Classic car trio found in a shed after 30 years
Where did I leave my 1974 Ferrari Dino, 365 GTb/4 Daytona and Maserati Bora Coupe?
Have you ever lost a classic car like a vintage Ferrari Dino or a Maserati? I have recently been clearing out my house, in particularly the storage areas where I've gradually dumped more and more stuff I didn't want in the house. It is amazing what you put out in your shed and then forget about. For example I found a large box of Lego I had forgotten all about which I brought straight out for my little boy to play with, or to put it more accurately, for me to play with and my little boy to watch. However, I think that if I had left in my shed a Ferrari Dino 246 GTS from 1974 (the year of my birth) with a mere 2,910 miles on the clock, a Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona with 9,752 miles and a 1977 Maserati Bora Coupe with under 1,000 miles, that I would remember. Wouldn't you? I mean I'm as prone to losing things as anyone but how many people find themselves scratching their heads and thinking, "Now, where did I leave my three classic supercars?"
The trio of vintage sports cars were recently found in a shed near Dallas where they had sat for 30 years doing nothing more than sleeping and becoming furred with dust. According to auction website Mecum, the owner was a friend of Italian racer Luigi Chinetti who not only entered every Le Mans race between 1932 and 1953 but also cut a deal with the legendary Enzo Ferrari himself to open the first Ferrari car dealership in America. Unfortunately I have no further information regarding why the cars were left there for so long nor how they were discovered.
What I can tell you is that the 1974 Ferrari Dino 246 GTS has been described by Ferrari experts as "the finest original example on Earth." It would seem that other than a small amount of superficial damage that all the cars have survived their automotive abandonment pretty well. The Dino features a Tan interior which was described as "Flawless" and even the nylon ties which hold the undercarriage lines and hoses up were still fresh white coloured showing no deterioration at all. The Dino also had with it all the original documentation including the original buyers guide, sales contract, manuals, dusting cloth, and the vehicles complete original Ferrari toolkit which must rate as an antique in it's own right.
The Forgotten Low milage High Performance Classic Supercars
The Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Coupe was the most well-used motor of the three found but still had under 10,000 miles of usage on the clock. I would imagine that they were very pleasurable miles for whoever drove them but it's still rather low mileage for a car that was born in 1972. The 4.4 litre, 4-cam, V12 engine is described as being "tight as new" following a small overhaul and clean up. I for one would love to hear it fired up, especially if I was the person behind the wheel at the time. This car also comes with a large amount of original documentation, factory accessories, service records, warranty card, buyers report, PDI report, service coupon book, all the manuals, a complete Ferrari toolkit and again the original Ferrari yellow dusting cloth to polish up the famous sports car to a racing standard. I'm almost as excited by the accessories as I am by the car. It is currently referred to as "the most fascinating Daytona ever found" and I would find this hard to dispute.
Finally, the classic Maserati Bora Coupe manufactured in 1977 featured the famous wedge shape to aid aerodynamics and allow the 4.9 litre V8 engine to push the car up to a top speed of over 170 mph. It has only been driven for 978 miles before being discarded along with it's Ferrari shed-mates for over thirty years. This, much like the other two rare Italian vehicle's, has been described as "the definitive example"
All three cars featured on the auction website Mecum with the Maserati reaching $92,500, the Dino went for $270,000, and the 365 GTB/4 currently remains unsold but has had a high bid of $325,000. My greatest hope for all three of these cars is that whoever has bought them has done so to drive them. Specialist classic car insurance is of course a must to get these important parts of our motoring heritage back out on the road where they belong.
I was recently invited to Silverstone to film a track day and much to my amazement it so happened that sharing that particular track day was Martin Brundle who was driving the Ferrari 250 GTO owned by Nick Mason. The car is valued at around £12,000,000 but this did not mean that they took it around the circuit gingerly - in fact Brundle, after setting the car up carefully and testing it, was absolutely throwing it around the famous Silverstone Circuit as he would any other race car and pushing it to the limit. I cannot think of any other possession of that value that people will deliberately throw sideways into a 150mph corner but I wish that more motoring enthusiasts had that mentality. These cars only really come alive when they are driven, so while it's nice to see a polished example in a museum, there is nothing that can match seeing them, and of course hearing them, in action especially on a track with a professional driver who can really put the car through it's paces. I genuinely hope that the buyers of the barn-found trio have the same mentality and are keen to drive and share these historic cars with the motoring world rather than merely removing them from a dusty shed to put them into a clean one.
