In the ‘70s, Michigan was the epicentre of the American automotive industry. Living there meant that American-made cars were the only answer for car enthusiasts across all ages, where spotting a Honda Civic or a Toyota would be as rare as spotting an exotic today. Attorney and YouTuber Steve Lehto recently spoke to the VinWiki YouTube channel about growing up in Michigan, where he would often spot his neighbour’s gleaming red foreign car.
At the time, he had no real interest in the car, since his world was all about American muscle cars. However, he later learnt that it was the same rare Ferrari 250 GTO by Scaglietti that sold for $52 million at auction, setting records at the time for being the most expensive Ferrari sold at auction.
As Lehto relates, his neighbour growing up was a man named Fred Leydorf, whom he later learnt was the manager of the engine design team at the American Motors Corp, better known as AMC and responsible for muscle car icons like the AMC Javelin and AMX. Leydorf would bring this red foreign car out in his driveway every now and then, wax it and park it right back. On rare occasions, he would take it out for a drive. But Lehto never had much interest in it, purely because it was a foreign car.
Once, Lehto even spotted his neighbour’s sportscar in a photoshoot for a calendar. The reason this particular foreign car generated so much interest is because it’s a rare 1962 250 GTO/330 LM bearing chassis number 3765 LM, the only GTO Tipo to be raced by the factory Scuderia Ferrari race team.
It was built by Ferrari as a 330 LM, fitted with a 4.0-liter V12 engine, distinguishing it from the earlier 250 GTO models with which it shared much of its bodywork. Unlike other GTO models raced by privateers, 3765 was raced by the factory team at the 1,000km of Nurburgring in 1962, finishing second overall.
Following its stint as factory racer, it was sold to a privateer who had the Maranello factory convert it to a 3.0-liter V12 with a 5-speed gearbox. In this guise, chassis 3765 continued racing in endurance and hillclimb events. After changing a few hands in ownership, it ended up with Fred Leydorf, also one of the founding members of the Ferrari Club of America (FCA).
Sadly, as Lehto remarks, he never got a chance to sit in the rarest Ferrari Tipo racer there is, though his brother did. Despite that, it still makes for a once-in-a-lifetime story, growing up right across the street from the most expensive Ferrari in the world.
