nice car in yor avatar fast mike!!!FastMikie said:
Billiards in a honduras prison
- Thread starter cornerstone
- Start date
untill you said he was a gang leader, the photo looked kind of cool, now it's just plain scary, either way, nice work
having said that, and in all seriousness, there is a theory that states certain personality types desire to be in prison, some basic rationale being that prison absolves you from the burdens of decision making and everyday life choices and/or provides status for those who have none on the outside
for those personality types who also play pool, a pool room in a prison might be pretty sweet
having said that, and in all seriousness, there is a theory that states certain personality types desire to be in prison, some basic rationale being that prison absolves you from the burdens of decision making and everyday life choices and/or provides status for those who have none on the outside
for those personality types who also play pool, a pool room in a prison might be pretty sweet
cornerstone said:
Thank you for noticing! Now I have an excuse to tell you the story.
I am, like many people on this forum, completely obsessed with pool,
but there was a time when I was totally obsessed with my Ferrari.
There was never a time when I could do both, own a Ferrari and shoot pool.
The car in the avatar is a 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB, with a v-12 engine.
It was the first Ferrari model with all round disk brakes and independent suspension that was designed for road use, but people bought them for both
road and track. Originally sold for $14,500 in 1966, but you had to be
a movie star or head of state to get one. Steve McQueen had one.
I bought it when it was 12 years old, in 1978, for $22,500, with only 11,000 miles on it.
I drove the car every day for 2 years, and sold it for what I paid for it.
I sold it because I was going bankrupt, couldn't afford to pay for tires, tuneup, etc. and the car payment was 385 bucks a month.
I promised myself that one day I would get another car just like it,
no matter what. It became a major motivation for me to succeed.
I put a small toy model of the car on top of my computer monitor
to remind me of my goal. For the next 12 years I would see that toy
and recommit myself to the goal. During that time, the value of the car
had risen to well over a million bucks (it was one of those speculation "bubbles", like the internet bubble), but it settled back down to "only" 300k.
In 1992, I finally sold the software company that I started from scratch, after I went bankrupt, and one of the first things I did was to get myself the nicest Ferrari 275 GTB I could find, and it only set me back about 15 times what I originally paid for it. Only this time I wasn't making any payments!
I had learned one valuable lesson: Don't buy toys on credit!!
You may have heard it said differently:
"If it flies, f**ks, or floats, it's better to rent." But I digress...
You might ask how a normally sane man such as myself (right?) could
become obsessed with a collection of metal, but all it would take is a
quick drive in one and most men would be addicted for life.
I have had a few interesting cars, but it is this one which is above all the rest. Check out the engine:
That's 6 dual-throat Weber carbs, fitted with velocity stacks,
4 overhead camshafts, dual distributors, dry sump, 300+ hp,
and the sounds it makes when you have your foot mashed to the floor...
well, it is other-worldly. Click this link to treat your ears:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a38LSvI1YbA&feature=related
Now that you've had that little appetizer, check this one,
with racing video from back in the day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qt_oM9976U
But that is nothing compared to what it's like from inside the car,
at 135 mph pulling hard around a long sweeping uphill turn,
old-style tires squealing, 12 throats sucking air by the bucketload,
straight through exhaust growling and the v-12 mechanicals
screaming like a banshee in heat...
it's enough to make a grown man weep tears of joy.
There is such a hill just one mile south of my home,
it's called Torrey Pines Road, and it has these long uphill
sweeping turns I mention, and for several years, every day, I would
exercise my inner demons with this car, sometimes several times a day.
Before you get to the start of the hill, there's a long flat
2-lane section right by the ocean, just south of Del Mar,
and you can get going at least 100 before you hit the hill,
then the road opens up to 3 lanes uphill. Oh, the magic of it!!!
I would sometimes do the hill at night, and flip on the high beams,
just as I slipped into the center lane, and the lane markers
going by at 140-150mph would make you think you
were inside a video game.
There were only 330 of these cars built. Today they sell for $600-$900,000.
All were coupes, except for about 10 convertibles, which sell in the mid-millions.
Each one was built entirely by hand, with love.
I've had 5 different Ferraris over the years, 4 of this model, and one brand new from the factory 550 Maranello. Nowadays, my life is much more simplified. No more Ferraris, no airplanes, no fantasy homes. Spent almost all of it on toys, and now I'm enjoying my golden years in my hammock and shooting pool, and telling stories to anyone who'll listen about the good old days... You're probably getting tired of this story by now, but maybe later
you'll want to check out some of the other cars I've had over the years:
click here for "Confessions of a Car Nut"
Wouldn't it be great if we were able to keep all our toys, and we never got old and never went broke?
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wow, nice
I plan on buying a used Ferrari in the next few years, actually planned on having it already but it seems there are always bills for something and of course, when one has expensive hobbies, each of them often seems to take a backseat to another at any given time
thank God pool is not costly as it has sustained me during those lean times
I won't pretend to have anywhere near the passion for cars you do, i don't even like sports cars but I don't mind 2+2's and I want the cache of the name
I plan on buying a used Ferrari in the next few years, actually planned on having it already but it seems there are always bills for something and of course, when one has expensive hobbies, each of them often seems to take a backseat to another at any given time
thank God pool is not costly as it has sustained me during those lean times
I won't pretend to have anywhere near the passion for cars you do, i don't even like sports cars but I don't mind 2+2's and I want the cache of the name
the last photo looks like a Mcintosh tube amp, even the font on the front face, before realizing what it really was, I thought you were gonna say you installed a tube based audio system in your ferrari back in the 70's
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here to the top for geralt to see billiards in prison!:thumbup: