In June of 2022, I purchased a Dino 308 GT4 from a gentleman in Hollister, California. I was not actually looking for a GT4 at the time, and had it in my head to buy an early carbureted GTB. It was only by accident that I stumbled across the Dino I wound up buying. The tipping point for me was the Dino had the extremely rare rear seat delete option. I had only seen one other GT4 with the delete option. That was in the late seventies, when a woman named Dianne Gatsby (who could forget a name like that) brought her right hand drive car to us for some service work.

After buying the Dino and driving it back to Colorado in the sweltering summer heat with an inoperable A/C system (surprise!), I decided to trace its ownership history. The car came complete with its original books and the gentleman I bought it from had some information to help my search.

The warranty book showed my car was delivered to a Mr. Orinousky of Tulsa, Oklahoma on April 27, 1977. It is interesting to note my car, chassis #10400, has a production date of March, 1975! There seems to be some evidence of a second owner…

Somewhere around 1980, when essentially the car was three years old, it was purchased by Lt. Colonel Alexander Harwick of Tallassee, Alabama. Harwick was a graduate of the air force academy in Colorado Springs in 1962 and became a fighter pilot. This of course was during the United States involvement in the war in Vietnam. Harwick flew F-4 Phantoms. He became the first pilot to log 1000, 2000, 3000, then 4000 hours in an F4. He flew 257 combat missions and logged 754 combat hours in Vietnam. He had a 100% accuracy rate in bombing runs and authored the bombing manual used by the U.S. military, which the Soviets later stole.

During his career, Harwick won 23 Air medals, 5 Distinguished Flying Crosses, and 11 times he won every “Top Gun” competition he entered. When Harwick retired he wrote a book entitled, “Fun, Foolishness, and Frivolity of Flying Fighters”, which described his flying experiences. He also joined a missionary group that assisted in getting Ukrainian orphans adopted by Americans.

After Harwick bought chassis #10400, he was stationed in Europe for seven years. He had the car shipped over and used it as a daily driver. When I bought the car, there were maps in the trunk of the car showing all the European countries Harwick had taken the Dino. There is a decal on the inside of the trunk lid showing Harwick had the car completely repainted at Carrozzeria Zillo in Italy.

When he returned to the U.S., Harwick had the Dino shipped to his home town, where he obtained a hanger at an airport. It was there that Harwick stored 4 airplanes, including two Soviet jets that he had purchased, along with memorabilia from his flying days, and a large number of the seventy collector cars Harwick owned during his life time!

As an avid collector, Harwick had owned a 275 GTB, a 275 GTS, a Testarossa, a number of Jaguar XKE’s, etc., etc. He was so connected to each of his cars, he named them all! He named the Dino “Giuseppe”. Harwick also authored a book on his cars and titled it “My Many Love Affairs”. He owned chassis #10400 until his death, for a total of 39 years.

Lt. Colonel Alexander Harwick is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, next to his father.

This story was contributed by Ron Clark. If you’d like to contribute a story, please do not hesitate to reach out: email