The Simeone after Fred

Preservation, education and research – how the famous automotive museum will stay true to its late founder’s legacy the research library, Guston Lowe is in charge of the gift shop and Ron Fanelli keeps care of the facility.

Few people knew that Fred was ill for the final year and was not strong enough to even come to the museum. Before that, he’d hardly missed a day. But his absence allowed the team to run the day-to-day aspects on our own, with him only a phone call away. That ‘rehearsal’ made the transition somewhat easier.

What about the finances?

The foundation has an endowment, and is financially stable. Again, it falls back to Fred. We joke that he built the museum with the Craigslist Construction Company. He wasn’t born into money, he worked for everything he had and he paid for all of the museum renovations out of his own pocket. That frugality extended into its operation, and we work here to try to do our share.

The operating budget is very low in comparison with other museums’; we do a lot with a small staff. The money from the gift shop, front desk and events combines so that we run a financially stable enterprise. That also allows us to weather economic storms as they arise. When we had to close to the public during Covid, we were still able to keep all the staff on the payroll.

When you talk about keeping Fred’s legacy going, what do you mean? There are three major elements: preservation, education and research. We’ll continue to preserve the cars we have, as well as any additions. It’s important that they all run – that is the heart of our popular Demo Days. The Simeone is, to our knowledge, the only place in the world where cars with this history and importance can be seen running regularly.

These days are also educational, since we preface each event with a historical lecture on the cars. Each Demo Day has a theme, such as Le Mans or 75 Years of Ferrari. So, in addition to having the thrill of seeing and hearing these magnificent cars run, everyone learns something new. We also feel it is important to educate the ‘hobby’ on Dr Simeone’s philosophy of preservation. It doesn’t mean vintage cars should never be restored. It does mean significant models should be preserved as historical artefacts. Owners should consider themselves as stewards, and treat their cars responsibly. Dr Simeone spelled out his thoughts in The Stewardship of Historically Important Automobiles, which has just been reissued in paperback.

Fred said certain cars of significant historic value shouldn’t be raced. Yes, he felt strongly that it would be better to race replicas instead. Many people argue that they were raced and repaired in the day, so what’s the difference? Well, those repairs are part of their historic legacy. Damage done today eliminates some of that history, and it can’t be replaced.

When Fred first showed his cars at the garage on Philadelphia’s 8th St, the emphasis was on teen-driver education. Will this be resumed? We will take education beyond just research and history. We want young people to grow their appreciation of cars, and also to understand driver safety. This was always an area of frustration for Fred, that there was not an accepted way to do this. So, yes, youth education is important.

How will the Simeone’s huge research library of automotive literature be part of the museum? Collecting automotive sales literature is where Fred started his involvement with cars. You could say it was his first love. He started collecting it before he could even drive. As a youth, he had an association with the Free Library of Philadelphia – it even gave him a card introducing him as its representative. He would go to Hershey every year and look for rare pieces. He was so fixated on this event that, later, he’d schedule his vacation around Hershey. He even set his wedding date with it in mind.

After we opened the museum and brought all the literature over from his house, he’d be in our library all the time. You could drive past at 11:00pm and see the lights on; he was poring over things, doing research for other people. He never stopped growing the collection; today it’s among the world’s largest automotive-research collections.

We plan to make the collection more accessible to serious historians. In addition to the sales literature, which covers almost every car ever produced, Fred was able to acquire the archives of many notable figures, including Alec Ulmann and Briggs Cunningham. He also found some extremely rare publications on prewar racing. When Ferrari biographer Luca Dal Monte was here a few years ago, Fred brought him up to the library. As they talked and Dal Monte would mention a rare Ferrari book, Fred would reach into a drawer and produce a copy. Luca was impressed.

You’ve been here since the start in 2008. What’s your background?

I picked up my love of sports cars from my dad, who had an MGA, a TR6, Fiats... When it came time for my first car, I had $1000 to spend, so I got an MGB and promptly blew the engine racing a station wagon on the New Jersey Parkway. It cost me about $500 to fix that – and from then on, I told myself ‘I’m not taking a car to a shop, I can’t afford it’. And that’s what I did, right or wrong.

I learned everything the hard way. It was just dive in and learn by experimentation. It forced me to develop analytical skills, to figure out a problem. It forced me to ask, what were they trying to achieve here? In many ways that was a good development; it set me up for the flexibility that I need here with the variety of cars. We have everything from a 1909 American Underslung to a Porsche 917, so the variation in technologies is pretty wide.

You worked for Ralph Buckley in New Jersey, one of the first fulltime restoration shops. Ralph was pretty much a pre-war specialist. He had been working in a shipyard during WW2 building PT boats, and when the war was over he lost his job. He’d restored a Mercer, and people asked him to work on their classics. So in 1946 or ’47, he and a friend opened a shop. They got the top clients: Cameron Peck, Henry Austin Clark, Briggs Cunningham. The best cars from the best clients.

I came by with a Bugeye Sprite I’d restored, and asked him for a job. He put me on as a painter. I cut my teeth on brass cars. I loved working there; we’d sit on running boards at lunch, and he would tell stories about the old days, stories about all the clients that they had, and all the great cars. It was just wonderful being there.

How did you hear about Fred?

One day I came in and there was this yellow 1750 Alfa, supercharged, a 6C. It looked a little rough and tumble; like a warrior. I asked Ralph: “When are we going to start restoring this?” And Ralph said: “Oh no, that’s how he likes them.”

