info re: John Baxter owned 250 SWB (3327) and 250 pf coupe (1493)

In doing some research on an SWB that my father owned (3327) from about 1961-1980, I noticed a post (forget the web location) a few years old by a John Baxter. Was interesting as it filled in some gaps in my knowledge of the car prior to it being campaigned by my father in the early 60's, and later used as a road car into the 70's. The Mr. Baxter who posted is the son of the man my father bought these cars from back in the day in Fremont, Ohio. While the SWB is no longer in the family, the pf coupe still is, and as we try to get her back on the road I am looking for any additional documentation that might be available (for some reason most of the pictures I have are of the SWB...). If anyone can point me in the right direction, or knows of any additional photo documentation of 1493, it would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Sounds correct. The interior remains original blue leather. The car has been repainted (around 1980) but remains shell grey. The top has recently been done in a darker graphite grey to repair some long standing rust damage. This began when the car was rolled (gently) into a roadside ditch in light rain on an Ohio country road in about 1964. Story is that it was on dry weather "race" tires (sounds funny considering what that means today which is completely different from what it meant in the early '60's) which were harder compound (or maybe just old?) and the car wound up upside down in a ditch. It was not a result of hard driving, and I recall it being one of those lessons about caution and proper equipment for the conditions that I heard as a kid. No major damage other than cosmetic, but it had slowly worked on the roof pillars and was beginning to bubble below the paint. Additionally, the car was stored in an unheated garage for about 18 years, and mice got into the headliner. So the headliner was replaced, and rather than risk trying to match the old lacquer, we opted for the contrasting color. We're working on a rather incremental basis to get the car drivable, and a full repaint was simply nor warranted at this time. I will try to post pictures soon.

 

That was the post I had seen about 3327. Tried to respond to via the email link to Mr. Baxter but it bounced back. Hence my present question.

I have attached a couple pics of the 250 pf in its present state.

At some point when I can weed through my dad's old 35mm slides from races during the '60's I'll scan and upload the relevant Ferrari ones. I know I have some from the years 1964-65 when SWB 3327 was campaigned at Daytona, Sebring and a few other places. I was too young to recall much from those years. Mostly I remember both cars being parked out in front of our garage in Cleveland (from mid-60's to mid-70's they were both stored outside, in the snow and rain). One childhood game was to pretend LeMans start with a friend, race to a car, jump in and roll down the window and start making vroom sounds. If nothing else I developed a certain idea of what proper instrumentation should look like that remains to this day: simple and clear. For its last years with us, the SWB was stored in a corn crib on a friend's farm. My dad always said the SWB was really robust car, and when he went to sell it in 1980 after several years in that unheated barn, it started with relative ease, and we were able to take a short drive through the country before turning it over to its new owner.

At the time, around the second oil "crisis" nobody seemed to recognize what these cars would someday be worth, although the uniqueness and scarcity of the SWB in particular made it relatively valuable when it was sold, by the standard of the time. Then within a few years the values really started to rise. I still remember my father trying to sell both cars in the mid-70's and not being able to get a solid $10,000 offer for the lot. Luckily the 250pf's value made it worth keeping at the time, and we still have her.
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