Exotic Car Marketplace

Crew Chief Brad: [00:00:00] As part of Ferrari Fridays, William Ross from the Exotic Car Marketplace will be discussing all things Ferrari and interviewing people that live and breathe. The Ferrari brand topics range from road cars to racing drivers to owners, as well as auctions, private sales and trends in the collector market.

William Ross: And welcome back to the Friar Marketplace. I’m your host, William Ross, or I’ve been labeled Big Money Ross by my nearest. Dearest friends. Thank you for that, guys.

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William Ross: Hey, what do you guys think of the new intro we, uh, did up there? Well, I should say that my producer extraordinaire Eric put together for me. It’s pretty sweet, isn’t it? Sounds a lot better than me doing it.

Ramble on to, uh, thanking all the sponsors and supporters we have, right? And also check it out. I have a new microphone. Eric’s been prodding me for a while. Get a new mic. Get a new mic. Your mic sucks. Your mic sucks. I stepped up, spent the money, got myself. A new microphone, so hopefully this sounds a lot better than I used to sound.

There was a couple there. I sounded right. The rest of ’em I sounded like shy. Hopefully this will, uh, make me sound smarter. We’ll see. Anyways, this weekend, June 14th, June 15th. The biggest race of the year, the 24 hour [00:02:00] Le Mans is happening now. Some argue it’s 8,500, I think it’s actually the 24 hours Le Mans.

It’s 24 hours long. All the different classes everyth like that. It’s been going on for how many years it has been. It’s just spectacular race. We’re gonna talk about Ferrari a little bit here at Le Mans. I might ask how this really pertain to say, marketplace and cars that you can buy. Well, let’s talk about the history Le Mans and everything like that in regards to what it entails.

See now when Le Mans started, it was basically about manufacturers and competing whose car can last 24 hours. When it first started and for the longest time, you know, it was a race of attrition. It was like, okay, who one can build a good solid car, but two, it’s all right, who’s behind the wheel? That really kind of, you know, can, I guess you could say nurse the car to the finish line and make it last 24 hours.

’cause everything you had there, public roads, everything like that. So it wasn’t like he had this nice glass tabletop smooth track. You know, the cars would take a lot of abuse and driving. And plus the other factors is when you have multiple drivers doing it, [00:03:00] each person drives a car differently. So what’s happening is you got these two different styles.

Now, if you’ve got one person that’s driving for three or four hours, it’s gonna be, you know, you drive it one way, then if you get it happen, it’s going the other way. So there’s all these variables that can come into play, but basically it boils down to is who can make their Carla and. The one thing I always really enjoyed about the earlier races, I guess you could say, is there was two drivers, maybe one at times, I mean, insanely, you know, we had Mr.

Chinetti, he did a 23 hour stint. One of the years that he won was at 48, 49. Something along those lines, you know? And he almost did the whole race, you know, and it’s been attempted, but. Again, trying to make your car last was the key. And these were road going cars with some modifications done to ’em for racing.

You know, maybe lighting ’em up a bit, drinking a few things here and there. But in essence, it was a car that you went, you bought off the showroom floor or wherever your, however you got the car, you shipped it to France, stuck some numbers on it and off you went. Yeah, guys were [00:04:00] wearing ties. And suits racing.

Talk about totally different times. You know, and safety, forget about that. Was was an afterthought in regards to that. I mean, you know, a lot of these guys wearing just this leather, I don’t even call it a helmet, but just a hooded cover on your head, you know? So it wasn’t protecting much. I mean, only thing that was gonna do is maybe.

Keep your brains in one spot inside this little leather bag. You know, that’s about it. But those are cars that really fascinate me because, you know, that was a car, like I said, you could buy and drive to the track, race and then leave, uh, was it 1995? Five was, and even then it was kind of pushing it with the McLaren F1.

I mean, that was a very specialized race car, but technically that car could have been driven there and back from the uk. But that was the last year I won, and now there’s a lot of variables involved. Them winning, there was horrendous weather everyth like that. But you know what? Hey, that’s all part of the game when you’re running Le Mans.

