Momo Mirage
Weird Car of the Day #463: 1972 Momo Mirage – Final boss
Let me share a perspective on wealth. Lewis Hamilton, one of the world’s best drivers and (rightfully) highest-paid athletes, has Ferrari signing his cheques. His life-long dream, still burning after he'd rewritten racing's record books, was to work for Ferrari.
I can't imagine what it would be like to work for Ferrari, but having Ferrari work for me? Outrageous.
Wealth isn't enough. It would require a Brunei royal family blood transfusion, a long career of guitar hero douchebaggery, or mogul levels of U.S. property to have the horsey prance for thee.
I can’t speak to Ferrari collector and second-generational real estate mogul Peter Kalikow’s method of acquiring his cars, or investment portfolio, but I can tell you that he lost more than $500,000 in the 1970s developing the Momo Mirage. Note that I said 'development'.
In one interview, Kalikow stated plainly when asked about how he views his 40-odd car collection.
“I own the buildings with one purpose only: To make money. I own the cars purely for the pleasure of owning cars and not for any monetary reason,” Kalikow said. (Top Beanie Baby collectors probably offer the same sentiment.)
Here’s the key: he said that nugget about cars decades after the Momo Mirage project ended — almost as if manufacturing his own range of sporting GT cars wasn’t the fulfilling career he’d envisioned. Or that few lined up to buy a Momo-Kalikow-whatever. Lamborghini never lost sleep over it, I estimate.
I don't aspire to this level of wealth not out of jealousy, but it looks exhausting, truly, and clearly robs key aspects of humanity from society's self-anointed upper echelon.
michael banovsky
With more than 20 mid-rise apartments built and other significant New York City investments established by his father, it’s not surprising that he purchased his first Ferrari in 1968 at 25 years old and it’s claimed that since the mid-1970s Kalikow hasn’t sold a car he’s bought.
I state this not in admiration, simply as fact that privilege and money doesn’t guarantee success or failure — but it does make trying much, much easier.
What a grizzly try, the Momo Mirage was.
For the name, Momo was attractive but obviously had an existing deep-rooted Italian motorsport heritage, but the car’s builder was named Alfredo Momo, so using the power of — shocker, legal tactics — the car could keep its name. Again, I doubt the real Momo was sweating.
