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A Ferrari 250 GT PF Coupe Was Hidden in a Hollywood Apartment for Decades
- slurple 10y ago"Anyway, if you look through the documentation, every time he wanted parts in the ‘70s he would hand draw the part. For example, a light bulb or a brake caliper, or whatever it might be. The sketches are so intricate they look like a photograph. He’d make multiple copies of his sketches and mail them out, asking shops if they had these parts." I would love to see those!
- costcopizza 10y agoHear hear! And I think if you made prints of them, there'd be a demand!
- nether 10y agoBy "hand drawn" do they mean freehand, or drawn with manual pencil drafting techniques? Because both are done by hand, and really most trained draftsmen produced drawings of that quality (even lettering would look like it was printed).
- mbrookes 10y agoFrom the comment you're replying to: "The sketches are so intricate they look like a photograph."
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- zachrose 10y agoI look at images of Apple products and can't tell if they're CG or meticulous studio photography.
- baq 10y agosee also ikea. they had their modellers take photography courses and their photographers take 3d modelling classes IIRC. good luck telling renders from photos in their catalogue.
- mstade 10y agoI can confirm this. Source: IKEA communications, their marketing arm, was a client of a company I used to work for. Not only were we given a lot of source material, but we also got to tour IKEA HQ in Älmhult, Sweden, whenever we went down there for meetings and the likes. It's really quite remarkable what they've got down there. Several photo and movie studios, with essentially a warehouse full of IKEA furniture from pretty much every era, in at least three copies I think they said. The 3d department in contrast was unassuming – just a few people (can't remember exact count, but I'd guess less than 20 at least) in a room doing amazing work. We'd spend a bunch of time looking at pictures playing "can you pick out what's rendered and what's not?" kind of thing. (Side note: this was around the time IKEA decided to switch to Verdana from their proprietary IKEA Sans font as well, and it was fun to get an inside perspective on it.) I very much enjoyed working with them – highly professional people that really know what they're doing.
- Moto7451 10y agoDrafting techniques. My uncle was trained in drafting and blueprinting.
- jlawer 10y agoFirst Owned by John von Neumann.... Now that is a find.
- jessep 10y agoHa, yeah. I was about to say that is the coolest thing about the car. And it is already a cool car.
- vzaliva 10y agoJohn von Neumann[1] you had in mind died 1957, while the car built was finished in 1959. So I guess it is a different one. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- di 10y agoHere's the cover of the June 1960 Road & Track that's mentioned in the article: http://i.imgur.com/4PVHPvT.jpg http://i.imgur.com/4PVHPvT.jpg
- dstryr 10y agoAnd here's one of how the the car might look fully restored in its current color: http://imgur.com/a/LSM5j http://imgur.com/a/LSM5j
- Shivetya 10y agoand likely half a million to a million depending on how original it is
- brilliantcode 10y agosuch a beautiful car for it's time. it's still good looking. some cars are classic for a reason, their design stands the test of time.
- combatentropy 10y agoYep, another beautiful design by Pininfarina
- dstryr 10y agoIf you like finds like this that you can actually purchase, I'd highly recommend checking out http://bringatrailer.com/ http://bringatrailer.com/ They have links to the eBay auctions or Craigslist ads where the cars are being sold. It's not my site, I just enjoy browsing through.
- beachstartup 10y agothis is great for active buyers and sellers but for just doing research/wasting time, do you know how to see finished auctions? is that a pay feature for dealers?
- swimfar 10y agoThe site used to be mostly craigslist-type ads with set prices so you could see what kinds of cars you could buy for $X. I was disappointed (and stopped going there) when they started having auctions for that reason. There are plenty of sites where I can see interesting cars. If I'm not actually in the market for buying a car it's not as interesting. But it's still a cool site regardless.
- joshu 10y agoThe threads are pretty interesting reading. Some friends and I ended up buying an older racecar off BaT, which has been terrifying...
- theluketaylor 10y agoOn the auction page you can just hit "View Older" at the bottom as many times as you'd like. The Search option at the top lets you find all their old auctions. One thing I really like about bring a trailer is they keep the bid history available so you can get a much better feel for real market value compared to some like looking up blue book.
- olalonde 10y ago> We’ll have to see what the market says. Maybe I'm just not a car guy but this whole interview read like an ad.
- enneff 10y agoFor a car of that vintage and condition no advertising is necessary. Any interested parties will find out about it one way or another.
- ams6110 10y agoIf the lawyer was really working in his client's interest he'd have put the car up for auction instead of buying it himself.
- ChuckMcM 10y agoThese are always great stories. I loved the barn full of classic cars one from a few years ago as well. (http://curioustype.com/35-million-dollar-car-collection-found-abondoned-barn.htm http://curioustype.com/35-million-dollar-car-collection-foun...)
