RARE FERRARI DELIGHTS ITS WEST VAN OWNERS
Car a winner at Arizona Concours d’Elegance
Garry Peters was beaming as the judges at the prestigious Arizona Concours d’Elegance at the famed Arizona Biltmore Hotel handed him the best-in-class ribbon for his freshly restored 1960 Ferrari GT250 Series II Cabriolet.
It was the first international show for the Ferrari sports car, with body by Pinin Farina, that Garry and his wife, Victoria, had pursued for years. This particular car had been delivered new to Italian royalty and was No. 8 off the assembly line out of the 212 built. Rare is an understatement for this classic Ferrari convertible sports car.
Peters, of West Vancouver, has loved sports cars since he bought a Triumph TR4 at the age of 16 with money earned working after school and weekends at his father’s Coquitlam tire-retreading business.
He would go on to found Art In Motion with his wife in the basement of their home. The company grew to be North America’s largest publisher of reproduction art, with 1,000 employees and customers in 80 cities. Art In Motion went public in 2004 and the couple subsequently retired to pursue one of their passions: rare European sports cars.
He focused on finding one of the early production Ferrari GT Cabriolets, with the rare side vents in the front fenders that were only featured on the first 15 cars off the production line. These cars were a sensation when introduced at the 1959 Paris Auto Show.
After months of searching the Internet, he found an example being sold by a dealership in Switzerland. He took the next flight to Geneva to view the car. A Ferrari expert was consulted and confirmed the car was authentic and as delivered. Peters made the purchase.
The car was shipped to the Fast Cars Auto Restoration shop in Redondo Beach, Calif., for a complete nut-and-bolt restoration down to the last detail.
“This company had already restored 20 250 Cabriolets and I knew they were the right people for the job,” he says, noting that every piece of the car was disassembled and worked on until it was perfect. “I thought the car was in good shape until they took it apart. There were holes in the floor boards and other problems. In those days, Ferrari was using substandard Russian steel.”
This car also has pedigree. It was ordered for Princess Maria-Gabrielle de Savoie, daughter of the last king of Italy. The family had self-exiled to Switzerland and the car was delivered by a dealership in Lausanne owned by famed race car driver Baron Emmanuel (Toulo) de Graffenreid.
For the four years the restoration proceeded, Peters scoured the world for every piece of memo- rabilia attached to his car. Shown in display cases alongside his restored car are items that include dealers’ sales handbooks, leather swatches used to select interior colours, a 1960 Ferrari key fob and his-and-hers 1960 Ferrari watches.
Now in its fourth year, the Arizona Concours d’Elegance is held on the lawns outside the Biltmore Hotel, designed by famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright and opened in 1927 by Chicago chewing gum magnate William Wrigley.
Event sponsors occupy the cottages that surround the hotel where the film and sports stars of the day spent leisure time.
The featured marque for this year’s car show was Bugatti. The best-of-show trophy was awarded to a Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic that was originally unveiled at the 1936 Paris Auto Show.
Called the Aerolithe Prototype, the sports car featured spectacular lines and riveted seams due to the fact it was constructed from magnesium alloy that couldn’t be welded.
One of only four built, it was purchased by the Mullin Automotive Museum of Oxnard, Calif., for between $30 million and $40 million. It is generally regarded as the most valuable car in existence.