British expat, John Amette, is responsible for all Ferrari Classiche submissions for Ferrari of Newport Beach, Ferrari of San Diego and Ferrari of Washington.
VR: So how did you first get started in cars?
JA: Well, the interest and involvement with cars came from my father and my brothers who were very much into motor racing and cars. Fifty years ago, this July, I left school and started an apprenticeship—mechanics apprenticeship—which I did for four years at two London companies; Ian Walker Racing, which was a Lotus dealer, and then the second half with Chequered Flag Group, which was Lotus and Aston Martin. Because I’d hung around with my brothers, I really wanted to be a racing mechanic, so when I finished the apprenticeship, that’s what I did. I started in Formula 3 and then I was with Charlie Lucas and that ended up with the GT40. I started working with David Piper in 1968 so that was kind of my introduction to Ferrari. I worked with David for just over three seasons until, unfortunately, he had his accident when we were making Steve McQueen’s Le Mans film. Eventually, I went back to London and went back to working on road cars, at a workshop in London that was Ferrari, Aston Martin and we were actually the official GT40 service point. Then I decided—I got a bit frustrated—my brother was living here and so I came to California right at the end of 1973 and I got a job with an authorized service dealer.
No Subscription? You’re missing out
Get immediate ad-free access to all our premium content.
