Cars of Michael McCafferty

Lots more exotic car photos on this page. Scroll down.

Confessions of a Car Nut

Introduction

If you met me on the street, you would probably think I am a relatively normal person. However, in the interests of full disclosure I must report that I suffer from an incurable genetic sickness: a lust for neat cars.

I'm not a car dealer, although my father was a very good one. And while that in itself does not prove that I am suffering from a genetic disorder, I invite you to read on...

There is a basic principle that governs the "Car Nut" (as we are known to the medical profession): "The number of cars owned will expand to fill the space and budget available". This is McCafferty's First Law. A perfect example is junk yards.

My fantasy home in the desert had lots of space. A four car fantasy garage and an airplane hangar. When I lived there full time I had six cars. Now that I'm living on the coast I'm down to 1 car, simply because I have only one parking space.

My kind of Car Nut disorder is particularly pernicious. I lust after exotics. I am relentlessly driven to own and/or drive the most extraordinary of automobiles.

Pictured above are the cars of the Mikie's Fun House #2 era. In the foreground is the 1959 Scaglietti Corvette (V8), then the white 1992 Mitsubishi 3000 GT-VR4 Twin Turbo (V6) (my daily driver 1992-1996, a fantastic road car!), followed by the blue and white striped '96 Viper GTS (V10), and last in line is the 1967 Ferrari 275GTB/4 (V12).


The Early Years

I grew up with this car sickness. My father also suffered from it. He was a Ford dealer from 1954-1990 (?) (McCafferty Ford, Langhorne, PA) and as a kid I would love to hang out at the dealership. It was like a fantasy land to me. All the different cars, the tools, the lifts, the mechanics, the grease and oil and gas, the bodywork, the salesmen with fat wads of cash in their pockets, the sounds and smells and sights.

Yeah, I would have to blame it on my father. He would take me to places like the Indy 500, or Watkins Glen to watch the races, and tell me stories of legends like Barney Oldfield, Nuvolari, and so many more.

I would love it the best when the Ford Racing team did their pre-race preparation in the secret service bays of my father's dealership, just before taking the finished cars over to the race track next door (the Langhorne Speedway, now gone). There I could meet and shake hands with greats like Fireball Roberts, and Tiny Lund while wandering around in a maze of high performance tires and engines. Christmas couldn't have been better!

It wasn't just limited to race cars and Fords, because Dad brought neat stuff home all the time, one of the advantages of having a car dealership. He had some totally awesome rides that I remember: a drop dead gorgeous black Jaguar XK-150s roadster (Click here to read that great story!), a Pantera, MG-TF, and even one day he brought home a 1/4 midget dirt track car.

Mostly, he would bring home a Ford, either a neighbor-customer's car in for service, or a demo unit, or maybe an interesting used car. It was always something to look forward to, especially in autumn when the new models came out.

My first car was a 1950 Ford 4-door, mostly rusted out, only 150 bucks. Although it was my first car, I never really had much of a love affair with it. It was just plain butt ugly. Late one night I had driven it off road to go ice skating at a nearby lake. When I went to start it up later, it was totally dead. I walked to a phone and called my father and asked if he had any suggestions. He said "Do you have a match?" When I said yes, his short answer left no room for misunderstanding: "Burn it!" I should have done it, of course, just to have fun with him, but I needed the transportation, so I figured out how to get it started on my own, which was probably what he was telling me, in a roundabout Dad kind of way.

I drove it for maybe a year, until my license was suspended for a couple of months. So I took the engine apart to see how it worked. Never got it back together, figured it was better to buy another car for a hundred bucks than to put the first one in running condition. I owned only one other 4-door car.

The next one was "Blue Cloud", a light blue '50 Chevy coupe with Powerglide (automatic) transmission. It had a great back seat, a very desirable feature for cars of my early years.

One of my favorites was a 1948 Ford coupe. It looked like it was painted with a broom, in a dust storm, by a drunk on a motorcycle. Work with me, I'm trying to draw a picture here. Anyway, it was a lot of fun to drive, partly because it made a lot of noise with it's flathead V-8 and blown out muffler.

