Leno Drives the $18 Million Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder Ferris Bueller Car! | Jay Leno's Garage

It feels like such a much bigger engine. Yeah. Doesn't it? You got the torque. Maybe that's the 3 liter situation. Yeah. It's very nimble. I feel like when you change lanes, it's like you just zip through it. It's like you're in a movie now with this. All my other classic cars, road cars, this one definitely drives the best. Yeah. Drives the best. It's just amazing. It's just really... Yeah. Plenty of power. One episode of Jay Leno's Garage. A little bit of automotive royalty here. The Ferrari California Spider, the 250. The 250 stands for 2.5 liter, but this is one of the last cars. So this has the bigger 3 liter motor. And V12 and about 170 horsepower, which seems like nothing nowadays. But when you drive it, it's light, it's nimble. You'll see. When I was a kid, I thought these V12s were big, you know. I didn't really understand liters versus cubic inches. And then when I would do the math eventually, I'd go, God, that's not that big at all. But extremely efficient for what they do. You probably saw a replica of this in the Ferris Bueller Day Off movie. That was... Yeah, it rolls out of the garage. Yeah, it's crazy. But yeah. But this is... That's kind of what made this car famous. Much like the DeLorean got famous from Back to the Future. This one belongs to our good friend David Lee. He just got it recently. And you know, unfortunately, when you buy a Ferrari, you do not get socks with the car. So you have to buy those separately. And apparently, he was unable to get to Target today. David Lee, Ferrari collector. That's his... Hey, Jay. How you doing, buddy? Good to see you, my friend. Well, this is a beauty. You scored another hit here. This is great. Yeah, yeah. So this is my dream car. I mean, ever since I saw the movie when I was in high school at my friend's birthday party. And it was great. Of course, that was a replica back then. But this is the real deal. And I couldn't believe I got it. So you're going to try and push it into the woods the same way? Yeah. Yeah, right, right, right. Yeah, this is... You know, this is my favorite era of Ferrari. The early to mid-60s. It just always seemed the sexiest because they were so unlike American cars, you know. There's never been a bad-looking Ferrari, really. They always look great. But there's something about this, the short wheelbase. It just seems, I don't know, La Dolce Vita, whatever the movie is. You know, it's really a good-looking car. And they were front-engine. Ferrari was pretty... You know, Ferrari got his idea for the V12 from Packard. When he was a young man during World War I, the Packard V12s were used in Europe. And he just thought that was, wow, V12. Most cars are single-cylinder or two-cylinder even. So that's where that came from. So he liked the American stuff. Engine in the front. Transmission in the middle. Drum brakes. This came very late to Ferrari. Very traditional. Dependable. I want to win races. What do we got to do? You know. And so it's also my favorite era. And the best-looking wire wheels with the knockoff. Yeah, just an all-around... There's really no bad lines on this. And you see how many other cars, Mustang, everybody else put this sort of... Who did this? Is this... Pininfarina. That's right. Okay. The classic wood steering wheel. You know, it's all so simple. It's like it's everything that was in a Fiat, but at a higher level. No, I don't mean... I'm not trying to be insulting. I mean, but the chrome's a little deeper. The gauge is a little bit more legible, a little bit bigger. I mean, it's just everything works. When you're driving, you look, you can see. You know, modern cars, there's so many things that are digital. You have these kind of things that look aircraft, but it's hard to read them. Whereas this, you can tell at a glance where everything is by the red needle. Now, this is a five-speed, correct? No, it's a four-speed. Oh, it is a four-speed. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, 63 was a long time ago. I mean, it was. It was, yeah, yeah. I just assumed it was a five-speed. Okay. So it's a four-speed, huh? It's a four-speed, and like you said, 179 horsepower. But it's just got that Ferrari, the red, and like the red little sports car, right? Back then, it was probably quite rare, right, to have a red little sports car. Well, when I worked for, I worked at a place called Foreign Motors in Boston, and we took one in for about, we gave the guy $5,200, and we sold it for $7,500. And my boss thought the salesman was ingenious. He couldn't believe he got that much money for this foreign car. I mean, Ferrari was a storied name even then. It was just beginning. But it was still a secondhand car. I mean, nowadays, they trade you a half a dozen new Mercedes for a Ferrari. But back then, no, no, it wasn't. In fact, this car was probably $14,000 new, I would guess, something like that. Yeah, something like that, yeah. Yeah, that's about right. But wasn't that a lot of money back then? Yeah, my parents paid $19,000 for the house. Wow, it's almost like a house. Huh? It's almost like a house, you know? And it's still the same. You could get a beautiful house in Beverly Hills for the price of this. You could get a half a dozen beautiful houses in Beverly Hills. How many previous owners do you know? Do you know the history? Yeah, I do. This is great. I mean, this car is one of the last California Aspires made, which is very nice. It has the classic K from Ferrari, so everything's matching and legit. It has the Masini