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John Ficarra is an automotive historian and professional automotive enthusiast. He bought his first car at the age of 14, restored cars in his garage to help put himself through college, owned a picture car company called Creative Film Cars in NYC, ran an illegal cross-country Cannonball event called The 2904, was the marketing director and in-house historian for Bruce Canepa at his amazing facility in Scotts Valley, California, wrote and researched 72 cars for the Porsche’s historic tent at Rennsport VI, and has been ill-advisedly building and racing cheaty cars in the 24 Hours of LeMons. An accomplished researcher, writer, and storyteller, John’s work has appeared in magazines including 000, Vintage Racecar, Classic Porsche, and Speed Sport; on the Luftgekühlt website, and his VINwiki Car stories have over a million views on YouTube.
SHOW SPONSORS
Covercraft • Ironclad Performance Wear • Christopher Kimball Financial Services • Edelbrock
INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE
When the opportunity presents itself, the first answer should always be yes.
CAREER & LIFE CHALLENGES
John shares about a challenge he faced regarding a force of nature.
FIRST SPECIAL VEHICLE
1971 BMW 2002
BEST AUTOMOTIVE ADVICE
Buy the best classic car you can afford.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
RECOMMENDED BOOK
The Technique of Motor Racing, by Piero Taruffi
PARTING WORDS OF ADVICE
Do all the things.
WHERE TO FIND JOHN
Car Rescuer Podcast – Coming Soon!
SHARE THE INSPIRATION
Your opinion matters and I will greatly appreciate your support.
If you enjoyed this show, please go to Apple Podcast and leave me a five-star review. That would help tremendously in getting the word out and help others to be inspired by Cars Yeah.
Hey, John.
My favorite, The Whittington Bros.
We were racing IMSA gtu when all that was happening. A VinWiki must watch! Great story. Loved the Canepa tractor trailer at Laguna Seca unloading the 7-8 or so exotics at a time. Those were good days. While we used to wrench on an old factory Porsche 924 gts in Soquel on weekends, (Elliot Forbes Robinson drove that car and still holds the track record at Riverside Raceway, in perpetuity forever!). My first race as a pit crew member was at Riverside.. The very first person i met was a little short guy on a motorized scooter,, Mr Paul Newman. That same race during qualifying, the GTP cars were running at a blistering qualifying pace.. EFR was piloting a Nissan NPT 87? or 88? Unlimited car around a high speed sweeper as i was returning to our pit. Dude, HE ROLLED THE F’N CAR right in front of me! I thought he was dead! He They pulled him from the wreckage. He gets into a backup car and wins the fricken race. A testament to safety of the cars and what a race car driver was made of. But i’ve never made it over to the Canepa showroom. I have been past there either visiting or working, BUCKETLIST item for sure. Keep the memories coming.
Ps- those two young guys that stayed and worked for you, if they would like to volunteer and repair my sons old Acura Integra for a Lemons race, it’s in the garage ready for them.
Great knowledge of the racing and high performance cars.
I’m an aviation advisor especially high performance helicopters I personally managed.
Pilots and race car drivers are closely related
I went toe to toe with manufactures and second string suppliers
I attacked when I smell counterfeit parts
Like you my stories are coulourful
Great job John
Cheers from BC Canada