swaters

A photo taken before the 1984 Mille Miglia. Paul Schouwenburg with the champagne, son Lennart in the foreground. This is his life.

Right from the start you realize that Paul Schouwenburg is a fellow traveler. The minute he writes of finding that an Alfa 1900 is strangely out of time due to the distributor being inserted into the block at 360 degrees out you know he’s a car guy. When he takes a much modified Mini Cooper and terrorizes half of Holland you can relate; he has problems with the Bosch solenoid on his Ferrari, you recall having the same adventures in good starting; testing an old aluminum head, he pours water into it to do a pressure test and finds it would make a great sprinkler, we sympathize; when he restored cars on his own, towed them with ropes, or drove them home on a wing and a prayer, you’ve been there; the pain is understood when he is beaten in a deal to buy an ultra-rare Ferrari. When he had to borrow money from his father to buy that 212 Inter with engine problems, it rings bells. [Read more…] about Ferrari Fever: A Life