Ferraris of Pasadena

By Wallace Wyss
Photos by Richard Bartholomew

For those who haven’t been to “Old Town” Pasadena, it is your ideal shop-’til-you-drop then stop at Starbucks kind of area, with lots of half century or older buildings, palm trees, oozing ambiance form every pore.

So it makes a perfect place to have a Ferrari show, produced by the Southwest region of the Ferrari Club of America. Over 100 cars were accepted, and they ran the gamut from this very early 166 Mille Miglia Berlinetta (below) to the very latest offerings from Maranello.

It was interesting to see if the challengers (for the same market segment) were up to snuff; there were two Aston Martins, which looked damned good. I was surprised when one organizer, Wally Lamb, told me they didn’t really need Rolls and Bentley as in prior years but fortunately there were shops that were paying for booth space, among them the restoration shop of Steve Tillack and the Los Angeles shop, GTO Engineering. Also with a booth was Fast Toys, where you can arrange to drive on tracks like with your exotic car. This show is a great opportunity for a shop to show a car-in-progress and Tillack had a Daytona Spyder, though it was “almost done” where I prefer to see them stripped down, earlier in the process.

There were, as far as I know, no replicas, unless you want to count the ersatz early Testa Rossa fielded by Peter Giacobbi (above). Peter carefully selected the parts to build his dream roadster, including a real V12, and found a local craftsman near Orange County, CA who could work a body in aluminum that looks like it’s ready to go to the test track. Peter worked in Italy decades ago and used to buy Ferraris for a few thousand, so by building this car he’s recalling his days of glory.

Tom Shaughnessy, the legendary barn finder, showed up in a 212 Vignale (above and below>

Sixties favorites included a silver SWB 250 coupe road car, a black 275GTS with a lift off hardtop, said to be once Bill Harrah’s car when he distributed Ferraris (below). There were at least three 250 GT Spyder series II cars. A Superamerica 400 was there in silver. From a later era, there were at least three each of 288GTOs and Enzos.

They were a little short on Daytonas, saw only three, and Tillack’s tent showing the only spyder, but that’s the way the show is, some cars appear one year and then don’t the next or vice versa.

One wild car was Tony Shooshani’s open top La Ferrari Aperta in black (above). There was a dark blueish gray coupe said to be very new Ferrari model – would that be an 812? It was displayed by David Lee, a famous Rolex dealer who collects Ferraris like other people collect Rolex Daytona watches (one account says he owns nine Ferraris but he may be beyond that now). He had a sign on his tent giving the impression he is now a Ferrari dealer, not factory authorized new car dealer but “vintage” though some that he displayed are of very recent vintage. And David is not above playing with the originality as he was showing a 246 Dino with a larger 3.6 Ferrari V8 stuffed into it, in a car that weighs but 2,500 lbs!

You don’t see Ferraris painted up in wild paint schemes (a gold Dino?) but there was one that seemed to be in some sort of camouflage but I couldn’t catch the product it was promoting. I was hoping to see a 400GT or 400i or 412i cut into a cabrio but no luck. Could it be cut cars are discriminated against? Maybe nobody with one applied.

In sum, this is a great event because it allows the general public, many of whom have never seen a Ferrari up close, to attend for free and see the whole gamut of Ferraris made over the last half century. And it’s great for the Ferrari owners to get up early and enjoy the excitement of the five block long event in a place that’s got plenty of refreshments at hand….

THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss attended hoping to find subjects for his classic car oil portraits. For a list of available prints of his paintings, contact Photojournalistpro2@gmail.com

A Touch of Pasadena Pasts

Brian Winer 2012

The Pasadena event features 100 or more Ferraris parked on both sides of a major street in Old Pasadena. No matter what the audience, Ferraris are a sure fire way to get attention. The Sunday date means local stores won’t object but it brought lots of foot traffic to restaurants and shops along Colorado Boulevard, the same street that sees the annual Rose Parade (as well as Jan and Dean’s “Little old Lady From Pasadena.”)

Wallace Wyss 2016

On painting the Ferrari Daytona Spyder: I like to show cars in context in events so you would know what it was like there. The open air restaurant in the background is important because the Pasadena merchants in Old Town have created a European like setting, like being on the Champs-Élysées or Via Veneto. I admit I changed the awning to red to match the Ferrari (they call that “artist’s license,” similar to “poetic license”).