This is a 1970 280SE Cabriolet. Mr. Wolf is — I assume — selling this for one of his clients. In addition to working on “specialty vehicles,” Mr. Wolf buys and sells on commission. He found my Land Rover and more than earned his 10 percent commission. More photos of the beauty above can be found here.
Tag Archives: Mr. Wolf
Social distancing California style
My buddy Grayson Wolf and his wife Larisa loaded up his 1967 Unimog 404 and drove up into the Sierras for a little break from the pandemic. (More photos here)
Two things in the photo below caught my eye: the well-stocked bar and what looks like a picnic table in the back of the vehicle. Grayson explains:
“It is essential to make six-ingredient cocktails when you’re camping next to a three ton military truck, right?
And that “picnic table?”
A German beer hall table, to be precise, and it is bolted to the bed. Nice place to eat our meals.”
Okay, three things. Grayson has brought back the mohawk.
Life goes on!
Mean Motor Scooter
Mr. Wolf reports: “I went to Santa Cruz last night to buy a very cool old motorcycle for a customer; my first social distancing vehicle purchase. A 1963 Puch SGS (aka Allstate). It’s a mechanically interesting bike. A “split single” two stroke. Two pistons going up into one combustion chamber!”
Land Rovers in the wild
Mr. Wolf spotted these beauties on recent trip to Baja California.
Another vintage race car for Mr. Wolf
From Mr. Wolf: “It is a 1949 Lincoln Club Coupe built to race in the 1950 La Carrera Panamericana, driven by Jimmy Hicks. Rediscovered sometime around 1999 in a junk yard in San Jose, it was restored and raced in the 2006 & 2007 Panamericana. It is currently powered by a warmed-over Ford FE 390, and since the T10 4-speed manual blew up a few days ago (right smack-dab in the middle of downtown Palo Alto, in the middle of the road, at rush hour, in front of a high end open-air restaurant. With my wife in the car.) I am in the process of swapping in a 5-speed. Turns out the shop that installed the powertrain put in a driveshaft that was a few inches too long, which caused the mainshaft/output shaft to snap right in half. Oops! Hey, if you’re going to break down and cause a massive traffic problem, you might as well do it in style, right? As soon as I am able to get it to a point where it stops blowing up every time I drive it, it will be out on the racetrack!”
Burning Man Bike
Mr. Wolf had a few cars and trucks stashed in a friend’s warehouse where I spotted this old bicycle. “Looks like something you’d see at Burning Man,” I observed. Turns out I was right. The warehouse was filled with a giant metal sculpture (disassembled) that had graced the playa at some recent Burning Man. The builder/artist is trying to find a home for the massive piece.
Cars too nice to drive
In just a day-and-a-half I saw millions of dollars worth of vintage automobiles. I’m guessing that if you can afford one of these, you can afford several. And cannot resist doing so. But where to you keep a car that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars? We visited one of those places and saw this beautiful collection.
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- Alfa Romeo and Mercedes Benz 300SL
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- 1955 Porsche 356 Continental
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- Jaguar XK140
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- Alfa Romeo Guilietta Sprint Veloce
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- Guilietta Spider
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- ’67 Ferrari 330 GT 2+2
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- ?
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- Ferrari 599 GTO
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- ?
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- ’52 Siata 208CS Corsa Bertone Spider
Mr. Wolf has a few clients that pay him to drive their cars once a month to keep them tuned up and ready. Nice work, huh? I asked about security and Mr. Wolf pointed out the difficulty in fencing a car like these.
1932 Alfa Romeo
Mr. Wolf lives in the world of vintage vehicles so our first stop was a nondescript garage somewhere in the Bay Area. Inside were gorgeous old cars worth millions. Two of Mr. Wolf’s friends were working on this Alfa Romeo. Pretty sure they told me this car would be valued at $4 million plus.
Dana the Garage Dog
We’ll never know for sure but I’m pretty sure Dana is smarter than most people I know. Her human, Dan, has a shop next to Mr. Wolf and while we stood talking outside, Dana retrieved a toy and insisted on playing. We did this for a solid 15 minutes.
Visiting the truck and Mr. Wolf
Mr. Wolf picked me up at the airport in a vintage Italian sports car and headed straight for Philippe’s garage (reaching speeds of 100 mph)
The engine is in and Philippe expects everything will be wrapped up — wait for it — by the end of next week.
Since arriving I have seen exotic vehicles worth millions (?) and met some really nice and interesting people. I’ll post a proper report and more photos upon my return.