Real or fake: 250 GTO in Rockford Files?

I don't know anything about the older Ferraris, but I am going to guess fake for a number of reasons.
1. From what I can tell, "genuine" ones cost a huge amount of money. They wouldn't want it exposed to harm on a TV film shoot.
2. After pulling up photos online, they all have a front grill on them
3. None of those photos show 2 round holes on the front bumper next to each other. They seem to have round holes inboard, and rectangular holes outboard.
4. The front center oval seems to be too narrow and too long

Those are the few reasons that I would guess fake, but like I said, I have no idea what a "proper" 250 GTO looks like.

 

In 1974 they were just old race cars and values were hundreds (literally) of times less than today, even adjusted for inflation.

Considering this I see no reason why the show would have any problem with removing a grill or similar if it made sense for the scene. Likewise I doubt anyone at that time could have anticipated these cars would be worth millions a generation later, and wouldn't have thought of building a replica.

Several GTOs were "customized" by armcos and other off-road excursions. Given their hand-built nature it would make sense that repairs might not have been completely authentic back in the day. Even if all of them today are a perfect representation of what they were like when first raced, by 1974 some had passed through several owners who did what they could to keep the cars on the road.

My vote is real.

If we find out the real story my guess is that it belonged to some friend of James Garner and they borrowed it for the day.

 

I dont think they made fake GTOs until the mid 80s so i would say real.

 

Real GTO 3987gt. The nose has been corrected .

 

Amazing.... REALLY?? Wow.... loved that show as a kid and saw every episode "in real time"

Jedi

 

Yep, I believe this was Krasnavian's shortly before this was shot. Hope he chimes in here. Bought by Ralph Lauren later and "restored" to generic GTO spec (removing Lemans lights, etc.).

 

I found this:

http://www.early911sregistry.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-55998.html

 

LOL!! Well, as in when the episode was NEW on TV. No, I wasn't there for the taping.



Jedi

 

You didn't miss nothing... just a lot of J-Turns over, and Over, and OVER again!

 

And O V E R !!!!



Jedi

 

Krasnavian = Stephen Mitchell

No telling... it just says "later in the '70's" is when Baumgard bought it.

I'll PM Carbon... he keeps track of a lot of VIN/Chassis #'s - maybe he knows.

 

After Mitchell owned it, it was entered in the Virginia City Hillclimb in 1974 by Claudio Zampolli. Later that year, Dr. Stuart Baumgard purchased the 250 LM engine (6045) from Ron Kellogg. But then Bob Lloyd purchased the GTO's original engine from Claudio - so there's a bit of ambiguity as to when the original engine was removed and replaced with the LM engine.

Baumgard later sold the car in the early '80s to a couple of guys who tried reselling it - if Ed Niles sees this thread, perhaps he can chime in because he was a part of the brokering process on this car back then. Ralph Lauren purchased it in late '85, where he hired the late Gerald Roush to inspect it. Gerald wasn't sure what to wear since he didn't have any Ralph Lauren clothing, so he wore Brooks Brothers. Lauren later told him that the only other clothing he admired at the time was Brooks Brothers.

 

Wasn't it Mitchell's DAD that owned the car?

Jedi

 

If Mitchell owned it through at least part of '71, and then the next known appearance of the car was in 1974, owned by Zampolli, then yeah there's a pretty good chance that Zampolli owned it at the time it appeared in the Rockford Files show.

Unless there was another owner for a brief time in between Mitchell & Zampolli???


I had a feeling Carbon might have some info on this car... good on ya, Carby!

 

barchetta.cc info on 3987GT: http://www.barchetta.cc/english/all.ferraris/detail/3987gt.250gto.htm

 

Nice find... so Baumgard owned it as early as some point in '72... so, good chance if that is accurate that it was his car when this Rockford episode was filmed.

 

Reallly????? Didn't know that... I thought it was Stephen himself - anyone else that may know one way or the other for certain?

 

SM has a LONG history here.... he's long gone from the board with his tall
tales about his many films he supposedly made, despite his absence from IMDB.

I'm sure someone will chime in with corroboration. But as I recall from those threads,
he did not actually own ANY Ferrari - it was his father's car.

Jedi