The art of owning a famous classic car

Many people own classic cars, but how many get to have their car featured in a blockbuster movie that was a New York Times Best Selling book? Local resident Jack Wright and his wife, Gale, know this all too well. Wright is the owner of a 1957 Ferrari 250 Pontoon Testa Rossa, the same one featured in the movie, "The Art of Racing in the Rain." "This is a one-off hand-built recreation of a 1957 250 Pontoon Testa Rossa. In 1957, Ferrari made about 21 of these. The Ferrari factory has about two of the 21, maybe more, and the rest of them are in museums or billionaires' car collections," Wright said. "About 20 years ago, someone wanted one, and the last original that I'm aware of sold just shy of $40 million. That was more than the gentleman wanted to spend, so he found these guys in the south island of New Zealand, Rod Tempero, who makes recreations of old classic Jaguars. For a price, every now and then, they'll do something else, and this guy wanted a 250 Pontton Testa Rossa." The motor body builders build cars the old craftsman way – get sheet melt aluminum, use English wheels, hammers and jigs – from scratch. "Then they go out and source a v12 Ferrari engine and everything else to replicate the originals the best they can, and they made him one," Wright said. "That gentleman sold it to another gentleman who, unfortunately, was struggling physically, and wanted to unload all his toys. I happened to be in the right place at the right time." Wright said he made a low-ball offer and was shocked when they accepted it, three years ago. The book "The Art of Racing in the Rain" was written by Garth Stein and was a NY Times Best Selling book for three years. "Patrick Dempsey read the book, loved it and because he's a world-class race car driver, he bought the movie rights with the intent to star in it himself. That was 10 years ago," Wright said. "He tried to get production off the ground two different times, but never did because the economy was mediocre. When the economy turned around, he got 20th Century Fox to do the movie. Then he felt he was too old to star in it, so he got Milo Ventimiglia." The movie producer-director of the car scenes tracked down Wright through where he bought the car, as they wanted it in the film. "The broker called me and asked if I was interested in having the car in a movie, and I didn't know what movie at the time, but I said I would talk to the producer," Wright said. "The producer called me and we talked. Then he said he wanted to fly up from Los Angeles to look at it, so he did." Before the producer, Jeff Zwart, flew up, Wright said he was somewhat leery, so he contacted two movie car rental agencies that rent cars to movies and spoke with the head of one of the agencies. "He asked me two questions – Do you like your car? I said yes. He asked if I needed the money, and I said no. He said, 'Don't do it,'" Wright said. "Jeff Zwart flew up, and we talked more. He did everything under the sun to get me to say yes. Gale ended up buying the book and read it. After, we were sold on the project." In addition to loving to book, Zwart told Wright he would take good care of his car. Wright said they hired a Ferrari handler/mechanic to accompany the car everywhere it went. "It turns out I know the Ferrari handler, and that's when I had the confidence in what was going to happen. They insured it, and the rest is history," Wright said. "They had my car for the entire month of July of 2018." His car was shipped in its own 18-wheel full-size truck and trailer to British Columbia, to the Pacific Raceway, which is where viewers will see it in the movie, and back. "It turned out to be a good experience. They took really good care of the car," Wright said. "The movie put the No. 39 on the car, and I decided to leave it on because it looks nice. Now that the movie is out, I don't think I'll ever take them off." Wright was contacted again for the November film, Ford v Ferrari, which stars Christian Bale and Matt Damon, but he declined, as he didn't have the confidence that his car would be well taken care of.