Seemingly a hundred years ago, in a land far, far away, a buddy of mine, Andy Cohen, invited me to a little get together at his friend’s place in Walnut, California. His buddy was David Lee, the well-known Ferrari collector who recently bought the white GTO at Mecum’s Kissimmee event in January. Andy wanted me to see the collection and the garage in which it was kept. I was excited – and, stupidly, I had no idea who David Lee was, but sometimes that’s the best way for a reporter to enter a room. Not always, but sometimes.
The collection was mind blowing to say the least, a throng of exceedingly rare Ferraris all kept in a garage of white. Literally, the whole room, except the floor, was white. It was like something from a John Lennon video. But it was obvious what he was doing – the cars were the stars, not the garage. Andy wanted to change that. He had great ideas for colors, new flooring, automobilia and petroliana, art, and much more to add distractions and depth to the collection. The founder of the world-famous Beverly Hills Motoring Accessories, Andy was not a shy personality, and he knew how to dress a scene, and promote and market. Andy wanted to publish the garage when it was done, and David was excited by the idea. And then, out of the blue, after a couple of years of waiting for the garage to be decorated, Andy died very suddenly. Fast forward to the 2026 Kissimmee Mecum auction, and David bought the GTO. I reached out to Andy’s son, Kevin, who has resurrected the BHMA brand as an online entity to see if he could connect me with David to discuss the GTO. No problem, he connected us, and thanks to him, I am able to bring to you a little story about David, the GTO, his collection, and hopefully more as time goes on. There are many layers to David’s collecting.
As if that’s not enough, we have a note from Corvette Mike and the Lane Motor Museum. And, coming issues will be visiting a restoration shop specializing in Mercedes-Benz W113 and R107 SLs, a fabulous gallerage in Northern California that successfully argues less is more, and a mind-boggling garage in Illinois that’s heavily dedicated to the Lamborghini Countach that challenges that more is more. Very exciting stuff coming soon!
Thanks for stopping by!
