Pic by l a b e t e
The story starts in 1974 with a phone call from my good friend Fred Knoop. Fred was an early SCCA racer who among other things had commissioned Joe Huffaker a San Francisco Bay Area constructor to build him the Huffaker Knoop Chevrolet Special which was very successful in local races. When the first professional races arrived on the West Coast Fred purchased the one-off ex Phil Hill Ferrari 412 MI from Johnnie Von Neuman the West Coast Ferrari distributor and hired Richie Ginther to drive it for him.
On the phone, Fred told me that he had been offered Ferrari 250 GTO in Ann Arbor Michigan and would I go to inspect it and buy it for him. I was to meet the owner Dr, Jim Tarren at the University of Michigan. Jim had the car in a nearby lock up so we went to have a look at it. The car was well used as most of the old racing cars were at the time. Prices hadn’t really taken off yet and the negotiated price was to be $120,000. This was still a lot of money in my eyes. What I hadn’t been told was that Jim Tarren wanted cash, not a banker’s draft or cashier’s check. I called Fred and advised him and he told me to wait there while he contacted his bank to make a transfer to the correspondent bank in Ann Arbor.
Several phone calls took place and the following day I went to the bank to collect the cash. I was terrified that if something happened I would be blamed for the loss of Fred’s cash. The notes were to be in $10 denominations so in total there were 12,000 bank notes. I went with the banker and did the count at least three times to be sure and then set off for the University to meet Jim. I carried all the money in a paper shopping bag and when I arrived I went with Jim into his office and counted all the money again. After several recounts, we agreed that all the money was there and he made a bill of sale and the car was officially Fred’s.
I flew back to San Francisco the following morning after arranging for the transport to Berkeley. A week later the car arrived. I called Fred and told him his car had arrived. A few days later he came to have a look at his new toy. Ferrari 250 GTOs, in general, had had hard long racing lives and this car was no exception. Everything needed doing and a lot of the body was beyond repair. Before he left my shop, Fred gave me to Ok to do a full restoration.
The first thing we did was to strip the car down completely and then mount the frame on a chassis table to check the coordinates were correct. Then we cut all the used up metal from the body. I was one of the very first to realize that an original body adds a tremendous extra value to a restored car. Many restorers in the UK at this time made all new bodies using the excuse that it was a lot cheaper to make new than repair the old.
Today many cars have lost their originality because of this. I had to make a lot of the nose new but was able to save the rear The job came out really well and the aggressive look was maintained to perfection. The mechanics were easy restored because although the Ferrari 250 GTO is a racing car many parts are shared with the Ferrari 250 GT.
The suspension on a Ferrari is robust and usually only needs refinishing. I used a process of electro nickel dipping which looks fantastic and has no effect on the metal. The black parts were put in a black oxide bath. Slowly but surely all the groups of parts were refurbished and ready for final assembly. The engine was run on our dyno and final adjustments were made for maximum output. Nothing was left to chance. Ferrari was really helpful in those days supplying us with all the assembly and dyno test sheets for each car. They were very happy that someone was interested to restore their racing heritage.
After 16 months the car was completed a final test was performed by me at our local racing circuit where it worked really well. The next stop was Pebble Beach where the car won its class. Fred was really pleased with the final result. The car is often seen with its present owner and good friend Peter Sachs of Goldman Sachs.
