Volume 2, Issue 4 - May 1995

March Meeting at R.P.M.S.

add yet another great meeting to our recent list of phenomenal membership meetings.

march?s meeting followed close on the heels of the one at ferrari of beverly hills but was no less a success. the club was very fortunate to be able to enjoy the generosity and hospitality of dr. william cryan and his wife jan at their newly formed racer?s private motor sports club (r.p.m.s.).

located in conjunction with the fine restaurant la grotte in long beach, r.p.m.s. is the first club of its kind in the united states. as a private motor sports club, it offers a location where racing enthusiasts can come together to socialize and share their enthusiasm and exchange information regarding the wide range of motor sports that have become available to them through international tele-communications.

the decor of r.p.m.s. is dedicated to motoring activities, from the black lamborghini diablo vt parked at the entrance to the walls covered with displays of automotive art and photographs as well as a unique collection of automotive memorabilia. in addition, there is on site an extensive library of automotive reference books as well as a select collection of videotapes relevant to motoring activities.

given this, it is no surprise that r.p.m.s. was a perfect location for our club?s meeting in march. not only was the location interesting but the sit-down dinner, prepared by la grotte was fabulous as well. this is despite the fact that our turn-out was much greater than the chef had expected.

it is important to emphasize that it is very rude to show up to an event like this without rsvping. friends like dr. and jan cryan are generously giving their own time and money to help the club and the least we can do is have the courtesy to rsvp so that they can properly plan. we have been very fortunate to have generous friends like the cryans, the ferrari dealers, the marconis, etc. and we don?t want to have to resort to requiring advanced sign-up forms and/or charge for our meetings like many clubs do. please rsvp when requested.

at the meeting we not only enjoyed good food and fine art, we were also able to conduct the business of electing our first board of directors. see the president?s corner on page 1 for a list of the nine individuals voted to the board. now that we have an official board, we won?t confuse the name of our future membership meetings (we called them "board" meetings for a while there). these meetings are for you to enjoy and for us to communicate to you via. the board will hold its own small business meetings as required. the next two membership meetings will be at ogner motorcars (probably over by the time you read this) and european auto restorations. please plan on coming out - they?ve been events to remember.

President's Corner

by: judd goldfeder

march was a busy month. a big thank you to bill and jan cryan for making our march membership meeting special. they hosted a delicious sit down dinner at their racers private motor sports club in long beach.

our treasury is $750.00 richer thanks to shin takei, mike sheehan, cy yedor, matt ettinger, marshall leib, jeff littrell, alan woodard, murray cogan, and mike yedor. they drove their ferraris and chauffeured a private party of bankers from newport beach to the marconi racing museum.

at the march membership dinner the election of our first board of directors was announced: tom brockmiller, murray cogan, judd goldfeder, marv landon, jeff littrell, shin takei, steve tillack, cris vandagriff, and cy yedor were elected directors. the following tuesday the board met and elected officers: judd goldfeder is president, tom brockmiller is vice president, murray cogan (with help from rose) is secretary, and cy yedor is treasurer.

my vision for the club is: "participation by members and variety of events."

we will sponsor and publicize a variety of events to appeal to as many members as possible. we recognize you have diverse interests; track events, social dinners, technical sessions, and car shows, for example. we will sponsor different types of events and have them in places which are convenient to different groups of members. we realize that other organizations sponsor events in which you, our members, will have an interest so we will publicize those too.

a club?s strength and life comes from members participating in organizing activities as well as participating in the events themselves. we will have committees to plan events, to purchase and sell regalia, to telephone members to invite them to meetings, and to solicit membership. in addition, we will have regional co-chairpersons in the valley, orange county, and san diego to work with the activities committees to organize regional events. based on interests marked on the membership application we will call members to invite participation in committee activity. if you have a particular area of interest please call me or the committee chair who is listed in every sempre ferrari.

most of our events will be open to members of the fca as well as members of the foc. it is my goal to have participation in events by as many ferrari owners and those who are interested in these "special" cars as possible. cooperation between our clubs is one way of accomplishing that goal.

we will continue the pattern of having monthly meetings on the last tuesday of each month which are open to all members. if you have ideas for a location or topic for a meeting please call tom brockmiller or myself.

this is a fun club. we will have a variety of events and hopefully you will participate. thanks for making it possible by your membership and by coming to events.

