Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Watch(es) and car collections

[George (ygpz4re]

Patek Phillippe just announced a 175th anniversary special watch - I think only 20 (or thereabouts) are being made.  It has (iirc) 20 complications, two faces (swivels on vertical axis in the bracelet), and hand carved gold case.  If you can get yourself approved as a buyer (hmmmm....  this seems to be the watch company who should team with Ferrari!), it can be yours for a cool $2.3MM.

I'm now up to 7 watches, and two or three pocket watches (and two or three mechanical stop watches....).  I had to stop going to the Jared store where they carry Tag Heuer as their top brand.  Too often they have a cool Tag at a great price - and with my store credit card, if it's over $1K, I can pay on it for 12 months at 0% - not a bad deal, but I really need to reserve those funds for more important things - cars!  (and Matt's worried about college tuition!  Get yer priorities straight, man!!  Hahahahaha!!!)

I really admire those of you (Rick, Matt, et. al.) who have the time, $$$, and motivation to care for large-ish (even if not "Leno-large") collections of cars.  Besides our DDs, I only have three cars, but only one has gotten the bulk of the attention lately.  Sometime in the next 1 to x years, a fourth will be added, and I've kind of resigned myself to those four being the limit of my "collection".  And I'm *TOTALLY* cool with that, as two of them (Jags) are cars which my Dad restored, so they're more valuable to me than pretty much anything else.

On the plus side, I don't have to worry much about storage!  :-)   Our house was built with the left garage stall extending all the way to the back of the house, so the two Brit cars park nose to tail there.  When the third Brit car (second Jag) is added, the Miata will go into that back "nook", and the three Brit cars will park side by side across two stalls (thankfully a Spitfire is pretty darn small!).  (I've attached a garage pic - hope it comes through.  It's taken from where the Miata currently parks and shows the Spitfire in it's little nook.  Jag parks right behind the Spit....)

What's made this possible is the addition of an "out building".  Ok, it's just a custom-built shed, but is 12' wide by 10' deep and is slowly clearing the garage of lawn and garden junk, and power tools (three different saws, drill press, rolling work table, etc).  The shed has a built-in work bench all across the back wall with storage shelf below, as well as two storage shelves right at the top of the walls at both ends.  So it will double as storage and work space, freeing the garage to just park the cars.  All this being said, the garage has two overhead doors, so when the Spit moves out of it's nook, it'll be in between two Jags on dollys.  Will take some manipulation to drive the car I want, but I view that as the price I pay for having these cars in a small space (since I can't afford a larger space).

No complaints!  :-)

gp

'54 XK-120

'65 E-Type FHC (future)

'78 Spitfire (second owner, purchased 6/85)

'04 Mazdaspeed Miata (wife *thinks* it's hers....)

'12 Beetle Turbo (wife's hot rod)

'13 Jetta Sportwagon (my "SUV")

'13 Jetta sedan (wife's working car)

'93 Tag Heuer F1 Sport (b-day gift from good friend when I visited them in Singapore)

'99 Girard-Perregaux Ferrari Challenge (#39/100)

'01 Mickey Mouse (from Disney honeymoon)

'02 G-P Ferrari F360GT Championship "Pit Crew" special edition

'10 Tag Heuer Carrera (b-day gift from wife)

'12 Citizen Eco-Drive Chrono

'13 Tag Heuer F1 Chrono (one of those "special deals" I couldn't pass up....)

another half dozen or so pocket/stop watch odds and ends......   ;-)

>
> It is a work of art.
>
> I rarely wear a watch now, although I do own a few Rolexs and some other
> luxury watches!
>

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