I love this story that your dad shared with us, it's intriguing to say the least...any story with Charles Manson and Ferraris and spooky homes I truly love...please tell your dad to share more stories like these with us and I hope you guys can tell us the story about the Stolen Ferrari Dino that was buried in a pool...you guys rock!!!
That place looks like a lot of the places that those guys on American Pickers go to. They've found some cars in storage that have been there for years untouched. Once they even found an old Indian motorcycle that was in excellent condition. On one episode they found a car under about 12 covers and got really excited about it. They uncovered it and it was a 1975 Ford Pinto. At least it didn't have any rust on it.
I do want to correct one thing, John did not die of cancer in 1999, he is still alive & continues to live somewhere in Riverside & is 86. Thank you, he was a brilliant & a genius man, & who yes is a unfortunately still living this way. He truly loved automobiles.
That’s Dennis Wilson’s Ferrari. Rumor has it that it was Bruce Davis that crashed it, not Manson. I guess Wilson wrote it (the car) off, and Manson kept it for parts.
WOW! That was a Sad story for me. I seen it before, people saving cars as a savings but letting them fall a part in the process ending with the cars getting stolen or dying before they can sell the cars.
Hopefully Steve will tell more about the stories of the Pegaso's, 340 Mexico and especially the Alfa BAT 7 and Sal di Natale (and his involvement with it over several decades). Used to enjoy talking with Steve at the Ferrari events two plus decades ago when I was with Pete Lovely and involved with restorations for Greg / Jon. First met Steve long ago when I rode over with Jim Proffit when we were all still youthful kids. Interesting careers we all have had.
So the 275 "stolen" by Charles Manson finally got stolen, lol. I don't know what's more impressive, the car collection itself or the fact that it was able to be pilfered out of that cavernous maze of junk. Pretty remarkable form a logistical standpoint..I'd be all about the brown Datsun 210 wagon at 2:25 if I were them, haha.
Isn’t it amazing! Considering their value now, it’s hard to believe many Ferraris were once affordable in the 70’s. In 1973 when the OPEC oil embargo sent the cost of gasoline skyrocketing it had a huge impact on cars that guzzled gas. In 1974 my father found a mint 1971 Maserati Ghibli coupe at a Ferrari & Maserati dealership in Greenwich, Connecticut (we lived an hour north) for $10,000. He had taken a used 1972 Ferrari 365GTB/4 for a test drive, but he liked driving the Ghibli much better. My mother was furious that he had spent so much on a car that only held 2 people (we were a family of 5 big Swedes), especially since he told her he would buy something more practical and reliable that was good on gas. He was thinking about a Datsun 260Z, which was known to be well made and was actually pretty good on gas for a 6 cylinder. Of course, as soon as my mom drove the Ghibli she was in love. I was only 8 but I remember being obsessed with it instantly. It was absolutely stunning to look at, pictures don’t do it justice. My father owned it until 1996. Because we lived in Connecticut the Ghibli spent most of its life in the garage, it was never driven in snow and almost never in the rain. Aside from normal maintenance (my dad was a mechanic so he did most of it) it was very reliable. He sold it for $80,000, now it would fetch around $200,000 or more for one in similar showroom condition.
John IS a distinguished retired engineer that did aerospace design, including extensive work on the Space Shuttle. He IS a good friend of mine whom I had the pleasure of wishing a Happy 86th birthday to only about 2 hours ago. The Miura was cut up and carried away piecemeal by idiot thieves about a year before the rest of his collection was stolen. I was with him for moral support when he first confronted the scene of seeing all his cars gone after a neighbor called him to let him know that there had been a lot of recent activity at the property. This was not in the nineties. It was more like a decade ago. I met John a good decade after buying the first production Miura from Mike in 1997.
