The Ferrari Debacle
Sun, Jan 4th, 2009
posted by Bustedknuckle

So I have a history with this place, or at least my Grandfather did.

The story goes like this: My Grandfather who raised me as his own was the biggest car nut Ive ever known. Not just any cars but exotics, Ferraris were his passion. He had a man who we will call Mr.B service his cars. See my Grandpa also raced his cars in vintage exhibition races so they always needed to be in top working condition.

Mr.B was well known in the small Italian exotic car circle....really still is, my Grandpa and him developed a good relationship on both a personal and business level. So when Mr.B outgrew his small shop he looked to my Grandpa to see if he wanted in on this new great big thing that he had been planning.

That great big thing was this location. It was to be conglomerate of several foreign and exotic car business that were in the area. So my Grandpa invested and invested BIG. This is in 1984 by the way. So basically there was a German car place, a exotic car dealer (New Aston Martins), a paint shop, Mr.B's Ferrari shop and a few others. Everything worked out well in the beginning but fell apart fast. I never heard the entire story but embezzlement was involved. So by the beginning of 1986 this place was history.

As far as my personal involvement goes, I remember one day in Kindergarten my Grandpa picked me up and took me down there. You will see an indoor rock garden (before and after pics) and I remember that very vividly. I was pleasantly surprised to see it was still there. I also remember my Grandpa having to sell off the majority of his car collection due to the money he lost. My Grandpa of course bounced back but the bad blood between him and Mr.B went with him to his grave.

So after we had the place, Lute Riley Honda bought it and stayed there until 2006. I went to school up the street at the time they were moving out and really wanted to go in but never did. So today after I had explored 2 other locations I figured why not go for broke.

I really had to go through a lot (literally) to get in this place. There was an easier but more risky way but there was no challenge.

Thanks for reading!
BK jr.