DeTomaso Vallelunga: trying to remember Los Angeles guy with two in the '70s

Back in the '70s, I knew a young man named Richard Carr, very clean cut military type guy, who was a consultant at Edelbrock but also a car collector. I remember he had not just one but two Vallelungas, and I was trying to remember if he ever sold either and what year that was and for what amount? I am guessing they were worth about $6000 each at the time. He lived somewhere around the Pacific Palisades. area of West Los Angeles He had a more valuable racing Corvette, some car that had been race prepared on Zora's orders, can't remember which model, maybe an L88. I don't want to buy the cars if they still are in his hands just rememember what the price was back then.
By the way I was looking at the Bonham's RHD Vallelunga sold in 2014 but their car had a metal finished dashboard, all the Vallelungas I saw had a very crude wood dash that even looked like some high school kid's wood shop project, not like the well finished wood I saw in Italy on music boxes and such. And they claim it was a competition car though of course it was owned by a race team owner but I don't see any competition equipment on it. Their car also had better looking seats than I remember, but hey, maybe Col. Hoare had dolled it up, along with the Lotus engine and Colotti gearbox he installed (for the car's subsequent racing in Australia under another owner it went back to Ford Kent 1.6 liter block and VW gearbox).

 

I don't know if the alloy one that Gary and Bev Hall owned was bought from Carr. Gary died some time ago but I believe Hall Pantera is still in business in Bellflower.

The Bonham's ex-Col. Ronnie Hoare RHD fiberglass Vallelunga sold for what I consider an outsize amount for a marque model that achieved so little in racing. Maybe it was a combination of only three being RHD and a famous owner that lifted the bid.

Anyway love to hear of a Vallelunga found anytime in the last 30 years at a bargain price, I can't see any consistency in today's prices for them--though they seem to be about half the price of a restored Mangusta.

 

Or "Dino"
His was chassis: 807 DT 0134 , red with black interior. Imported into US for him, Actually his second one because he flipped the first one (I think that was white).

The car was bought by Dick ? from Northridge who saw it in a used car lot on Sunset Strip , maybe that was Dick Carr? The lot was probably the one at the corner of Sunset strip and La Cienega. near Dean Martin Senior’s restaurant. One source says Dick worked for the Holley Carburetor Company but I say he worked for Edelbrock, maybe both. Third owner was Tom Matano, designer of the Mazda Miata, who I think owns it today up in the Bay area. I was interested if anyone knows what the car lot sold if for. I heard Matano wants a price about 1 tmes what Bonhams sold the ex-Ronnie Hoare Vallelunga for.

PS I met Dino once, modest chap, that was on the occasion of him taking his smashed Mangusta to a body shop in Burbank. He smashed a lot of things, the last one an F4, into a mountain.

 

found on some Wikipedia site: Seems to say more than 53 were built.
In quotes from a book by the Dean Martin family, it also blames Dino for wrecking Ricci's car.Anybody know what Ricci sold the second Vallelunga for and what year? I believe the wrecked one had only the back hatchback survive...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------THE WIKIPEDIA WORDS:

"The chassis was not torsionally sound for engines with higher torque, a problem made worse by faulty welding in the Italian-made backbone. Drivetrain vibration was a constant problem for those cars. 50 production cars were built,[2][3] along with three aluminum-bodied prototypes and five aluminum-bodied racing cars, bringing the total to 58.[2] "

"Ricci Martin, son of entertainer Dean Martin obtained the red car at his sixteenth birthday in 1969,[6] which his brother destroyed in a road accident a few months later.[7] Ricci's mother went to some effort to locate another new Vallelunga in an auto showroom in Milan, Italy, and arranged for the new car to be air-freighted to California.[8] A few years later, Ricci Martin sold the replacement Vallelunga after purchasing a version of its successor, the Mangusta.[9] The Ricci Martin car (VIN 807DT0116) was generally restored by machinist and sports car enthusiast Kenneth Krohncke in San Jose, California, sold to a collector in Southern California in 1980, and was later located in Florida.[citation needed]





Notes
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1. Lamm 1991, p. 108.
2. Lamm 1991, p. 109.
3. Rosetti 2009.
4. Lawrence 1997, p. 97.
5. Lamm 1991, pp. 108, 109.
6. Martin 2004, p. 197.
7. Martin 2004, pp. 197–198.
8. Martin 2004, pp. 200–201.
9. Martin 2004, pp. 201–202.


References
Edit

◾Lamm, John (September 1991). Thos L., Bryant, ed. "Salon: 1967 De Tomaso Vallelunga". Road & Track 43 (1): 106–109.
◾Lawrence, Mike (1997) [1991]. A to Z of Sports Cars 1945-1990. Bay View Books. ISBN 1-870979-81-8.
◾Martin, Ricci (2004). "Chapter 9—Dean-Paul". That's Amore: A Son Remembers Dean Martin. Lanham, MA US: Taylor Trade. ISBN 1-58979-140-1. LCCN 2001027526.
◾Rosetti, Giancarlo (February 2009). "De Tomaso Vallelunga: Just the beginning for .













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