It’s been a while since I wrote about my passion for vintage automobiles. A post on a social media platform got me to thinking about these fun times.
I recall running into Hillary Raab several years ago.He had driven his 1920s Bentley through a major rainstorm from Chicago to Cincinnati. I asked about the wipers handling the rain. His reply was simple: “Rain-X”
To keep the Rain-X working, he was driving the Bentley about 80 miles an hour.
Questioning the amount of water off the back of the car since it didn’t have complete fenders, he replied, “You should have seen the rooster tail.”
On another occasion, I ran into Hill (not literally) when he was driving an alloy-bodied Ferrari around Cincinnati. It wasn’t painted, it was just the unfinished aluminum body.
I had not seen a Ferrari with quite that look before so we began a discussion about the car. He was building his own body, using the lines of several Ferraris, such as a NART Spider, a GTO and a few others. Yes, it was a Spider.
I asked about the origin of the car. He noted it was Enzo’s personal driver for a while. Interesting, I said. “How do you know it was Enzo’s personal driver” I questioned. His reply was hilarious.
“We found Enzo’s fingerprints on the steering wheel.” But my reply was equally rich.
“It may well have been Enzo’s personal car at some point in its history, but, wasn’t everything coming out of the Ferrari factory at that time pretty much, at some point, Enzo’s personal car?”
“Good point” was the reply.
Fast-forward a few years. I ran into Hill at the same event, driving the same car. By this time, it was painted yellow. I asked if he remembered our previous conversation about the car. He did not, but was amused when I relayed the story to him.
At another event, I spoke with the owner of a 250GTO. As I looked over the car, admiring its lines, its pedigree and the overall art that is a GTO, I caught something the owner had not completed correctly when he restored the racer.
I mentioned his car was not complete. Specifically, the interior was missing a key piece necessary for every GTO.
What was missing? A strip of electrical tape which held several vintage Italian fuses on it. This piece of tape should be attached to the dash, so when a fuse blew, a replacement could easily and quickly be brought into action.
His reply? “Good suggestion…”
On another occasion, I drive over to an independent Mercedes repair shop. As I was looking around, checking out what items of interest were lurking around, I came across a real collectible. An unrestored Mercedes 380K. I often wonder where it ended up as the then-owner did not have the funds to restore it.
During the years I was travelling the country for business, I happened to be in Phoenix. As always, when I was in a town and had some time on my hands, I would typically visit an independent Ferrari garage. My ‘in’ to such places was I had worked throughout college and on the weekends afterwards with an independent Ferrari repair and restoration shop which had moved on to become one of the premier parts distributors for vintage Ferraris.
So who did I go visit in Phoenix? None other than Bob Wallace. For those in the know, Bob Wallace was Lamborghini’s test driver from 1963-1975.
I believe I have written about this before, but in my college days, I would drive up to a friend’s house after school. A few hours later we’d be on the road to New York City and, specifically, Chinetti International Motors. Luigi had sold his business to others by then. We’d arrive in Greenwich about 4 am, sleep in the truck as best we could for a couple of hours and go out to breakfast.
We’d return to Chinetti’s after the parts department opened. During these easy-going times, the parts department was open to us and we were allowed to venture through the vintage parts at our leisure. Over the course of the day, we’d find all sorts of rare NOS parts for vintage Ferraris.
About 2:30 or 3 in the afternoon, we’d have a pallet-sized shipping crate pretty well filled with all sorts of tasty treats (for any Ferrari guy) and settle up with the parts department. We paid in cash, loaded the crate onto the truck and head back to Ohio, arriving in early morning.
I’d sleep a few hours at my friend’s house, miss my 8 o’clock class at Ohio State, and show up for my later classes.
A couple of the mechanics at Chinetti’s had their own stash of vintage parts they had collected over the years. Realizing there were visitors with cash who were purchasing old Ferrari parts, these mechanics would sell us their collectibles as well.
I was driving down Hamilton Road in Columbus one afternoon when I saw a Ferrari in the used car lot of an AMC dealership. A Ferrari in Ohio in the 1970s was a fairly rare sight and I wasn’t sure whether I had seen the car correctly. I turned into the next business and turned around.
My eyes had not deceived me. It was a white 365GTC/4, sitting in the used car lot. I went inside to inquire about the car and no one knew anything about it. I spent 20 minutes or so checking out the car as I had never seen this model before, until the owner appeared. The owner was very cordial considering a 16-year old was checking out his car when he returned.
A couple of years after this, while attending Ohio State, a Ferrari 275GTS was advertised in the local newspaper. It had been traded at the local Alfa Romeo dealership, which was in the Ohio State vicinity at that time. It was listed for $7500. When I went to check the car out, I ran across a couple of other Ferrari fans, who thought spending $7500 on a 10-year old Ferrari was too much money.
