Astonishing generosity

Put simply a guy I met once for 30 min has lent me his 355F1 to take a Ferrari Club Drive tomorrow, which also happens to be my 27th birthday. His comment was "some things you do from the heart".

I am frankly astonished, tomorrow I have 250 km's of the finest Cape mountain roads and a the weather is going to be clear and sunny. I have driven Ferrari's before but never on roads like these or for this distance and cars have always belonged to a friend I know well.
(strengely I drove this same car when he owned it, was taken to our equivalent of a prom in it, so you could say this 355 bring back good memories for me)

Am I nervous....yes I am, will it be special, most definately. I am not taking a passenger, for those hours behind the wheel it will just be me and the spirit of Enzo.

I am sitting here in stunned disbelief.....

 

Exactly what I was planning to do. Going to take the drive very easy......

 

Report back.

Was awesome, didnt sleep too much last night, the anticipation was just too much. Wasnt amused to see thick fog this morning but that didnt even dampen the spirits. There can be few better sounds to hear at 8am on a Sunday morning than starting up first a 355 with a Tubi, then a 599 GTO.

Being LHD this 355 took a lot of getting used to, however the driving position is quite nice, there is a real sense of occaision opening that door, clambering over that wide sill and siting there, the prancing horse looking back ar you. The growl of the V8 behind you shaking the whole car at idle.

Took it really easy, made sure everything warmed up properly, slow driving for the first 20 minutes, no more than 3500 rpm. The F1 box in this car felt particularly good, in sport mode the changes were crisp and pretty quick. Heading out of the city the road was open and well I wound her out to around 185 km/h, being cautious for anything that vaguely resembled a pot hole!

The second part of the drive took in 3 mountain passes, must be honest I took it really slow and easy, wasnt too slow but didnt push the car at all, was nice to string together some corners but the fog was still about but next minute it was gone and in front of me was the Franschoek Pass, for those that dont know Jag launched the Xk on the road as did McLaren with the SLR, its whisper smooth and there are plenty of rock faces. Well I just had to.....window down, the sound of the Tubi as most of the corners are 2nd gear followed by a few short straight there was ample opportunity savour some "music", such an amazing experience. Which become more amazing when I saw the distinct nose ofa 458 Italia behind me. Of course I was holding him up but oh well at least I could treat him to some awesome 7500 rpm upshift down the short straight before braking into the corners

LHD wasn issue placing the car on the road but to be honest I enjoyed every one of the 224 kms I did in the car today, even the highway blast back was great fun, took her up to around 220-230. The 355 has such character, it perhaps wasnt as sharp as I was thinking it would be but it took care of me, didnt do anything strange over bumps and I really got the feeling during those moments through the pass than Enzo was there, it really was a special feeling.

Only one negative, this particulatr 355 has very wooden brakes, very hard pedal and very little apparent stopping power, surely this isnt typical of all 355s?

All in all a fantastic day, one of those days you remember for life.

Pictures to follow.

 

Some pictures
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v59/Ferrari360/Cars/IMG_0025-5.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v59/Ferrari360/Cars/IMG_0048-3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v59/Ferrari360/Cars/IMG_0033-2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v59/Ferrari360/Cars/IMG_0043-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v59/Ferrari360/Cars/IMG_0044-3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v59/Ferrari360/Cars/IMG_0045-4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v59/Ferrari360/Cars/IMG_0046-4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v59/Ferrari360/Cars/IMG_0047-5.jpg