Mother nature and the racing gods. As a lot of people say, Le Mans chooses you. You don’t choose Le Mans to win. But [00:05:00] yeah, look at the last, you know the, well, I say the Alaska is the last Ferrari used to win were the four 90 nines. You know, those are straight up race cars. Now. The new F 80 came out. Obviously it’s heavily based on that car, but they also have it for customers.

You can buy the 4 9 9 Modifica. If you’ve got deep pockets that basically go from your neck down to your ankles, you know you can buy that and they run, they operate, everything like that and just show up to track and everything like that. And on a side note on that, I’m the type of person I own, something like that.

Especially if it’s a multimillion dollar car in my possession at my home or in my facility or wherever. You know, I got that kind of money. You gotta. Storage facility. I want it where I have it. I, I don’t want it sitting somewhere halfway across the world where, okay, I don’t know what’s going on with it.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, you gotta trust them, everything like that. But you know what, that’s just me. I, I like to have things in my possession and own it. You know? It’s, uh, just one of those things. That’s the way I am. I think there’s a lot of people like that, but, you know, I guess when you’re in that tax bracket, you know, your mindset works in a different manner.

But anyways, technically you can buy, you know what they’re racing there at Le Mans. And drive [00:06:00] it. If you got deep pockets and you’re part of the customer program and you were chosen by the gods at Ferrari to bail to buy one. But I, like I said, I wanna go back to the cars. Your fifties, sixties, forties, I guess you should say.

Ferrari wasn’t doing road cars. I mean, he started to very minimally and he was just building straight up race cars, you know, F1 cars, everything like that. Obviously then to race Le Mans you had to build that type of car to run Le Mans. ’cause again, you know the way the rules and everything were, ’cause it was supposed to be for about manufacturers racing each other and who’s got the best car under there, who builds the best car building what he had, you know, close, top 10, top cars.

I didn’t have it, but that’s again, you could go buy this car, go race it, drive it home, drive it all year. Then take it back for the next couple years to do it. Because you know, a lot of cars technologically, they didn’t advance all that much year in, year out. Now racing nowadays, last year, car is a piece of do dooo compared to what the current season cars.

I mean, they changed so much. It’s unbelievable how much of a change that car goes through during the season, but the end of the following season, basically [00:07:00] making the previous season’s car obsolete. And hence, I think you’re seeing a huge popularity of upswing in historic racing. Hence also me and my boy Eric, and a few other people.

We’re going to be at the Le Mans Classic here in a few weeks, which I cannot wait. Actually gonna be out in San Francisco next weekend for the Hillsborough Concor, which is sweet. Me and my friend Eric, and our good friend Jonathan Summers, we’re going to be docents. I dunno if we’re judging or not, or something, but now we’re gonna be doing something, being a participant.

And we got dressed all up wearing the old blue jacket, khaki pants, white shirt, and I haven’t had khaki pants since high school. And in all honestly, I have to go buy a pair because I don’t have any. So it’s one of those things where you gotta get what you gotta do. But anyways, back to what we’re talking about.

To 1965, the last Ferrari road going Ferrari, I guess you could say the two 50 LM that won. Le Mansr actually just sold ’cause it was owned by the Indianapolis Motor Museum. And I’d love to know how back then in the early seventies that car ended up getting in their hands. How does an oval track in America.

Get their hands on a LA mile, winning [00:08:00] Ferrari two 50 lm, that’s a road racing car, you know, left right turns, everything like that. I mean, they have a lot of interesting cars in their collection and obviously to raise funds to fund their expansion and that. But I get sidetracked as you know, listeners. But just as a side note, so get clarification for everybody.

’cause everyone’s like, oh my God, they’re gonna have all this money. They’re gonna be able to do the coolest things. All those cars that they sold. All that money could not go towards renovating the museum. All it can do is go to buying new cars, or it just goes into the endowment to help fund and operate and run the museum.

