Picture this car painted brilliant silver, the way it was on the Saturday I drove it in the Spring of 1974.

This is 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 #09517GT. It's presently offered for sale for an undisclosed price (POR) by Ketcham Imports of Healdsburg California. On the day I drove the car, the asking price was $30,000.

My closest friends are all tired of hearing this story. They can turn aside while others read it.

I had spent the morning in Honolulu and had just driven my Z over the mountains back to my town of Kailua on the North Shore of Oahu. This Ferrari followed my 240Z into a parkinglot and the guy asked if he could look my car over. He said he had heard a lot about the 1970 240Z but had never seen one up close. We spent 10 minutes looking each other's cars over (simultaneously) and this was the story he told me about the Ferrari:

GTB/4 #09517GT had been built for Formula-1 Ferrari race driver Mike Parkes. Enzo Ferrari had a thing about rewarding his drivers with personal cars, made just for them. But by the time this car had been finished, Parkes had crashed badly at Spa and was no longer racing. Parkes kept the car only a courteous length of time, then sold it to F-1 driver David Piper, who quickly sold it to its then-present owner, F-1 racer Bruce Halford. Halford hated the car and gave instructions to "the car's mechanic" (do Ferraris come with their own mechanics?) to take it around the world and sell it at the best price possible. Anything above $30,000 would be his commission.
(The previous year my folks had bought a 4-bedroom split level home on a 3/4 acre corner lot in the 'burbs for $28,000).
Just like Ross did with the Royal Enfield in India, this stranger asked if he could take my Z car for a spin! Well, even my dull mind was quick to come up with a swift deal ~ you drive mine if I can drive yours!

I had never driven a Ferrari before, and I had to "remember" to breathe! It was the most impressive car I had ever taken hold of. It was only slightly larger than my Z, but with nearly 300bhp, a V-12, 4-cam "Columbo" engine with 6 dual-throat Weber DCN-45 downdraught carbs, "too-many" forward speeds and four exhausts. We drove around Kailua for 10 minutes getting used to the cars, then headed back over the mountain highway toward Honolulu, 18 miles away. We were blasting past innocent drivers of lesser vehicles at unforgivable speeds with ear-splitting exhaust, and by the time we reached the uphill side of the Pali tunnels, I was becoming more comfortable with the car.

Flying into the mile-long tunnel I opened all those Webers wide, probably deafening many cars behind me. "Walter Mitty" took the wheel, and for a thrilling moment I was Graham Hill, Ritchie Ginther, John Surtees or Lorenzo Bandini, blasting thru the tunnel at the Grand Prix de Monaco. I shifted up at 90mph and was climbing past 100 when I heard a new, weird sound bouncing around in the tunnel. It was a shrieking howl that sounded like something mechanical was about to come apart and I remember thinking, "Oh NO! I've wrecked this guy's billion-dollar Ferrari!" But all the gauges looked OK and I didn't feel any vibrations. I snatched a look in the mirror, expecting to see a cloud of white or blue smoke behind me, but was startled to see my little 240Z charging up the A-end of this Ferrari like an angry bull! The weird howl was my stock little L24 getting it's guts blown out thru my ANSA exhausts in the tunnel. This Pro-driver-mechanic, in his first 15 minutes in my car, was getting more out of it than I had in the 5 months I'd owned it. I'd had the Z up to redline twice, and didn't like the sound of it. This guy had no reservations about holding it there and shifting beyond! (I feared for the engine, but nothing broke).

So, while breathlessly blasting thru a 2-lane tunnel at over 100mph in a Billion-Dollar world-class sports-racer, with unlimited power under my foot, Webers screaming and Abarths howling, sitting in the very seat three world-famous Formula-1 racing heroes had shared, my little $2200 2.4L OHC Japanese challenger had snatched back my attention, if only for a fleeting moment, as if yelling a challenge to this great Ferrari in it's own defiant voice. That brief moment had a profound impact on me, and seared a feeling of newfound respect for my little Z car into my heart forever ~ Sort of like in the movies when the action scene slows down to a frame-by-frame SloMo and harps and angels sing in the background.

At that moment I realized I at last owned a REAL sports car.

I have a lot of memories about HLS30-02807, but this is one of the proudest. From that day on, each time I watched a Z car pushed to victory under BSR or BRE, or I beat some "better" car in the Stoplight Grand Prix, I remembered this day. And each time I flogged the car and it forgave me and performed better than I had expected it to, I remembered this day. And now, when I look at the same car sitting in my garage, I remember that day. And just as I turn out the lights at night and steal a last glance at the car, I can hear its defiant voice in the tunnel that day 34 years ago, and my Z seems to snicker at me as if to say, "I'm capable of more than you are".

This incident was freshly brought to mind during our June meeting, while we watched Bob Sharp's film of his earliest experiences in the 1970 240Z. Altho racing in "C" Production, Bob repeatedly blasted away from the "A" Production Cobras and Corvettes, led them thru the turns and held them all at bay to capture the Checker. The point? A disciplined, professional driver in a reliable car beats an amateur in a "faster" machine.