report, so it knows all the history. I think maybe there was like five owners before that. It's been kind of a Bay Area car. It was new and delivered to California, so it's certainly a real California car. It's been up in the Bay Area basically all of its life, and now it's in Southern California with me. Can we open the hood? Let's open it. Okay, let me grab it over there. Wow, look at that. It's so funny, because when I was a kid, this seemed like the most complicated. Now it looks so simple, doesn't it? Three carburetors, your ignition coils, distributors are right here. The twin oil filters are right there. I'm not sure how you get those oil filters off without dripping oil all over. I mean, if you're pulling it up, it just comes out. And it's so funny when you realize this is a three-liter version, as you said, but 2.5, which is nothing. I mean, what is that, 140 cubic inches or something like that? I'm not sure what it is exactly, but these did seem so big because of the noise they made. You look at the engine, it's long. You'd think it was as big as a Chrysler 440, but no, not at all. But you're right, Jay. Like you said, 179 horsepower when I was driving here from Walnut to come here. Even though it wasn't as fast as our modern cars, but it's still fun and seemed kind of fast. I mean, for being in the car, it seemed kind of fast. The sound certainly sounded fast. That's the thing. I drove one of those, I think it was the Rimac electric sports car. It was like $2.5 million. And at that point, it was the fastest accelerating car. I mean, it was fast. I mean, faster than fast. I mean, crazy fast. I mean, at 60, it's almost like the ignition's off and you're just rolling down the highway. You could hear thump, thump, thump, thump. You don't hear an engine, you hear the tires, bumps. It didn't have a soul like this. This thing, it makes all the noises. Yeah, it's just fantastic. Yeah, exactly. So it's just wonderful. Like you say, all the gauges, you look at, they actually work. It's manual shift. But it drives great. You know, I have the other classic Ferraris. I brought them here even before. But this, you know, the short wheelbase, I was always wondering, why is this so much more expensive than the other classic Ferraris? And I realized after driving this that it does drive better. It drives better. It reacts better. You can maneuver through lanes better. It's like a go-kart. It's a small, light car with no... You know, now everybody brags about driver aids not being in the car. But this didn't exist when this thing was built. Yeah. No, it did not. Everything's new. Everything's nicely weighted. And everything's metal. You know, like the housing around the traffic indicators. It's not plastic. It's chrome. It's, you know... It's really... Boy, it's nicely done. No headrests. It's funny to see a car without headrests. Right. But it looks better this way. Yeah, it sure does. When I see these kind of cars and somebody putting headrests on, it just looks... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, this is considered, I think, by many people in the Ferrari community as the best road car in design and in performance that they ever did. Of course, for the 60s and 70s and that era. But it's really the ultimate road car. I used to love the 330 DTC. Because it sort of had that Mustang proportion. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Long, big truck. You know, yeah, just fantastic. Well, this thing, I can't wait to drive it. Yeah. Can we give it a shot? Yeah, sure thing. Let's do it, Jake. Just the right size. Nicely done. That sounds like a Ferrari. Yeah. It's like such a much bigger engine. Maybe that's the 3 liter situation. Yeah, yeah, that's what it is. The shifter is very nice. Yeah. And like you said, it's not that big of a horsepower, but it just feels so fast in this car. I mean, that was a lot of horsepower. You know, I've got that 62 Maserati. Uh-huh. And I have the original road test from Road and Track. Uh-huh. And it's got fuel injection. Okay. And it said, the article begins, why anyone needs 220 horsepower in a car. Uh-huh. It's beyond us, but we'll take it. You know, it's kind of cool. Yeah. I mean, so that was, it was a lot then. Yeah. I mean, back in those days, very few cars could go 0 to 60 in under 10 seconds. That was like a really fast time. Uh-huh, uh-huh. But when it's really tight, the steering is good. I think it's great. It's very nimble. I feel like when you change lanes, it's like you just zip through it. Yeah. I'm also happily delighted that I bought a car from auction. I bring it back and, you know, it runs good too. It's not like I got to do a whole thing. Yeah, mostly a lot of auction cars. Yeah. But did you remember this car back then? I mean, like when it first came out? I remember it, yeah. That's the age when you're just getting interested in cars. And this stuff is just made of unobtainium. You know, you just... But it was, like in Hollywood, it was a big deal too. Like in Hollywood, they thought this was a sexy car. Oh yeah, this would have been a movie star car. Yeah, and all my other classic cars, road cars, this one definitely drives the best. Yeah? Yeah, drives the best. And it's just amazing. It's just really well done. Do you think back then they took some of the Grand Prix cars, technology, and brought it into the road car? Or you're not real? I think Ferrari just did what he had to do to sell cars to raise money. You know, I don't mean it in a bad way. I just mean he wasn't really interested in it. And if you have somebody to complain, he didn't care if he lost you as a