It couldn’t do anything with change. They did, which from my understanding is spectacular. I’ve seen some videos of it. Gentleman friend of mine, Malcolm Ross was there. He sold me a bunch of stuff from him. I mean, it was, it’s spectacular what they did. It’s really good. They did a hell of a job. But anyway, I’m just curious how they ended up with that car.

But, okay, here we go again. That two 50 L, those cars were getting more and more into, Hey, this is just a race car. It’s not real. You can’t drive it on the street, but you know that two 50 L could, but then all a sudden you started getting GT 40. Same thing. The race car, you’re not really gonna [00:09:00] drive down the street.

’cause just what it was and how stripped down and just how brutal that car was. Everything they put into it, you know, the racing clutch, all that kind of stuff. It is gonna be a nightmare to try to drive on the street. You know? That’s the thing, Hey, you gotta get it going. That’s when all of a sudden, you know, nine, 17, everything racing, you start getting into, these are just straight up race cars.

They’re not cars. You’re driving from wherever to the track, race and drive it home. What I love about that is, you know, you have those cars from then, obviously if you have one that won Le Mans, you’re gonna look at that price tag. I mean, look at that two 50 LM sold for a little over $36 million, which I, I think it was right on the money.

I actually thought maybe it’d go for a little bit more, you know, and I’ve seen that car several times in person. Everything that, the patina on it, everything like that. So it’s never really been restored. They kept it in operating condition, mechanically wise, ster wise, everything like that. It’s pretty much as it ran at Le Mans back in 65.

So, which you know, was spectacular. Then you got other cars that one, that give increased value on your car exponentially if you own it or they want to own it. But you know, you have a lot of people out [00:10:00] there that that’s what they look for. You know, look at the sione, you see ’em in Philadelphia, which I wish I was going there this weekend ’cause they’re doing this.

Awesome, awesome thing my boy. Eric’s gonna be there kinda as a moderator doing some things. So if you are in that area, get a ticket and go. I had a commitment of something else that I gotta do for a show up here helping support rock and revs that we have at the end of July. Check out the website, rock and revs.com.

We’re blowing it outta the water in regards to what we have there event wise and stuff like that. Trophies have adult big wheel, so it’s gonna be a lot of fun. But anyways. Go there, but like Symone, they all their cars there have rich race history, winning race history, Austin Museum that I highly recommend you go see that.

Just kind of a sign to also go to the red one down in Florida, down in Naples. Spectacular stuff. But anyways, again, you go back to, you have these cars that race on Sunday, drive home on Monday. I guess you could say, you know, and that’s what always really intrigued me about those cars, that ability to do that.

Obviously if they had some slight modification, but it wouldn’t take hardly anything to bring back and, and they probably wouldn’t. That’s why I [00:11:00] think people all of a sudden failed to realize, ’cause two 50 GTO never driven one. I rode one once. Not very fast, but you know, it was very brief. That is just a full blown race car.

Yes, you could drive it on the street if you want, but I mean, it’s loud. There’s no sound anything. I mean, it’s, it’s loud. It’s not very comfortable. It’s a brutal car. But you know, it’s made to be raced driven high RPMs at a very rapid rate. That’s what that car’s made for. It’s not made to be going to stop and go traffic doing 20 miles an hour from light to light, that ain’t gonna, you know, happen.

I would’ve loved to have been back in a thing when Phil Specter was driving his around, uh, LA back in the, uh, was that the early seventies when he had his, it had just been awesome to see. But that’s a car then. Hey, race car. But you could drive it to the track, race it, drive it home, and you know, you had a lot of guys that, I mean, take for instance the Tour de Frances that they used to do, and I think they revived it in some shape or.

Form. I have to look that up. God, was it a month long tour? It was a multi-week tour of France, but what it entailed is obviously you had your road rally portions, [00:12:00] but then you had all a sudden track racing to do time, stuff like that. You had hill climbs and then you had your rally sections about time, everything.

