ferrari uses on other cars, but have flaws in them that don't seem due to age. The shape sure is good, though. The attachment hardware is also not great. Ferraris with OEM covers have nice little perfect hardware, as you expect, but mine are a bit cruder.

Definitely not the quality that a Ferrari dealership would do (MM says that most of the 365-headlight-cover-shod cars were installed at dealerships).

Personally, I really like the way they look on the car (although I'd prefer if my setup was better). The car is so long and sleek, I think they are complimentary to the design. A pain in the ass when it comes to washing the car, though, as there is no gasket.

As for Brown, the color on my car (at least until MM corrects me) is Marrone Colorado. It's a very straight-up 1970's "brown" (even though it was sold in the 60's).

Close in tone, but metallic is Marrone Metallizzato.



The one thing I DID know about McQueen's car's brown paint is that it is not an OEM color...technically. A painter had attempted to copy the Chestnut Metallic, but the painter himself claimed he tweaked the formula a little.

By the way, I saw that most famous brown Ferrari in person at Big Auction at the Monterey airport that year ('06? '07?) and it was indeed a great looking car. The hype on the car and the auction started at least a couple months before the auction, and it became pretty nauseating, so it was perfect when I saw the true
Coolest Lusso Of All Time - and it wasn't the McQueen car.

It saw it parked in a paved lot at Laguna, and it was such a beautiful, glorious mess – its happy, casual imperfection was such a great counterpoint to the formal perfection of the McQueen car.

The paint was lacquer-checked to such a degree, I bet it lost some paint chips every time it was driven over 30 miles an hour. The interior was aged-out way beyond anything that could be politely called patina. While it was at the track because of a special event (FCA party, IIRC), but this car was a Driver – sitting on the passenger seat and floor were unmistakable signs of a car that is driven pretty regularly. Now THAT'S cool.

And the car's charm didn't end there: it had been parked after it had overheated, so there was a huge puddle of antifreeze underneath it and a long, very artfully drawn-out water trail rolling down into the center of the asphalt. On top of that, it was parked in a row of pristine vintage Ferraris. It looked like Johnny Rotten was the frontman for the Boston Philharmonic. (Hmmm...that worked pretty well...I'll add a couple extras for generational diversity.... Mick Jagger fronting Up With People... Jerry Lee Lewis fronting the Four Freshmen... Kurt Cobain fronting the ...Boston Philharmonic... (ok, I'm officially out of gas on this one...).

So what was your question again?

 

Thanks V12a. Nice to know. Being one of the few street cars, and one of the fewer vintage street cars, and then being a large GT car as opposed to a sports car, I honestly felt I'd be way at the bottom of the scores. Which I still may have been....need Laguna to publish the times!