GTO 3987 on Mulholland

GTO 3987 on Mulholland

Friday, December 10, 2010

Ferrari GTO 3987


The two photos seen here of 3987 were taken by fellow Ferrari aficionado Ed Niles who owned more desirable Ferraris than anyone I know. Ed snapped these at the workshop of Sal di Natale before I acquired the car. A number of things stand out as I look at these photos. The first is the fact that the GTO is sporting a rear bumper--possibly from a Lusso--which had been removed by the time the car came into my possession. Notice also that the car is seen with Oregon plates. I believe this was for tax purposes as the owner lived in Los Angeles as far as I knew.

The interior shot shows a leather boot hiding the beautiful open shift gate. That, too, was gone by the time I bought the car. The ventilator tubes are missing from the dash and I ultimately had some fabricated that were not like the originals in appearance. The lights for the racing number rondel can be seen on the passenger door.

I don't remember much about the previous owner except that he was a musical arranger for Sonny & Cher at the time and he sold the GTO to me rather than rebuild the engine and bought a pearlescent 427 Cobra as a replacement. I completed the engine rebuild and had the paint stripped to the metal and resprayed Ferrari red. When I finally took the car from Sal's shop, it was like having a brand new GTO.

2 comments:

Vicki said...

Totally unrelated to your post, but I just have to say, it is wonderful to see your smiling face after all these years :D

Vicki (Sbicca)

Stephen Mitchell said...

What a nice surprise to find your comment here! It has, indeed, been a lifetime!