Oldtimer's Corner - Early Ferrari Dealers

by: ed niles

luigi chinetti?s very successful efforts to put ferrari on the map in the united states have been so well documented that i won?t insult your intelligence with a rehash.

at the same time, however, it needs to be said that chinetti?s presence was felt primarily on the east coast. so let?s reminisce a bit about the left coast, and southern california in particular.

soon after the end of world war ii, john von neumann was successful in contracting for the us distributorship of economy cars made by a struggling war-torn company named volkswagen. vw?s sales success in this country created financial success for johnny beyond (one supposes) his wildest dreams! soon, john von neumann was able to afford the latest from modena, and while he wasn?t the best driver in the world, he was careful, and in the early 50?s his name started appearing with regularity on the winner?s list.

automobile distributorship, and automobile racing, were family affairs for johnny. his wife, eleanor, could be seen directing the von neumann scuderia, and johnny?s daughter josie was a regular entrant, with considerable success, in the "ladies races." so it was only natural that eleanor von neumann should become a ferrari dealer. large, blond and very teutonic, all eleanor needed was a horned helmet to pass as a valkyrie. her ferrari store, located on chauenga blvd. in hollywood, was opened under the appellation of "ferrari representatives of california." only one staff member comes to mind: a small, wiry young man with a blond crew cut and a grin almost as wide as his shoulders. his name, we soon learned, was richard ginther - known to everyone as richie. richie was everything: service manager, part time mechanic, parts manager, and general factotem. and on the weekends, he raced. it wasn?t long before he was out-racing his boss (now was that nice, richie?) and certainly he helped ferrari?s image in southern california.

john von neumann, from around 1954 to the late 50?s, had a great number of very interesting ferraris. and, through his wife?s dealership, he sold even more ferraris. but around the end of the decade, john and eleanor decided to call their marriage finis, and soon we saw eleanor giving up the dealership.

in the meantime, we saw otto zipper, an alfa romeo dealer on the west side, becoming more visible in the world of ferraris. among local enthusiasts, he was well-known as the owner of a series i pf cabriolet, with a cut down driver?s door and brakes specially modified for its first owner, racer peter collins. so when eleanor von neumann left the scene, he became the ferrari distributor for the area.

during this time, otto held forth on whilshire blvd., in beverly hills, and in a large barn of a building on lincoln blvd. in santa monica, which later housed the restoration shop of hill and vaughn. otto?s ferrari shop foreman was richie vanderwater, and from the mid-60?s one of his mechanics was bruno borri, later one of the owners of modena sport cars.

so far as i know, otto zipper never raced ferraris during those early days, but later ran a porsche 904 and an alfa tipo 33, with scooter patrick and milt minter among his drivers. in 1978 he was brought "out of retirement" to manage a team of three 1973 365 gtb/4?s at the 24 hours of daytona. drivers included actors bobby carradine and paul newman. the results were promising, so in 1979 he returned as team manager for a daytona driven by john morton and tony adamowicz. he died in his motel room the night before the race, but his organizational skills were rewarded with a first in class and 2nd overall.

in late 1962, otto zipper, as ferrari distributor, granted a franchise to chic vandagriff?s hollywood sport cars. chic, who had started as a mechanic and had acquired a british motors franchise,<

A Reluctant Racer

by: sunni won

when my husband, jeff littrell (the editor of sempre ferrari), told me his driving buddies weren?t going to the alfa driving school at willow springs with him, i felt i should tag along to keep him company out in no-man?s land. once it was determined i would tag along for the weekend, i was drafted to help get his racing tires to willow springs. one of the pitfalls of having a "true" sports car is that there are no back seats. so i had to follow him in my 1992 nissan maxima se with his tires in tow.

one thing led to another and next thing i knew i was enrolled in the driving school as a student with my maxima. i must admit a part of me wanted to know what "heel-toe" braking was really all about and what in the world an "apex" was anyway. as part of being married to a car racing nut, i acted enthusiastic about the prospect of doing nothing but driving all weekend long. as we made the hour and a half drive to rosamond, california at 80 miles per hour, my mind was racing to come up with reasons why i couldn?t really participate in the driving school. at the same time i was keeping a mental note of all the local shopping malls. if all else failed, i could always go shopping.

saturday morning arrived with no excuses to bag out, so off i went to the driver?s meeting. to my surprise two of the eight instructors were females. after the short driver?s meeting, the three groups broke off into one of three activities, classroom, skid pad and the track. the novice group, which i was in, started with the classroom. up to this point i was basically seeing myself as the tag along and jeff as the one who was really going to benefit from the driving school, but when he went off to the competition class and onto the track, i was left to fend for myself. i always envisioned club track events to be participated by people who had cars costing my life savings and never saw their speedometer read below 80 miles per hour. again, to my surprise and delight, the school had cars ranging from a ferrari to a ford pick-up truck. more importantly, the participants were all levels, ages (one gentleman in the novice group was in his mid 60?s) and gender. in fact one of the female students was in the competition class and had her classmates chasing her around the track in her honda crx.

i learned a great deal, not so much about racing car driving techniques, but just everyday good driving techniques. one of the skid pad exercises required me to drive full speed ahead onto a wet skid pad and literally "pound" on my brakes to lock up the car. in another skid pad exercise, the instructor riding along with me pulled my emergency brake while i was doing circles on the wet skid pad at about 35 to 40 miles per hour. it sure made my car spin and taught me what i need to do to regain car control. i must admit, i hated doing these exercises and my heart pounded every time my turn came up, but i learned a great deal about what my car is capable of. more importantly, i learned what i am capable of as a driver.