customer. Yeah, yeah. Like all the old fonts on the gauges. The good thing, this is a convertible, so you feel like there's a lot more air. My other one, the 250 that's a coupe, it feels so hot. The air is trapped in there. Like at least here, you feel like the air is circulating. Oh yeah, plenty of power. A lot less than the other 250s I've driven. Yeah, it feels nicely set up. Yeah, Dan, the guy with the T50, he just sold his Enzo. He got $5 million. Oh yeah? Yeah. He sold his Enzo? He sold his Enzo. Yeah. $5 million, he could have got more. Well, 30,000 miles. Oh, okay. Those guys are going crazy, the prices. It's like you're in a movie now with this. Yeah, yeah. Boy, this drives very nice. I know, doesn't it? I'm glad you... Nice and smooth and plenty of power. Do you feel the difference compared to other kind of classic Ferraris? Well, I can't remember what the last... You know, I drive so many things, I can't remember. All I remember is that I like it and it's very good. Well, there is a know-how to buy a classic car, right? Just like a watch. Yeah. But there's a know-how. And I think a lot of people are scared to buy it because they don't know how they bought the right one. Well, it's so expensive. We had a guy here the other day at a Hudson Hornet. He had $700,000 in it. Okay. And beautiful. Uh-huh. But, you know, cars were built when technology was expensive and labor was cheap. Now it's the other way around. Technology is free, but labor is crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, it's funny. There was a time when these were just used cars. It's like my yellow Lamborghini. I got that for free because it was an old car, you know? And we sanded it and painted it. You know, it was fun. But you wouldn't dare do that now because it's too valuable. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nice car, all the gauges are normal. Right. Clock doesn't work. No? Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Is it electric or do you have to wind it? No, it's electric, but it always doesn't work. You got to fix it, and it works for a while, and then it doesn't work. Well, that could be your battery. See, most clocks, I suppose, electric clocks in cars, they need 13.2 volts to run. And when you have a new battery, you got like 14.1, 13.8. But if your battery drops to 12.9 or even 13.1, now suddenly you don't. I see. Like a lot of times, you know, when you have the revs up, the clock starts working again. But just the classic wood steering wheel, you know, all this kind of stuff, you don't get anymore. No, I really like this car. I plan to drive it a lot. Yeah? Yeah. It probably gets pretty good mileage, too. It's only 2.5 liters. Yeah. Or 3.0 liters. This is a perfect car for California. Well, it is. And you see why it's called a California Spider. And it was called that in Italy. It's not like Daytona was never an official model. Right, right, right. But because it raced at Daytona. Right. But did we just call it California Spider, or was it just a spider in Italy, you know? Yeah, California Spider. It's always been California. Yeah, yeah, that's the official name. Have you sold many of your watches? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've sold, I mean, I see it, you know, on my, I watch my daily sales report, and I see it pop up there every once in a while. That's great. Yeah. How you doing? Looks good! Do you have one of those? No. You know, you don't think of something as a relaxing drive in a Ferrari. Yeah, what do you think? It really is. I mean, it's a perfect California day. Yeah. The air is just cooling up. Yeah. The sun warms you. It's cool. And you just enjoy the torque and the power. Right. You don't have to have your foot in it all the time. Right. It's just a nice, relaxing drive. Yeah. But the car is so valuable that you really can't do, I mean, you can if you go to the right place. Yeah. Well, you know me, I'm going to drive it. Oh, yeah. But you're right. We just got such great weather. For this. And there was a time when these were just used cars. Yeah. That you could get pretty cheaply, you know? Yeah. And people bought them and enjoyed them. Yeah. And they all got used up. But the ones, the remaining ones become valuable again. Yeah. Well, there's 37 of these that were produced, this exact configuration, the best configuration. But who knows how many survived, you know? Yeah, yeah. Not a lot of them survived. I wonder what the most of a get-together there has been. How many of these? Did they ever have a meet for just the Californians? No, no, they haven't. I mean, you usually only see one or two of these, maybe. In any gathering, you usually see one. Yeah. It's just so rare. Well, I want to thank David Lee Ferrari Collector. David Lee Ferrari Collector is his website. Yeah. He's got the classic stuff, too. The new stuff is all nice. But I have to admit this, because of my age and nostalgia, these were, you never saw one. I came from a little town in New England. You know, anything less than four doors might as well have been a Ferrari, you know? Everybody just had practical cars. I remember once when I was in high school, a Lamborghini Espada came through town. Yeah. And kids talked to it all week. Oh, I missed it. No, I wasn't there. I missed it. Because you didn't see it. Yeah. So it's fun. You take your stuff out. You use it. Yeah. People see it on the road. It's a lot of fun. David, thank you, my friend. Sure, thank you. You might hold the record for the most visits. Yeah, yeah. This is my 15th show. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Jay. See you guys next week. Yeah.