1959 Ferrari 250 TR Tribute - Jay Leno’s Garage

today a very special car with a very special story you know we went to see this car two years ago went down in the San Diego area to visit the owner and something terrible happened in this car before we got there well here it is in his garage take a look what happened somebody run any açaí maybe it's just a normal traffic action yeah well it's nothing that can't be fixed let's meet the owner mr. Peter Jacoby Peter come on in 1john all my friends hey buongiorno so tell us exactly what we have here all right this is a 1959 testa Rossa replica or tribute car for our racecar right and it's I found the body in Italy it was a proof of concept and was hanging on a wall in this warehouse now what do you mean our proof of concept means that the body builder in 1958 wanted to get the Ferrari business and built this body to try to get the business but it was so good yeah and it was built so badly he didn't get the business and fantasy got the business okay and so he had this thing hanging up on on this wall for 50 years no who wants an empty shell right what are you gonna do with it well my I was visiting my family in Italy my son-in-law told me about this warehouse with some weird stuff in it and I went up and I saw this body hanging on the wall and I thought oh I'm cost too much money and to take too much time to build it but it was my favorite body style and my favorite drivers like one trips and de portago Phil Hill Willie Marazzi all drove that car and they drove it and LeMond they drove it all over the place it's a was the most desirable car to me and I can't afford an original the originals are worth between 40 and 50 million and so I thought oh I tried to build it but I decided to be way too much to do so I flew home couldn't sleep for a week flew back and bought it what the bus so you just had a body yeah just as a shell okay so where did you get I don't want people to think this is a Chevy power deal this has got a real Ferrari engine correct everything on the car is it's a Ferrari suspension for orange for steering for a transmission for a rear-end right it's all Ferrari it's all Ferrari parts okay and the chassis is not we built the chassis copying the original design as closely as we could did their copied as much as I could that number of screws the type of screws the bolts are even Lobo bolts the same that the factory used well there's some things that are identical like the ignition key do you want to show them that oh yeah that's kind of cool it's just it looks like it just looks like a nail anybody anybody can steal your car with it how hard is that to copy but that's that's what they use yeah because they were a race car yeah yeah you know I didn't want to use Stuart Warner gauges so I had the the gauges copied and exactly we tried to copy everything new possibly because I even you know the number of these dunno holder downs the gas cap is exactly the same it's you know if you look in the engine compartment you'll see that we copied everything we could even though it's not the same engine this is a 4.4 liter engine out over 365 rather than though it's all problems yes but a sylvie 12 oh yeah it's a v12 it looks the same it's four point four liters it's slightly bigger than the original 250 which was a three litre what era the engine is early 60s okay so it sits in the wall part yeah I mean it looks the same as the same architecture it's just bigger and how many years to put this together it took about ten oh yeah I mean we got it together and I was racing it probably after five but we didn't have the plastic cover we tried making one and couldn't do it was too complicated so we had it made by an aircraft windshield manufacturer but Dan made the the windshield and the headlight covers ourselves you know it's just a long process lots of funny little things you see these belts yeah it has the stainless steel with a roller and the welts those were dog collars I found in Pennsylvania all right you know it just tried to duplicate everything we could as closely as possible can we take a look under the hood and show people with you I'm very proud because one of the most beautiful engines of all time it's the most beautiful sounding for sure it is it certainly give you that when I was a kid I always loved the dual oil filter filter filters I thought that was cool the six Weber carburetors the dual distributors and each distributor has two sets of points each set of points runs three cylinders so it's a lot of fun trying to time it Wow yeah must be very tricky trying to time it okay is it a dry sump no it's a what's under wet supple but I use an accumulator to compensate and you're not running any filters just a big screen in the front that's right it keeps the rock so keep the rocks out yeah five-speed transmission also for our yes okay have you ever taken this to the factory to show them no but I've been to the factory and talk to Piero Ferrari the oh I think they appreciate it but they really don't want to have anything to do no no well I understand I mean I build it so okay but it's it's certainly the heart and soul of a Ferrari and in some ways it's such a personal expression of your love for the mark that it's it probably means more to you than a real one to some rich guy because you built it with your hands and you put it together you know every part of it that's safe to say yeah well the other thing is I'm not collecting the car I brought it I built it so I could drive it and race it and experience what my heroes experienced this is the only way I could do that yeah well it's it's just unbelievable let's close this up again let's round the bucket seats similar to the bucket seats are in the car Ridge yes the original ones were actually blue but I'm so I'm like Pigpen in the comic book so I get him dirty so I had black leather seats made and I love the gated shifter I know it doesn't always make for the fastest but to me it just I love the fact that everything just kind of snakes in there a little bit I wondered why they did it and I asked them and they the because I used to call on the factory and they said is in the excitement of racing you push so hard on the gearshift that you bend the four oh that's true so this limits the travel so you don't bend the 42 I'm going too far and then there's a neat little reverse lockout here right did you make that yes copying pictures that we have I have to get some of these friends these friends like this I got a lot of broken stuff this guy's miracle man yeah nice job what do we have back here this opens what was that here we have a spare tire and tool kit and fuel cell okay that's when other things it's not original because I race it I have to have a fuse right how many gallons is the tank on it's 14 well it's only 14 okay okay and the wheels are original Bharani