Volume 7, Issue 6 - November/December 2000

18th Annual Newport Beach Concours d?Elegance

article and photos by wally clark

on sunday, september 24, 2000, this event was held at a new location, the oaks polo field in san juan capistrano. this is not a golf course, but 10 acres of grass and there was a lot of room! the feature this year was lincoln and the field was full of them. something new to this event was the car club corrals, and our club made fine use of one, with about 15 cars showing up. there were over 200 cars on the field to be judged along with a special class for muscle cars. one of the highlights of the day was a fly-over by a newly restored wwii f4u corsair fighter plane compliments of the chino air museum.

on to the ferraris! there were two classes and they were well turned out. the early class was to 1965 and featured some nice "display" only cars, and i want to thank garry roberts, chuck betz/fred peters and norbert hofer for bringing multiple cars. the late class was from 1966 to 1972 and one of the highligted cars was bill lemasters 206 dino coupe, which has won numerous awards and has been featured in "road and track." there were also two ferraris in the race car class, a 250lm brought by symbolic motors and a brand new 360 challenge car brought by mike grieco of fai in costa mesa.

now for the winners:

best of show went to gen. william lyons 1931 duesenberg model j boat tailed speedster.

thanks to all the club members who brought their cars and served as judges.

Oldtimer's Corner - Flirting With The Peter Principle

article and photos by edwin k. niles

this is just a little tale of my ownership of dino 206s number 002 from 1971 to 1974. like all good fables, it has a moral. but i'm still too close to it, twenty-six years later, to know exactly what the moral is!

read on.

when i acquired the dino, the entire superstructure had been carefully removed, including the windshield. the wiring loom had been removed as well, and merle brennan, a fine nevada driver, had been running the car with just the battery to power the ignition. i called this the "hill-climb configuration;" brennan claimed that he had lightened the car by several hundred pounds with these efforts. this claim is rather astonishing, since the factory alleged that the dry weight of the car, complete with top, was only 1,276 lbs.

appropriately enough, the next ferrari club event after my acquisition of the dino was the first annual hill-climb at virginia city, nevada (1972). while it rained off and on through the weekend, i was able to get in a terrified run with the dino. i simply couldn't believe the acceleration shown by this little two-liter car! i felt as if the car was the hit of the weekend, even though the event was pretty well rained out. whenever i started the engine, everyone within a mile radius came running, with their hands clasped firmly over their ears!

our next club event was a low-pressure time trial at willow springs, california. i had agreed with ken starbird (driving his 250 lm) that we would travel to willow springs together. i told ken to keep me informed if police officers should come up behind us, as i had not yet mounted a mirror.

sure enough, out in the middle of antelope valley, (where the deer and the antelope work!), ken's arms started flying around, and we pulled over to the side of the road. after chatting briefly with ken, the officer approached me. since i had neglected to zip up my jacket before departure, my first words to the officer were, "geez, i'm glad you stopped me; i've been freezing my ass off!" the officer, however, had left his sense of humor at home, and told me that he was going to cite me for modifying my "home-built car" because it was too low. i patiently explained to him that (a) it was not home-built, and (b) i had not modified it. then he asked me about my windshield wiper, which of course i didn't have mounted, as i didn't have the windshield mounted either. he asked about my horn, which was not yet on the car, and then he asked me where my front license plate was. at least i had an answer for that one: pulling it out from under the passenger seat may or may not have helped. we had a lot more conversation about bumpers, mufflers, racing tires on the street, lights, turn signals, etc. after 15 or 20 minutes, he must have concluded that he didn't have enough citation blanks to cover everything, so he looked me dead i the eye and said, "anybody crazy enough to drive a car like this doesn't deserve a ticket, he deserves to be in the booby hatch! get the hell out of here!"

ken and i got the hell out of dodge as quietly and as quickly as we could. we made it to willow springs without further incident. that is, until someone pointed out that my car seemed to be relieving itself on the black top. gasoline!

as i tried to repair the leak, it only got worse. before long, i was soaked in gasoline, hoping that the cigarette smokers were keeping their distance!

eventually, the dino was dry. but the day was at an end. i slunk home with my metaphorical tail between my legs.

the next club event was the virginia city hill-climb of 1973. by then, i<

Woodley Park Italian Car Show

article and photos by wally clark

on november 5th, 2000, the club participated in this annual event which features italian and french cars. the weather was great and woodley park has a large grass area that begs to be filled with cars! we had over 25 ferraris on the grass along with a whole lot of fiats, alfas, motorcycles and french cars. jay leno showed up with a jet powered motorcycle that sounded like a jet fighter plane! then he left and came back with his bugatti, because after all, french cars were featured! there was also a moto guzzi race bike that someone started up which sounded like a formula 1 car!

the ferrari swap meet part was not particularly large, but a few club members had some stuff to sell. there were plenty of fiat and alfa parts for sale (oh yeah, french stuff, too). this event keeps getting larger and more interesting every year. thanks go the the "under three liter car" group who organizes the event and who invited the fca to attend.

Famished Ferrari Fans Frolic in the Fog then Feast on Fine French Food

article and photos by tino mingori

the ad said that on october 29 the "sky will be sunny and the air crisp" and "the scent of tall pine trees will hit you in the nose while your eyes vibrate to the colors of late autumn."

this seductive tale lured more than 20 carloads of famished ferrari fans to send their money to the club office and assemble at the secret starting point hidden in exotic la cañada. only a couple of timid ferrari owners were convinced by the likes of dallas and fritz that bringing their ferrari on this drive it might cause it to get (gulp) wet! one optimistic couple arrived with the top down on their newly acquired daytona spyder. the rest of us figured that we had already sent in our 20 bucks and we wanted our damn brunch. thus, 40+ adventurous ferrari owners set off on a scenic drive through the angeles forest.

as our drive began, the road was dry, and the scenery was dramatic - then everything began to disappear in the fog. visibility dropped, headlights were turned on and speeds were reduced. turns along our "interesting and scenic backroad route" were missed and part of our group motored east toward mt. waterman while the rest headed north toward palmdale. eventually we managed to collect everyone together at a lower elevation where the sky again revealed a clear view of the landscape. for the next 30 or 40 miles we enjoyed a spirited drive along well banked two lane roads. this good fortune did not last, however, and as we entered bouquet canyon, the sky darkened once more and serious rain came down. we all got wet, but managed to negotiate the last few miles to the restaurant without incident.

once inside, our group enjoyed the advertised "fine french food" in the pleasant, dry atmosphere of the restaurant le chene. ferrari tifosi flags adorned the walls, and at one point a red wig was donned briefly in honor of ferraris' impressive formula one championship. with the exception of a major oil leak that was not weather related, nothing happened to any of the cars that could not be set right by an hour or two with a bucket of soapy water and some rags. on our next drive we hope the blue sky and sunshine will be back, but the experience of driving a ferrari under more varied conditions was an interesting change.