A few years ago, a friend shared an intriguing story about a Ferrari Testarossa owned by Lee Greenway right here in Rutherfordton, NC. Lee, known as Andy Griffith’s makeup artist, he was known to have a rather extensive collection of cars. Although I’d grown up hearing about his collection, the only one I’d ever seen was an occasional Rolls Royce around town.
One day, while my friend was doing some roofing work on Lee’s house, Lee offered to show him his car collection. This was a rare opportunity, as few people had ever seen Lee’s collection. Among some Porsches and several classic Ferraris, there sat a Testarossa. My friend recognized it immediately. He described the car in detail to me—a red Testarossa equipped with a massive twin-turbo V12 engine, the moment he mentioned that, I perked up and asked, “Are you sure it had a turbo?”. He confirmed it did, and even described the placement of the turbo as if it was a standard.
Curious, I asked if he was sure it was a V12 engine, considering it might have been a 288 GTO, but he was certain it was a V12 Testarossa, unmistakable with its large fins. I explained that, as far as I knew, there were only a few twin-turbo versions of the Testarossa—the Koenig and Norwood cars—and to my knowledge they are all accounted for.
I dove deep into the rabbit hole on this one, reaching out to local connections. Responses varied from “I don’t know” or the casual “Yeah, he had a twin-turbo Testarossa.” No one seemed to realize how uncommon that was. I even contacted Norwood himself and had a great conversation. It was very cool to chat with a true legend, but he confirmed that the car wasn’t one of his creations. This left me completely baffled. Several locals, including a retired mechanic who had worked on Lee’s cars, confirmed the existence of the twin-turbo Testarossa.
Eventually, I connected with Lee’s nephew, who had inherited one of the Rolls Royces. After some effort to track him down and an awkward introduction, he acknowledged knowing about the car but was unclear about its origins. However, at some point in the early 90s, the car was sold and the new owner managed to drive it away but didn’t get far. The engine blew north of Spartanburg, South Carolina. The nephew arranged a tow truck for the buyer, and the car was towed to a yard in Spartanburg. After a few months, the tow yard reached out to the family, attempting to locate the owner since the car hadn’t been picked up. They passed on the buyer’s information, but that’s where the trail goes cold.
To this day, I have no idea what happened. Who built this unique car? Why would the buyer abandon such a valuable purchase at a tow yard for months? Where did it end up? I still have no answers, but I keep an eye on auction listings for a twin-turbo Testarossa that might have been built by someone other than Norwood. Maybe one day, it will surface, but until then, the mystery continues.