Buying a high-end, rare Ferrari takes the kind of connections and money normally used in Mafia and cartel drug deals. There is an actual process Ferrari uses to pick current Ferrari owners when a new special model is out: they are given the privilege of being able to actually buy the car at full value. So for Ferrari and coach builder and long-time Ferrari ally Pininfarina to sell one of the most well-known Ferrari concept cars to a private owner, and no less to a private American Ferrari owner, that’s jaw-dropping beyond my ability to communicate via words.
The individual is Jim Glickenhaus. Jim’s name might be familiar from some movies from the Eighties and Nineties, but recently Jim has been into money investment and collecting old cars. He’s special in that he owns the 1947 Ferrari 159S, the oldest Ferrari in existence with a confirmed background, as well as seven other Ferraris and Steve McQueen’s Baja Boot. Through circumstances that are fairly secretive in nature, Glickenhaus managed to convince Pininfarina to sell the 1970 Ferrari Modulo prototype. Based upon a Ferrari 512S Can-Am-style chassis, the Modulo has a wedge shape that is pure 1970’s future look, with enclosed wheels and a forward-slide canopy that opened up the cockpit for the two passengers. When the car debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in 1970 the automotive world went absolutely insane, ultimately collecting twenty-two design awards that year. Originally, the car was black, but it was refinished in white.
So what the hell do you do with a Ferrari concept car that’s forty-something years old and can probably barely turn? Glickenhaus intends on getting the Modulo running, then registered, and plans to drive it. It takes brass balls to do what he’s doing, but if there’s one thing we’re glad to see, it’s that this rolling wedge is going to be driven. It’s done years in museum jail, and while we understand the car’s significance, let’s see this thing in action.
(Courtesy: Jalopnik)
As well as the mandatory Lamborghini this is the car I grew up with on my bedroom wall thanks to Australian Wheels Magazine .
Thanks for bringing back the memories!
I’m sorry but it looks like a Mad Max vehicle reject!
I had this car as a model when I was a kid! Loved it then and still do!