a new project begins

[zac]

1960 GTE 2169GT the fifth car made and one of the few pre-production cars made. Used along with 2043 as the October 1960 Paris Auto show car and used as Enzo Ferrari's personal car until 1963 when it was sold here to the United states to the Gerber family. Used for several years; then changed hands several times after being sent in for restoration but restoration was never completed. As found by Tom Shaughnessy and partially assembled for inventory purposes the car will finally be restored to her former glory. Over the next 18 months( in time for the 2007 Monerey events) I will be in charge of restoring the car to the highest standerds mechanically, cosmetically and most important authentically. In conjunction with Shaughnessy and his vast connections we hope this car will be if not the best one of the best GTE's when finished. Many small but unique features seperate this car from the regular production run series 1 cars. I am also charged with the research on the car so I am hoping the the internet can be my friend in the search. I took a few pictures yesterday while we were moving the car to her new location and the shop for disassembly,also here is one of the advertising pictures this car was used for.

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[Tom Wilson]

Looks like you have quite a challange on your hands! Being a prototype, it should be a challange to figure out what belongs and what doesn't. Sounds like you will be doing it right though.

I believe that 2169 was the car photographed for the announcement of the GTE in Motor Trend (October 1960) and Sports Car Illustrated (October 1960), as well as for an ad in an early 1960's Australian magazine called World's Fastest Sports Cars. I have copies of all and if you PM me your email address, I can send you scans.

[Michael Bayer]

It will be great to have that car back in shape! Bravo for Tom doing this, hope you document it and regularly post it here for us. Michael Bayer

[zac]

Just to clarify the car is being done for a customer of mine and Tom's.

Shaughnessy purchased the car in hopes of keeping it and doing it for himself but it was on the bottom of the list of projects and when presented with the option of selling the car but still having input in the outcome logic prevailed.

We are looking at posting regular updates on Shaughnessy's site, we just have to work out the details and get a format we are happy with. Unfortunately unlike Tom Yang I am no kind of writer and think in mechanical terms with little ability to explain what I am doing so I will do my best

[John Vardanian]

Hi Tom,

I'm glad Sean is now making the move. As you said, he is a very capable individual and I'm sure your venture will be successful.

All the best to you and Sean.

john

[John Vardanian]

Zac,

Congratulations. It seems like an ambitious undertaking, but all it takes is focus and perseverance .

john

[Rudy van Daalen Wetters]

A unique and exciting project. This should be nice to follow.
Best of luck, gentlemen.

Rudy van Daalen Wetters
1963 GTE s/n 4001
1966 330 GT s/n 8705

[seanmichael]

Zac,

I'll look forward to observing the dissassembly of this car as we will be sharing the same work space at the farm.

And... thanks to Tom Shaughnessy for the intro and to John Vardanian for the kind comments. I'm looking forward to getting started!

Sean Monahan

[kare]

I don't think 2169GT was displayed in Paris, especially as it seems to have been used for some publicity photos AND destined to Enzo Ferrari.

It is a super-interesting car though and it would be very very interesting to know the internal engine, gearbox and rear end numbers for such an early car!!! I hope these can be collected and reported when the restoration is started!

Best wishes, Kare

[zac]

I have the picture of the car on the Paris show stand so it was definately there. There are also several refences discussing why it and 2043 were on the stand.

[kare]

I have the picture of the car on the Paris show stand so it was definately there.

Where can I find such a picture? The photos I have seen show a stand with 250 GT/E, 250 California Spider (SWB) and a S.2 Cabriolet. Best wishes, Kare

[zac]

The best one I have seen thus far is in Ferrari Four Seaters, published by Osprey Books. There is the picture of the car and than three pages later a paragraph describing it and 2043 as the two 250 GTE Paris Show cars. the car in the picture is dark colored and 2043 was light blue.There were only two dark colored GTE's finished in October 1960, 1903 was the second prototype and was also Rosso Rubino which they used at the 1960 Le Mans race as the pace car but it had no side grills.

Zac

[kare]

I believe the car in picture is 2043GT - it is the one and only GT/E in Paris show I have ever seen pics of. Hopefully a color picture of the scene will appear somewhere, so we can be sure. As far as I know MM16229 was a relatively dark greyish blue also called "blu genziana" and cars painted in this color appear quite dark in b/w pictures. Have a look at early pictures of 0719SA to see the color - the color matches the pictures of the GT/E displayed in Paris Salon. Best wishes, Kare

[zac]

Not to turn this into a F-Chat style post but I have 2043 as pale blue metallic( azzuro hyperion similar to my car) with red interior. I believe it is still in that color combo. Do you agree both cars were at the show? Almost all books of reference list both cars being sent to the Paris Auto Show to launch the 250 GTE to the public. I have other pictures at the Paris show but that is the only book I remember off the top of my head. I am sure more will turn up as time goes on and research continues.

To continue where this discussion started, I began disassembly this week and started sorting the misc. parts that were just piled in the car. I must say it makes it a lot easier when you actually take the car apart yourself rather than getting boxes and bags with little rhyme or reason to the order. I had a bin full of Zip-Lock bags, which looked the most promising but upon opening them I found they were just used to hold whatever was on the bench at the time. Let me just say from a restoration stand point there is nothing scarier than several gallon bags filled with hardware and no identification as to where they go. I know that the car sat languishing in a restoration shop for quite sometime and when it was purchased all the parts were just gathered up and put with the car. The important pieces were inventoried and the smaller items will just have to be sorted as things progress.

The engine has already been delivered to Jens who will be doing the major mechanicals on this project including the engine, trans and differential. Although this is generally my specialty, Jens is the best at what he does and is set up to do these engines. He has access to everything he needs to get the job done, not to mention he has three 250 engines he is working on right now. Even though it kills me to not do the engine(that's my favorite part) I have to delegate some jobs in order to meet the deadline without compromising any quality.

We are meeting with the painter this weekend and will be discussing the project for the first time with him. The painter I have chosen to use is named Peter Hognes and is top notch. Having worked with him in the past he has painted some of the best Jags, Ferraris and various other cars on the show circuit. He is Dutch and was trained the old world way in Holland to use the traditional methods of body work and paint so I we will not be buying stock in Bondo. Since the previous shop decided to paint the entire undercarriage and engine compartment in gloss black it will all have to be removed and the entire car stripped back to bare metal. I am making him a rotisserie so that it makes his life easier and he can make the underside of the car as good as the top side without laying on his back. If all goes well the car will be stripped and mounted to the rotisserie by the end of the month and delivered to the painter.

Zac

[william]

Zac,

Please post pics as this car is transformed!!!