Gary Laughlin and the famous Maserati test driver Guerino Bertocchi look over the Maserati 3500GT at Modena Autodrome. (Photo Graham Gauld/GPL)
By Graham Gauld
An old friend came to mind just recently when I stumbled upon a photo of someone I met in the old Scuderia Ferrari premises in the Vialle Tento e Trieste in Modena, where Scuderia Ferrari began in the Alfa Romeo days of the 1930s.
Despite the fact the actual manufacturing of Ferrari’s had long since moved to Maranello, Enzo Ferrari still maintained the old premises in the center of town, but not for much longer.
That day was over sixty years ago, in September of 1957, and the man I met was tall, smartly dressed in the “preppy” style of the 1950s, dark blue blazer and flannels. He was open and friendly and introduced himself as Gary Laughlin from Fort Worth, Texas “…..and I’m in oil.”