My car was a daily driver for the first 5 years of its life, accumulating 51,000 miles.  It's owner had a minor accident (with a curb perhaps?), which tore out the lower radiator mount structure.

It was then parked in a leaky shed for the next 25 years, slowly filling with debris, but still mostly original. I've heard that the car was fairly well known in the Los Angeles area, but that the owner was not eager to sell. GT Motors in Glendale finally was able to pry it loose. I bought it from them in a completely disassembled state, and contracted them to do a ground-up restoration.  Problems in paint and carburetion stretched the restoration and my patience for two years, but finally it was done, and beautiful.  I took it to the Newport concours in 1999. First place! Yow. It's painted tourbillon ("whirlwind" or "whirlpool") blue, a nice elegant Ferrari color of the period, with old hides of a correct hue and shade.

Since then, I've been sorting out small details: the clock stopped working (I modified the original movement so that it will run until it just falls apart - don't ask me how, it's my secret); repainted the heat shields; got the complex and somewhat ridiculous choke setup to work again (it's really there for show); and had the original carburetors straightened, re-shafted, and rebuilt again, to smooth out the idle - cross my fingers, I think I'm done for this year's show season. It makes me happy just to sit in it sometimes, smell the gas and leather, and listen to the clock tick.

No, it's not a garage queen - I've put almost 1000 miles on it so far.  It's amazingly fun to drive. One thing I've noticed on local blasts - there are two kinds of other drivers out there - those who roll their windows down to hear it pass, and those who roll their windows up!

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