David Lee, an entrepreneur and car collector from the United States, reported taking the delivery of a new Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta. The hybrid supercar went out of production half a decade ago, but he insisted on obtaining another example at any cost.
Farrari had originally planned to produce only 200 such vehicles and said it would decide on its own who gets to buy them. David Lee, an avid Ferrari fan, hoped to make it into the short list – but did not, for an unexplained reason.
Five years ago, he learned from insiders that the likely reason was the “hype” he was raising in his social media about Ferrari cars. Apparently, the company wanted him to turn the volume down a notch. He disagreed to this suggestion, arguing that he was the one promoting the brand and therefore not a bad person.
In order to demonstrate his interest to the automaker, he bought a whole handful of Ferraris he did not really care to own, and entered the Ferrari owners’ club. This changed nothing, however.
Lee then attempted to buy a LaFerrari Aperta from one of the owners, but they were all bound by still running non-resale agreements.
We may not know all the details, but it looks like the real estate and luxury item trader must have been strengthening his bonds with the Prancing Horse since 2017 in various ways. Just what convinced the company that he was worth getting the Aperta is not known. We know for a fact that Ferrari was upset with him revealing its secret customer policies in an interview to LA Times, so many apologies were perhaps in order.