again to my surprise, my favorite part of the weekend was driving around the track. i haven?t told jeff yet but, if and when he builds his true "race" car, i want to race it as well. by doing the things i was taught in the classroom, i was able to actually make a turn into a straight line. when i heard this concept before, i used to always think, "how can you turn a corner in a straight line?" the key here is knowing when to turn in and when to apex and how to follow the "racing line." it is a blast to apex a turn just right so that you can accelerate out hard. my only complaint was that the novice group was too full and we only got to spend about 20 minutes out on the track each session, with at least 11 cars on.

i knew i was hooked when i started to draw the track on the dinner napkin and asked

Laguna Seca Review

by: jeff littrell

the time trials and race at laguna seca were yet another example of a successful collaboration with the alfa romeo owners of southern california. the weather held beautifully over the resplendent track that is laguna seca and everyone enjoyed a fun and exciting weekend.

there were no major incidents, except a corvette that brushed the tire wall coming out of turn 11 and an alfa romeo 164 that burst a cooling hose, spun and backed into the wall at turn 6. other than that, the weekend just provided the perfect opportunity to test man and machine on the challenging course in beautiful monterey.

overall, the turn-out was large but the fca contingent was a bit small. we realize that details on the track events have been coming a bit late but we?re working to correct that via inserts in sempre ferrari. even so, just look at the calendar of events and you?ll see that we?ve got our track dates nailed down from now until november so reserve the dates and plan to join us. the next track event will be at las vegas raceway on june 10th and 11th.

i can?t over-emphasize how there is something for everyone at these events. your ferrari was meant to be driven and you really ought to bring it to one of our track events to let it stretch its legs a little. if you aren?t ready to run on the track with other cars all around you then sign-up for the introductory group. with that, you?ll be able to get on the track behind a pace car that will show you the proper racing line at something near 7/10ths speed. this is an exhilarating experience that offers very little risk because no passing is allowed and speed is controlled. it only costs $60 to run two days and it includes some limited classroom instruction. no safety equipment is required beyond good factory seat belts and a helmet. if you don?t have a helmet the alfa club can rent you one so there?s no excuse not to come out.

at laguna there were a number of ferraris in the intro group, including a yellow 308 gts, a red 308 gts, and a red 308 gt4.

the time trials are the next step up. here there are three different run groups to help the novices learn at a reasonable pace but still allow more experienced drivers to get in good, clean laps. speed is not regulated - you go as fast as you dare - but passing is limited to the straights so risk is lessened. participants is this group get practice sessions all day saturday and on sunday morning and then get to race against the clock sunday afternoon.

having run in many non-timed track events previously, i really enjoy the competition that is brought out by having the formal time trials. in this event i finished second in my class and i?m looking forward to becoming number one! time trialing requires a fire extinguisher and a 5-point harness, as fca member roger moore painfully discovered when he went to get his tr teched at the track and didn?t have one. i?m really sorry for roger but there a couple lessons to be learned here. first, we are very concerned about your safety. second, read the description of the events carefully - we always list the required safety equipment in sempre ferrari. third, get you car technically inspected before you come to the track so that you don?t get any surprises. i had ferrari of beverly hills inspect my car the week before the event and they noticed that i had a worn front wheel bearing. because i went in early, i had enough time to get it fixed before the event.

mounting a harness and fire bottle in your car is not difficult to do. there are great bars available that bolt between the factory shoulder harness mounts for most cars (such as 308s, 328s, and gt4s). hopefully, we?ll do a tech tip on these in the near future.

while there were four fca members participating in the time trials, only arthur trejo had the guts to bring his ferrari. the rest of us are guil

Tech Tip - Adjusting Steering Columns

by: dr. carlton fung

i used to get aggravated at the test reports of the 308 and 328 where they complained the steering wheel was tilted too high. well it turns out the tilt of the steering wheel is easily adjusted but the 308/328s came from the factory with the wheel adjusted in the full up position for the italian driving style.

if you take the dash trim piece off below the steering column (held on with a few screws), you can take off the lower steering wheel housing (note: some screws are different lengths so keep track which hole they came out of). you should then be able to see two long horizontal bolts which ride in slots on the steering column support. simply loosen the two nuts on these bolts and you can then tilt the wheel up and down to a more comfortable position. tighten the nuts when you get the wheel positioned how you want it. then put the steering wheel lower housing and the trim piece back on and you're ready to go.

before you button things back up, make sure you can still see the gauges. depending upon your height, dropping the wheel down will also cut off the fuel gauge and water temp. taller folks might lose the top of the speedo and tach. you may want to adjust the seat back angle to make sure you can live with the changes.

about the author: carlton fung is a 34 year old semi-retired dentist with a dental practice in redondo beach california and more hobbies than time. his mechanical backround comes from hot rodding his dad's porches as a kid but he always considered ferraris as a must own. he bought his first 308gts as soon as he could afford to - the thought was "forget homeownership, you can sleep in your ferrari but you can't drive your house!" he has owned several more ferraris since then (as well as a house) and has performed his own v-8 rebuilds and hot rodding. he emphasizes hot rodding mostly to beat porches - it's a personal hang-up.