I never had children but I imagine anyone who does who also has a leaning towards the rational must have a few heart strings pulled when their dearly beloved little might is struck with doubt and asks “Is Father Christmas real ?”

Last year I went to a friends daughters wedding, the only wedding present she asked for from her family was a pair of shoes, I’ll be honest the price of them nearly brought tears to my eyes. When I was talking to my friends daughter afterwards she candidly let slip that she would have been perfectly happy if they had been fakes because they were so uncomfortable she could only imagine wearing them the once.

A couple of weeks ago I was at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu and I was looking at what was labelled as a Shelby Cobra thinking there is something about those funky stripes that is not quite right even if the license plate is correct for the period, turns out the car really was a Shelby Cobra with a small amount of history, but it’s owner had chosen to deviate from the common Cobra straight pair of stripes. I felt a little silly having my suspicions raised by those non standard stripes.

Somewhere in the late ’80’s early ’90’s a titled gentleman who’s family motto is “A cat stroked is gentle” sold a Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta, to the president/director of a well known software company for top dollar, over $500,000. Sometime later a real 250 SWB emerged in France bearing the same chassis number and it became evident upon further inspection that the titled gentleman had in fact sold a replica based on on a 250 GTE and so had another 2 years added to his five year sentence.

I guess the moral of these anecdotes is that it is very easy to be deceived by what we see, deceptions can happen for all sorts of reason’s some good some bad, therefore it is always wise to adhere to the Roman saying ‘Caveat Emptor’. For a car nut like myself it means always keeping an open mind and enjoying the process of finding out the stories behind the paintwork.

The car featured in these fabulous photo’s by Geoffrey Horton taken at the recent Marin Sanoma Concours d’Elegance started life as a Ferrari 330 GT chassis #7123 just like the one John Lennon once owned.

In 1965 chassis #7123 was originally sold to Auto House Becker in Germany painted silver with a black interior.

The next time #7123 surfaced was in 2002 in California. I am not sure when the replica ’59/’60 250 TR body was added but the interior looks well weathered suggesting the owner/s have had a lot of fun with her.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for the photo’s.

Thanks for joining me on this “But Is It A Real Car” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”. I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a look at a Lotus VI. Don’t forget to come back now !