One of my more unforgettable cars wasn't even mine. I was just borrowing it for the day from my father, who was getting some work done on it for his mother. But this was no ordinary grandmotherly car. This one was a 1956 Ford, all white and with a black racing stripe running across the hood, over the roof and down the trunk. You don't see too many grandmothers driving cars with racing stripes, especially in those days. She complained to him that she was always having trouble finding her car in shopping center parking lots, because a white 56 Ford was rather common. So he took her car and had it striped. And she liked it! I love that story.

Anyway, here I am driving this racy looking 56 Ford, I'm right out in front of High School, everybody is hanging out front, catching a smoke before class starts, and I'm cruising down the street, trying to find the ashtray in this unfamiliar car, and when I look up there is a car stopped dead in front of me and I have no place to go. I can still see the hood of my grandmother's car crumpling up in slow motion, and remember my face being slammed into the wheel. And the sound of the crash: as the guy I hit was pushed into the guy in front of him, and that guy was pushed into the next one, etc. There were five wrecked cars right in front of high school, and that McCafferty kid, that constant troublemaker, was at the root of it. Injuries were slight, I got the worst of it, and it wasn't that bad. Those were the days before frivolous lawsuits, or else I would still be paying for whiplash claims.

"GoldenRod" came next, a '54 Mercury hardtop, yellow with black roof, rolled and pleated yellow and black imitation leather interior, and continental kit for the spare. Mellow glass pack dual exhausts. Automatic. That car would cruise forever. Drove it 22 hours non-stop (except for refueling) from the Mason Dixon line to Ft. Lauderdale Florida for Spring Break, with 5 other guys along for the ride to help pay for gas.

Another college car was the "Green Giant", a 1957 Ford Fairlane with a police interceptor engine, stick shift, and looking very mild in green and white paint. It made many high speed runs between the local girls-only colleges and my guys-only college hidden out in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains in the panhandle of Maryland.

To celebrate the miracle of my graduation from college, my father presented me with a poppy red '64 Mustang, a 3 speed, six cylinder coupe. I drove it for about a year and traded it in on one with a lot more power: a 1965 Mustang GT Hi-Performance convertible. I drove that car for two years, all over the states of Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, doing my duty as an IBM sales rep selling computers in Appalachia (and I actually sold a bunch of 'em!). Many weekends, I raced the car in SCCA rallies and autocrosses.


First Jag
and
First BMW Race Car


The dark blue 1967 Jaguar XK-E, 6 cylinder, roadster, was the sweetest looking car of the Sixties, my daily driver for 3 years. I had it modified to haul an open trailer for my BMW 700 race car. (click here to learn more about my auto racing history) A lot of good memories in that Jag. Drove it away from the wedding. Drove it all over the east coast to races. On one of its first trips, to Watkins Glen for the US Grand Prix, I was stopped for a traffic light, but the line of traffic was backed up onto a two lane bridge. I was last in the line and in my rear view mirror I saw a big Oldsmobile come thundering my way, getting bigger and bigger in the mirror with no signs of slowing down. Didn't he see me? The whole LINE of cars? Obviously not. He hit me and pushed me into the car in front of me, so my brand new Jag was badly crunched on both ends, a very sad sight. That car was a survivor, however. On another occasion some lady ran over the front of my Jag in a parking lot. Ok, so maybe I was going a little fast for a parking lot, but it was definitely her fault.
I liked the Jag so much I got another one a couple of years later, a mellow beige 1969 XK-E Roadster. Everyone says how much trouble the early Jags were, but for some reason I never had a bit of trouble with the first one. However, one rainy night the second Jag lived up to its reputation and shorted out the electrical system, leaving me looking for more reliability, and more power. (You just can't have enough horsepower!)

The Pantera

A 1972 Pantera was my daily driver for about 6 months, until the doctor said that I had to sell it because it was hurting my back, which needed surgery. Bought that car brand new (they're worth 5 times the price now), from my uncle's Ford dealership in Trenton, NJ. I remember bringing home the Christmas tree on the roof, tied down with ropes. I also remember that it could go from 0-100 faster than any other car I had driven to date. What a rocket!