According to the history of this GTB/4, the guy didn't sell it for more than a year and a half after "my Saturday". While it's still for sale again, I'd love to park #02807 beside it for a picture! "FORMER PLAYMATES REUNITED".
Cool!

It's strange to see this magnificent Ferrari again. I find it significant that it can't find a permanent home ~ as if nobody wants to keep it for long. My little Zcar, on the other hand, was relentlessly hunted-down and is back home in its nest for the remainder of my lifetime.

I still dream of someday owning a 1960s front-engine Ferrari, or one of the Lister Jaguars, or an original Studebaker Avanti, or a '62 Corvette, or (gasp!) an Aston-Martin DB4GT. But truthfully, I could neither feed them nor maintain them. In reality, I have the best Bang-for-the-Buck car I can afford to keep and enjoy as a driver for life: "My" Z.

Life is so strange ~ and so good!

Z Ya later!
Frank T

Dude, you aught to write for a car rag.

Great read!

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My Mod List & More
At Motortopia

Thanks Barry! Absolutely true story.
Glad you enjoyed it; hope others do too.

Frank

I just came across this post while looking for your post about finding 'your' car again and I have to say you have a definite flair for writing. I felt as if I too got to drive that Ferrari through the tunnel, and my little orange Z might not be so happy to see you next time since you may be the cause of a slightly heavier right foot on my part...

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HLS3013940

Thanks Joe! Im happy to hear this story had such an effect on our New Jersey members! (I guess the Connecticut Yankees are harder to impress!)

On the day these two cars frolicked, the only differences btwn my Z then and your Z now were that I had fatter-than-stock tires on 5-slot Mags, twin ANSA exhaust, and my Z was also painted silver, like the Ferrari was then.

To unsuspecting Saturday drivers, being overtaken without warning by two maniacs at high speed, we must have looked like the Silver Arrow team of the 1938 German GP!

The story you were looking for is posted under "My incredible Z story" in our New Member Intros forum ~ that was my very first post. Thanks again for your kind comments!


Z Ya later~
Frank T
HLS30-02807 (Apr/70)

Wow, what an awsome story, and well written too. Makes me feel good about my 72. I have tommorrow off, so I'll be working on it, thinkin of her racing that red Ferrari, threw that tunnel. I sometime imagine a 240 with 12 cylinders, (hummmm, maybe I should have not sent my Jag to the junk yard.) What a beautiful Ferrari, though you're right, we got the best bang for the buck. $3g's, Cali. car, no rot, needs some things I'm working on,I'm happy.

Absolutely right, Paul! We've got the best cars on the planet for practical fun and occasional seriousness!

Frank

Frank, I somehow missed this post in June, but I am speechless. The lifetime of experiences you have had with HLS30-02807 continues to amaze me. Your writing forces the reader right into the seat beside you.

I would recommend that you combine the story of finding HLS30-02807 along with the "Saturday Afternoon" and submit them to Nissan Sport Magazine, along with pictures of course. I am sure the story of your love for HLS30-02807 will immediately be printed without hesitation. Your stories capture that odd love that we all have for our own Z's. My personal Z history does not come close to matching your experiences, but deep inside, the result is the same. An unexplainable love for an inanimate object that is unexplainable to others but which burns inside eternally, no matter how many years separate the Z experiences........I'm going for a ride, be right back....

Thanks Frank!!

Thanks Phil ~ you always know the right things to say.

I think it's cool that this inspired you to go drive your Z car!

Frank

Frank, I was thinking, I don't have any Z friends around and I need some Z wrenching time. Would do you think, how about we schedule a day where we can meet HLS30-02807 in person? I'll bring the refeshments.

HaHa! Now you're as anxious to get #2807 roadworthy as I am!

I'll see if we can work that out Phil ~ thank you!

When they have a 350 in them or twin turbo pushing 300 plus horsepower, they can be a serious car. It amazes me some of the work I've seen people do to these. I enjoy the pleasurable side. We'll be taken the Z camping soon, just the tent, sleepingbags,food and the fire. O, almost forgot the beer. It all fits nicely in the back, and makes for a nice ride.

I can picture the smile on your face driving that beautiful Ferrari, then seeing your Z-car screaming to catch up. Great story, great memories, Im sure.

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John Kish
1971 240Z - original owner

Thanks John ~ I sure did a double-take in the Ferarri's mirror!
Frank

Feb'09:

Just as a matter of interest, a recent copy of THOROUGHBRED & CLASSIC CARS lists the 275GTB/4 as being worth $900,000 today. (Quite an investment over the $30,000 Bruce Halford was asking for in 1974).

The same edition lists the 1970 240Z as being worth $18,000. I'd give more without much reservation.

Prices are converted from the British Pound Sterling, for what the cars are worth in England. Their taxes and vehicle laws are prohibitively more expensive than ours, and they lack the open spaces we enjoy to use the cars in. So we can assume the cars would fetch more here in the USA.

NOBODY has it better than we do, guys!

Frank