He was talking about Fred. This was my introduction to the concept of preservation. All our other clients wouldn’t stand for a scratch on the engine, let alone the rest of the car. But Fred wanted his maintained and repaired, and not restored.

But you did end up restoring the collection’s Stutz Bearcat for Fred? Yes, that’s something people may not realise, that Fred did have automobiles restored. When he got that car, it was the wrong colour and just didn’t look right. And he wanted it back to a factory colour scheme. If it had been a good preservation car, Fred would have left it alone. But it wasn’t, because it had already been redone several times.

Did you help launch the museum?

Yes, I had left restoration and was working for a construction company. One day in 2007, I came into the shop and they told me somebody had called. I didn’t recognise the number – it was a Philly number. I asked if they’d left a name, and they said: “It’s V Jano. J-A-N-O.” Of course, I recognised the name Vittorio Jano, the guy who designed 8C Alfas.

I called, and it was Fred. Turns out, that was how he had his home number listed in the phone book –he was an important doctor and couldn’t have his real name in the telephone book. He told me that the museum he had been talking about for years was now really going to happen. Would I want to come up and discuss being a part of it?

What struck you most about Fred?

I was touched by his compassion. When I got to know him better, working with him every day, I found that he truly was like that. He was one of the busiest doctors in the world, but he’d take time to give you a call if you were having a problem. Anybody could come to him with medical problems, and he’d help them through it. He’d make connections for them, not expecting anything in return. He just wanted to do it. And he did that for so many friends – for my family, for many people. Sure, he could be a tough guy. But if you were having a hard time, he was somebody you’d want on your team.

Where does the Simeone go now?

We want to use all the new technologies available to reach a larger audience. Facebook Live, podcasts, Zoom events... these can allow us to communicate with people outside of Philadelphia; to reach people all over the world. These are going to be exciting times. www.simeonemuseum.org

Rimac

IN SEPTEMBER 2011, A NEW Croatian start-up called Rimac Automobili stunned the Frankfurt Motor Show with its first hypercar, the Concept_One. Underneath the voluptuous carbonfibre bodywork were four electric motors delivering a total of 1073bhp, allowing the car to sprint to 62mph in 2.8 seconds and reach a top speed of 190mph.

These figures were otherworldly, yet understandably the Concept_One was met with more than a little scepticism. How could a brand-new company with a 24-year-old CEO from a country with no car-building heritage ever hope to deliver such an ambitious machine? Perhaps that’s why the media at the time seemed to agree that the star of Frankfurt 2011 was Jaguar’s C-X16, a concept car that preceded the F-type.

Twelve years later, I’m on an aeroplane headed to Rimac’s Zagreb headquarters to meet founder and CEO Mate Rimac. I’ll also be driving the Concept_One’s successor, the Nevera. On the face of it, and against all odds, it seems as though Rimac has succeeded in its original goal of “making something revolutionary”. The Nevera is currently the fastest all-electric production car on the planet, and Rimac has recently joined forces with Bugatti. No one in 2011 saw that coming.

Meeting Mate for the first time is memorable. He comes into view as I sit with a coffee in Rimac’s reception area. He’s slightly late, which is understandable, and jogs down the stairwell towards me, apologising before affably shaking my hand. He’s tall and dressed casually in jeans and a Rimac-branded jacket. I’m instantly aware that – somewhat depressingly – he’s only slightly older than I am.

Mate leads me into a room full of engineers gazing pensively at CAD models on dozens of computer screens. “All of these guys are developing the hybrid system for the next Bugatti; I can actually show you some,” he says. His openness is both disarming and refreshing – journos are usually required to put stickers over smartphone lenses and sign non-disclosure agreements before even setting foot in such a place.

It’s obvious that Mate is in his element as he enthusiastically talks me through the design of the next Bugatti’s front axle. “Current models don’t have anything at the front

From Above

The Nevera is hand-built at Rimac’s Zagreb HQ. Founder Mate has huge plans for this most modern of manufacturers.

aside from a differential and some cooling components, so the new one is going to be very densely packaged,” he explains. He then makes several suggestions on how to improve the design to the engineer, before we continue our tour.

Each section of the factory is an immaculate, orderly hive of activity. It teems with intelligent people creating fascinating components, whether it’s intricate, hand-crafted wiring looms or stacks of carbonfibre body panels awaiting fitment to cars in various stages of completion.

“A big problem for us is space,” Mate admits. “I remember walking around here before we moved in a year ago, and thinking, ‘wow, there’s so much space; we should be fine for a while’. But it’s already packed.” Amazingly, the building was a deserted Home Depot before Rimac arrived – it was simply the best facility Mate could find in a country that has little industry: “The building was really run-down. It looked like shit!”

The solution is the purpose-built Campus currently under construction that’ll become the centre of Rimac’s operations. This was made possible only after the firm received $536 million in investment as part of its recent deal to partner with Bugatti.

My two-hour factory tour comes to a close in an area known as the

Gallery. It’s effectively a tunnel filled with Mate’s personal cars, which will eventually be displayed at the Campus.

