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Ferrari
is my Favourite Colour
by Shannon Lee Mannion
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| When
you hear about a guy who’s got two Ferraris, you want to tap
him on the shoulder and say, “Uh, Sir, I believe one of those
Ferraris is mine,” because how many people have one Ferrari,
much less two. Obviously, this is a mistake in ownership assignation
by the Big Guy at the Licensing Department in the sky. Fair’s
fair. One Ferrari per person. That’s what it says in the Big
Blue Book. |
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 nd
then, as you mutter something not-nice about horseshoes and rich,
snobby guys, fully intent on hating Mr. Two-Ferrari Owner, you meet
Jeff Rowe at his home. He’s got a broad smile under his salt
‘n pepper moustache, eyes that gleam behind his rounded glasses
and a firm handshake that says, ‘Hi, glad to see you,’
not ‘Glad you’re here to admire my cars.’ |
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He’s just
a regular guy. He lives in a two-story house with white shutters,
has a charming wife, two young daughters, and a golden retriever.
OK, so the house is on the Rideau River, another reason to resent
Mr. Waterfront Property, but when he bought 20 years ago, it wasn’t
considered as chichi to live within spitting distance from motorboats
buzzing about like overblown gnats. And now there’s the odd
jet boat on the system. No, Jeff doesn’t own a jet boat, too.
Don’t get carried away.
If you
ask Jeff, a senior geophysicist who works for a Dutch company,
Fugro Airborn, a Dutch company, if he got carried away buying
two Ferraris, he’ll tell you no. “I was clever with
my money and I made a good investment.” But this isn’t
why he has these cars. He explains, “When I was a kid, I
started loving cars and could name every sports car that drove
by. I grew up in Philadelphia but I had a cousin in Florida who
was six years older than I and he had cars.” Ya, and he
inspired his kid-cousin to own a succession of sports cars, including
a 110 1600S Alpine that he restored when he lived in Paris, France,
a 190 SL Mercedes that he says was “rock solid,” along
with a Fiat Spider and later, a Mazda RX7 that he enjoyed racing
in the Slalom Series with a motorsport club in the early ‘80s.
Are you getting the picture now that Jeff Rowe just wasn’t
some rich guy who bought himself a toy? He is demonstrably committed
to the marque. Not only in the Ferrari 250GT Register he started
in 1980 but by the fact that he has successfully documented 70%
of the other 250s left in the world. Granted, there were only
200 of these Grandturismos ever built, but how easy do you think
it is to find a Ferrari in a haystack as big as the world.
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1960 250GT Pinin Farina
Series II Cabriolet Ferrari
produced between 1959 - 1962, only 200 made
Engine: three litre, V-12 engine
Horse power: 240 @ 7000 rpm
Compression ratio: 8.8:1
Carburetion: three double Webers, 36DC3 or 40DCL3
Brakes: Dunlop disc brakes
Gearbox: 4-speed synchromesh with electric overdrive
Chassis: tubular steel
Wheels: Borrani RW 3591 or 3598 wire wheels
Top Speed: 126-157 mph (depending on axle ratio)
0-60 mph: 7.2 seconds
Price in 1960: 5,800,000 Lira
Value today: $100,000 US |
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| Additionally, Jeff has done
some writing for The Prancing Horse, the magazine of the Ferrari
Club of America. In a piece that appeared in 1991 (No. 99,) he discussed
in minute detail, his 250GT, outlining the differences between the
Series 1 and Series 11 cars. Unbelievably, despite the small run,
the first 100 GT250 cabriolets are different from the second 100.
And Jeff even knows about a fake 250GT that someone made by removing
the top from a 250GT notch back coupe and making some cosmetic modifications.
Jeff encourages anyone who dreams of
having a sports car to realize that
dream: “It doesn’t have to be a Ferrari, it could
be an MG, a Triumph or an Austin-Healey. Lots of people today
are drawn to Mustangs or Camaros, whereas my channelling just
happens to have gone towards European sports cars. I believe it
you fine-tune what you want and dedicate yourself, you will achieve
your goal. I’m not the president or manager of a company,
just a hard-working guy.” |
| How do you break the news
to people that you have two Ferraris? |
| I tell people I have an old car, a V-12, so they know
that it’s either a Jag or a Ferrari. If my friends are around,
they jump in and say, ‘Ya, he’s got two Ferraris.” |
| You mentioned that you went looking for
a Porsche in the States in the late-seventies but by the time you
moved bought your house in 1980, you had a Honda Civic, a Fiat Spider
and the 250 Ferrari. What happened to the Porsche? |
| I went to Florida in 1978 to look for a Porsche, hoping
to find something I could restore. But I happened to look at a Road
and Track, the November edition, and FAF Motors in Atlanta was advertising
a bunch of Ferraris. I flew there and the 250 was a reasonable price
and by no means the most expensive, so I bought it. It had only
60,000 kilometres on it. Originally, the car had sold to a shipping
tycoon in Italy, one of several Ferraris he’d owned. He requested
the side vents as a special order. Usually, the 250 comes without
vents. |
| You have two Ferraris. Are
the two vehicles very different? |
| There is 20 years of evolution between them.
The 308, is a mid-engine car and more contemporary, like what Burt
Reynolds drove in the TV program, Magnum P.I. The 250 is like the
one in the movie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. |
| How many Ferraris are there
in town? |
| There’s probably 15 that I
know of and then another 15 I don’t know about. I’m
probably the only guy who has two. |
| Do people recognize what you’re
driving? |
| The 308 is a head-turner because it’s
what people recognize. With the 250, it’s the sound that turns
people’s heads. |
| What does it sound like? |
| It sounds like a race car. I love the 250,
it’s art, and it’s music when it’ s running. It’s
got a brand new Stebro stainless steel exhaust that’s tremendous.
There’s nothing like the sound of a well-tuned V12. |
| Are all Ferraris red? |
| Actually, in one study done by Hilary Raab
Jr. in The Prancing Horse, 88 out of 157 were some shade of gray
or silver, with white and black the next popular colours. Only 17
cars were red. in a subsequent group of 185 cars, 53 had red interiors
with natural the next popular colour (47) followed by black (43). |
| If you were going to buy another car,
what would it be? |
| I’d like a Ferrari Daytona Spyder.
That’s like the car in Miami Vice. Some people have them as
showpieces and some people worship them. I think they are meant
to be driven. |
| Do you look at having a garage-full of
Ferraris as enhancing your image? |
| No, not at all. Sometimes it doesn’t
even come out that I have them. |
| But you were a single guy up before you
got married in your late-thirties ten years ago. Did you ever think
of your cars as a way to attract women? |
| They never seemed to do that for me. |
| Do you think the maybe you were
driving by too quickly? |
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