It basically combined all these different facets of types of racing and stuff that you could do, you know, with your car, road car again, but it can take it on the track. The tour France are sweet. If you, you’re not really all that familiar with it, check it out. From back then ’cause it’s some really, really cool stuff and some awesome, awesome cars ran in that.

Like I said, I’m a big, huge fan of Le Mans. We’ll see what happens if Ferrari can do this on the trot and win the third time in a row. It’s looking more competitive after watching qualifying, so we’ll see. And I don’t know, by the time you list this, maybe the race will be over. So we’ll know the answer to, Hey, who won?

But it’s been interesting. You know, I think it’s a little bit tighter, especially with that top 12 or top 10 cars. But again, now you’re talking 24 hours. There’s one thing to do one lap, but then it’s a whole nother thing to do. What is it? 300 some laps these guys end up doing. Now, again, going back to what I was saying before is, you know, these races were more about pace, attrition, babying, nursing the car till we got to the last couple [00:13:00] hours, you know, now it’s just a full on sprint.

It’s from the flag drops, the flag’s done. You know, both ends just go to stop. I mean, river. It’s awesome to see because you have spectacular racing. I, God, I wish they’d get rid of the chicanes and just have the mul sun be what it was. It, it’s so cool to see. I mean, I just wish they would, I mean, they top out now anyways.

Even with the, uh, chicanes in there. I mean, so what’s the difference? Just take ’em out. Go back. Old school, it’d be awesome to see. It’d be cool to see, you know, they did just like a open day. Get five of the hypercar, whatever, say, okay, we’re gonna run without the Chicanes and the Molson and, uh, see what happens.

Just test out. Just see, I mean, you wanna talk about a sweet marketing thing to put out there. I mean, that would be awesome to see these all five going down, going just straight, flat out like that. That’d be so cool to see. But yeah, so we shall see. So it’s gonna be a great race as always. And he said, I think that’s probably one of the, the best race I.

Of the year done. The best racing weekend used to be, you know, here over Memorial weekend, but F1 decided to go cock a bot with it. And now it seems to be that [00:14:00] Monaco is gonna be two weeks before that weekend. ’cause it used to be you’d get up, you’d watch the Monaco Grand Prix. You know which of late, it’s just, it’s boring.

You turn it on, you watch it start, then you go do something else. Or you read a book, something, then you watch the end. Okay, who won? Then you watch 8,500, which spectacular race to watch. But it is so close, so much passing, everything like that to drama again, ’cause it’s a 500 mile race that’s a race. I would say attrition, but just going balls out attrition.

So that’s always awesome race to watch it. And then you got the Cold Coast Center. So you got the trifecta of race then that day. But now F1 went and changed up the schedules to where now Monica will be, was it two weeks before two weeks af? I don’t, they changed it up. Monica was not even on the same week anymore.

And now it turns out every five years, the Canadian Grand Prix will be on that day, which then that means it’s during the day when the Indy five hundred’s running. It’s going to be interesting to see how this all plays out because I get everyone’s reasoning behind it because of the fact is logistics.

You know, instead of like coming over for the Canadian Grand Prix, then going back over to Europe, then coming back over here to the United States, going back forth, back and forth. Now they can kind of keep it over here where it’s [00:15:00] Canadian Grand Prix, then the Miami Grand Prix, that kind of thing. So that stuff’s not getting shoot back across the pond there.

So I get it, but it just, it sucks. Another piece of, I guess, motoring history going down the toilet. ’cause of money. ’cause that’s what basically boil down to is money. But I know I just kind of rambled on this episode and it’s a little bit shorter than some of the other ones. But I just kinda wanted to, you know, touch base with say, hey, you know, Le Mans this weekend, you know, one of the greatest races and know when you got time.

Look at the history, especially if you’re over in Europe. Anyone over there listening to this hit up Le Mans Classic, me, Eric, and this few other people gonna be over there. Shoot me a message. You’re gonna be over there and let’s meet up. So it’s gonna be a really good time, you know, seeing all these old cars, everything like that, and how everything runs.

