#028 has a home in northern california

[dlc1414]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here but its a doozy. I have a summer job working for a car collector at his personal collection, just north of San Francisco. I basically do the grunt work (polish, polish, polish). He's got about 25-30 cars, here are a couple notable ones, try not to get to excited.
-Jaguar XJ220
-Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato
-Ferrari 250 GTO (I kid you not...)
-Maserati 250F
-Ferrari 250 California Spider
One of his newest additions is the McLaren F1 Chassis #028, and it is gorgeous, imo.
Here are a couple pics. I get to see this thing 3 times a week for the rest of the summer so if anyone has specific picture requests or any other questions feel free to ask me. I don't know many specifics as to how he acquired it, he just told me that he recieved a call asking if he knew anyone who would be interested in purchasing it. He also said he had to sell 3 of his cars in order to buy it. I also know that the car was already in California when he offered to buy it. I'm going to try to get some more info from him about it, but I am not going to go crazy, seeing as how he pays my salary and I don't want him getting annoyed.....
I've attached one slightly out of focus picture, but more will come. (I know it looks orange, but its not, I can assure you its Grand Prix Red)

[Peloton25]

Welcome to the forum and thanks for the contribution. Sounds like you work in a spectacular job so please don't do anything that might jeopardize that on our behalf.

Chassis #028 has a somewhat well known history at least for portions of it's life and no doubt it is a great looking car. It lived in the collection of Clifford Meltzer down in Los Gatos, CA for a few years recently, and then was sold to someone in Southern California, so the story went. That particular owner may have used the car a few times, but certainly didn't give it as much exposure as Cliff had. Prior to that the car was in Japan, but may have had one US owner before Cliff as well.

When in Japan the car wore a rather funky looking rear wing - similar in style to an F1 GTR, but much taller and mounted further forward on the back of the car. There is also some association with this car to the Andretti family, more likely Michael Andretti and his signature should still appear on the underside of the flip-down sun visor. There's also a small silver plaque fitted to the rear grill that you may have noticed which reads "Special ordered car by Andretti" or something very close to that. It's certainly not a McLaren standard item so one wonders how it ended up there or why exactly all the subsequent owners have left it in place.

Anyway, I definitely look forward to more contributions from you. If you are able to find out about any places that the owner might choose to display the car I would love an opportunity to come and see it. I am probably just a few hours away.

>8^)
ER

[dlc1414]

Thanks for the kind words and the info! I was trolling the threads earlier and came across the picture of andrettis signature, and when I'm at the collection on monday I'll try to get my own picture. Also I'll try to pump the owner for some additional info on the car's recent history

[Peloton25]

BTW: This pair of photos showed up on FerrariChat recently - apparently the car was spotted at Infineon very recently:





>8^)
ER

[dlc1414]

That would make sense, he races/tests his cars at infineon all the time, the collection is about 25 minutes away. I'll ask him about it on monday. Also, as far as showing the car, he tends not to bring out too many models for shows besides his 250 GTO, which will actually be on display in Tiburon, CA, tomorrow from 11-4, but I will be sure to ask him if he is planning on showing the F1 anytime soon.

[Peloton25]

Here's another nice shot of it, taken when the car was for sale at Silicon Valley Auto Group in October 2005:



>8^)
ER

[dlc1414]

I actually saw that picture as well. Its a crazy coincidence too because the current owner owns an aston martin dealership

[Peloton25]

Here's some pics of the car's life in Japan, with and without the ridiculous wing.







>8^)
ER

[F1FREAKZILLA]

I know this car well

I have sat in it when it was a part of Cliff"s collection and have seen it many times--it is one awesome F1 and Cliff sold it because he is getting rid
of his cars in order to buy a winery--it is too bad he had one amazing
collection..

[hurstg01]

Cool

[carbuilder2002]

Winery or F1?

Sorry no contest I have already had that choice.

Engineering Company or GTR

GTR got my vote just waiting now to get rid of the former.