Who was Chris Cord?

It seems he has owned a number of very historic Ferrari's. Whether an LM, GTO, etc. was he a dealer or an enthusiast, and is he still involved with Ferrari today?
Erik

 

He's definately still around, and I'd be interested to know more about his Ferrari exposure myself

 

This guy?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Cord

 

Chris Cord is an interesting fellow. Grandfather is E.L. Cord, as in Auburn/Cord/Dusenburg. Stepfather is Ned Doheny. Doheny Avenue in Beverly Hills, Doheny Eye Institute of either UCLA or USC. Ned Doheny was also the owner of the McAfee 121LM that he died in.

Chris became a professional racer for Dan Gurney in the AAR Toyotas although his economic strata was most far likely superior to his employer.

Chris is a boyhood friend of Steve Earle (Monterey Historic Races) too.

Not a dealer just an enthusiast that could have interesting cars.

Jeff

 

Jeff thanks for the information. Is he still involved with Ferrari's? Any chance of getting him on f-chat? I for one love hearing accounts a la Ed Niles, etc. of what it was like to drive these cars when they were just old race cars.
Erik

 

Ed or others may know how to contact Chris; I no longer do.

Jeff

 

A couple of pics of the 1932 Auburn Boattail Cord Speedster with V12 engine and cane wrapped steering wheel. Also some pics of the supercharged Cord 812 with side pipes coming from the hood into the fenders. Every Cord came with a dash plaque which denoted it being tested at over 100 mph.
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Sorry, I was never a close friend of Chris, just a mere acquaintance. Steve Earle would surely know how to reach him. Chris was a very, very good driver, and very good looking and athletic appearing. I remember to this day watching him practice in a 512M which, like many of the sports-racers of the day, required going through all the gears sequentially, going up or down. He would brake hard for a tight corner, then just before entering he would go through the double-clutch routine down 3 or 4 gears faster than I can say, "zing-zing-zing". At my best I could never move my little toesies half th at fast! Ah well, I guess that's why he was a semi-pro and I was just a crasher.

 

My limited knowledge of Chris Cord is through my Siata 208S connection. I own BS506, one of 36 Siata 208S's built. Chris Cord's mother divorced his father and married Dohaney who I've been told was the largest oil producing family in the LA area. Dohaney teamed up with Ernie Macafee and imported 26 of the 36 Siata 208S Spiders to California where E.M. was the distribtor. E.M. , in addition to racing Dohney's Ferrari where he was killed in the last Pebble Bech race held on the streets of Pebble Beach, also successfully raced BS503 which was the first production Siata 208S. after MacaFee's death, the 26 car Siata inventory languished and Chris Cord drove one to high school (his daily driver).

 

I met mr. chord around 1981 or 82, at the verginia city,Nevada hill climbs. He was a couple of cars behind my 64 Lusso on the grid. He had fluffed his plugs and was in need of a new set of NGK BP6ES plugs which I had for just such an emergency. I gladly gave him my set. I kind of expected that he would see me later at the club dinner to thank me or repay me as I was broke in process of restoring my Lusso, but I never saw him again.