This Ferrari 340 America Touring Berlinetta, chassis number 0126A, is a rare bird as one of just 23 of the original 340 Americas, and one of just two in Touring bodywork. It's the car's history, however, that makes it a one-of-one. After spending some time bouncing around Europe, including a stint with Charlie Chaplan's son Sidney, the gorgeous and sophisticated V12 Ferrari ran into hard times in America and was fitted with some hotrodder's probably more powerful Ford flathead V8 and shipped off
to Guantanamo Bay for penance. For most of the 1960s this beautiful eggcrate-grille Ferrari popped and banged around the U.S. Naval base in Cuba under the care of an officer stationed there (who reportedly died during the Vietnam War). It isn't immediately clear, but this wistful and slender machine may have been present for the Cuban missile crisis. When a car lives through history, some of that history is stored within its sheetmetal. While I love this car for its beauty and the now-returned Italian V12, its history is fascinating to me, and maybe worth the cost of admission.
The car has been restored to its original build specifications, and is presented as one of the most perfect examples of pre-250 GT Ferrari motoring. I'll be honest, I kind of love everything about it. The squinty and somewhat droopy Touring bodywork is tremendous, and the 340 cars got the 4.1-liter Lampredi "big engine" from Ferrari's period racing cars. This one was lovingly restored a decade ago, and this is the perfect opportunity for someone to help the car earn some patina back through, you know, actual use.
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Cuban Ferrari
The feel of the wood rim under your fingertips, or the delicate slip of the gearshifter can't really be replicated in any other car, and you absolutely need to send me a few million to buy this machine. Pretty much any other potential buyer for this car is going to lock it away where it can't be seen again. I, however, would use this car as often as possible, treating it to lengthy road trips and two-lane blacktop rock chips. The car needs this. I need this.
We are what we experience, and this car hasn't lived a life coated in Vaseline. It needs to be freed to return to an authentic life once more. Hell, maybe I would even re-install a flathead Ford for a while to preserve the near-priceless engine that resides in it now on a Harbor Freight engine stand. You can find out what I would do with it by lending me the car's pre-auction estimate of between three and four million American dollars with generous terms and little-to-no expectation of repayment or return on your investment. What's the worst that could happen, you probably already lost more than that on NFTs and AI investment, right? At least this way you get the entertainment of seeing someone driving an old Ferrari on a regular basis.
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