- codezero 10y agoWhoa, turns out the story behind the barn find is a myth! http://www.autoblog.com/2007/07/31/portuguese-barn-find-hoax-still-going-strong/ http://www.autoblog.com/2007/07/31/portuguese-barn-find-hoax... http://www.snopes.com/photos/automobiles/barnfind.asp http://www.snopes.com/photos/automobiles/barnfind.asp
- ChuckMcM 10y agoDang, it was such a nice story too.
- yoodenvranx 10y agoIf you like that kind of stories you should look up Hagertys "Barn find hunter" on Youtube.
- Jeaye 10y agoSo, it was couped up in that apartment for a long time...
- throwanem 10y agoI do not hate fun, yet downvoted your pun; I agree that that's sad, but the pun is so bad! It's such a poor line that the sign seemed condign - of the delta it gives to your karma, that is. My doggerel here merits no more excuse, but remains with intent that you feel no misuse; the lesson, I hope, you will find salutary, when next you should chance on the urge to make merry.
- pavel_lishin 10y ago> condign Thank you for teaching me a new word.
- throwanem 10y agoYou're welcome!
- jacobush 10y agoThank you for not letting me assume it was a typo.
- throwanem 10y agoNice thing about verses, unless they're the worst, is the scan and the rhyme can in parsing save time; when a word fits the scheme, though unlikely it seem, it's been chosen with care for the meaning that's there. (What did you think it was a typo for?)
- pavel_lishin 10y ago> Nice thing about verses, unless they're the worst, is the scan and the rhyme can in parsing save time; I remember someone mentioning that in the oral tradition - pre-literate stuff - rhyming was a sort of checksum to make sure that your story didn't drift too much with retellings.
- khana 10y agoJay Leno is all over this one I'll bet.
- gregmac 10y agoWas this being worked on in the apartment? One of the pictures shows the right side is only a couple inches away from the wall, but it's on jack stands. How did that happen?
- codezero 10y agoThe owner owned the apartment building and added an entirely hinged wall to the unit, and rolled the car in with a ramp, then closed it up!
- sgarman 10y agoDang, I really wanted to see this apartment hinge system in action. Maybe they will have that in the film he references.
- donretag 10y ago"it'd been sitting and they hadn’t rented out the apartment for 30 years" I do not care about cars, so all I can think about is the loss of space/rent for 30 years. Granted, Hollywood was much much cheaper 30 years ago, but that apartment would not be vacate long in today's real estate market.
- spaceflunky 10y agoThis is the "pack rat's conundrum" as I call it. If we assume the average rent over the past 15 years (or 180 months) was $1,300, then he would have grossed $234,000 in rent. Probably enough to buy one already resorted within the last 10 years. And definitely enough to pay someone to restore his own. In other words, he could have just taken the car out 15 years ago, then used the rent to either directly pay for the restoration or use the rent to finance a loan for the restoration.
- camhenlin 10y agoEven the least maintained, least rare (they're all VERY rare) Ferrari 250's all go for well over $500,000, with many going for over $1,000,000. So probably not. See: https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/cars-for-sale/ferrari/250gt https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/cars-for-sale/ferrari/2...
- gwern 10y ago(Of course, he could also have sold the car back in the 1960s or something and enjoyed 50 years of compounding mutual fund or index returns.)
- prawn 10y agoAnother hidden car story from LA: The True Story Of How A Ferrari Ended Up Buried In Someone's Yard - http://jalopnik.com/5872514/the-true-story-of-how-a-ferrari-ended-up-buried-in-someones-yard http://jalopnik.com/5872514/the-true-story-of-how-a-ferrari-...
- theluketaylor 10y agoIf you are not a car person and have always wondered what all the fuss is about watch some of the petrolicious youtube videos. They always have really interesting interviews with the owner about what their car means to them. The fact it's all meticulously filmed makes for fascinating viewing.
- DrScump 10y agoIt's a secure man who is comfortable storing his automotive catalogs in a Kotex box.
- Sanddancer 10y agoThere's all kinds of stuff entombed in cities, just waiting to be discovered. First thing this reminded me of was the Original Spanish Kitchen [1], which was a restaurant, also in LA, which closed one day in 1961 and spent the next 44 years frozen in time. The fixtures, utensils, coffee maker, everything intact, waiting for an opening that never came. All sorts of caches created when someone just couldn't do it anymore, or when plans fall apart. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_Spanish_Kitchen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_Spanish_Kitchen
- ilamont 10y agoI lived in Taipei in the 1990s, when they were doing a lot of underground tunneling for the subway system. I remember one night a sinkhole opened up on one of the major thoroughfares and a couple taxis and delivery trucks drove in. They got the drivers out, and then just filled in the hole with the vehicles still in there. I always thought that would make an interesting archaeological dig a few hundred years in the future (or the next time they need to dig up the roads)
- Eric_WVGG 10y agoFrench apartment untouched for 70 years http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2323297/Inside-Paris-apartment-untouched-70-years-Treasure-trove-finally-revealed-owner-locked-fled-outbreak-WWII.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2323297/Inside-Paris...
