Too Many Ferraris? NOT

[scannon]

I attended a charity car and airplane show on Saturday. All the cars and some of the airplanes belonged to one man. There were 21 Ferraris including an Enzo, F-40, F-50, 288 GTO, 312PB race car, 250 GTB SWB Berlinetta Scaglietti, every model of mid-engine Ferraris starting with a Dino up though the F-430.

 

The 250 GTB SWB Berlinetta Scaglietti had just been acquired in a trade with Nicholas Cage for a Bugatti Veyron. He had to throw in a couple million along with the Veyron to get the Ferrari.

 

In addition he had on display the above mentioned Bugatti Veyron, a RR Phantom, Bently GT, AM Vanguish, a pair of Hummers, an E55 MB, 5 pristine original Mini Cooper S's and a Ford Pinto! There were also a pair of G-55 AMGs with superchargers.

 

They were selling rides in either the Enzo or one of his Great Lakes open cockpit biplanes. I signed up for a ride in the Enzo and had to stay in town an extra day to get it. When I showed up Monday AM, the Enzo wouldn't start. A million dollar car with a dead battery. They had left the doors open for the show and drained the battery with the interior lights. His crew tried a jumper battery pack and that wouldn't work so we pushed the Enzo outside to jumper it from a running truck. As we were about to hook up the jumper cables, the owner yelled out don't hook it up, you can't jumpstart the car for fear of ruining the electronics. He was on the cell phone to the dealer. We don't know if the first attemps at a jump start damaged the car or not.

 

He offered my money back (given to charity and matched by him) and then offered a ride in any of the other Ferraris (except the race car). I said I'd rather take a rain check on the Enzo as I would be back later in the summer. He agreed to that and threw in a ride in the biplane. We had a great ride, did a barrel roll or two, flew up a canyon and blew out the tail wheel tire on landing.

 

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