First Ferrari


I first saw the painfully beautiful lines of the 1965 Ferrari 275 GTB Short Nose, at a Jaguar dealership in Wilmette, Illinois. I was looking for something "different" to drive, and nothing was turning me on until the salesman took me back to the service department to show me what they had just taken in trade on a new Jag. It was definitely in rough shape, but it was beautiful to me! Only $8,500! (in 1989-90 these cars would sell for more than a million. If I had only known then!) I took the car home and drove it very little because of the poor weather and road conditions in the Chicago area. Sold it two years later for exactly what I paid for it.

1951 Mercury


Before moving to San Diego, I fell in love with a dark blue '51 Mercury 4-door, with the "suicide doors" in the rear. The wife and kids drove it all the way from Chicago to San Diego, I drove a U-Haul truck with all our stuff in it.

Second Ferrari

The Fine Car Store, on Sports Arena Blvd. in San Diego, had my next car and it just brought a lump to my throat when I first saw it. It was the perfect shade of burgundy, with black interior and it was in museum condition. A 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB Long Nose, (2 cam, torque tube version), with only 11,000 miles. They wanted the astoundingly high price of $22,500 for it, but I paid it anyway because I just HAD to have it. I drove that car every day for two plus years. It was sweet.

Finally sold it when I just couldn't afford it any more, but not after I had done everything humanly possible to hold on to it. I remember selling my camera so I could buy tires for the car. But I had a big monthly payment on it ($385/mo was a lot of money to me then), and it needed paint and repairs, so there was no alternative but to sell it. And after two years of beating this poor Ferrari with daily driving, sitting outside in the sun and salt air, I got exactly what I had paid for it. Couldn't argue with that!

Fast forward to 2019, and this exact car, the one I drove every day for two years, the identical serial number (8603) was sold at Pebble Beach for $1,985,000 to a dealer in France, who quickly flipped it for a handsome profit. Of course it was fully restored, but it had virtually the same miles on it as when I sold it. So I figure I had more fun with this car than any of its many owners. For extensive photos of the car at auction, click here.

Next, I went practical, with a 1980 Camaro, chocolate brown with tan interior. When the bankruptcy finally came, I lost the car and found myself walking for the first time in a long, long time. I had to borrow cars from friends so I could make sales calls so I could sell some computer services so I could eat. One of the cars I would borrow regularly was Steve Hopkins' Lincoln Continental. You could put twenty bucks worth of premium in that hog and it would barely move the needle off empty. Really discouraging, because it would burn the gas almost as fast as you could put it in. But it was great incentive to sell something when I got to my destination!

Then there was a '72 Chevy Vega, a car so flimsy that it must have been designed to be disposable. Bought it for $400, wholesale, and I finally gave it away to good friend Katie Baxley. It was so much trouble I couldn't bear to ask money for it because I knew she would need it for repairs.

Soon after there was a little red Sunbeam Alpine roadster, cute as a bug in a rug, but it was always coming loose in the head bolts and blowing head gaskets, overheating, and finally it just seized up. Didn't mind seeing that bucket of trouble going down the road that last time.

Third Mustang

Coming out of bankruptcy, I borrowed $1500 from good friend Susie O'Brien so I could get a 1965 Mustang coupe, red, real nice shape. It was my only car for a long time. I really liked that car, but after several years exposed to the oceanfront weather, it was rusted through and falling apart around me. Business was getting good, so I could afford something a little better.

New BMW M6

I got my first new car in a long time, a BMW M6, dark blue with blue/gray interior. It was a decent looking ride, but eventually I needed more power, and something more sporty. This BMW was my first German road car and when I sold it I thought it would be my last.

There is an old saying among Ferrari owners: The difference between a German car and a Ferrari is like the difference between artificial insemination and mad, passionate lovemaking. Once you go Ferrari, all other automobiles are boring.

That's where the 1990 Mitsubishi 3000 GT-VR4 comes in. It's the white car pictured at the top of this page. At the time I was looking for an interesting replacement for the BMW M6, something with more pizzazz. I had never heard of the Mitsubishi 3000 before and was certainly not thinking that there was anything offered by Japan that could be of interest. Then I drove it, in the rain, at night. Nailed the gas at a light, and with the all-wheel drive it came off the line like a shot, and straight as an arrow. I was so impressed I bought it on the spot and drove it daily for about 6 years.

