The Provenance of 0353 AL - 375 America (1958 to 1974)

My apologies to Joni Mitchell...Tongascrew - No curse, just an appreciation for an understanding and receptive audience. The true measure of passion seems to be effort, not necessarily cost. I will be interested to see if anything develops for this car after 1975 other than prices and sales. DWR46's first posting in this thread seems to be pointing in the right direction...I think he captured the passion. If we could only find the driver of the "late 60s Plymouth muscle car" to get his impressions...

 

Thank you.

Fitch Ferrari Pictures:

In response to requests for pictures I have attached the brochure of the company in San Diego who has put up with my intermittent scanning requests for the past 7 years. They are now fairly comfortable with determining the correct orientation of scans based on a left-hand drive car and the orientation of the Ferrari emblem (Prancing horse looking left), not to mention a readable license plate. I've decided not to release the digital scans/files because I don't want to get into the photography business and I believe inevitably (if not already!) they will wind up being distributed without attribution. I feel the attribution is important because without the initial effort to acquire and subsequently preserve this information, much of this provenance would be lost. So, if you want a picture, email Cathy or James, note the picture ID and tell them what you want. I have asked them to do two things: 1) add the scanning costs (from $5 to $25, depending on the density) to the price of the photo, and 2) place a copyright notice on the photo (©Scott Fitch 2013) in an out-of-the-way location that will not detract from the image. Depending on how many people want pictures, if this gets too complicated for them (i.e., administrative costs) they may bail from the arrangement. They have not done this before, so it may or may not work out. In the interest of full disclosure, I've asked them to book the scanning costs which I intend to use to have them print some of the pictures in the collection. If you have any questions, PM me (be warned, I still have a day job!) and I will try to accommodate. If anyone else has a better suggestion, let me know.

Epilogue:

I first registered on the FerrariForum.net site on July 20, 2002 to try to figure out what to do with the information in my father's files. My brother and I were still settling my father's (and my mother's) estates; both died in 2001 within a month of each other. I figured the first thing I had to do is find out who the current owner was, in order to reunite the information with the car. I had my son catalog the information in a spreadsheet so I could get a handle on what was in the collection. I had not reviewed in depth all the data in the binder and folders, much less the negatives. The only pictures available were the ones that had already been printed and preserved in the collection.
My first post was on August 30, 2002 and I soon found out that I needed a serial #, and that this was a unique car. On September 3, 2002 Tom Shaughnessy emailed me and told me that the restorer of the car (Wayne Obrey) wanted to know "what price?". Being new to the Ferrari universe, I was reluctant to commit on something I didn't know anything about. Tom mentioned that Obrey had authorized him to act on the behalf of Jack Thomas, then the presumed current owner of the car. He also stated that it was sold to Betz & Peters, Orange, CA. in 1995 then Jack Thomas "about 18 months ago". (± March, 2001.) He restated that the current restorers "want to know the price of the package". Apparently it was believed that there were 2 different nose configurations, and they wanted to determine which configuration they would be restoring to. I replied that I was "not in a position to determine a price for this information at present, nor have I decided that it will be sold". I had also written him that "one of my primary concerns was that this information stays with the Car." He asked if he could view the material, so we made arrangements to visit him in San Clemente. My son and I took the binder up for Tom's inspection on a Saturday a few weeks later. He had his restored Ferrari Auto Transporter parked in his shop (I believe it had just been shown in Pebble Beach), and he gave us a tour of his facility. He took pictures of a lot of the information in the binder (including "Ordeal by Auto"), and entertained us with stories on how he acquired his parts inventory (some from burned Ferrari's in San Diego County, apparently a benefit from back country wildfires...) and we returned to San Diego. I assumed the photos Tom took were sufficient to continue the restoration. Thereafter I would return intermittently to the website to check if any new information about the current owner had surfaced in response to my posts.
In 2006 I renewed my inquires to find the current owner, again on FerrariForum.net. I had scanned some negatives in the interim, and posted 3 pictures in the forum and attempted to post the pictures in the Registry, but had some difficulty in getting them inserted.
On January 15, 2009, I again posted seeking the current owner. Granucci (Ferrari Life) was kind enough to shepherd me in my search, finally directing me to contact Marcel Massini. I recall I promised to scan some material to distribute, however, I believe it wasn't until 2013 when I PM'd Mr. Massini, and shortly thereafter I got the response noted in Post #1.
I am and continue to be impressed with the wealth of experience and information available on these forums, and have a high regard for the opinions, knowledge and the beneficial cooperation of the forum participants. As 0353 AL is the only Ferrari I have known personally, I believe it important that this history be known, not only to memorialize my father's efforts and experiences, but also to preserve the story of the car. It is for that reason I made the effort to scan the information and post to this thread. I am amazed at the warm reception this information has received from those to whom it is important. It is ironic though, after 11 years, that I still do not know who the current owner is, nor where the car is located. The person who introduced me to the word "provenance" also mentioned that there will always be another owner...

Scott Fitch, 2013.
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Ed - Found this in Post #20 from 0313EU 250 Europa...dated 5/01/2006 from Marcel Massini

"These pix were taken by Dean Batchelor in 1967 at Fullerton/CA. I own them today, having bought them from Dean Batchelor in 1990.
Marcel Massini "

 

Thanks for the assist...I was hoping to find out if Mr. Massini had obtained the Dean Batchelor pictures (if any) for 0353 AL as well. For some reason the parking lot in the background of the Massini pictures for 0313 EU looks familiar.

 

I had the same questions about the first purchaser [see Post #78]. As to Harry Chambers, if you look at the first page in the "Ordeal by Auto" [Post #1 attachment], he was a friend of my father apparently working with Trans World Airlines (TWA) in Italy with him in ±1956. The time line may be a little oblique, but the story about the dentist at least would be a starting point for getting some of the back story. I have no other information on Harry Chambers other than the sales documents previously posted and the narrative in the "Ordeal by Auto". Perhaps someone in Italy is familiar with Bianca Colizzi, and can resurrect some of the details...

 

Thanks to the State Historical Society of Missouri which scanned and made the TWA Skyliner newsletters downloadable and searchable (and in the public domain) I attached the reduced summary (hoping it is below the size limits). The last page is especially complete insofar as Harry Chambers is concerned. Seeing his picture makes some of the passages in the "Ordeal by Auto" more understandable. I found some other references to Harry Chambers that suggest why he was involved with Ferrari's in the first place. The photo of the Jaguar and subsequent editorial discussion reminds me somewhat of current forum issues. I have outlined the relevant parts of the pages. I think there may currently be on this forum some pictures and discussion about the car that Fabrizio Serena De Lapigio is driving (something about 6 or 7 bar radiator grilles), but I will leave this for the experts to debate. Only two owners left in the countdown, the Dentist, and Bianca Colizzi.
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The attached places Harry Chambers at Monza with a Ferrari in 1953. Seems that he was a racing enthusiast. Given that he opened TWA's Milan operations in 1950, and was there for 15 years, and was involved in transporting race cars via Air Freight with TWA, I think lends credence to his appreciation of Ferrari. His comment on Page 2 in the 1959-10-29 editorial in the Skyliner newsletter "I suggest Mr. Pratt check and determine just what automobiles have won the sports car world championships more than any other..." may offer a clue to his loyalties.
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The attached list of books that were in my father's collection (and Ferrari by Vignale by Massini that I obtained last year) are the only published accounts of 0353 and pictures that I have found to date. Perhaps the pictures in Mr. Massini's book are the ones obtained from Dean Bachelor? I'm not aware of anything published by Dean Bachelor that concerns (or shows) 0353.
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