Coming out of the closet

Life is far to short to hide any accomplishment. Flaunting is one thing, hiding is another.

 

I don't advertise, but i also generally don't hide it. That said, there are some folks I know, such as folks at work, that I would not tell because it could start things / not be a great move given their personalities.

 

My good weather DD is a Maserati GT (2008). At best it's worth $33k. But people think it's a $150K car. I don't have kids, a boat, a cottage, blah blah blah. Others have these things. It's all a matter of choices. Again, I don't flaunt but I'm not going to hide what I worked hard for to please the jealous people.

A friend taught me this as I used to feel different. Work hard, play hard and enjoy what you have earned.

 

That is hilarious. I'm a month into ownership and I'm still dealing with this to some extent. I'm a mid life cliche at this point taken to the nth degree: Divorced dad, kids in private school (not my choice), now with a Ferrari. Feels weird...but close friends and family get it (mostly) bc I've been a car nut and a Ferrari fan for as long as I can remember. Now my dream has come true and it still doesn't really seem real! I still pull into my garage and say, "there's a Ferrari in my garage!!" All that said, I haven't taken it to too many places where I'll know a lot of people. Haha. Stupid, but apparently I'm not the only one. What I'm realizing is not a lot of the owners on this forum are using the cars as genitalia extenders.

 

+1. Read and repeat these words to yourself.

Then do not apologize for your success but don't throw it in anybody's face either.

 

My Cardiologist of 18 years and I are both car guys. He recently bought a GT3. He says he never drives it to work-- despite working in a large medical group and he would not be making an "entrance" given the situation. When I asked why, the answer was as you would expect: the backlash and trash talk he would have to endure from his colleagues just wasn't worth it.

Human nature for most to "judge" I guess.

To add something I never forgot...
"I never realized how happy I could be once I quit giving a damn about what others thought of me"
Drew Carey

 

I totally get it in the workplace and certain urban environments; however, if you so limit yourself that you find you never drive the cars, it really doesn't even make sense to have them.

At some point, you need to just say if they don't like it, that's not my problem. I find a huge amount of people love nice cars and enjoy seeing them and talking about them. The few who wrinkle their noses and want to make some sort of snide remark tend not to approach me. To be honest, I wrinkle my nose and have a lot more snide remarks for
Tesla and Prius drivers, lol.

 

I work for a small company and battle with the same issue...

You don't want to outshine your master or your peers. For your master, you don't want them to think you already are well enough off where you don't need more advancement and raises . Some of my peers already know that I have the F car and have been less than thrilled when it's brought up... I can hear the tone and read their body language... Mostly just looks of confusion as to why they didn't adjust their life and budgetary choices to make it happen like I did.

 

I do drive mine to work on occasions with mixed reactions.
Some peers are envious and normal as long as I don't wave it in their faces but other guys give you the stare-with-a-thousand-daggers.
Most times I don't care but there are other moments where I feel I should have just drove the other options.
Regardless, the fault lies within myself. I got the toys for me to enjoy, not to show off.

But sometimes, those Ferrari moments are completely beyond compare.

 

I am a business owner and I drive a 6MT Rosso Corsa 360 Modena. I am 39years old and no kids. Entrepeneur for 10years now and it's going good. I guess if my car was a 458 or a 488 there would be more negative reactions. Now it's more justifiable as it's about 100k car. I tell people that it's my new hobby. Many people drive Audi's or MB's that are worth more.

But they are not Ferraris and rarely turn heads as they are more common. There are 230 FCars in road use in my country of +5 million people. This means that it's a VERY rare car to have. And it doesn't matter to people what model it is as long as it's a Ferrari. Reactions are the same. One of my friends said to me: "The price / jealousy factor in a 360 is probably the biggest you can get with any car."

I have the car parked in front of my company and workers have gotten used to it by now. But I wouldn't drive it to meet my customers though to appear as a show off. Still everyone who visits my company and hasn't seen the car yet will acknowledge it somehow. Everyone so far has commented it to be a very beautiful car. And the next question is "How fast have you driven it?" Not so much people asking what I paid for it. Many of my friends have also said that "You worked hard for it, so you deserve it." If I was a lottery winner, it would be a different case. Hard work is appreciated and respected where I live.

So to sum this up; In many ways owning an FCar has changed my life. Gotten to know some other owners too and made new friends from them. Also being a part of FerrariChat community is satisfying. Lots of useful tips and advice here. I haven't enjoyed driving any car for a decade, but I sure am now. Thanks Enzo for making this happen for us!

The happiest people don't worry what others think of their choices. If you are not determined to make yourself happy, then who is? Being proud of what you have accomplished in life in a healthy way is a very good thing. YOLO - keep that in mind!

 

Haters are going to hate... No matter what we say or do here, nothing will change that. Do not let them sway your day.

 

I don't necessarily hide mine but I only told a couple close friends and family. Didn't want to feel like I was flaunting it. If my other friends found out they found out and I don't care at that point. I do however never drive it to work. As the majority of people just don't understand the cost & desire I had to own one. Just brings to much negative attitudes towards my way.


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This is an interesting thread - I have been running my own business for over 35 years and as others have said have nothing to either be ashamed or embarrassed of by my good fortune.

However - I never take any of my supercars to work, I use an M5 as a daily driver this I find bothers nobody.

It helps I live over 40 miles from my factory in a very rural area so I get to enjoy my cars in the very best environment without possibly putting on a show.