My 4th Ferrari

The Ultimate Road Machine

When I went bankrupt in 1983, I had to give up my prized Ferrari 275GTB (mentioned above). For the next 9 years my goal was to recapture this prize, and I worked long hours in front of my computer screen, on top of which was a model of this great car. It was to remind me of my bankruptcy, and that toys should not be bought on credit, and to keep me focused on my goals.

In 1993, after the sale of my software company, I could finally fulfill this fantasy, but even better than I imagined.

This is the 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4. Only 330 were made. It is a 4-cam, V-12 engine of 3.3 liters and 300 hp, has 6 dual throat Weber carbs, and has a top speed over 159 MPH at a redline of 7600 RPM.

The numbers alone cannot possibly describe the most extraordinary sounds it produces when flat out, uphill along a twisting mountain road. And of course the picture alone could never do justice to the lovely lines of this Italian sculpture in steel, each of which was made entirely by hand by a genius with a hammer and a torch.

This one had only 2,900 miles when I bought it in 1993. It had been sitting, apart, in a garage in Augusta Georgia for 20 years waiting for me to come along and fulfill its destiny on the road. I had it outfitted with "Historic" California license plates, and drove it only on the nicest of days, to special events, such as the Ferrari Owners Club drives out in the mountains and deserts around San Diego.

I sold this car in late 1999, after putting less than 5,000 miles on it in more than 6 years. Although it is one fantastic machine, it's just not suitable as a "daily driver".

A Most Exotic Corvette

The 1959 Scaglietti Corvette

Way back in 1959 Carroll Shelby, Jim Hall, and Gary Laughlin decided to build a special car that would challenge the world domination of Ferrari in the racing game. As any car nut knows, Shelby finally did it in 1963 with his Ford powered Cobra. However, his first attempt was with the Chevrolet Corvette based prototype shown here.

The body was hand built by Sergio Scaglietti, the same builder of many of Ferrari's most beautiful shapes, including the 275GTBs mentioned herein.

There were only three of these cars made, all are still in existence. It has been featured in several magazines, books and car shows. I exhibited this rare and important automobile at Pebble Beach and Torrey Pines in '98 and the Rodeo Drive Concours in '99.

I bought it in '93, as an investment, and also thinking I would campaign it as a vintage racer, but the car handled like a truck so I never really drove it except once on the Pebble Beach Tour in 1998. I sold it at the Barrett Jackson auction in January 2000 to the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. As an investment, it wasn't that great. Cars generally are not good investments.

For more information about this car, including complete history and more photos, click here and read the article "Cobra Concept" that was published in Vette Magazine in 1997.

Viper GTS


The 1996 Viper GTS was the most powerful (450hp, v-10, 188mph) American automobile available when I became mesmerized by its awesome good looks and bucket loads of torque. This blue and white Batmobile was my daily driver for about 5 years. Just smash down on the gas and it goes FAST, and NOW. I really like the visceral feeling you get with that car. Lots of G-forces. Great for driving the mountain roads between Del Mar and the desert. Painfully bad seats, but what fun!

The Viper is so painful to drive, and has such a low ground clearance in front, that I figured I needed something a little more mellow for getting around town. Everywhere you go in this car people are pointing and gawking at you and giving you the thumbs-up or mahalo signs. There is just no way you can be anonymous in this car. It's amazing that a hermit like me could stay with such a car for so long.

In the days of conspicuous consumption, when I owned the Ferrari, the Scaglietti Corvette, Viper GTS, Mustang, Mitsubishi Twin Turbo, and the Jag all at the same time, I had an airplane hangar that I converted into a home (Mikie's Fun House #2), so I had plenty of space to put all these toys. I kept the Ferrari 275GTB/4 and the Scaglietti in my bedroom, along with the biplane. That was actually the Genesis of the madness, the biplane. Somehow I got it into my head that I wanted to have my biplane in my bedroom, and so I made it happen. This was not one of my better investments! Here's a photo:


(click to enlarge)

Fourth Mustang

Nostalgia got the best of me so I got a '65 Mustang convertible just like I owned and raced a long time ago. Same color, same options, identical in every way. Stunningly good looking car. It was intended to be a keeper, but I kept it for only about 4 years. The Mustang, no matter how it may take me back to my youth, is just not a great general purpose vehicle. It lacks so many comfort and safety features. Click on the title, or the photo to read more about this great car.

