When the Mecum Auction Company started promoting that a white 1962 Ferrari GTO would cross the block at their Kissimmee, Florida event in January, the world sat up and took notice. Everyone in the car world, especially those in the Ferrari stable, were gobsmacked. A well-known GTO held by a well-known Ferrari collector, the white GTO was reputed to be the only white GTO ever built by Ferrari. Right-hand drive increased the rarity of the car, and everyone was at attention. Simply put, original GTOs aren’t normally offered on the open market. With just 36 made, they are passed around the GTO community, and normal earthlings have very little chance of getting their hands on one, even hyper-wealthy Ferrari enthusiast earthlings. But once in a while, the planets align, and things are just right for one lucky soul to strike at an opportunity. In this case, the planets aligned for Ferrari collector extraordinaire, David Lee.
“I am very excited to have the car,” said David. “I really didn’t think I would get it, the 250GTO wasn’t a car on my radar. People often call me and ask if I’d like to buy one, but so often the prices are not something I want to pay. So, when Mecum brought this car to Kissimmee, I asked my representative to help me bid, and he did, I was on the phone with him while I was at Willow Springs Raceway. At the very least, I thought I would get some bids in and be able to say I bid on it, but I didn’t think I was going to win. I was surprised, it was amazing.”
David’s first foray into Ferrari ownership started with a Lamborghini.
“I’ve been a car guy my whole life, I really think you’re born with it, there’s a special connection between some people and cars,” he said. “I remember being in the 3rd grade and the teacher taking us to the library and telling us to pick out a book to read. Kids went for books on wildlife and dinosaurs and so on, I went straight to the car section and grabbed a book on Italian cars. I loved that book, remembered some of the cars later so I could draw them. As time went on, I wanted a Lamborghini. That was the car for me, I had the poster on my wall and everything. So, when I was able, my first exotic car was a Lamborghini Diablo VT.”
The VT served David well, giving him that moment of “I have arrived,” but sadly, the car was a constant mechanical nightmare.
“It was always in the shop. It was as if whoever had it before me took it to a slipshod mechanic, and then the shop I was going to was only able to make the light on the dashboard go off and make it look like everything was okay for a little while,” he said. “After about six months of that, I decided it was time to move on, so I took it to a Ferrari of Costa Mesa and traded it in on a pre-owned 355 Spider.”
This would be the beginning of something extraordinary.
“It was a gated car, and I loved it, it was beautifully balanced, it drove wonderfully, had great power from that V-8, it was very linear, it would just rev and keep pulling,” David said. “With that car, I decided I wanted to always have a mid-engine, V-8 Ferrari around.”
And, he did. From the 355, he moved on to a 360 and a 430 and it was about this time that he decided he wanted to begin collecting. With this, he purchased a Porsche Carrera GT, a Ferrari Enzo, and a Lamborghini Diablo 6.0, a stunning trio that he calls “the trinity.”
“I was as happy as a clam, I was driving them once in a while, but not so much that I would harm their value, and I was watching them go up in value,” he said. “I thought this was the way to go. Then, one day, I decided I wanted to have a vintage collector car. I gravitated to Ferrari between the three, and I had an interest in the 275GTS, so I got one and thought it was the coolest, it looked incredible, it was a front-mounted V-12 car, which is a big deal among Ferrari enthusiasts, I loved it.”
With this, David had a little epiphany.
“I thought it made sense to be loyal to one manufacturer rather than a multitude of them,” he said. “So, I sold the Porsche and Lamborghini, kept the Ferrari and began buying Ferraris.”
Behind the scenes, David enjoyed becoming known as the Ferrari guy, taking his cars to events and cruise ins, entertaining magazines to publish articles about his cars, and soon, all this caught the attention of Ferrari in Maranello.
“The next thing I knew, I was being invited to private events at dealerships and collections, and I realized, I’d been accepted by not only the Ferrari aficionados, but also Ferrari itself,” he said. “This was very humbling. With this came the opportunities to purchase very special cars directly from the factory, and I’ve had a number of them. I always buy, because I feel I need to support them as much as they’ve supported me. I might not keep the car for very long to make way for something else, but when they offer, I buy.”
With this, David has been able to amass a stunning collection of vintage and modern Ferraris. With cars like the Enzo, the special edition Steve McQueen Brown F12, and 430 Speciale, David is smitten with Ferrari.
“While Lamborghini was my first kind of car obsession, when I saw the 288 GTO, I was absolutely taken aback,” he said. “I was in love. So, when I was able to find one, I bought it, and it’s likely my favorite. It drives like nothing else, it’s visceral, raw, slightly refined. But now, the 250GTO is here. An entirely different car, and one that is considered to be the holy grail of all cars, especially among Ferrari people. I’d always wanted one, like so many other people, and now, I finally have one. So, for the moment, it is my favorite.”
When he’s not enjoying his cars, David owns two jewelry stores in Los Angeles, California. His store in Walnut has a basement that serves as his garage, which Garage Style will be photographing soon, along with his shop on Larchmont in Los Angeles which also serves as a home for some of David’s other collecting passions. Stay tuned.
