Call it a hybrid of sorts. An Italian-designed work of art with the soul of an American ironworker. When seen on its own
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MotorTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:03 Beautiful California coast.
00:05 Classic '62 Ferrari.
00:10 Monterey Car Show?
00:16 Perhaps the Concourse de la Gance?
00:18 No.
00:21 This is the house of muscle.
00:23 (tires screeching)
00:28 So you guys might be asking yourself,
00:30 Mike, why do you have a Ferrari on the house of muscle?
00:32 I mean, it's not generally what you guys feature.
00:35 Well, it's not generally, we never feature stuff like this
00:37 on the house of muscle.
00:39 However, if I kinda do this, drop a gear,
00:42 well, for some reason, that doesn't sound like a V12,
00:47 now does it?
00:48 Nope.
00:49 All right, so let's talk about what's in this car right now.
00:55 This is the cool part.
00:57 So long gone, and I mean long gone,
01:00 is the original Colombo V12 that came in this thing.
01:03 And in its place, is ready?
01:04 Wait for it.
01:05 A 383 Chevy.
01:10 Nevermind what the valve covers say.
01:12 This engine, it's all bowtie small block.
01:16 Mechanically, what are we looking at?
01:18 We're looking at a 1962 Ferrari GTE
01:23 with a 383 Chevy, a Tremec five-speed, okay?
01:28 And believe it or not, an eight and three-quarter rear
01:31 out of an old Chrysler with the flanges milled
01:34 so that they will accept the knockoff,
01:37 real, Ferrari wire wheels.
01:39 That's pretty cool.
01:41 The beauty of an old car is that every old car
01:51 has a history.
01:52 Every old car has a story.
01:53 Every owner has a story about the old car that they own.
01:56 This one is very, very interesting
01:59 because it has somewhat of a sordid past.
02:02 In 1960, the 250 GTE was released by Ferrari.
02:07 This car was Ferrari's first four-seater.
02:10 That was huge because all of a sudden now,
02:13 as opposed to just bringing your mistress on a date,
02:16 you could bring your wife and your two kids
02:17 and you could leave your mistress or your girlfriend home.
02:19 So, like, wives were a big fan of this car.
02:22 In fact, it was a wife and not a mistress
02:27 who actually should be credited for finding this car.
02:31 And if you'll let me go in reverse for a second,
02:33 its owner, Gary, found this particular Ferrari
02:36 the same way I used to find my muscle cars.
02:39 There was, in fact, a time where the internet did not exist
02:44 and that to find out the history of a vehicle,
02:47 you actually had to do some research.
02:50 That meant going to the library.
02:52 That meant looking at periodicals,
02:53 trying to find old magazine ads.
02:55 That meant actually doing your homework
02:58 as opposed to just clickety-clicking-clicking
03:00 on your keyboard.
03:01 My wife and I had a habit of going out to breakfast
03:04 early on Sunday mornings.
03:06 Back in the time when you looked for old cars
03:08 in the Sunday classifieds or community newspapers,
03:11 sometimes we'd play a little game
03:12 and she'd grab the classifieds before I could get 'em
03:14 and she'd start reading off ads
03:16 and ask me questions about 'em.
03:17 And she said, "Oh, here's a '62 Ferrari.
03:19 "You know, what do you think?"
03:20 She told me the price and I said, "Oh, it's a kit."
03:23 Gary couldn't believe it.
03:24 He thought it was a kit car
03:25 because, well, the price was really, really low.
03:28 But then I kept nagging at him
03:30 and nagging at him and nagging at him.
03:32 And like any good car guy, he said,
03:33 "You know what?
03:34 "Let me call this number
03:36 "and let me go take a little ride down to San Jose
03:39 "and see what this thing is about."
03:43 It was about 6.30 in the morning
03:46 by the time we'd finished breakfast
03:47 and I called the guy and he said,
03:48 "No, it's a real car.
03:49 "It's had an engine transplant and it's a part,
03:51 "but you know, everything's there."
03:53 Got there as quickly as we could, pulled up.
03:56 I saw it rolled out.
03:57 The doors were off, the hood was up, trunk was up.
04:00 I could immediately see parts of the tube frame
04:02 and knew it was a real car.
04:03 Turned to my wife and said, "Oh, it's real."
04:06 Then went back out to the car to tell Patty we bought it
04:09 and there were cars lining up at the curb wanting to see it.
04:11 So I think it was a good decision.
04:13 - And that was it.
04:14 He owned this car.
04:16 The other thing, when this car was new,
04:18 it came with a Colombo V12 that made about 240 horsepower.
04:23 That engine propelled the car to zero to 60
04:25 in about eight seconds or so.
04:28 That car also made the top speed
04:30 around 140 miles an hour, which was not bad for the day.
04:33 In fact, it was damn good.
04:34 The suspension was a double wishbone setup up front
04:37 with a four-speed manual and electronic overdrive.