Third Jag

In October 2000 I took delivery of the first 2001 Jag XK8 convertible to be sold in San Diego. It has a Pacific blue exterior, ivory interior, GPS navigation display system and heated seats. A very civilized boulevard cruiser, and my first automatic transmission in about 30 years. The Jag was my daily driver for 5 and a half years, and I only put 33,000 miles on it in all that time. Hermits don't get out much!

First Special Order Ferrari (#5)

On April 3, 2000, the day after the biplane flew away to be sold, I ordered a 2000 Ferrari 550 Maranello (485 hp, v-12, 199mph, 0-60 in 4.3 seconds) from Ferrari of Orange County, for delivery in December 2000. The plan was that by then the biplane would be sold and the Ferrari would be paid for with the money from the biplane. Then, the Viper gets sold. Well, that was the plan, but you know plans have a way of changing...

The Maranello arrived in November 2000, a couple of weeks early. I ordered it in "Tour de France" medium blue, with Bordeaux leather, the same color as the cockpit in the biplane, so I would feel right at home. Other options ordered include red calipers and the modular wheels. It came standard with a 6 CD changer mounted in the trunk. It has no spare tire, only an air bottle for emergency use. I figured I would do some racing with it as well, but then that never really happened... unless you count that run in the desert with the Ferrari Owners' Club, (see Driving Impressions story below). I picked up a few paint chips in the nose on that trick, but it was well worth the memories. Sure gets the heart rate up! There was only one other time that I went faster on the ground, and that was in the Concorde, which takes off only after getting up to 250mph on the runway. Yikes!!!

When you order a new Ferrari, the dealer takes your substantial (but refundable) deposit, and just puts your name on a list, and you wait on that list until the Ferrari factory calls the dealer and allows them to order a car.

That call came on June 12, 2000, and I was faxed the form, in Italian and English, where I indicate how I want the dedication plate to read. This was the first official Ferrari document and it now appears as if I am on the official record books of the Ferrari factory. Totally historic! (I have owned 4 different Ferraris over the years, but this was the first time I ordered one new from the factory.)

Ferrari Maranello Driving Impressions

The Maranello is truly an outstanding automobile. The suspension is pure magic. The driver feels everything he needs to feel, but it is never too much.

The Maranello is a rock. It is unbelievably strong in its construction, and very powerful, but you don't notice the power like you do in a Viper GTS. The Maranello is almost boring to drive at speed. There are no surprises. The Viper by comparison is a bucket of bolts with lots more wiggly things happening in the suspension. I think one must stay awake when driving a Viper. The Maranello is a dart. There are no emotions when driving a Maranello. I remember driving it on a run through the desert, with the San Diego Ferrari Owners Club... It was barely a two lane road, with a not insignificant crown on it, and it was covered with light sand and pebbles in spots, and I passed them while going at least 160, and it was certainly a very risky thing to do, with the road being so narrow, and I had never travelled that road before, and I was passing several fast Ferraris in a long line... but I felt somehow strangely confident when I should have been wetting my pants in fear. The Maranello made it all seem so ordinary...

The best times in such a supercar are solitary moments, as it is no favor to subject a passenger to the dangers of pushing up against the limits of the Law of Physics.

I kept a pilot's log book documenting every drive in this awesome car. It had only 2000 miles on it when it went away forever. It's a long story about why it happened, so I'll save it for when we meet, but the bottom line is that, once again, I became a man who has sold his Ferrari, and a man who is looking forward to his next Ferrari.

More photos of my Maranello.


Second Corvette

After 5 and a half years of boulevard cruising in my Jag XK8 convertible, and with only 32,500 miles on it, I just couldn't take it anymore, and had an itch I couldn't scratch without more horsepower and more toys. One fine Sunday I did the deed and ordered my new car with these specifics:

2 seat convertible, Engine: aluminum block V8, 6 liter, 400 Horsepower, 400 lb./torque @ 4400 RPM, 6500 RPM redline 0-60 in 4.2 seconds (yikes!!)