One that immediately catches my eye is a 1984 BMW E30. It’s belonged to Mate since 2009, and is essentially what inspired him to found Rimac. He raced it until the engine exploded, which he then replaced with electric motors from a forklift, working in his parents’ garage. Mate’s fellow trackday enthusiasts mocked him at first, but constant upgrades led to several FIA and Guinness World Records, and eventually his own car firm. He’s teased that he has big plans for the BMW, even toying with the idea of putting a Nevera powertrain into it.

Mate’s collection also features a Bugatti Chiron, Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, Ferrari F8 Tributo, Ferrari Roma and, interestingly, a Renault 4, plus four BMWs. He aims to take it even further by buying every supercar that he’s had a hand in developing. It makes for quite the line-up: Aston

Martin Valkyrie, Koenigsegg Gemera, Pininfarina Battista, Porsche 718 and, of course, the Nevera.

“I think many of the brands are experiencing an existential crisis,” Mate says as I admire his cars. “They are thinking ‘what does the future look like without a combustion engine?’ Not that I’m disrespectful to big car companies. It’s exciting for me to work with BMW, Ferrari, Porsche and so on. I want us all to work together for the future of the industry.”

With my tour over, Mate bids me farewell and rushes off to another meeting, while I’m ushered outside for my first experience of the Nevera. As I wait, I ponder the palpably ludicrous performance figures: 1888bhp, 1741lb ft of torque (nearly twice that of a Bugatti Veyron) and a €2m ($2.4m) list price. Exchange those figures for speed, and you get 0-62mph in 1.85 seconds and 0-186mph in 9.3 seconds. Crazy!

And then, here it is. Finished in lustrous silver paint, the bodywork is smoother and more elegant than that of many hypercars, despite its purposeful vents, active rear wing and brooding headlights. It also proudly flaunts its heritage; the air inlets on its flanks are sculpted to resemble bow ties that were worn by 17th-century Croatian soldiers.

Reaching into that bow-tie-shaped crease, I find a hidden door handle. I press it, and the car’s dihedral door dramatically opens skywards, revealing a cocoon of bare carbon, Alcantara and milled aluminium, punctuated by Nevera and Rimac motifs. As with the rest of the car, the cabin is completely bespoke and hand-built, and the superb fit and finish belie the company’s short, 14year history as an auto manufacturer.

I climb into the supportive, comfortable embrace of the Sabeltsupplied seats, and I’m greeted by a digital instrument display and a large screen above the centre console. Another screen is set into the dash in front of the passenger, which can display everything from power output to G readings and speed.

Happily, I don’t need to swipe through endless menus to control the car’s major functions. Instead, they’re accessed via a bank of toggle switches and three milled rotary dials that sit proud of the dashboard. Sat-nav primed, I rotate the far-left dial to find Drive. It turns with a satisfying click reminiscent of the bezel on a luxury watch.

Out on the open road, and with the car set to Comfort mode, there’s little to suggest such otherworldly performance lurking just a few inches beneath the sole of my right foot. The steering is light and the ride is comfortable and compliant. The Nevera quietly meanders through Zagreb’s morning traffic with minimal fuss. If I ignore the smartphone paparazzi of my fellow motorists and the occasional pitch of that rear wing, I could be in a Porsche Taycan.

Ominously, the morning fog has thickened significantly by the time I reach the test track. My sense of foreboding only increases as I withdraw to the passenger seat so that test driver Miroslav Zrnčević can show me the circuit layout and warm up the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tyres on the cold, slippery asphalt.

With the car in Sport mode and administering just 70 percent of its power, my body is subjected to breathless bursts of acceleration. My eyes dart to snapshots of the scenery, in a desperate attempt to pick out cones and braking markers as we sear myopically towards the next bend.

After five laps I’m back in the driver’s seat, sheepishly heading out for my maiden lap. The track is almost comically short for such a powerful car, with only one straight punctuating a succession of sweeping corners and hairpin bends. With the car still in Sport mode, I complete a tentative few laps to learn the circuit layout and familiarise myself with the $2m missile I’ve been entrusted with.

What happens next is surprising; despite the terrible visibility, ice-cold surface and near-2000bhp at my disposal, I start to feel comfortable and push the car ever harder, lap after lap. The other good news is the noise. Far from being a sterile, uninspiring and muted soundtrack, the four electric motors emit an authentic banshee-like whine as I pick up speed, before conducting a spaceship-like groan as I hit the brakes.

It soon becomes clear that, through engineering witchcraft, the Nevera is far less intimidating than cars I’ve driven with less than a quarter of the power. It’s all made possible by the onboard supercomputer, which is fed by nine cameras, LIDAR, radar, in-seat sensors and 12 ultrasonic sensors that produce up to 6TB of data per hour of driving. This allows the super-advanced Rimac AllWheel Torque Vectoring (R-AWTV) system to process 100 calculations per second. Not only does all this help prevent the driver from having an undignified accident, but it also feels totally imperceptible and fools them into believing they are the next Ayrton Senna.

Now feeling more confident, I’m encouraged to wind the right-hand dial into Track mode, which delivers 100 percent of the Nevera’s power. The acceleration is devastating, almost blurring my vision as I reach 180km/h on the longest straight before smashing the brake pedal and letting the huge six-piston front and rear Brembo calipers punishingly squeeze the carbon-ceramic discs.

The brakes are perhaps the most unconventional part of the car in terms of feel. Its onboard computer continuously prioritises how much of the stopping power is administered by the regenerative forces from the electric motors or the hydraulic brakes, based on which is the most thermally limited. The feeling through the pedal is one of graininess, but it isn’t unnerving and it recedes into the background once I’m used to it.

