Just Cool Cars: Auctioneer's Ferrari had two lives

BEVERLY HILLS -- Who wouldn't want to live a double life? Perhaps it's the same for cars.

That's basically what this 1954 Ferrari 250 Monza did. It started life as a thoroughbred speedster, winning in some top European races . Then about four years later, the body was completely changed to a whole new design, and it started over again.

So says Dana Mecum of Lake Geneva, Wis., who showed off the car a couple of months ago at a Beverly Hills gala and car show commemorating the 60th anniversary of Ferrari in America. This time it got what became known as "pontoon fender body," so named because it looks like the pontoons on a boat. Goal: More air to cool the brakes.

In the late 1950s, he says, brake technology had not yet caught up to an astounding increase in horsepower -- and the pontoon-type design and big, open fenders was an attempt. "They had so much more power than they had brakes," Mecum says.

Mecum, whose name graces one of the nation's best-known classic car auction houses, says the car is a "blast" to drive.