50 YEARS WITH A FERRARI LUSSO

Bill Collins bought his 250 Lusso five decades ago and has cherished it ever since. Robert Coucher finds out more about its celebrity connections

- Robert Coucher

Now listen to me, Collins, a word of advice. If you can resist the urge to rev this V12 engine over six thou' it will last forever,' said the car salesman. That salesman happened to be the legendary Le Mans and sports car racer Mike Salmon, who was working at Maranello Concessionaires some 50 years ago. Bill Collins, then a 25-year-old property developer, was in the Maranello Concessionaires showrooms in Egham, Surrey, to buy his second Ferrari.

'Growing up, I'd always been mad about Ferraris and when I turned 18 my uncle, who was, how shall I put it, a bit of an eccentric ducker and diver, bought a Ferrari 330GT 2+2,' says Collins. 'It was ostensibly his company car and, as I was in the property business with him, we drove it all over the country at considerable speed. It was totally reliable and never went wrong and I remember once winding it up to 7000rpm in overdrive, which must have been nearly 160mph.

'My uncle finally sold the 330 and so I found myself at Maranello looking for another Ferrari back in 1971. There was a beautiful 250 SWB on the shop floor but it was too expensive. So I made an offer on this 1964 250GT Lusso, chassis number 5467GT, one of only 23 righthand-drive examples ever made. When new the Lusso was the cheapest Ferrari V12 you could buy, with a list price of £5900. I didn't pay that because it was secondhand, having had one previous owner. His name was Rory McEwen, a Scottish folk singer living in London. The car was delivered in silver, but he'd ordered it in this Aston Martin 'Roman Purple', so Maranello sent it to Harold Radford in King Street in Chiswick to have it repainted. I have DVD footage of the Ford GT40s undergoing some development at Radfords with my Lusso in the background,' says Bill.