In the tight corners, the Nevera hides its 2150kg kerbweight superbly. This is aided by the ‘H’-shaped battery pack that provides a low centre of gravity, alongside the stiffest carbonfibre tub ever fitted to a road car. Combine this with the excellent adjustable dampers, and body roll is imperceptible in Sport, Track and Drift modes.

The Drift setting provides one of the most memorable parts of test driving a Nevera, and one that I wouldn’t have dreamed of daring to explore prior to climbing into the car. The drift course is a circle of asphalt with a lamp post in the middle, like a dart lodged in a bullseye. With Drift enabled, I simply crank the steering to the left, mash the throttle and transform my tyres into an acrid rooster tail of smoke while the computers do the rest.

After driving the Nevera, I feel like I’ve had a genuine glimpse into the future. It’s a car that seems exempt from compromise: it’s sci-fi fast, exotic and well built, while being approachable, refined and comfortable. The only flaws to speak of are the high price, the bizarre omission of cruise control, and the display screens, which could be clearer for a car with so much power. But that’s nitpicking.

The Rimac Nevera was named after the Croatian word for a mighty electrical storm that appears suddenly along the Adriatic coast. An apt moniker for a car that has both shocked the establishment and paves the way to a brighter future once its technology trickles down into more attainable models.

David MacNeil bought 250GTO no. 4153GT for almost $80 million – and then he had

IT WAS PROBABLY AN UNNECESSARY question, but it had to be asked: “Was the goal always to buy a GTO at some point?” David MacNeil, owner of the world’s most expensive Ferrari, answers without a moment’s pause.

“You know, I had always thought about it. The prices just kept going up and up and up. I thought that if I’m going to spend that kind of money, I want the very best GTO. I wasn’t willing to settle for one that had been crashed hard, or rolled, or that something equally bad had happened to.”

David already owned several of the very best Ferraris in the world, including a 250GT SWB, courtesy of his hugely successful Weathertech car-accessories business. But he couldn’t stop thinking about owning the ultimate example.

“I let David Gooding from Gooding & Co. auctions know [that I wanted one]; he knows people all over the world. And finally, he walked up to me at the Amelia Island Concours and he had this book by Keith Bluemel on GTO chassis no. 4153GT. It’s a big, thick book, and the whole thing is dedicated to this exact car.

ABOVE AND OPPOSITE After a lifetime of competition and several different liveries, 4153GT is back where it began, in 1963 Le Mans startline spec. The obsessive detailing goes as far as recreated scrutineering tags and seals, paint markings, stickers and transfers that were applied specifically for the famous 24 Hours race.

“He said: ‘It’s available!’ So I said: ‘Okay, what car, which GTO?’ He went: ‘No no, it’s this GTO,’ pointing to the one on the cover, and I said: ‘Ohhhh!’ It was a long ‘ohhhh’, because you don’t just wake up in the morning and think you’re going to spend that kind of money on a car.

“The greatest thing was that the price was reported at $70 million. And that’s inaccurate. It was more! I’m under an NDA not to disclose the exact figure, but it was well more. It’s a few Bugattis away from the price that was reported. I think that’s hilarious.

“So I jumped in my Gulfstream as the captain and flew to Switzerland, where the car was at the time, and amazingly I was allowed to drive it. I fell in love with it, and I wired a deposit the next day, paid for it shortly thereafter and flew it home. I have great pictures of it coming off the aeroplane in the dark in Chicago, which was just epic.”

So David MacNeil had just become the owner of one of the very best 250GTOs in the world, and all he wanted to do at that point was to drive it – which he did. A lot. Before we go into that, and what happened next, it’s important to understand why this particular car is so special, even in GTO terms. Its appeal starts with its early history, but is also as much about how this example survived and how it’s been looked after since then.

Chassis 4153GT is well documented, not just in the dedicated book already mentioned but also in Jess G Pourret’s classic Ferrari 250GT Competition Cars and in the more recent Porter Press two-volume Ultimate Ferrari 250GTO by James Page, as well as the online resource www.barchetta.cc. So we know it was sent to Scaglietti for bodywork on October 25, 1962, its engine was tested on December 10 that year (producing 305.7bhp), and it was finally completed on December 11.

BELOW AND OPPOSITE Fly screen, as fitted to the GTO for Le Mans, has been recreated. Inside, the rev counter, redlined at 8000rpm, dominates the instrument cluster. Note the hammered-gold paintwork, verified by colour period photography and several Ferrari historians, as well as the correct black corduroy seats.

GTOs by this point featured recessed front sidelights, the wider front air intake and circular brake-cooling ducts either side of that intake, along with the distinctive rear spoiler integrated into the bootlid – and 4153GT was no different. Its records show that it was sold on December 28, 1962 to French racer Pierre Dumay, finished in pale metallic grey with a Tricolore stripe running strikingly through the centre of the car, from nose to tail, and bearing the Modena registration MO 84265.

It appears to have been entered into the May 1963 Nürburgring 1000km but didn’t start the race, so 4153GT’s first outing was in the 1963 Le Mans 24 Hours. This gives an idea of the level that both the GTO and Dumay were at.

For this, Dumay’s second attempt at the 24 Hours, he partnered with Belgian Léon Dernier (known as ‘Eldé’) to compete under the Ecurie Francorchamps banner. Dumay had started out as a motorcycle racer but moved to cars in 1955, becoming a regular on the Tour de France. His first Le Mans was in 1960, when he finished fourth overall in a 250GT SWB while winning the GT class. Co-driver Dernier had finished third at Le Mans in both 1959 and ’62.

The 1963 race is remembered for its high number of serious accidents and retirements, leaving just 14 finishers out of 49 starters. Dumay and Dernier in 4153GT did well to stay out of trouble – even escaping the worst of the disastrous oil spill from the Bruce McLaren and Innes Ireland Aston Martin DP214, which resulted in several cars going off, a very close escape for Roy Salvadori and the death of Christian ‘Bino’ Heins.

As the race progressed, Ferraris began to dominate, particularly the three new midengined 250Ps, although the four 330 LMBs and four 250GTOs looked strong, too. Gradually, however, more dropped out, and when the John Surtees/Willy Mairesse car caught fire after 19 hours following a careless refuel, it left the Ludovico Scarfiotti/Lorenzo Bandini 250P in the lead – by ten laps.

The 250P went on to win, with the Equipe Nationale Belge 250GTO of ‘Beurlys’ and Gérard Langlois van Ophem second, the 250P of Mike Parkes and Umberto Maglioli third, and Dumay and Dernier in 4153GT just one lap behind to take fourth place. Behind them, two more Ferraris, followed by Graham Hill and Richie Ginther in the Rover-BRM gas-turbine car.

It was a remarkable result for the two GTOs – and was said to have been marked by driving the cars to a bar in Paris, then leaving them parked outside while celebrations ensued.

Clearly no harm came of the excursion, because a mere three days later Dumay drove 4153GT to an event marking the opening of the Zolder circuit in Belgium, where it took part in demonstration laps, still wearing its Le Mans race numbers. Two weeks after that, the car was out at Reims for the support race to the French Grand Prix.

That was it for 1963, but the following year saw 4153GT – now under the ownership of Marquis Philippe de Montaigu – testing for Le Mans but not entering the race, despite posting the eighth-fastest time overall. All the same, the GTO continued to compete, and in the hands of Lucien Bianchi and Georges Berger it finished first in the prestigious Tour de France – an amazing result.

Through 1965, 4153GT’s campaigns continued, with the likes of Bianchi, Mairesse and even Guy Ligier driving it at venues around Europe, including the Nürburgring, Spa, Reims and Mont Ventoux. It then went to Spain, where it was campaigned throughout the rest of the 1960s.

Next it moved to France, only to lie unused in a lock-up for years until 1986, when it was bought by Henri Chambon. He drove it in several Tour de France Autos, before passing it to Nicolaus Springer, who continued to compete in the GTO. It was under his stewardship that it first appeared in the UK, at the Coys International Historic Festival and at the first Goodwood Revival, following restoration with UK specialist DK Engineering.

It was bought in 2000 for a rumoured $6.5m by Charles Grohe, before moving onto racing driver Christian Gläsel in 2003. Christian and his family raced, track day’d and displayed the GTO, taking it to Pebble Beach in 2011. After 2012, though, it was rarely seen in public.

When David MacNeil bought 4153GT in 2018, the internet, as the saying goes, lit up with talk of the rumoured $70m record price – which we now know to be an under-estimate. The price wasn’t a complete shock in GTO circles; there had been talk of private sales fetching well above $40m for some while.

At the time, DK Engineering’s James Cottingham said: “If a sale has taken place, then the figures being mentioned seem realistic given that this is categorically one of the best GTOs in existence, with its Le Mans history and, of course, being the overall winner of the Tour de France in 1964.”

Of course, David MacNeil feels the same: “It’s hard to describe driving this car, because it is truly a GT that you could drive to Le Mans, turn the key, race 24 hours, and then drive back home if you wanted to.

“I spent over 1000 miles in it a couple of years ago, doing the Colorado Grand rally, running through the gears, driving it hard, enjoying it. I’ve never driven anything quite like it. The way it handles the power – the powerto-weight ratio is like a modern supercar’s –and the braking and handling, the ergonomics of it... There’s something magical about the car, in the way it all comes together.”

ABOVE 4153GT stripped to bare metal. Despite minor accidents in period, most of the original bodywork was still intact.

ABOVE More evidence of 4153GT’s remarkable originality, with these stampings on the door window frames.

ABOVE Onto the finishing touches, having been painted in-house. The original Le Mans V12, after five decades in another Ferrari.

He continues: “I mean, I’m going over passes, pulling 7000rpm with it, and it’s still pulling hard. The car is just begging for more, errr… punishment? Or maybe enjoyment. Or maybe it’s just laughing at me and telling me ‘I’ve got more, let’s go!’ I’m not sure which. I have one of the best car collections in the world, and if I had to keep just one model it’d be the GTO.”

There was something bugging David, though… 4153GT was in great condition. Really great. But it wasn’t perfect; it wasn’t exactly how he wanted it. He’d driven it hard, his son Cooper had raced it, everyone in the family had already had a go. What next for the GTO?

He says: “During this whole time I was understanding and immersing myself in the car. And then I created a plan, with a lot of discussion with the great experts out there, to bring it back to absolutely original specification. By the time the Colorado Grand was over – and we really enjoyed the car – I thought, okay, it’s time to get the GTO ready for Pebble Beach.