So it’s gonna be pretty sweet. You can’t wait to see it again. If you’re listening and you’re watching the race this weekend, and obviously there’s some time in there, unless you’re just glued to it and you just watch the racing ball out the whole time, God bless you. You can watch it obviously on HBO Max, HBO covers it very, very well.

But also, if you’re here in the United States or even over in Europe, remember to check out and become a member of the [00:16:00] A-C-O-U-S-A. Trying to do a lot more over here in regards to supporting the A CO, but just in world racing, everything in general do some really cool things. So check it out. Link will be in the description about the A-C-O-U-S-A, look into it, spend the money, become a member.

It’s really cool to see, but if you’re watching the race got time, check out the history of Le Mans. Check out the Tour de France racing and stuff like, that’s really cool too. Hey Le Mans in France. So hey, kinda coincides, right? But just look at the history of stuff like that and pick a brand, you know, Hey, obviously I got a preference for Ferrari.

And just look at the history and what they ran, you know what the cards were like that. And just like see if you can find the stuff. Hey, auction history, check out one that’s got that Le Mans history to it. Then check out one that doesn’t, and look at the price difference and look at how much values added to it with that race history.

Then especially if you have one that was, if you have a Le Mans when you won. But if that two 50 lm, you know, so well known. Everything like that. I mean that’s really huge And it also, the fact is, is technical last real going Ferrari to win Le Mans. So it had a lot of added value to it, you know, that’s why it can get up there because that’s.

Three times. I’m trying to think, what’s the road going? Le Mans LM. 8 million to [00:17:00] 10 million. I say they’ll go up, come up very often ’cause there’s not that many of ’em. But check that out. It’s always good. Just kinda look at that and how that everything plays in that. Check some stuff out about the Le Mans Classic too.

You know what they do with that? ’cause tell I think you, if you like the motoring history. That’s something to very much definitely look into and then attend as well. What is it? Every two years they do it or something like that. So anyway, so I think it’s something really cool to check out. Lots of fun.

Hey, I appreciate you listening to me ramble on this episode, just kind of talking about a bunch of nonsense about Le Mans. I wanted to get it off my chest and get it out there and just say hello to everyone. So, hey, I appreciate everybody listening. Share it out there, spread the word and hey, hit up our supporters out there.

Let’s take care of us here on, not only at Ferrari Marketplace, but on the Motoring Podcast network itself, and listen to some of the other stuff we got on there. It’s pretty sweet podcast. We have some great content, some great materials, and, uh, check everything else. So again guys, we really appreciate you listening.

Have a good one. Until next time, peace.

Crew Chief Eric: This episode has been brought to you by Grand [00:18:00] Touring Motorsports as part of our Motoring Podcast network. For more episodes like this, tune in each week for more exciting and educational content from organizations like The Exotic Car Marketplace, the Motoring Historian, break Fix, and many others. If you’d like to support Grand Touring Motor Sports and the Motoring Podcast Network, sign up for one of our many sponsorship tiers at www.patreon.com/gt Motorsports.

Please note that the content, opinions and materials presented and expressed in this episode are those of its creator, and this episode has been published with their consent. If you have any inquiries about this program, please contact the creators of this episode via email or social media as mentioned in the episode.

• 00:00 Introduction to the Show
• 01:53 History and Significance of Le Mans
• 03:16 Ferrari’s Legacy at Le Mans
• 04:23 Classic Cars and Their Value
• 07:06 Upcoming Events and Personal Anecdotes
• 07:40 The Evolution of Racing Cars
• 12:26 Modern Racing and Le Mans Today
• 15:14 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

On Ferrari Friday’s, William Ross from the Exotic Car Marketplace will be discussing all things Ferrari and interviewing people that live and breathe the Ferrari brand. Topics range from road cars to racing; drivers to owners, as well as auctions, private sales and trends in the collector market.