{"id":498992,"date":"2020-10-21T10:46:56","date_gmt":"2020-10-21T17:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=111903"},"modified":"2024-12-27T12:59:35","modified_gmt":"2024-12-27T12:59:35","slug":"spice-of-life-1987-spice-ferrari-se87l-001","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/spice-of-life-1987-spice-ferrari-se87l-001\/","title":{"rendered":"1987 Spice Ferrari SE87L-001"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you troll the paddock at a vintage race meet as often as I have, it takes a special car to catch your eye. While my heart still goes pitta-pat for Alfas, Moggies, 356s, and just about every Lotus and Jaguar, when a bright orange sports racer I have never seen before roars by through LRP\u2019s Big Bend, I get serious palpitations. A quick scan of the entry list told me that this was a 1987 Spice Ferrari piloted by Paul Facella. What follows is what I learned about the car and its current owner, and the man and the company that created it \u2013 Gordon Spice.<\/p>\n

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Gordon Spice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gordon Spice
\n<\/strong>A few years back, I asked Derek Bell if he thought anyone was still having as much fun in Formula One as he and his contemporaries were having back in the day. (He had just regaled a bunch of us with non-PG stories.) He thought for a second and said that Johnny Herbert was, but that was about it. But it wasn\u2019t until I read Gordon Spice\u2019s autobiography, \u201cLife of Spice\u201d that I realized exactly what kind of shenanigans were commonplace for so many young drivers in the \u201960s and \u201970s. Given his confessed exploits in his autobiography, Spice\u2019s name seems to have been appropriate! His motto, \u201cWork as if you\u2019ll live forever, live as if you will die tomorrow,\u201d explains a lot. But I\u2019m ahead of myself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Born in the UK at the start of the Second World War, Gordon had a relatively comfortable childhood. His entrepreneurial skills were honed early on, selling sweets he made from pilfered school sugar to get enough money to buy cigarettes! He was athletic and excelled at rugby, boxing, hockey, and skiing, winning gold medals on the slopes while he was in school. His school records were (his words) \u201cpretty average\u201d but good enough to have gotten him into medical school. However, again in his own words, \u201cI dumped it all \u2026\u201d Because of money concerns, he would have had to spend the next years under his father\u2019s control and that wasn\u2019t for him.<\/p>\n

Daddy\u2019s Surprise
\n<\/strong>One shocking thing (at least to me) was his 16th<\/sup> birthday present from his father. He took him to a \u201cgentleman\u2019s club\u201d where he was treated to the charms of a young lady only a few years older. Of course, his father did this with ulterior motives \u2013 having this as something he could hold over young Gordon lest he tell his mother. Yeah, that certainly was rather strange!<\/p>\n

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Photo: Michael Casey-DiPleco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Down Under
\n<\/strong>At 18, Spice left school (a day he called the happiest in his life) and began helping his father\u2019s business grow. But his wanderlust or need to get out on his own sent him with his brother Dee, and Alan Southern of Phoenix Engineering, to Australia where his business acumen grew and an interest in auto racing bloomed. His life in Australia, despite the good salary and high times he was enjoying, was cut short when he got word that his father was grievously ill and that he had to come home. Once home, he found out that his father was not really sick and the message was sent to lure him home to work in the family cocoa business. Shortly thereafter, he was sent to (of all places) Camden, NJ to run the business. Something he excelled at.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Fred Sickler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The A40
\n<\/strong>Around his 21st birthday, he returned to the UK to get married and was given an Austin A40 as his birthday gift. He says that car was the reason he got into racing. Commuting to work in the Austin, he was rear-ended and the car was declared a total. He took the insurance money and, having recently tasted the thrills of racing by driving Dee\u2019s car at Goodwood, bought an MG TF1500 to be his racecar. The MG, he said, turned out to be, \u201ca complete disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Money Pit
\n<\/strong>Spice quickly learned that the MG \u2013 a fun car on the street \u2013 was not competitive in stock form. So he went to Derrington Motors to have work done. This included, \u201cat enormous expense\u201d, an aluminum cylinder head, upgraded carbs, a new performance orientated exhaust, racing brake linings, stiffer shocks, and an aerodynamic windscreen. In the first race to work toward his RAC license, fouled plugs, overheating and a blown head gasket sent him to the sidelines. He said the season went like that. He failed to start in three races and DNF-ed in two others. Worse yet, the frequent trips to Derrington Motors drained his bank account. While he still had the racing bug, he had to wait for another year and more funds to go at it again.<\/p>\n

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The Spice Ferrari being campaigned by previous owner, Peter McLaughlin at Watkins Glen, in 2007. Photo: Michael Casey-DiPleco.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Moggie<\/strong>
\nSpice applied himself to a new job, selling encyclopedias, and was so good at it that within a year, he had saved \u00a35,000 \u2013 a princely sum back then. He knew that Morgans were fast and reliable at the Goodwood races so, in early 1963, he bought a Morgan +4. He said that the Morgan purchase was as good a decision as the MG\u2019s was bad. He drove in 11 races in 1963. He always finished near the front with two class wins and several seconds and thirds. He even scored a pole on a rain soaked track. Spice was spending a lot of time (and money) with a company called Lawrencetune \u2013 a Morgan specialist. This was a firm long on engineering smarts, but not so much on financial matters. In order to send a car to Le Mans, he loaned the shop \u00a33000. However, the owner took all of the tools and abandoned the business, leaving Spice with no money and another lesson learned the hard way.<\/p>\n

Meet the Mafia<\/strong>
\nSpice was, fundamentally, a good businessman and after the collapse of the Morgan tuner, he set out to build a retail speed shop to satisfy the needs of the people who wanted to personalize their cars. It proved to be a good business venture so he and his partner decided to explore expansion into the United States. He met with potential partners in the now long-departed AutoPub on NYC\u2019s 5th<\/sup> Avenue. (Today, it\u2019s an Apple mega store.) The night after reaching a handshake marketing agreement with some folks in the car business, they received a phone call at their hotel, inviting them to dinner. At the meeting, two \u201cswarthy Italians\u201d greeted them at the door – a door that was quickly locked and a \u201cclosed\u201d sign was flipped over the window. At the get-together, after a hearty meal, he was told that his hosts were in the \u201cinsurance business.\u201d He said it became clear that they were being offered \u201cprotection\u201d and would be in deep (cussword deleted) if they didn\u2019t accept. Realizing that he and his business partner were in over their heads, they snuck out of their hotel by the back stairway and ran to the airport. He said, \u201cThat is how I learned the \u2018stick to your own territory\u2019 lesson.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Photo: Michael Casey-DiPleco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Mini Racing
\n<\/strong>Racing had not strayed far from his mind and, using motors he had acquired via an agreement with a firm named Downton when he was sales manager, he went Mini racing in \u201865. While his first effort at Silverstone resulted only in a 14th<\/sup> place finish, his goal \u2013 \u201cnot to make a fool of myself\u201d \u2013 was a success. As he improved he was usually the fastest Mini in the RAC Saloon Car Championship and over time regularly finished ahead of the pack, save for the works teams.<\/p>\n