History of the St. Louis Chapter

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In 1976, just 4 short years after becoming a group, we organized and hosted as the St. Louis members of the Ferrari Club of America the national club’s 13^th Annual Meet, Tour de St. Louis.  This is the one event each year that brings together all the club members from throughout the US and Canada for a multiday sequence of social events, track driving, pleasure drives and a judged showing of the cars.  The headquarters hotel was Sheraton Westport, the track used was the now long-gone Mid-America Raceway in Wentzville.  The Best of Show went to Joel Finn’s 1957 250 Testa Rossa #0710TR which he had brought from Connecticut.  

First mention goes to John Shakespeare of Centralia, Illinois, of the Shakespeare Fishing Tackle and Shakespeare Oil family with both grand touring and racing Ferraris.  In 1954 he bought new the Turin show 375 America, #0337AL.  A magnificent Vignale bodied car that was the highest level of Ferrari for road use of the day. 

As he decided to do sports car racing, that same year he bought 375 Miglia Mille #0376AM. 

Shakespeare’s first race with this was the incredibly grueling 5-day, 2,100 mile Carrera Panamericana in November where he partnered with Luigi Chinetti (Ferrari importer for North America, 3-time winner of Le Mans and the winner of the 1951 Carrera Panamericana).  After finishing 4^th in class and 6^th overall Shakespeare would continue to race this car through the remainder of 1954 and in 1955. 

In 1955 he acquired a second racing Ferrari, a 1951 212 Export barchetta #0100E which he raced throughout 1955. 

The next person of historical note from our territory would be John Kilborn of Decatur, Illinois, known as Honest John throughout his sports car racing endeavors.  He bought his first Ferrari from John Shakespeare, the aforementioned 375MM, in 1955.  Kilborn would continue racing Ferraris into the middle of 1959 during which he owned and drove an assortment of significant racers of the period: the 375MM, the monumentally brutish 121 LM #0558LM ,

a 750 Monza #0518M

and finally a 290 Miglia Mille #0616

Beyond these two there has been a significant assortment of Ferraris that have come and gone through our area prior to and after the creation of our Chapter. 

Founding Chapter member, Jack Reutter, had at various times some extremely historic cars.  He started his Ferrari days in 1965 at a time when these old ex-racers were appreciated by only a devoted few that would accept the difficulties of maintaining cars that had exceeded their competitive racing lives. 

Through his hands would pass a 1953 166 MM #0050 (but renumbered from 0308M which already had gone through 3 other St. Louis area prior owners, and a 330/250 GTO #3765LM that he owned during the creation of our Chapter.

A local dealer that traded in “interesting” Ferraris during the 1970s was Bud Pessin, of Archway Motor Imports.  Bud also served as Chapter president for a while in the early days.  As a pure racer he had a 1954 500 Mondial #0474MD

In the dual purpose GTs he had two special 250 Tour de France (TdF) GT coupes: 0515GT  one of only a couple bodied by Zagato with their signature “double bubble” roofand arguable the singularly most significant TdF the 1957 #0677GT which was raced by Olivier Gendebien (who would go on to become the first 4-time winner of Le Mans) and used as a development car by the Ferrari team in developing the 250 Testa Rossa’s outside plug motor. 

Also passing through Pessin’s hands were a 275 GTS #07317,  a 500 Superfast #08083SF, a 275 GTB/4 #09795,
and a 365 GTB/4 S (Daytona Spider) #16903.