Roger Wills' 250 GT PF Coupe


I became the owner of 1479GT, a 1959 Ferrari 250 GT Pinin Farina Coupe in November 2001 as a result of some over-exuberant bidding at the H&H Classic Cars auction in England. A friend and I had agreed we would both bid on Ferraris in the sale, me on the 250 and my friend on a good looking Dino 246 GT. We had both agreed not to go over certain limits in terms of bidding so as not to overpay. My friend was extremely disciplined during the auction when the price of the Dino sailed passed his maximum but I forgot to stop bidding! With the hammer dropping on the 250 and my bid being the highest, I started to realize how easy it is to let the heat of the moment at an auction ruin all your good intentions!

Still, the price seemed cheap for a rather unloved but relatively rare model and the file of receipts for mechanical works on the car, including a full engine rebuild by Terry Hoyle Racing in 1992 made me think I had not made a mistake that I would live to regret.

The bodywork on the car looked reasonable from a distance but you could see that it had rust bubbles around the arches and the Rosso Chiaro paint did not suit the car. At some point it had been re-sprayed in resale red and closer inspection revealed that it had not been a great job with a lot of filler used.

The previous owner of the car was David Cooke, the former Captain of the England Rugby team who had purchased the car in 2000 from VSOC in the Netherlands with the intention of converting it into a 250 GT Tour de France replica. With only 343 PF Coupes made and many of them suffering the same injustice, I was pleased to be the new custodian of the car and decided I would research the history of the car with the intention of restoring it.

1479GT had been built in 1959 and had left the factory painted white with a turquoise roof. The official colors were Bianco Max Mayer with the roof in Verde-Azzurro. The interior had been black leather. It was a Left Hand Drive car with drum brakes, Borrani wire wheels and as an early car, had the inside plug engine. It was also ordered with a bonnet scoop and unusually, was one of very few cars fitted by the factory with Lucas electrics as it was destined for England. It was supplied to Garage Francorchamps in 1959 and had only one owner from then until 1997 ? the McCloud Moore family. For this 38 year period it carried the UK registration number 123 MOB.

It is not clear when the original color scheme was changed and when it was repainted red but here is a photo of the car from 1998 when it was for sale at the well known English Ferrari dealer Paul Baber, who sold the car to Pieter Boel in the Netherlands. It was subsequently sold onto Mr W Driessen, also in the Netherlands and was registered as AH 18 88.

When I purchased the car in November 2001 it was registered OSL 384 and had documents to allow me to attempt to get the DVLA (British car registration authority) to reissue 123 MOB but this proved problematic due to the absence of the original official log book for the car which the Dutch seller has refused to relinquish without payment of a significant amount of money!

When I took delivery of 1479GT it was stored in Hertfordshire, England with Nigel Chiltern-Hunt who owns a number of interesting Ferraris including one of the 512BB/LM Pozzi team cars, a race prepared F40 and some other beautiful toys. He also stores cars for other people and interestingly, 1479GT was stored next to another 250 GT PF Coupe, serial number 1381GT, which was subsequently sold to John Vardanian in the USA. John was very kind during the restoration process to provide me with dozens of photos from his car to assist in ensuring the details on 1479GT were correct.

During 2003 and 2004 the car went through a full restoration and rebuild at Car Care Works / Chiltern Aston in Hertfordshire, England. With bumpers, badges and all parts removed and the paint stripped off the car it became apparent that the extent of bodywork repairs required was much greater than we had anticipated and large sections of metalwork had to be cut away and new sections made. In addition, some of the chassis and frame tubes were in bad shape and needed replacing as well as new sills, floor sections, etc. It became a major job. One of the doors was in particularly bad shape and we were lucky to find a new door at Ferrari UK to replace this. I spent a huge amount of time scouring the internet for hard to find parts.

I decided that while it would be nice to restore it to its original color scheme, the combination of white and turquoise roof was not in my list of ideal combinations and I finally settled on a lovely Gunmetal Grey (code FER 6336011 Grigio Ferro) that is an original Ferrari color but from a later model year. I also decided to completely refurbish the interior and to change the color to a mid-tan Connolly leather. The restoration was completed in October 2004 and I have also re-registered the car on UK registration number 6 FER.

All of the chrome work was re-chromed and missing badges and emblems were acquired from various helpful sources, many tracked down through Tom Yang’s excellent website.

Here is a photo of the new registration number mounted on the rear of the almost completed car.
 


At some point in the car’s life the door furniture (window winders, door handles, arm rests and door cards) had been removed from the car and replaced with cheap and incorrect parts from other cars. Maurice at M&M Trimming did a fantastic job of replicating the carpets, door cards, arm rests, visors and roof liner using photos from other cars. I also managed to locate some correct door handles and window winders to finish the job off properly. Here is a photo of the interior after it came back from the trim shop.

So many people helped in the restoration process by providing hard to find parts, advice and assistance and I am extremely grateful to all of these people. I am still trying to track down a few bits and pieces to totally finish the restoration but feel it is now 99% complete and should now be used and enjoyed!

I’ve not been able to road test the car since the restoration was completed due to travel commitments and inclement weather. But I’m looking forward to getting it back out on the road after 18 months of restoration.


 

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