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All the paperwork was arranged in folders by decade, the red paint on the exterior was 27 years old, the interior was original and everything else had been restored, from the frame out. The judges loved it and the crowd pretty much agreed. David Lee’s 1967 275 GTB/4 won Best of Show at the Concorso Ferrari in Pasadena’s Old Town Sunday, and it was clearly the class of the field.

The field was pretty good, mind you — 150 cars representing the finest and the favorites from members of the Ferrari Club of America’s Southwest Region. The group has put on the show every year for the past 11 years, and it has always been free to the public. This year there were four F40s, two LaFerraris and a host of beautiful modern classics from Maranello all lined up along three blocks of Old Town that had been closed to all but foot traffic.

Yellow classic Ferrari

One of the classics rolls off the grid at the end of the day.

There was a lot to like along Colorado Boulevard Sunday, but at the end of the day it was the 275 GTB/4 that won the hearts and clipboards of the judges.

“I feel honored to win this award,” Lee said, ever humble. “It makes all the passion, all the crazy attention to detail during the restoration worth it.”

The car was on “Jay Leno’s Garage” last year — you can see the video here. In that show, Leno called this car “the ultimate Ferrari.” This example of the 300 or so that were made is a remarkable survivor. It had been owned by the same two guys in San Francisco for 47 years. They drove it all the time but kept meticulous receipts for all the maintenance that was done. It was restored once to original specs, Lee said.

“It’s been beautifully maintained,” Leno said in his video, where he got to drive it around Southern California with Lee in the passenger seat. “Redline is 7,500 rpm, which was unbelievable back in the day. I know it’s only got 300 hp, but it’s a different 300 hp. This is so turbine-smooth. 1966, ’67 was the last year(s) of pure design, by ’68 and up, all the government regulations came in, you had to have bumper heights, you had to have headlight heights, whereas with (something like) this you could just design something.” 

Concorso Ferrari intersection

Concorso Ferrari intersection

After Lee bought the Ferrari about two years ago, he had it restored, leaving the paint and the interior untouched.

Lee, whose first car was a 1978 Datsun pickup truck, also brought a 1967 330 GTS, a 2014 LaFerrari and a yellow 250 Lusso Competizione with its own matching F12 Tour de France. He has other cars but couldn’t bring them all. You can follow him on Instagram: @ferraricollector_davidlee. He has 721,000 followers. Well, 721,001 now that we signed on. You might see him at Concorso Italiano this summer; last year he brought five Ferrari supercars, starting with a GTO. He loves Ferraris and is happy to share them with others, which to us makes him a great guy and a deserving winner.