So David took a big decision. He decided to have it restored to exactly how it would have looked lined up for the start of the greatest race of its life, the 1963 Le Mans 24 Hours.

“The car was in excellent condition when I bought it, but when you want to make a vehicle perfect – meaning, let’s say, 100 points [in concours terms] – then even if it is, say, 98 points, you have to go down to zero points to bring it back up to 100.

“So that was when we sent it to Motion Products, in Wisconsin. When they stripped all the paint off the car and it was raw-metal naked, it was clear that the original body was still in excellent condition. We then took almost two years to restore it back to 1963 Le Mans 24 Hours starting-line condition.”

“We typically will pick a point in time right away,” explains restorer Dustin Wetmore at Motion Products. “That way, when we start doing research, we can use that contact; with a lot of these cars, there are quite a few changes that occur. Sometimes those changes are very subtle. So picking that point in time right away is really important.

“We broke the files up between photographs for scrutineering, then photographs for the starting line, and then the afternoon-to-night stint and the morning-to-afternoon stint.

“We picked the start of the race; we’ve got some good shots of that point in time in the pit before the start. They’re close-up – the photographer was probably five or six feet away from the car – so they could give us some good pointers as far as where the paint breaks were, the shape of the white stripes that locate the jack points at the nose and the tail, and then certain colours in the interior, were there seatbelts or were there not seatbelts, etc.”

With the GTO stripped back to a bare chassis and body, the team wheeled it outside on a kart to examine its metalwork in natural light.

“We spent the afternoon looking at all the period photographs from Le Mans that we had,” continues Dustin. “And then, with a 55mm lens, I tried to replicate the angles as best I could, and get a sense with that aspect ratio to get the correct distance so we could evaluate all the shapes in the car. “

What’s interesting is that there was very little corrosion other than a few pinholes and a few spots where the alloy panels wrapped around steel, as is always the case.

Once the overall shape was deemed correct, the next stage was to work out the details of the 1963 Le Mans specification. Here, a rare shot showing the interior of the GTO at La Sarthe, taken from the passenger side, proved invaluable. The photograph was so sharp, the team could confirm that the seat material was black corduroy rather than the canvas so often seen in this period of Ferraris.

“The corduroy was not totally a surprise, but it was a pleasant surprise. Scaglietti had sometimes used canvas, typically blue – or green in the instance of the David Piper GTO – so we’re typically putting blue canvas on all these cars now,” says Dustin.

“We could even tell the direction of the lines in the corduroy, and where [the material sections] broke and where they were glued.”

“We were also able to authenticate the firewall from that photo, both the left side and the right side. We were able to see where the portion of the firewall was shaped to accommodate the windshield-wiper system. Every one of those would have been a little bit different, because it would have been done by hand to each GTO.

“Then we were just looking at locations of fasteners and a couple of flecks of the redoxide primer that was used in period. So that’s

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This proved that the original firewalls had survived, which helped confirm the authenticity of the Ferrari. The research on 4153GT and earlier work on several GTOs had substantiated that while firewalls were typically painted black, the rest of the interior metalwork was often in a gold-hammered finish, as proven by numerous period photographs – and so, that’s how 4153GT was painted by Motion Products, too, with the blessing of several prominent Ferrari historians.

British Pathé news films of the GTO at Le Mans in ’63 were found on YouTube. Screen captures were made of every useful frame, especially with the bonnet raised, revealing crucial engine-bay detailing, such as how the ignition leads, wiring and hoses were routed, and even the type of foam used between the bonnet panel and snorkel.

The original build sheet was also acquired, which verified the type of exhaust fitted from new as well as the size of the wheels. It’s commonplace for GTOs to have their wider rear rims moved to the front, and still-wider replacements fitted to the rear. Indeed, this is how 4153GT arrived, and how David MacNeil will run the car on events. But for absolute adherence to the original specification, Dustin spent a year and a half sourcing original Borrani wheels of the correct size, and then had them rebuilt by their maker in Italy. Why not new Borranis? Because the profile of the rim is very slightly different, a little squarer.

Some decisions were harder than others. At Le Mans, bent metal tags were used to seal the fuel filler and the oil-filler door, for example, which an official would then secure with wire and a stamped lead seal.

“We had to drill holes permanently into the body [for the tags], because you can’t really fake that,” says Dustin. “I suppose you could glue them on, but the likelihood that you would damage the paint pulling them off is high.” The same went for the mesh over the rear side brake-cooling ducts, which was screwed on for Le Mans.

The detail work kept getting deeper, such as when it was noted that at Le Mans scrutineering, 4153GT had trim rings around the headlights, underneath their Plexiglas covers, and twin windscreen wipers – but at some point during the race the headlight trims and the passenger-side wiper disappeared. For startline authenticity, the rings and the exact silkscreen printing on the headlight pockets have been reinstated – and then the headlight covers papered over for protection, exactly as they were for the start of the 24 Hours. It was with the paper in place that the GTO appeared at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance last year, winning its class.

With David driving 4153GT again, the paper is off and the detailing revealed. Dustin is confident the GTO will behave perfectly: “This car was dismantled, scrutinised and reassembled down to the last needle bearing. We treated it as a car that was going to be on track – we don’t prep any of our cars so that they’re only good for few hours at a show. We’re not happy with them until they’re 100 percent on the button and all the issues are worked out, all the kinks and all the bugs are gone. And we know Mr MacNeil drives his cars hard; he doesn’t baby anything.”

