"SYMBOLIC" Restorations & Service TOUR

March 22, 1997

"A GLIMPSE AT THE MONOCO VINTAGE GRAN PRIX"

[By Scott Harrison]

     How close have you ever been to a $4 million 1962 Ferrari #250 GTO Prototype (one of only about 4 surviving examples)? Or how about a 1967 Formula One 3 liter (or is it litre?) 12 cylinder 400hp Ferrari or a 1957 #250 Ferrari Testarossa (a cool $4 million), or a 1950 Grand Prix (GP) 4.5 liter 400hp V-12 Ferrari? Shall I stop? NOT! Take these 4 modest little 'rolling means of rapid red transportation and surround them with a few GTO's, GTB's, Mercedes' Lamborghinis, and a variety of Rolls Royces. Why don't we also throw in some exotic engines, parts, bodies and frames of the rarest of performance collectible foreign cars and you have the introduction to an inside look at Symbolic!

     Well we were sure holding our breath and gasping when they opened the doors of their restoration shop for us to get up close and personal with these beautiful creations of the race masters of the past. Randy Pene (general service manager) and Rob Shanahan (master mechanic) shared about 2 hours of their time with us taking us from car to car explaining in depth the history, statistics, restoration approaches and fascinating stories about each of their unique cars. After hearing the background of each historic vehicle and being educated on its' evolution and characteristics and what they went through to restore it, each car seemed to come to life. It was hard for us to move on to the next car because we had so many questions.

     The shop organization and cleanliness was impeccable. Their facility restores and services a variety of makes and models of European cars but they focus primarily on Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Rolls Royce's. They recently acquired the rights to be the only dealer and authorized service center for Rolls Royce in San Diego. The shop that we toured is part of the Symbolic Motor Car Company that has its priceless (appointment only) showroom in La Jolla, CA where some of these cars are on display for sale (if you can bring along your bank).

     Eight specialists are employed by the shop to perform ground up restorations on vehicles so rare that we were afraid to walk within arms reach of their glistening paint jobs. Everything is accomplished here from completely remanufacturing and shaping aluminum body parts with ten foot high hydraulic presses to rebuilding the exquisite 12 cylinder motors in their special engine room. Some of the cars are brought in by private owners for restoration and others are acquired by Symbolic for resale in their showroom.

     The big surprise of the morning was to find out that several of the cars we were viewing were being restored to original factory specs and equipment for their year of production. That's no surprise for a restoration you say. Right, but these $4 million privately owned cars were being prepared to race in the upcoming Monoco vintage Grand Prix which will be held just prior to the regular Grand Prix races. Every feature of the car must meet the rules of the year it represented otherwise the "E" ticket ride (flight) the car takes to Monoco for the race will be wasted due to disqualification. It must be nice to be able to own a few multi-million $ cars and fly them to Monoco to race for the fun of it. Well, we can all dream. We were dreaming when we left Symbolic. It was a great tour! Many thanks to our hosts!