Marketplace: The Bachman Ferrari Collection

The Bachman Ferrari Collection: Discovering a Passion

Long a collector of things and a lover of high-quality automobiles, it was in 1983 when the Tennessee-born Phil Bachman came face to face with a Ferrari 308 GTS Quattrovalvole. He was at an auto dealers trade show in Washington, D.C., and as he recalls it, the car “struck a chord” within him.

So deeply did that chord reverberate that it was only a matter of days before he’d managed to order his very own 1984 model through a dealer out of Nashville. However, per Bachman’s decided instructions, his Quattrovalvole would be delivered to him in a bold shade of yellow, an instinctual choice made with the intention of setting his car apart from the multitude of red machines that have long dominated Ferrari lineage.

That Ferrari Quattrovalvole became a part of the Bachman family. It was soon used to rush Phil’s wife, Martha, to the hospital to deliver their son, P.B., and as naturally as one welcomes a child into one’s arms to have and hold for as long as life allows, the Bachmans welcomed that car into their garage with no intent ever to sell.

The Growth of The Bachman Ferrari Collection

With time, Bachman found that he did not simply desire to amass as many of Ferrari’s finest as he could, but to do so with intention—intention to create something that would pay homage to the marque and its accomplishments: a congregation in reverent service to one of the world’s most elite automotive industrialists and a living timeline of its legacy.

In pursuit of that goal, Phil Bachman began carefully curating the group of cars that would form his own impactful legacy, and he kept his focus on two most meritorious qualities in his search: low miles and examples that were the last of their kind.

Over the next four decades, Bachman acquired 46 Ferraris of varying vintage and model, and he made it a point never to sell any of them. Once assimilated into his home, the cars were there to stay.

The Bachman Ferrari Collection: Supercars

The Bachman Ferrari Collection leans heavily into the contemporary realm of the Ferrari fold, and there are several categories of collectability within. There are the truest supercars, which include examples such as a (one-of-272) 1985 Ferrari 288 GTO, a pair of (one-of-60) U.S.-specification 1992 Ferrari F40s and one of the succeeding (one-of-55) U.S.-specification 1995 Ferrari F50s, along with a (one-of-400) 2003 Enzo in Bachman’s signature yellow, a (one-of-500) LaFerrari and a (one-of-210) LaFerrari Aperta (both in yellow and denoted by the factory as the last U.S. versions of their kind), and even an exceedingly rare (one-of-30) 2006 track-only FXX.

The Bachman Ferrari Collection: Front-Engine V-12s

Another part of the collection is an assortment of front-engine V-12 models spanning 1953 through 2017. Indeed, this is a group that includes both the oldest and newest of Bachman’s Prancing Horse fleet.

His 1953 Ferrari 166 MM/53 Vignale Spyder is the final of just six 166 MM/53 Spyders to have left the factory with a Vignale body, a fact keeping it well within Bachman’s lexicon of interest in low-production and final-built examples. Compact in size and purpose-built, the 166 MM/53 Vignale Spyders are considered by many to be the ultimate development of Ferrari’s first great sports car—all the more reason to hold space in Bachman’s stables.

Other models of the front-engine V-12 variety include his (one-of-350) 1964 Ferrari 250 GT/L Berlinetta Lusso, his one-of-a-reported-16 alloy-bodied 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4, and his trio of 365 GTB/4 Daytonas, one of which is an early example with the full-length plexiglass nose. It also includes contemporary examples such as his (one-of-448) 2001 Ferrari 550 Barchetta, a pair of (one-of-559) 2005 Ferrari 575M Superamericas, a (one-of-599) 599 GTO, a (one-of-80) 599 SA Aperta, and a (one-of-799) F12tdf from 2017.

The Bachman Ferrari Collection: 3-Series, Flat-12s, Dinos and More

Beyond those already mentioned, Bachman additionally collected 3-Series Ferraris: variants from the “Vetroresina” (fiberglass) 308s to the 458, along with Flat-12 Ferraris such as the Boxer and Testarossa, including a pair of Ferrari’s 1984 512 BBi, one that was the ninth-to-last of the 1,007 made and one that wears the last serial number of the run.

He even welcomed a pair of Dinos (one a rare 246 GTS Chairs & Flares car) into the sanctuary that housed his sacred collection—surprising only because the Dinos were unique models that were never officially badged as Ferraris.

Notably, several of Bachman’s most significant Ferraris were restored by the renowned David Carte, including his 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4, his 246 GTS “Chairs & Flares”, and his 1964 Ferrari 250 GT/L Berlinetta Lusso. Each underwent a comprehensive and meticulous restoration to the highest concours standards, further elevating their historical and collectible significance within The Bachman Ferrari Collection.

The Bachman Ferrari Collection: Care and Legacy

For Bachman, preservation and the pursuit of perfection were the ways in which he preferred to express his devotion.

He sought out only the lowest-mile examples still extant today, often passing on those he pined for most with the disciplined determination to wait for one that was even better. His resoluteness usually paid off, and he has ultimately built one of the most well-preserved and lowest-mile collections of contemporary Ferraris anywhere in the world.

2019 AACA Hershey Nationals

While not necessarily driven, neither were the cars left to languish. Bachman was almost fanatical in his care of these Ferraris. He insisted on being intimately involved in every aspect of their stewardship.

Such attentiveness paid off in droves, with the Bachman Ferraris collectively garnering awards, honors, trophies and the like at judged concours events and other such organized occasions. Most have won at least a Platinum award, the highest class-level award given by the Ferrari Club of America (FCA) and a benchmark recognizing well-maintained examples.

When it comes to the cars that Phil Bachman himself ordered new, almost every one boasts his signature yellow finish along with other custom touches as granted. His son once said that he thinks the color selection was almost more of an obligation than a choice, one borne of Bachman’s own spirited personality.

The Bachman Ferrari Collection exists today as one of the most elite Ferrari collections ever assembled. With a full 46 of the Prancing Horse’s finest vintage and modern machines present here, most with low miles, low production numbers and high originality, this collection is one of a kind and entirely inimitable, never to be replicated in this lifetime or the next.

Presented together for the first time with the assistance of Christopher Miele of Prancing Horse of Nashville, its offering this January in Kissimmee represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity for collectors to acquire vehicles long held in private hands, and it will be an extraordinary moment destined to make headlines across the global collector car market.