- Moto7451 10y agoUm, so this is a funny through the looking glass moment. My uncle is the man who put this car in the apartment and I lived in that building for three years. I can corroborate 100% of this story. My uncle, and that apartment, have a very interesting history. My grandfather purchased the building as an investment but it turned into a sort of crash pad for members of my family. My uncle ended up managing it after years of rebuilding jet engines in the Navy as a mechanic. He could rebuild anything by eyeballing a reference part, which was awesome when the ancient pluming failed, but misery when the ancient window treatments failed (ugly as sin and cheap/poor quality even for the 1960s). One of the units was owned by a writer that used it as his personal library for an elaborate book and magazine collection. He lived there after retiring but prior to that would fly back and forth between LA and NY because it was cheaper and easier than relocating them and the associated increase in storage fees. The apartment building is a block away from Hollywood Blvd and many of the street performers/costume wearers lived in the adjacent buildings. I would wake up and say hello to Captain Jack Sparrow and Spiderman on my way to grabbing a cup of coffee. In the late 70s through early 90s it was extremely sketchy and somewhat dangerous. I was a kid when they started cleaning it up so I don't have first hand knowledge of it but the neighborhood certainly still talks about it. The park that used to be next to the apartment was where drug dealers and prostitutes would market their wares. Eventually they bulldozed it and put in a fenced, well lit, park and daycare center as part of the Hollywood Revitalization and Redevelopment program. My uncle decided to retire so he sold the building, split the proceeds with my aunt and grandmother, and moved out of Hollywood. AMA! Edit: Street View for those who want to walk the Neighborhood https://www.google.com/maps/@34.1031929,-118.335439,3a,75y,163.35h,74.65t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sSfOBs7pomXddomgqD6Urjg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1 https://www.google.com/maps/@34.1031929,-118.335439,3a,75y,1...
- butterfi 10y agoI lived in San Francisco's Western Addition in the late 80's, and the old man who lived in the modest Victorian across the street from me passed away. The estate settled and the house cleaners showed up. Two huge bins of hoarder nonsense were hauled away before the tow truck showed up. I watched from my window as they pulled a Pierce-Arrow Touring car from this garage that couldn't possibly have fit it. It had been sitting on it's tires, but it was all there, from hood ornament to leather trunk on the back. Amazing!
- packetized 10y agoI have nothing to contribute except that, as a person that generally works with computer systems and writes a bit of software, I can totally imagine someone undertaking this kind of project, and cannot believe that it started with a Ferrari chassis/Pininfarina coach nearly sixty years ago. Jawdroppingly amazed.
- FrancoDiaz 10y agofuckkng-a- magnum
- FrancoDiaz 10y agothe old 308 kicking it
- FrancoDiaz 10y agogotta love the 308
- FrancoDiaz 10y agoalways hit a 308
- FrancoDiaz 10y agowe're not fucking european
- FrancoDiaz 10y agowe always love the 308
- FrancoDiaz 10y agowe're not faggot europeans
- FrancoDiaz 10y agowe love the 308
- FrancoDiaz 10y agomagnum kicks ass
- FrancoDiaz 10y agohow many motherfuckers have i killed on my life
- sctb 10y agoWe've banned this account.
- jacquesm 10y agoA friend of mine loves classic army vehicles and bought a Willys to restore. Since he had no garage and was about to start living in a newly built house he moved the car to his house and figured out that by pulling a couple of very long bolts he could remove the whole facade from his living room in one go. So this he did, rolled the Jeep inside and proceded to work on it for the next couple of years. His gf moved in with him and they had breakfast on the hood and used it as furniture until the work was completed some spring morning in the 90's. My friend got a stepladder and started to work on removing the facade once again. His neighbor, curious type, hangs over the hedge and asks him what he's doing. My friend (his name is Rob), tells the neighbor that once every couple of years you have to release the facade of your house to clean up behind it. Neighbor says 'good idea' and proceeds to borrow step-ladder and tools to remove facade from his house as well. After a while of this Rob goes into the house, starts up the Jeep and drives it out straight through the front garden and hedge, parks it in the street and then replaces the facade of his house without so much as a word to the astonished neighbor :)
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- gambiting 10y agoThis is literally a Forza Horizon 3 "barn find" type of situation :D
- rurban 10y agoStreet value around 2.5M. Obviously the new owner didn't want to talk about it.