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Confiscated By The FBI – Ferrari 250 GTO #4757GT

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When Enzo Ferrari delayed the delivery of Count Giovanni Volpi di Misurata’s second Ferrari for the 1962 Le Mans 24 hours the Count turned to several former employees of the Ferrari team to convert his 250 GT SWB into a GTO challenger the infamous Ferrari “Breadvan”.

Ferrari 250 GTO, Sonoma Historics,

It would appear that Count Volpi and Enzo made up their differences the following season when the Count is believed to have taken delivery of today’s featured GTO chassis #4757GT after it had been entered in the 1963 Le Mans 24 Hours by the factory for Carlo Mario Abate and Fernand Tavano who crashed the car after completing 105 laps from 12th on the grid.

Ferrari 250 GTO, Sonoma Historics,

Carlo Abate is then known to have driven #4757 to class victories on four hillclimbs before it was entered in the 1963 Tour de France by Scuderia SSS Repubblica di Venezia for Fernand Tavano and Lorenzo Bandini who retired from the event after an accident.

Ferrari 250 GTO, Sonoma Historics,

Georges Marquet acquired the for the 1964 season and under the Ecurie Francorchamps umbrella competed in at least a dozen events including races and hillclimbs winning the Coupes Benelux, Zandvoort, Anvers hillclimb and Bomeree hillclimb events outright.

Ferrari 250 GTO, Sonoma Historics,

There after the car made it’s way to the USA via Jaques Swatters in 1965.

In 1982 Christopher Murray of Middletown Rhode Island is said to have bought #4757 for $345,000 two years before fleeing to Spain to avoid a drugs related indictment.

Murray was murdered in Spain in 1987 the same year the FBI who had confiscated the car in December 1984 sold it through a sealed bid auction for $1.6 million.

From 1988 to 2009 #4757 resided in The Netherlands and returned to the USA in 2010 when it’s present owner bought the car.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton who took these photographs of #4757 at last years Sonoma Historics meeting.

Thanks for joining me on this “Confiscated By The FBI” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at only surviving Le Mans Bristol. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Raced, Crashed, Stolen & Returned – Ferrari 250 GTO #3387

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With the price of Ferrari 250 GTO’s in the 20 – 30 million US dollar range it occurred to me recently that to be a mere millionaire is probably no longer enough to purchase one of the 39 cars built.

Today’s featured Ferrari 250 GT0 #3387 was sold to Luigi Chinetti in March 1962 after the factory had done some testing with it at Monza earlier in the month.Chinetti entered the car for Phil Hill and Oliver Gendebien in the Sebring 12 hours under his NART banner and came home 2nd OA, 1st in class.

Ferrari 250 GTO, Goodwood Revival

Bob Grossman bought the car and entered it for himself and George Roberts jr in the ’62 Le Mans 24 hours coming home 6th overall 3rd in class behind two more GTO’s. Grossman scored one more class win at Bridgehampton in ’62 before selling the car to the Gammino family.

Mike Gammino raced the car through ’63 and ’64 scoring 4 class wins and 2 outright victories, during practice for ’64 Daytona 2000kms Mike crashed the car and ended up replacing the body with a new body from Scaglietti

Ferrari 250 GTO, Petersen Automotive Museum

Gammino sold the car back to Grossman who drove #3387 to another class victory at Nassau in 1965 before the car retired from active competition and was sold to K F White.

In 1979 R Finger bought the car and eleven years later a Kawasaki motorcycle dealer masterminded a plan to relieve Dr Finger of #3387 after offering the car to interested parties from his fax machine.

Ferrari 250 GTO, Goodwood Revival

Six men from the Savanah manged to steal #3387 and K F White showed up with a US$ 4.3 million cashiers cheque, but backed out of the deal when he suspected the car was a fake because the “real” #3387 was confirmed to be with Dr R Finger. The FBI picked up #3387 later that afternoon returning the car to it’s rightful owner and sending the perpetrators on their way to a Federal Penitentiary.

The car as seen today is seen wearing the colours the original body wore at the Sebring in 1962.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for his photo of #3387 seen at the Petersen Automotive Museum in 2011, the two other photo’s were taken at the 2012 Goodwood Revival.

Thanks for joining me on this “Raced, Crashed, Stolen & Returned” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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