04:40 Out back, it was a solid live axle.
04:42 - They built about 950 of them.
04:45 It was intended to propel Ferrari
04:47 from a specialty boutique manufacturer
04:50 of low-production cars to a mass-market manufacturer.
04:54 Today, 950 cars a year sounds a little silly,
04:56 but that was a big, big jump for Ferrari.
04:58 - But what's crazy is that this used to be
05:04 a Ferrari parts car.
05:06 This is what the Ferrari ISTE would use as a donor car.
05:10 They would take the motor, they would take the Colombo V12,
05:13 they would take the transmission out,
05:14 and they would do transplants
05:16 into a 250 GT California or a 250 GTO.
05:20 So many of these cars were basically just stripped for parts.
05:24 - I never really actually considered
05:28 putting a Ferrari engine back in this car.
05:30 The original matching numbers engine whereabouts
05:33 was unknown when I got the car.
05:35 I had chased some leads down early on in my ownership
05:37 and all ran into dead ends.
05:39 And potentially, if I had found
05:41 the numbers matching drivetrain,
05:42 I might have considered that.
05:44 But the car had already been modified to some degree
05:47 because the V8 had already been installed.
05:49 My dad picked up the project, took it on wholesale
05:52 to really finish the car
05:54 and make it an operating driving car.
05:56 - It's when you start it up and the ear will tell you that,
06:01 okay, well, something else is going on.
06:04 You know, when you jump on it and you hear that verbal,
06:07 it doesn't sound like a Ferrari.
06:10 It sounds like a hot rod, it sounds like a muscle car,
06:13 but a little different in that respect
06:15 is believe it or not, about half the exhaust
06:18 is still the original Ferrari exhaust.
06:20 So you're talking maybe like a one and seven eighth inch pipe
06:24 as opposed to like a two and a half inch
06:26 that would be on a normal kind of 383.
06:28 Oh, but the thing's got grunt.
06:30 Got a lot of grunt.
06:33 When Gary got the car, he said, okay, he goes,
06:40 well, you know what?
06:41 We can have a little fun with this thing
06:42 and we can do it right.
06:43 And we can do it in such a way
06:45 where people look at the car and respect it.
06:47 And it's gonna tell someone of the story of Gary's family.
06:52 - So I originally bought the car
06:55 as a retirement project for myself.
06:56 I literally bought it, put it in the garage,
06:58 threw a cover over it, rented a storage place,
07:01 which just ended up filled floor to ceiling
07:02 with parts and boxes and everything went with it.
07:05 Dad had always been into airplanes, cars, trucks, whatever.
07:09 And he called me, said, what would you think
07:11 if you wanted to bring the car up
07:12 and I could spend a little time on it this winter?
07:15 The stage was sort of set.
07:17 - We know this story has a very happy ending
07:20 because, well, I'm driving it.
07:22 But Gary's pursuit of his version of a muscle car
07:26 doesn't finish with this one piece of Italian perfection.
07:29 He's a car guy.
07:34 What does every car guy need?
07:36 Well, that's easy.
07:37 Something big enough to collect and carry his cars.
07:41 So let me introduce you to the Super Hauler.
07:45 (upbeat music)
07:47 - Super Hauler was born from our desire
07:57 to have a personal transporter to move our own cars around,
08:00 to go pick up cars at other places in the country
08:02 and have it be a vintage looking vehicle
08:05 and at the same time, usable, comfortable
08:07 for long distance travel, 'cause that's what we had in mind.
08:10 (upbeat music)
08:12 - Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Super Hauler.
08:15 The 1971 American LeFrance fire truck
08:22 that was built by Ben McCoy of Jack Dick Customs
08:25 in Martinez, California.
08:27 Now, this isn't your normal, everyday car hauler.
08:31 This is a 100% custom rig that was built because, well,
08:35 Gary really didn't know what he wanted
08:36 as far as a custom toy hauler was
08:39 and Ben, well, he just knew how to build one.
08:41 (upbeat music)
08:45 - We had talked quite a few times
08:51 about what kind of car would make a good car hauler.
08:54 We came to the conclusion of the fire truck
08:56 being the best chassis weight capability and engine.
09:00 - When Gary showed up to Ben's store,
09:02 he said a couple of things.
09:04 One of which, the hauler needed to be comfortable.
09:07 Two, it needed to have things like air conditioning
09:10 and a stereo.
09:11 Three, it needed to be something
09:13 that the world had never seen before
09:15 and something that was gonna make people
09:16 just stop and look at it.
09:18 - We came back with that thing
09:21 and really started looking at what it was gonna take
09:23 to tear it apart and make something different out of it.
09:25 It was overwhelming to say the least.
09:29 - It's just cool.
09:31 It's so neat that they just thought outside the box,
09:33 like way outside the box
09:37 and created a rig that just nails it on all points, man.
