I made a trip out to Los Angeles last weekend and in my usual form, I filled as much of my time as I could during my stay. My motto is “Sleep when I get home” and I tried my best to keep true to my word!

I got in on Friday afternoon and stayed with my friend Tom Wilson, a fellow Ferrari owner. Tom had arranged to see a collection of cars hidden away in Costa Mesa, so we headed out first thing Saturday morning to meet the collection manager. The first place housing one of four locations of this collection was Finish Line Auto Club a storage facility for collector cars.

This facility housed condos that car collectors could buy and store their collections. I heard there were monthly meetings where the owners would open their doors and visit each other’s collections. This place was either the coolest place for a car collector, or the worst place when you’re addicted to cars. Imagine the one-upmanship when guys see what the neighbor is doing with his cars!

Unfortunately, the owner of the collection wanted to remain private, so I couldn’t take pictures, but you’ll have to take my word for it, it was impressive with a mix of everything from pre-war to modern Ferraris. Ed, the collection manager, had the enviable job of curating, managing, driving, scheduling repairs, building facilities, designing interiors, and being all around confidant to the owner about everything to do with a multimillion dollar car collection. When I list all the hats this guy wore, it actually didn’t sound so much of a dream job anymore!

In a spill over warehouse there was one thing I could photograph, which was PF Cabriolet that was for sale. You can imagine the world of Vintage Ferraris is very small, and the conversations with Ed brought up all the names of people we both knew. When I saw this car being stored as a courtesy for Tom Shaughnessy, I remembered this car was offered to me to buy for one of my customers a few months ago.

All the bodywork and paint has been completed, but the mechanicals still need to be addressed and installed. I’m not sure why this car was not completed by the shop that originally started it for the owner, but as they say, there are three sides to every story!

The parts seemed to be all there, and many of them were ready to be installed, but there’s still lots of work to do. We ended passing on this car as I have two cars at my shop that I’m working very hard to complete, so I don’t need another jig-saw puzzle! Let me know if you’re interested, and I’ll put you in touch with Shaughnessy.

The next stop in Costa Mesa was Steve Beckman’s shop, Beckman Metalworks. I met Steve Beckman in 2005 (19 years ago!) at Laguna Seca during Car Week, and visited his shop with Shaughnessy back then. Steve continues to do outstanding metal work, but somehow found time to work on a personal project.

Through the years, Beckman collected the mechanical parts to make his own Ferrari race car. Copying a 1957 500 TRC, Beckman made the body from scratch, and plans on showing this car in Monterey for the Quail Motorsports gathering. It will be powered by a V-12 engine instead of the 4 cylinder engine found in original TRCs, but Steve’s car will still have Vintage Ferrari parts.

As I got the tour of the shop, I saw cars that belonged to owners I know. This car came in from the East Coast, so you can see Beckman’s skills are needed across the country!

Steve’s shop has also been commissioned to design and build a wall hanging made from shapes inspired from Ferrari bodies. The first collector we visited wanted something never seen before in full sized relief to display at his shop. We could see the parts and pieces making up this vision. I can’t wait to see the finished product!

Next stop was Francorchamps, owned by Rod Drew. I have to admit, Rod Drew has always been a little intimidating. He’s a man of few words, and he’s very similar to the old school craftsmen who don’t suffer fools lightly. I’ve been blogging and working on Ferraris for a couple of decades, but was surprised when Mr. Drew reached out to me a couple months ago to help him with a project he had at his shop. He needed a replacement center console for a SII 330, and I happened to have scanned and printed one a couple years ago. Delivering a printed center console and saving Rod Drew a lot of time fabricating one for his customer, and was my chance to ask if I could visit his shop the next time I was in California. The visit was short, but Rod was gracious enough to show me his shop and compare notes on the cars we work on. It was a hard won connection, but worth the effort!

The eighth stop of the day after lunch was to visit Ken Thomas and his 250GTE. Ken has been a long time Ferrari fan, and even owned a 250 LWB California Spyder back in the 80s. Ken sold the Cal Spyder but still owns the 250GTE. Tom Wilson and I visited with Ken and talked about what it was like to own a Cal Spyder before they were worth 10s of millions of dollars. He used to drive the car from the LA area to Monterey for car week and use it as a regular car. At one point, as the prices started to go up, Ken got uncomfortable using the car in public and decided it was time to sell. It’s a common problem with Vintage Ferraris, and can be a curse as much as a benefit. Ken sold the Spyder, and although didn’t time it to get 10s of millions, he still managed to buy a couple of houses in Southern California!

Ken still has the GTE and drives this car all the time. It may not be as pretty as a Cal Spyder, but doesn’t come with all the liabilities!

The last stop for Saturday was to visit my old friend Ron Karp in Upland. Ron retired from the brake rebuilding business about 7 years ago, but he advises me on brake related problems all the time. Ron taught me all the little tricks to fix and rebuild the braking systems on the Ferraris I work on, but his knowledge from working in the automotive trade for almost 60 years always amazes me. He’s forgotten more than what I need to learn. It was good to catch up, but every time I see Ron, I wish I lived closer to him!

Tom Wilson and I drove back to Culver City after a long day of visiting and talking cars. We had a short time to rest before a second full day of my LA trip!