| What Do You Get When You Mate a Ferrari 365GT and Jeep Wagoneer? |
| Written by Rich Truesdell | |||
| Friday, 16 May 2008 10:21 | |||
A Jerrari.
Coming from the “what were they thinking” file is this oddity, the Jerrari. Back in 1970, hotel magnate and auto aficionado William Harrah of Reno, Nevada--he founded the Harrah’s Automotive Collection--commissioned this car/truck/sports car hybrid when Enzo Ferrari refused to build him a four-wheel-drive Ferrari so he could drive in style from Lake Tahoe to Reno in the winter time. (Sounds like Enzo when he rebuffed Ford’s overtures to buy Ferrari in 1963.) So Bill Harrah did what any self-respecting millionaire car enthusiast would do, as had others before him--like tractor magnate Federico Lamborghini--he had his mechanics build exactly what he wanted; hence the Jerrari: a 1969 Jeep Wagoneer with the engine, transmission, and front clip of a Ferrari 365GT grafted on. 
I remember reading about this car in Road & Track back in 1970 (I have the back issue packed somewhere in my storage unit) and still am impressed by the sheer audacity of the project. Having owned a Ferrari (a 1980 GTSi, #34047, I wonder where it is now?) and currently owning a very rare 1969 Jeep Super Wagoneer (bought in Reno by the way, back in 1999), the original luxury SUV before we called them SUVs, I feel somewhat qualified to comment on the Jerrari given that the first body built for Bill Harrah’s dream Jeep, is currently featured on eBay. 
First, this is not a complete Jerrari; that vehicle is currently on display, intact, in the National Automotive Museum in Reno, repository of many of the cars that once comprised Bill Harrah’s 1,500-vehicle collection. (For more background on the history of the Bill Harrah collection, and what was done to keep it intact after his death in 1978 at age 67, take a look at this article on SFGate.com.) Because of my deep Ferrari and Jeep roots, I had to investigate this further. In the eBay ad, there’s a letter of authentication from which I was able to extract the following text:
HARRAH’S AUTOMOBILE COLLECTION, BOX 10, RENO, NEVADA 89505 702/788-5844 
This letter and the eBay ad itself suggest that Bill Harrah had not one, but two Jerraris built. (Think of all the Ferrari enthusiasts cringing at the thought that there is a 365GT running around sans its original drivetrain and front clip.) This car is the first Jerrari built and the body, with the Ferrari drivetrain installed, was featured in Road & Track back in August 1971. The second Jerrari built, which currently resides in the National Automobile Museum in Reno, looks like a stock 1977 Jeep Wagoneer, but has a Ferrari drivetrain installed. Quite possibly, that drivetrain is from the Jerrari now for sale on eBay. 
The car for sale is not Ferrari-powered. It appears that the 350-cubic-inch V8 under the hood is a Buick 350, the same installed in my 1969 Super Wagoneer and every other V8-powered 1968 and 1969 Jeep Wagoneer. (Earlier 1965 to 1967 V8 Wagoneers were equipped with the original AMC 327 cubic inch V8, not a Chevy small block as many believe. More information about the unique 1966 to 1969 Jeep Super Wagoneers is available in this PDF ariticle. As the shots of the interior show, the car is impeccably finished with cream-colored trim that contrasts well with the green exterior. I found it interesting to note that Bill Harrah started with a standard Wagoneer, as this Jerrari lacks the in-dash air conditioning unit of a Super Wagoneer installed in the center glove box area. All Super Wagoneers were equipped with a center console which provides a storage compartment to replace the lost glove box. The bucket seats appear to be the same (which I believe are the same seats used in the 1963 Chevy II, mounted on unique seat tracks) but have a fold-down center armrest rather than the center console found on the Super Wagoneer. The dash is the original Kaiser-style dash rather than the later AMC-style dash with its larger crash pad. Any way you look at it, this is a great looking interior, very plush for this or any other era, showing the true timelessness of the original Wagoneer design which ran from the fall of 1962 to the spring of 1991 when the last wood-clad Grand Wagoneer rolled down the line in Toledo, Ohio. At the time of this post, the bidding has risen to almost $16,000 with the auction scheduled to end on Sunday night at 7 PM PDT. I for one will be keeping an eye on the auction and as the car is currently located in Los Angeles, I hope to photograph this unique part of Ferrari and Jeep history before it heads to its next owner, if it does indeed meet its reserve. I hope that the new owner decides to drive it and that he invites Automotive Traveler along for the ride. |