It’s well known of chassis 4153GT that the original V12 powerplant was replaced by the unit from the 250GT SWB no. 2445GT in preparation for the 1964 Tour de France. The initial engine found its way into another GTO, chassis no. 4757GT, and it wasn’t until 2011 that the GTO’s then-owner Christian Gläsel was able to buy it back.

When David bought 4153GT, it had the Tour de France-winning V12 in it, but the original engine was part of the purchase, along with a more recently built motor from Roelofs Engineering in the Netherlands. The Le Mans and Tour de France units were both rebuilt by Motion Products, and the former installed. Similarly, there’s a Roelofs transmission with the car, but the original magnesium-case gearbox has been fully rebuilt and fitted.

“When we took apart the magnesium-case trans and I picked up the empty case, it was like picking up an empty cardboard box, it was that light,” says David. “It really is an epic experience to pick up a GTO’s magnesium trans case.”

So what now for 4153GT, which has had so much effort lavished on it?

“We are going to, as a family, use it judiciously and appropriately for the world’s most important motoring events,” says David. “We’re bringing it to Villa d’Este this year, and then we’ll see what’s next. As time goes on we may participate in some historic events in France – as an overall Tour de France winner, it would feel meaningful taking the car out and enjoying it there.

“But it would be good to bring the Ferrari to some of the most prestigious concours events in the world before we really start driving it again. I have driven an awful lot of very sophisticated machinery, and the GTO stands alone at the pinnacle of historic sports cars.

“It’s hard to really communicate what it’s like to go through the gears at 7000rpm, not holding back, driving it the way it was driven at Le Mans. The car responds like an Olympic athlete. It just keeps begging for more: push me harder into the next turn, go faster, go deeper. This car talks to you!

“I’m just blessed to be a caretaker for the next generation of one of the most epic automobiles ever built.”

Thanks to David MacNeil, www.weathertech.com, and Dustin Wetmore, www.mpi-ferrari.com.

WHEN MERLE MULLIN TURNS UP IN AN AUTOMOBILE, you know it’s going to be special. Today, she’s driven this 1951 Delahaye 235 to Xanabu, a spectacular ranch in Malibu owned by her nephew, architect David Hertz, and his wife Laura. The car, so far from its Parisian homeland, glows in the California sun, rays sparkling off the chromework and silver paint. Merle smiles behind the huge steering wheel, enjoying every minute.

The Delahaye is one of the many gems of the Mullin Automotive Museum founded by Merle’s husband Peter in 2010 to celebrate his extensive collection of some of the greatest French machines ever built. With Peter currently laid up, Merle has been showing the Mullin cars around the globe, and this 235 Saoutchik Roadster, chassis 818005, is the latest to receive her attention.

It’s arguably the best existing example of Delahaye’s post-war masterpiece. Its genes are from an age of coachbuilding and elegance, but it was born into a world of mass production and new thinking. Merle says she has a lot of affection for this car: “Two years ago at the Audrain Newport Concours, [Audrain Museum CEO and Jay Leno’s Garage TV host] Donald Osborne said to me: ‘That car reminds me of liquid mercury.’ I love that! Last year I showed it at the Wynn Las Vegas Concours, and it won Best of Show Post-War, which was kind of a surprise to me because there were some really, really nice cars there.”

She continues: “It uses the 135M chassis, but dressed up as a more modern version. It has an important place in history, because it was Delahaye’s swan song. It was at that time, after about 1950, that people were no longer leaning toward carrosseries designing their automobiles, their one-offs – they were more interested in assembly-line models. It was that big transition, from owning a beautiful car to owning something that comes off the line that you can use as an everyday driver.

“It’s also an important machine, because it was designed by Jacques Saoutchik. It has a really nice little history, and its own place in history is of interest.”

Before World War Two, Delahaye had been one of the greats, building sports and racing cars for the cognoscenti, and famously working with coachbuilders such as Figoni & Falaschi, Saoutchik, Letourneur & Marchand, Pourtout, Frères Dubois, Franay, Chapron, Faget-Varnet and Antem to create one-off masterpieces. Think Delahaye, and most of us will home in on the exotically curved creations of the 1930s based on the 135M and 175.

Post-war, with its finances decimated, Delahaye tried hard to move on. Its new 235 looked the part with its all-enveloping bodywork, prominent grille designed by Philippe Charbonneaux and touches of the American-style glitz that had begun to woo the top-end automobile buyers of the day.

ABOVE Pre-war, Delahaye was a grand European marque, but tragically it didn’t survive the 1950s.

Under the contemporary bodywork, though, the 235 was all pre-war 135M, albeit tweaked a little. Delahaye’s 3.6-litre straightsix engine had gained more power (150bhp) through modified triple carburettors and camshafts, and with a weight of around 1100kg the typical 235 was capable of 105mph. The chassis was otherwise little different from the 135M’s – and that meant transverse-leaf front suspension, rear leaf springs, lever-arm dampers and – almost unbelievably – cable-operated brakes.

A mere 84 examples were made, bodied by a variety of coachbuilders – and the most exclusive of all were the four styled by Saoutchik. Of these, chassis 818005 – Merle’s car – was the first to be created, during what is often referred to as Saoutchik’s ‘second golden age’ of 1948-51.