6-speed paddle shift w/ automatic modes

Candy-apple red metallic paint with black interior and top

Top: power-folding, includes power tonneau cover, and glass rear window with integral defogger

Seats: leather trim, heated, 6-way power adjustable.

Steering column tilt & power telescoping.

Universal home remote transmitter 3-channel programmable integrated garage door opener

Mirrors: outside power remote control, heated, w/driver side auto-dim. Mirror: inside manual day/night w/ compass.

Headlamps: xenon, high intensity discharge, with automatic exterior lamp control. Fog lamps: dual halogen. Under hood light. Daytime running lamps

Memory package: presets for mirrors, steering, driver's seat. Voice activated navigation system. Keyless entry & ignition. Head-Up Display: includes readouts for street mode, track mode with g-meter, vehicle speed, engine rpm and readings from key gauges including coolant temperature and oil pressure

AM/FM/CD & satellite radio with Bose premium 7-speaker system and MP3 playback

Performance package includes: stiffer springs, stabilizer bar, shocks, big brakes with cross-drilled rotors

Wipers: intermittent Antenna: hidden, integral

Air bags: driver/passenger, dual-stage, frontal and side impact

Air conditioning: dual-zone, electronic, with air filtration including pollen filter

Run-flat tires. Tire pressure monitoring system. Wheels: Five-spoke Painted Aluminum, 18" x 8.5" front and 19" x 10.0" rear

Power Rack and pinion steering, speed sensitive Suspension: 4-wheel independent Traction control Anti-lock brakes (ABS)

Weight 3199 lbs.

Actually I got it because it has an integral antenna. The Jag has a retractable stick-out-of-the-fender antenna (how prehistoric!). Oh, OK, maybe also because of the paddle shifter. And the 400hp, of course. And the nav system on the Jag was suffering with a database that's 5+ years old, (no updates!) So it can't find some of the newer streets, exits, etc.

What is impressive is that the Corvette has a 0-60 time a bit faster than my former Ferrari 550 Maranello, but at one quarter the price, and with more options!

I feel like I made a "wise transportation purchase decision" after considering all the alternatives, and didn't get carried away with emotion! Maybe the color was an emotional decision. My last 3 cars were blue.

This awesome machine was delivered in late June, 2006. Within a few days, I took off on a 54-day, 5,000 mile road trip touring the western 11 states and shooting pool and driving fast and generally doing what any guy would do if he had the time, and the car... See this link for more on that great ride: Fast Mikie's Epic Road Trip. It's a blog detailing the day by day adventure.

The Airstream Adventure



It all started with my need to be close to the ocean, real close. Plan A would be to buy a house on the beach and be sublimely happy living in the same place. Plan B saves millions and has some interesting benefits. If my house is a travel trailer, then I can park it at any of a wide variety of beaches. And, there are no property taxes year after year.

But that's long range planning. I'm not moving out of my condo anytime soon, I expect, but the concept of a portable home at the beach finally pushed me over the edge. With an Airstream trailer I would need something un-exotic, a big SUV or pickup truck. The Airstream salesman suggested I get a Toyota FJ Cruiser, which I did, but it had major disadvantages as a tow vehicle, so I gave it to my daughter to replace her 200,000 mile 12 year old Toyota.

I never owned a truck, so I figured it was about time, and I got a Toyota Tundra pickup, brand new 2010. Four wheel drive, of course, with a big V8. I added a SnugTop camper shell, and a BedSlide for full access to everything. It easily pulled the Airstream travel trailer (2009 Sport 17).

After 50 years of driving neat cars, fast, and then driving a pickup truck and towing a trailer, well, it was a new experience, to say the least. I learned a lot, and enjoyed it immensely. I kept a blog of my experiences at The Adventures of Airstream Mikie.


First Audi

I lasted a whole year driving nothing but the pickup truck. And then in late October 2010, I just couldn't take it any more and finally had to get a road car, and I figured I would try the Audi S5. It was my first Audi and an excellent daily driver.

