The History of Ferrari 330GT 2+2, SN 7537.
HomeFinding the detailed history for a Vintage Ferrari usually takes a lot of sleuthing. The fellow I bought this particular Ferrari from, Mr. Jensen, is the son-in-law of the first owner and generously shared 7537's history. The rest I cobbled together from various websites and books, of course.
September 17th 1965 Ferrari ends manufacture of the Series 1 four headlight 330GT 2+2, and begins manufacturing the two headlight Series 2. At the same time, several other design changes are made, the most notable being the replacement of the 4 speed + overdrive manual transmission with a 5 speed.
During this transition, Ferrari builds 125 of these 'Interim' 330GT 2+2s with the four headlight styling and the 5 speed manual gearbox.
Ferrari 7537 appears to be the second to last of these Interim cars, and leaves the assembly line with a metallic silver exterior, medium blue leather, and a royal blue carpet interior. I currently have no pictures of 7537 in its original colors, but John Elliott has some great pictures of #5759 in Silver. These show the subtle crease along the side, which is seldom captured well in pictures.
Build Sheets Ferrari documented the components and dyno testing of each of their cars via Build Sheets. These used to be very difficult to obtain, and you were very lucky if they stayed with the car as time passed (same can be said of the tools too, unfortunately). Recently, Ferrari began scanning these from their records and making them available to owners, provided proof of ownership could be established via pictures of certain serial numbers. Also then available is a Heritage Certificate documenting the original Date of Manufacture, and the original Body and Interior colors.
After sending the proper pictures to Ferrari, they kindly provided the links to download the Heritage Certificate and Build Sheets for 7537. Note that all the dates are in the European format: Month/Day/Year.
For comparison, Kerry Chesbro has the Build Sheets for 330GT 2+2 #8755 on his site.
Heritage Certificate Title Page Motor Page Dynometer Page Running Gear Page Transmission &
Differential Page
1965ish While on vacation, Dr John C. Becker visits the Ferrari factory, and purchases a 330GT 2+2. The car is shipped to San Francisco, where it is picked up and driven home to Reno, Nevada. 7537 was not Dr Becker's first Ferrari, but it's unknown what type he had before.
This was not the typical way of picking up a Ferrari in the US west that year - normally the cars were imported via Luigi Chinetti Jr's in New York, and delivered through Bill Harrah's Modern Classic Motors, in Reno. I wonder if there was more to this story, as Dr Becker was a friend of Bill Harrah.
1965 - 1972 The Ferrari is used for the daily commute to the hospital (Dr Becker was a Pediatric Surgeon), to his club, then home. A short 4.8 mile daily trip usually, with the occasional house call out of the city. For evenings on the town, Dr Becker also had a Gullwing Mercedes (a 300SL Coupe).
Mr Jensen says this Gullwing was the one loaned to Francis Ford Coppola so Fredi Corleone could drive it in The Godfather II.
Date Unknown Minor Accident. Front bumper replaced with a Series 2 type (3 piece with bumperettes). Paint touched up in original Silver, with overspray on radiator, front cross tubes etc.
Left Picture: You are in the right front wheelwell. Under the turn signal hole, you can see the line of Bondo tails where the sheetmetal was pulled back out. Also, you can see the new bumper mounting bolt above the crosstube, used instead of the larger original mounting hole. The proper one piece replacement bumper must not have been available.
Right Picture: This is the right front section of the engine compartment. On the left, you can see the vertical tube is bent slightly at the bottom where the tubes come together. This top tube travels forward to support the front bumper, so its easy to imagine how things got bent the way they are. This distortion also compressed the air vents slightly, which is why they are wavy too.
1972 or so Dr Becker buys a bright orange Jensen Interceptor (with power steering), for use during the daily commute. The Ferrari is now only used for occasional house calls across state.
1978 Nevada puts speed limits on the state highways. Mr Jensen says Dr Becker didn't drive the Ferrari much after that.
The Nevada interstate state roads are long and straight, (see some pictures below) and are perfect for wide open flat out driving, as Enzo intended for these cars. Even today, there are Open Road events (ie legal NO speed limit races) allowing us to savor these cars to their limits.
1982 Minor Accident. There's snow on the roads, and someone slides into the Ferrari and dents the panel between the drivers door and rear wheel well. At this point, the car exterior is completely repainted in bronze, with the Pininfarina scripts & shields left off. Mr Jensen indicated he drove it last, and it looks like he drove it back from the paintshop.
Mr Jensen remembers Dr Becker liking this bronze color on one of his cars. Also, it was a standard color available from Ferrari, so it's possible one of Bill Harrah's cars influenced the color choice. Lest you think this color is unusual, here is the cover to a hilarious article by Car & Driver Magazine telling how Luigi Chinetti Jr's personal bronze 330 GT 2+2 roundly trounced a heavily factory modified Pontiac Catalina 2+2. Also, recently there were both bronze project 330 America's and GTC's, and at the Concorso Italiano this year, there was a Gold/Bronze 275 GTB and 365 GTB/4 Daytona. So there you go.
January 1982 through 2000 Parked in Dr Becker's garage in Reno, Nevada.
2000 Dr Becker's estate elects to sell the Ferrari. The car is moved to storage at Adam's Custom Engines, and is appraised. This isn't your standard greasy corner garage, but is a shop which maintains cars from Bill Harrah's collection, so is familiar with classic Ferraris. In fact, Mr Adams was one of Bill Harrah's crew chiefs for Harrah's power boat 'Tahoe Miss'.
May 10, 2001 Ferrari S/N 7537 sold by the estate of Dr. John Becker to Jonathon Brent. More details on this story are here.
The car is transported to it's new home, and the process is begun to make it roadworthy once more.
The original papers and the service records for this car were seen early during the estate resolution process (before the auction), but have not surfaced since then. Mr. Jensen has indicated that if they are found, he will of course let me know. I am hopeful that they eventually will be reunited with the car.
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Revised: January 26, 2003 Copyright © 2002 Jonathon Brent