It was displayed on a rotating platform at the venerable Paris Motor Show in October 1951, as one of three cars exhibited on the Saoutchik stand. It attracted plenty of attention, and many referred to it as one of the big stars of the show – although with the caveat that it was eye-wateringly expensive.

A contemporary French report sums up how the Delahaye was thought of at the time: “At Salon 1951, Saoutchik dazzles visitors to the Grand Palais once more with a very original creation. However, cleared of all its excesses of the late 1940s, the style of the house has an elegance and outstanding balance. Wings strongly curved, its pure lines and plunging back, make a car that exudes a great impression of race, luxury and de puissance.”

Imposing, exclusive and stylish it may have been, but at twice the price of a Jaguar XK120 the 235 struggled for sales, regardless of bodywork. By this point, Delahaye was surviving on sales of its military vehicles, while at Saoutchik founder Jacques was under pressure from son Pierre to move away from automotive production and into car-care products. By 1955, Delahaye had merged with Hotchkiss and ceased car production,

ABOVE Jaeger clocks and dials, and hand-crafted controls, exemplify 235’s extraordinary attention to detail.

Jacques Saoutchik had passed away and his near-50-year-old coachbuilding company – by then under the management of Pierre – had gone out of business.

It seems that chassis 818005 had been slow to sell, which couldn’t have helped. A full year after the Paris Salon, it appeared at a concours event in Paris, still wearing Jacques Saoutchik’s registration plates. However, in 1953 it was bought by Jean Escoubès of Évian, in the French Alps – a famous French Resistance fighter who is commemorated in his home town.

In May 1954, Escoubès showed the car at Concours d’Elegance de la Rose d’Or in Geneva. Five years later, in 1959, he sold it to vehicle dealer France Auto of Bordeaux, but it wasn’t until 1961 that the Delahaye 235 was sold on, with 80,382km on the clock. The new owner kept the car for nearly 50 years in a private museum near Bergerac, France. He did show the 235 at a 1964 concours d’elegance in Bordeaux, but it was laid up soon after – and it didn’t reappear until 2006, when it was found by Swiss specialist Christoph Grohe. By this stage it had covered just 80,476km. The paint was flaking, the chromework rusty, the leather cracked and the carpets moth-eaten – but it was complete and original other than a repaint it had received some time before 1961.

“The 235 was not owned by the owner of the museum,” explains Christoph. “I managed to trace the car’s actual owner, Adrien Junca, to a tiny house near Bordeaux, and I met him several times. He always said: ‘I’m not selling, nice to see you, hope to see you again.’ We sent each other Christmas cards every year.

“Then, one year, I sent a card but I didn’t receive one from him. A few weeks later, I was driving with my trailer to Rétromobile and his son called me. He said there had been a fire at the house and his father had died. A lot had been burnt, but with some papers for the car was my business card. He said: ‘This is a sign!’ He agreed to sell the car to me; it’s one of my four greatest discoveries.”

Christoph advertised the Delahaye, and subsequently sold it to Jacques ‘Frenchy’ Harguindeguy, a car collector in California, who exhibited it at the 2006 Pebble Beach in as-found condition. Sadly he passed away just a month later; this is when it was bought by Peter Mullin, who’s so renowned for his passion for French cars.

“Peter loves Delahaye,” says Merle. “What appealed to him were the lines, because it’s very unadorned – not so much chrome. He was very happy to take it and get it back to what it was meant to be. It was in need of a little tender loving care. It didn’t look like liquid mercury, I can tell you!”

Brian Hoyt of Perfect Reflections in Hayward, California, was commissioned to fully restore the Delahaye, with the choice made to paint it in silver rather than the garish blue that it had been changed to pre-early 1960s. The finished car went on display upon the museum’s opening in 2010 – but more recently Merle, who’s driven so many of the collection’s models, has taken it on rallies and to concours whenever possible.

“At the Audrain Newport Concours two years ago it won the Founders’ Award, and I took it on the Tour d’Elegance around Newport and Rhode Island,” she recalls. “It was a beautiful drive and a beautiful day. People lined the streets for the whole fourhour rally, and every time I drove by, they would say: ‘Best in Show, Best in Show!’ They really thought it should win. In short, the car is popular and people respond to it, because even when it’s parked it looks like it’s moving.

“I also drove it in Italy. I’m one of the founders of the It’s All About The Girls all-women’s rally every other year, and I drove the Delahaye to Tuscany on the event in 2017. It’s a really great driving machine, somewhere in between a vintage car, a racy sports car and a modern car. It blends all of those together – it feels much sportier than a Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster, for comes down very easily; you just dig into the back behind the seat and pull the brackets so that they slip down under.”

She continues: The Cotal pre-selector ’box is very responsive; you can shift gears without putting in the clutch. But the brakes go almost all the way down to the floor before you really come to a good stop. You have to remember you’re not in a BMW.”

Now Merle is figuring out where the Delahaye should go next; perhaps one of the concours more local to her and Peter’s home on the West Coast. One thing is for sure: she will take every chance she can to get behind the wheel. Thanks to Merle Mullin, www.mullinautomotivemuseum.com; Tony and Laura Hertz of the Xanabu ranch in Malibu, www.xanabu.com; www.concoursonsavilerow.com

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