John R Fitzpatrick
John Fitzpatrick tells of his brushes with the ultimately elusive Ferrari 250GTO
The recent passing of a good friend in the industry reminded me of his shrewdness in spotting the Ferrari 250GTO’s burgeoning value potential.
Back in 1972, en route to picking up an early Production BMW 3.0 CSL E9, John received an offer that he had to refuse...
The Insiders… The BMW 3.0 CSL E9 has always been one of my favourite road cars and I was astonished to see a pristine model for sale at Ј200k recently. I was fortunate enough to have one of the first left-hand-drive models to be delivered. The CSL handled beautifully on the road and on the track, well ahead of its competition. In 1972 I won the 6hr Touring Car race at the Nurburgring driving a Schnitzer 2.8CS with Rolf Stommolen, and I just loved the car. If a car handles well at the ’Ring it will handle well anywhere. When the CSL was announced later that year I knew I had to have one. Through various contacts I was able to secure an early production model, which I planned on picking up from Munich on Zoll plates. On the way there I stopped of in Cologne to see Michael Kranefuss, who’d taken over from Jochen Neerpasch as competition manager at Ford Germany after Jochen moved to BMW. Stuart Turner had suggested to Kranefuss that he take Gerry Birrell and myself on to drive the RS2600 Capris in 1973.
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