and the discs are the same size as the factory they the I love that they're painted wheels and not chrome they that's the way the factory race cars were I happen to like chrome wheels better but I wanted it to be like the factory car well I just like this because it just has such a visceral look you know it just looks like it just came out of the toughest hardest race it of Iran in its life you know that's what's kind of fun about it it really is just a beautiful raw car right and what it designed this is this pinna Farina that he designed this yeah penny if we ended it assigned it and Fanta team made the original five that was Anna Farina what it was one name right yeah yeah and of course look at these exhausts well that's pretty impressive you know that's what you're gonna be looking at in a race most of the time so it's nice for you other drivers to get a look at how sexy of those exhausts are I like this they become megaphones yeah I I probably would have put them out the side but this is the way the factory did it yeah well I guess that's true you got this because they get a whole bunch of weight and stuff right but that's the way it was these are original Carrillo taillights any significance to 1:21 no it's a number that I had got about 30 years ago racing yeah that doesn't mean he came on 121st no no and so I only can race one car at a time so I thought to keep the same number okay no that's great that's great so I have I have one Ferrari to alphas and one synthesis oh okay well yeah you have some beautiful stuff he was featured on Jay Leno's Garage the show we did on NBC and that's when we saw this one and saw it goddammit tell us about that accident what happened there well it was just an unfortunate street accident where I got run into no man man that must have been heartbreaking how long you had the car finish when that happened oh I don't know probably about two years oh it is okay okay but it's never been finished we're still fiddling with yeah yeah well that's the thing but yeah that's what makes it exciting you never you're never finished with it's always a work in progress yeah well that's will it always be unpainted yes the body is so rough that to paint it I have to put tons of bondo on yeah you know and the paint would crack and quite frankly I have more fun this way when I go to car shows I cross out the do not have the do not touch right I know some people come over and touch it and I put the kids in it and everybody has a good time now to talk about the steering wheel is unauthentic steering that is an authentic steering wheel it's an r/t signature wooden wheel okay and what era would that be from that they made Nardi wheels from the early 50s through the seventies tell me about the switches and what each one does well I tried to duplicate the original ones from the photographs and the the first switch here is a starter button which is also the generator light so when you turn the key on it lights up and when you start the engine it goes off if your generator is working okay the second one is the pumper which is the fuel pump now see I like any time word that sounds like is they just pump up like I'm gonna guess that's the pump it's just pump with an AM in Mission Impossible Talk oh and this is ventilate which are the fans and it's like event like ventilation yeah that's easy to figure out and these are Lucci that means light lights that's a and these are body which are the driving light driving right so and then the right hand switch is a battery cutoff is that you have to have for racing okay for safety very cool and was this the first year for disc brakes 1959 for Ferrari yes it was Jaguar had him first right and they did so well that Ferrari finally very stubborn decided to put disc brakes on the car yeah I remember a lot of talk about we've given buildings ago not to stop and all that kind of stuff yeah very funny very funny he was very stubborn yeah yeah because there were pretty traditional cars yet the front suspension is very traditional right I think tricky about it all yeah I mean he was an engine man from the get-go yeah you know they were building airplane engines during the war any chance we could take this thing for right oh I think that would be a good idea it's a great it likes to be exercised have you ever been a passenger in your own car I have never been a passenger really okay let's try it can we try it you're about the only guide let drive it oh cool let's give it a shot cool thanks big saucer [Music] they were we had the exchange student from Italy staying with us he didn't senior project on this car all right and so I had to do two items to stainless real bad [Music] that's why it doesn't vary pilot 12 accelerator poems that's funny [Music] oh thank you thank you yeah yeah we'll Damon [Music] [Music] wow what a throat list has been you know this is truly the Golden Age of racing the late 50s and early 60s you know I got to drive Steve McQueen's xkss I got to drive this car and you know there's no modern car that gives you this sort of visceral thrill I mean the P ones and the Enzo Ferraris and all those are great but they're not like this this is in the era when the man made the car you know you needed a good driver in a good car nowadays you can have an OK driving a good car and they can win but back then you need you need to be almost a better guy than the car well you know what I'm saying absolutely there's no electronic devices no assists it's pure seat-of-the-pants and you have to know what you're doing the thing that blows me away is how these guys could drive a car this difficult to drive for in LeMans at night at 165 miles an hour in the rain was spray coming at them yeah I know it's raced this thing in my races last 20 minutes and I'm wasted yeah yeah that's fun four times older than they got you said you're 50 years old yeah but now a Peter this has really been a thrill thank you so much it really is a it's one of those cars you never ever think you'd get to drive and and the fact that you put the whole thing together yourself and then you have that accident then you fix it and you keep it going it's really terrific it's great to see this kind of dedication to the sport and to the Hobby thank you my friends thank you sir oh my pleasure doesn't get much cooler than this see you guys next week [Music]

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 351,886

Rating: 4.9676409 out of 5

Keywords: Ferrari, V12, Le Mans, Peter Giacobbi, Phil Hill, Italian cars, car porn, speed, racecar, Modena, Italy, car design, designer, Enzo Ferrari, Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, jay leno garage, jay lenos garage, car collection, cnbc, episode, motorcycle, ford, corvette, tour, dodge, lexus

Id: N4ylTQVD2lA

Length: 18min 42sec (1122 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 24 2019