The Ferrari lifestyle

I first met Peter Woodward-Smith when I drove my Ferrari Lusso to his house on the Pacific Coast Highway near what is now Duke's but was the Sea Lion at the time. Peter was selling his dark blue short-nose 275GTB in order to acquire a later torque tube GTB and I was giving consideration to buying it. In the end, he sold it to someone else and things turned out well for me in any case.

The next time I met Peter, he was in a new place further down the PCH at Topanga Canyon on a small road running parallel to the highway fronting on the ocean--you walk out his back door and you are on the sand. Today I suspect the location is a parking lot but at the time, it was something of a bohemian haven with his new torque tube GTB and a 250LM (serial number 5843 seen here in its racing days) providing the entertainment as well as daily transportation. Remember those surfing movies from the era? Some people actually lived like that. Peter and his French girlfriend certainly did.

Next, I spent the afternoon on a drive Peter attended in his LM and I, much more comfortable, in my James Young Bentley given the summer heat--Peter and his girlfriend propping the doors open on the slower bits given that the cockpit of an LM often resembled a pre-heated oven and was not made to be enjoyed in a southern California heat wave.

All of this goes to say that times have changed and, arguably, not for the better.