This was my first new car that got some significant customizing, including new grille, Brembo brakes with drilled rotors, nicer exhaust sounds, pinstriping, pedals, performance chip, tint, and more. Read all about it in the blog: Some Guy's Audi S5. With lots of photos, of course.

Sixth Ferrari



Finally, on my 75th birthday, I treated myself to this 2017 Ferrari California T. This car is one of the last ones built. When I made the decision to get one, new production was stopped to switch over to building its successor, the Portofino, so I had to look around for a suitable used car.

I got lucky! At the time there were about 175 used California models for sale, many of them were the older non-turbocharged models, and this was the only car that was the exact color combination I wanted and it was gently used for only 3 months, with only 1,775 miles, when I found it for sale on Long Island, NY. This is the sixth Ferrari I have owned over the years, and certainly the best all around daily driver.

Within a couple of weeks after the car was delivered, I took off on a 12 day road trip around California and it performed flawlessly. It sure is a great smile generator!

It has been a wait of 17 years since my previous Ferrari, the 550 Maranello, to find a suitable Ferrari daily driver, and I'm feeling that it has definitely been worth the wait.

Last Daily Driver



After almost 3 years of daily driving with the Ferrari, it just wasn't doing it for me any more. I was always a bit disappointed with the sounds of the car due to the twin turbos. There's just nothing like a naturally aspirated engine, and especially a bigger bore American V8. So that's what I got. This is my 5th Mustang (see Mustang stories above) in the 55 years that Ford has been pumping them out.

This one is about as good as they get, with the 5.0 liter V8 (305 cubic inches), 460 horsepower and a 10 speed automatic which is an excellent transmission that keeps you in the peak power band all the way to 7,500 RPM max. This is unquestionably the best Mustang I've ever owned, best power, best handling (with the Special Performance Package, 19" wheels, with big Brembo brakes up front!), and best interior (leather seats, heated and cooled). The tech in this car if off the hook, far superior to the Ferrari. This is a real delight to drive.

First order of business is to de-badge it for that sleeper low-profile look, and get a proper iPhone holder, and maybe some racing 5-point seat belts.

Among The Missing

There are several cars missing from this list. I can't remember where in the chronology I should mention the 1929 Ford roadster basket case I had in high school. It always remained a basket case. And the two 1937 Ford roadsters, neither of which was running, and came as a set. Never did anything with them, although they sport one of the finer-looking grilles ever put on an automobile.

And somewhere in the high school years there was an old English Austin convertible. I remember throwing the left rear wheel, in the rain, at night, going fast, downhill, around a sharp right turn. What kept us from rolling over were my two big crew team friends, Tom Reynolds and Barry Dunleavy, their sheer mass holding it down on the inside of the turn. We were having a philosophical discussion just seconds before the incident. I was asking my friends what they thought about God, and the next life, and whether they would really mind if they died right at that moment. Then all of a sudden the wheel comes off and we are bounced around pretty good, and of course nobody had any idea what was happening. Scared the livin' bejeezus out of us. Incidents like that get you thinking that God has a sense of humor!

Wish List

At a current price of over $35-50 million, this one's out of my reach, but if I should ever win the lottery, you'd see me smiling ear to ear in this little red critter, for sure! This is the 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa with the v-12 engine. Less than 2 dozen were built. I remember a friend bought one of these, as a basket case, a long time ago, and paid $7,500 for it. We all thought he was loony-tunes. Kinda lost track of him over the years, but I sure hope he kept it!



The Ferrari "Enzo" is much more affordable, but still out of my league. It sure is visually stunning, and the 217mph top speed and 0-62 time of 3.65 seconds would be even more stunning to experience.




The 1937 Talbot Lago, with body by Figoni and Falaschi, is my favorite closed design. The lines are, to me, extraordinarily beautiful. And to think I almost bought one of these cars for $40,000 a long time ago, but didn't because it was just too expensive. Today the car is worth millions! However, a gorgeous replica "Talbo" can be built to your specs for a lot less.




This is the Jaguar XK-180, a one-off "concept" car not officially intended for production. If they do produce them in quantity, I'll be one of the first in line!