I THOUGHT Octane readers might find the history of my 1987 Ferrari Mondial interesting. It was stolen in The Netherlands in 1994 and completely disappeared until 2020 when, by chance, it was found in the bottom of the river in Amsterdam during a training exercise for Dutch Army divers. Judging by its condition, it had likely spent all those intervening 26 years under water.
Thanks to its backstory, when the Ferrari was pulled out of the river it instantly became very well known, and lots of collectors, enthusiasts and museums were keen to get hold of it. They were all thwarted by Dutch law, which deemed that it should be crushed, but in late 2021 I discovered that it might be possible to buy it and I didn’t hesitate. Rather than try to restore the car (it was much too far gone), my plan was to clean it up as best I could and turn it into a static exhibit: to preserve it as a piece of art, much
