Bill Harrah, he of Harrah’s Casino fame, was a famed car collector with over 1,500 vintage cars in running and driving condition. He was a rich dude who loved cars, and spent his gambling empire money accordingly. When a porter driving a Ferrari from the port to Reno, Nevada crashed the car en route, he made the best of a bad situation and merged what was left over with a then-new Jeep Wagoneer to create perhaps the first Ferrari-powered luxury SUV. Isn’t that a preposterous idea, a Ferrari SUV?
Harrah actually asked Enzo Ferrari if he would consider building a four-wheel drive Ferrari that he could drive from his casinos in Reno to his mountain home in Lake Tahoe, but Enzo scoffed and told him to get bent. When Ferrari wouldn’t build him the car he wanted he took matters into his own hands. There were two Jerraris, and this orange beauty is the second of the pair. When I lived in Reno I would frequently visit the National Automobile Museum to ogle and pore over the details. I’m extremely jealous of Mr. Leno’s opportunity to drive this vehicular masterpiece.
From the outside, it mostly looks like a standard Jeep Wagoneer, but those in the know will notice that the front end has been stretched by a few inches to fit the extremely long V12 engine under the hood. Aside from that little stretch, a couple extra radiators, and a few custom Jerrari badges, you’d be hard pressed to determine that this was anything other than a standard Jeep. And I think that’s exactly why I love it. This was the epitome of stealth wealth in Mr. Harrah’s day. It’s a bit cooler, I’d say, than that monstrous thing Mark Zuckerberg had built.