VIN: the Willy Keck Day Ferrari 375 Mille Miglia chassis 0460 AM
History of chassis 0460 AM
William Keck was a pioneering American oil entrepreneur who, in 1921, founded the Superior Oil Company of Coalinga, California. Beforehand, he had successfully worked as a speculator for several big oil firms.
By 1931, Keck’s business had expanded to wells in Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Louisiana and Venezuela. The firm constructed the world’s first offshore oil platform in 1938 and became the largest independent oil producer in the United States. Additionally, Keck almost single-handedly managed the oil reserves of Venezuela.
On his death in 1964, Keck’s family retained 51% of Superior Oil stock which was worth an estimated $160m: this would have bought 11,000 new Ferrari 275 GTBs which cost around $14,500 at the time.
Willametta “Willy” Keck was born November 14th 1915. She was one of William and Sylvia Jean Keck’s six children. Her older brother, Howard, owned the racing team that won the Indy 500 in 1953 and 1954. Bill Vukovich drove the same Offy-powered Kurtis Kraft roadster on both occasions.
The revolutionary Kurtis had contested the 1952 event alongside a Ferrari 375 Indy that Howard Keck had purchased. However, dissatisfied with the Ferrari’s performance, the 375 was never raced again and remained untouched in a storage crate for the next 35 years.
Against this backdrop of vast wealth, in 1954, Willy Keck (who was by now married to Robert Addison Day) took a visit to Ernie McAfee’s Ferrari dealership on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. She ordered herself a brand new 375 Mille Miglia.
Arguably the fastest vehicle available to the public at the time, Ferrari had initially created the 4.5-litre model in late 1953 to help secure the World Sportscar Championship.
For 1954, Scuderia Ferrari moved on to the five-litre 375 Plus. At this point, the 375 Mille Miglia was offered to privateer racers and wealthy customers who simply wanted the ultimate road car.
22 examples were built of which 13 were completed as Pinin Farina Spyders.
Chassis 0460 AM was the last of three Pinin Farina Spyders ordered for street use. The other pair were delivered to Italian film director, Roberto Rossellini (chassis 0402, painted red), and Emperor Bao Dai of Vietnam (0450, painted metallic blue).
Willy Keck Day ordered her car in left-hand drive with red paint, a tan interior and chrome bumperettes. However, when Enzo Ferrari learned that she only intended to drive it on the street, he unilaterally ordered the colour be changed to yellow with a green interior.
When chassis 0460 AM was finally delivered to California in October 1954, Willy Keck Day told Ernie McAfee to send it back. McAfee convinced her to take it home for the weekend and think it over as, being a competition model destined for road use, it was a low priority build for the racing department and had taken a long time to arrive.
Willy Keck Day evidently changed her mind about returning 0460 to Italy; the yellow Ferrari is remarkably still retained by the family to this day having covered under 10,000 miles from new.
After years of feuding with her brother, Howard, who had taken control of Superior Oil after their father’s death, the company (still 22% owned by the family) was sold to Mobil for $5.7b in March 1984.
Willametta Keck Day died in September 1985 shortly after a sympathetic restoration was carried out on the Ferrari by ex-Harrah mechanic, Everett Adams.
And she did eventually get her red car: an Aston Martin DB4 in 1960.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Luigi Chinetti (Ferrari North America) / Ferrari - https://www.ferrari.com