09:41 - So we had this pencil drawing
09:44 and this is what we're gonna make the car.
09:46 Unfortunately, it was a pencil drawing
09:48 and an artist conception
09:49 and making some of the features
09:52 that were on that drawing come to life
09:55 got difficult at times.
09:56 And the only time Gary and I ever disagreed was right here.
10:01 I made this the first time and it was a little too steep.
10:05 And then I made it and it was a little too round.
10:08 And we probably redid this one arch four times
10:11 before it was perfect for what he saw in the drawing
10:14 and what he fell in love with,
10:16 which we just kept doing it until it was right.
10:19 - There were gonna be a lot of challenges,
10:24 but he's famous for saying,
10:26 "It's just a car, we'll figure it out."
10:29 And he did.
10:32 - So powering this behemoth is an 8V71T Detroit diesel.
10:37 It makes 385 horsepower and over 1,100 pound feet of torque.
10:42 Now, is it fast?
10:45 Well, if I nail it,
10:46 well, no, the answer is no, it's totally not fast.
10:51 This doesn't have to be fast.
10:53 You see, you can get on the interstate with this thing
10:55 and you cruise it at a solid 65, 70 miles an hour
10:59 if you'd like.
11:00 And the way that Ben and Gary set this thing up,
11:03 it's actually very comfortable to drive.
11:05 So inside, what am I looking at?
11:07 Well, it's a beautiful custom interior.
11:10 That interior includes seats out of a 1973 BMW 3.0 CS.
11:15 It incorporates a beautiful suede headliner
11:18 with push on lights.
11:20 Now you don't have cup holders.
11:21 I mean, it has every amenity you can want.
11:24 I've never driven something like this before,
11:28 but I know that I want one.
11:30 While the Super Hauler is super cool,
11:38 ultimately, it's not why I brought you here.
11:41 This is.
11:43 Gary's pursuit of perfection was never intended
11:47 to sit in a museum or a showroom,
11:49 because Gary's a car guy.
11:51 And if you haven't figured it out by now, car guys drive.
11:57 To go find a derelict car that's one
11:59 that you've always admired and bring it back to life
12:02 and then enjoy it is just a lot of fun.
12:05 I've had cars that were so picture perfect
12:08 that you're afraid to drive them
12:09 because you come in for a drive
12:10 and feel like you have to wipe down the underside.
12:13 And life's just too short for that.
12:14 The driving is the most fun to me.
12:18 When he couldn't find a part, he made it.
12:24 When it was cold in the shed behind his home in Idaho,
12:27 he added more wood to the stove.
12:29 And when a language barrier presented itself,
12:32 he simply referenced the old Italian dictionary
12:34 he kept by his side.
12:37 That was Gary's father,
12:38 the man who helped bring the old Ferrari back to life.
12:41 It's just amazing.
12:45 I mean, he was 80 years old when he took it on.
12:47 Two years later, we were driving it down the road.
12:50 We hit a long straight stretch of deserted road
12:53 and supplanted the throttle.
12:55 I don't know how fast we were going.
12:56 There was a grin from ear to ear.
12:58 Like a little kid, he just loved it.
12:59 So, will he ever sell this car?
13:07 No, this car is never going anywhere.
13:09 This car is gonna be about lineage.
13:11 My goal is that it stays in the family literally forever.
13:14 And one of my sons has said
13:15 he will take on the responsibility
13:17 to be the steward of the car for the rest of his life.
13:20 And so I'll transfer it to him.
13:22 He will maintain it and insure it,
13:23 protect it and preserve it for the next generation.
13:26 And his job then is to identify someone
13:28 in a couple of generations out
13:30 that'll take on the same obligation and preserve it.
13:31 So my hope is that a future descendant
13:33 will be enjoying this car 100, 150, 200 years from now.
13:36 - So here's the thing about both of Gary's creations.
13:42 On the one hand, you have the Super Hauler,
13:44 this gigantic seafoam wing car hauler.
13:47 Just let's face it, it is a beautiful piece.
13:53 And then you have this, this wonderful, beautiful Ferrari.
13:56 Some people will say, well, is it all Ferrari?
13:59 And my answer to that is, well, yeah.
14:01 Is the engine American?
14:03 Yeah, sure it is.
14:04 But here's the thing.
14:05 If I go in and I need a heart transplant,
14:08 does that mean that I'm not Mike anymore?
14:09 Does that mean that that new heart
14:11 doesn't give me life anymore?
14:12 The answer to that is no.
14:14 What Gary did with this is he gave it life again.
14:17 It's not languishing in a barn.
14:18 It's not languishing in a garage.
14:20 It's here at the beach.
14:22 It's 60-something degree weather.
14:24 So here's the deal.
14:25 Is there anything wrong with this car?
14:28 Not a damn thing.
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14:47 [MUSIC PLAYING]