David MacNeil got more than a rare car last year when he spent a reported $70 million to purchase one of only about three-dozen 1963 Ferrari 250 GTOs. He also got a spot on the list of the world’s top 100 car collectors, a list annually compiled by The Collector Car Trust and published in its yearly magazine, The Key.
MacNeil is one of 19 newcomers to the list, which he enters at No. 38.
“MacNeil became a buzzword in the car collecting world in May 2018, when he bought the most expensive car ever sold by private agreement,” The Key reports. “For an ‘undisclosed’ sum of $70 million he bought the best Ferrari 250 GTO on the planet. He is THE car guy.”
While triggered by the purchase of Ferrari chassis 4153GT, MacNeil also was selected because of his growing car collection, his sponsorship through his WeatherTech company of the IMSA racing championship and Laguna Seca Raceway, and for his own history in racing, The Key said.
MacNeil was vice president of U.S. sales for German tuning specialist AMG but in 1989 launched WeatherTech to produce car floor mats and other accessories. He also has launched a company, PetComfort, that makes pet-feeding systems.
At age 60, MacNeil’s presence, and that of the other newcomers, lowers the average age of the top 100 collectors from 72 in 2018 to 71 this year.
As a group, those 100 collectors own 3,121 vehicles with a combined worth of $10 billion, according to The Collector Car Trust.
The top 100 list for 2019 is led by Fred Simeone, who was second on the inaugural list a year ago. Simeone, who owns the Simeone Foundation Automobile Museum in Philadelphia, is a former neurosurgeon. With a score of 83.58 on The Collector Car Trust scoring system, Simeone edged ahead ofMiles Collier, founder of the REVS Institute for automotive studies at Stanford University who was No. 1 in 2018 and scored 83.40 points this year.
Retaining the No. 3 spot was Belgian collector Evert Louwman at 83.12.
Others in the top 10 were Arturo Keller, Ralph Lauren, Peter Mullin, Rob Walton, John Mozart, Albert Spiess and Lawrence Auriana.
I had the pleasure to work for Mr. Mozart in the Mid 80’s. The standing joke with employees was what exotic car he would drive to work that day.
There were many this man would relish having in my collection. Very nice gentleman.