I don't hide my cars, they belong personally to me, but I don't flaunt them either.

I think many of us own our cars for the right reasons, and I for one feel extremely privileged to enjoy the experience.

 

I personally wouldn't ever post pictures of my car (or other things I have) to Facebook, Instagram or other similar social media services that are open for almost everyone to see. That's unnecessary I think and might piss people off. Educational videos etc. make an exeption, they are mostly helpful.

Here in FChat I encourage everyone to post pics of their cars and projects because people are mostly anonymous and interested in FCars and things related to them. I don't expect my relatives or IRL friends to be as much into this hobby as myself =)

 

+1 to this! So true, so true...

I'm actually a bit surprised to read the comments from some of you Americans. I thought jalausy was a Scandinavian thing (we have something called jantelagen up here*), and that people on "your" side really looks up to those who make their dream come true (the American dream).

Apparently not.

Seems to me like the vast majority of people around us pretty much are made from the same mold...

* Jantelagen roughly translates to: Don't think you are some something special...

 

My experience has been that our true friends are happy for us as they know my wife and I worked hard for the things we own since we were penniless students. As for others, don't really know, don't really care. We don't lord it up over folks, just enjoy it ourselves...T

 

As someone who left the traditional workplace at 24 years old and started my first small business I have a different perspective of sorts. I have since owned my own business (small not a huge 100+ employees) for all those years since, (over 30) I can tell you it has always been a concern since I have driven nice 911's for most of my life. I have come to be aware that it seems both employees and customers have this thought "who's paying for that(?)" attitude.

It's curious, but I have come to realize that it appears that both employees and customers seem to have this inherent feeling that you shouldn't be making "that kind of money". The customers have this niggling idea that they are being overcharged and employees think that they are being underpaid if you can afford such a nice car. It seems lost on both that I'm in this business to profit and make money-- fairly to both customers and employees.

As I'm soon to move into an Ferrari (looking for a 360) I kind of feel the way this OP felt. I'm reluctant to even share the experience with all but my closest friends and not even my close family. Probably silly, I know, but as most say here it's about me and my car. Not about who I want to impress. Because on that count I couldn't care less.

It's just a shame that this is how it feels for many of us by reading the posts here. It's easy to say F-off. But there's the realities of life to deal with and most, like my Cardiologist and myself included, just don't need the grief.

 

I've never felt the urge to hide anything I own. My purchases are made for my own entertainment and I couldn't possibly care less what anyone else might think of anything I've ever done in my personal life.

The last thing I'd ever do is change my behavior to accommodate outside opionions/validation, either positive or negative. None of this is to say deliberately flaunting something to elicit a response of any kind; I merely go about my normal routine. I'm friendly and respectful of everyone who treats me in kind, but I won't spend two seconds considering which watch to wear or car to drive to suit someone else's ideas or preconceptions - life is way too short for that nonsense.

 

I drive my car often, but I'm a comparatively "shy" owner. I never announced it to my friends or extended family or co-workers, when I got it. No social media posts or pics. Almost a year later, the word is starting to spread throughout my family at least.
I drive it for pleasure, but otherwise use discretion. I'd never drive it to a client meeting.

I noticed after I took my daughter to horse back riding lessons once, the instructor started acting like they had carte Blanche for billing every nickel and dime that they didn't previously.

I don't even leave it outside my house very long.. just enough to wash it, if that's what I'm doing, then back in the garage it goes.

It's a shame the marque seems to have been associated with some negative connotations. But I've told a a few ppl, that I could have bought a mid-year vette for about the same cost, and just wanted a different experience (I live in vette/muscle car country)....that seems to put it perspective for them.
Part of th charm Magnum had, was he would tell ppl that it wasn't his car. It made him seem like just another guy, otherwise his character would have come across like a dooshy Bond wannabe....there was already a show for that, Remington Steele!
But generally I get very good reactions from ppl...taking pics,, thumbs up, compliments, asking questions about it, etc.
The most common question I get is "what year is it?" They are always surprised by its age.

 

I just got mine 2 days ago. Normally when I am really excited about something I would meet up with some friends and we would go for a ride and check it out. When I bought my ISF we did burnouts for the first 30 minutes

Funny though, when I mentioned I was getting this car most of the responses were "Why would you buy that, it doesn't make sense" or "Why didn't you buy a 911?".

I really wanted to take it for a spin so I drove my girlfriend into town to get some ice cream. When we walking out of store I heard a little boy yell "Mom! Look its a Ferrari!! A FERRARI!!!" For some reason I really enjoyed that, seeing someone as excited as I am on the inside about being able to drive this car, something that I have wanted to do since I was his age

 

I have hidden from all but 2 of my coworkers, which is easy because I have a home office when I'm not traveling in the company car. I also don't befriend a lot of them on facebook so I post pictures up, no big. Living in a small southern town, some get it an some don't, but I can always tell them I have a Corvette also and that helps....sometimes.

There was an older guy at a cruise in a month or 2 ago that was handing out flyers for an upcoming show, deliberately passed me by and talked to someone else that didn't even have a car there, you could smell the attitude. Oh well, I guess I'm just a punk kid with a Ferrari...even though I'm 37. Probably doesn't help that people tell me how young I look and I still get carded often.

 

I made my car my DD. I am in sales and take it on customer calls. Generally, it goes well but I live in silicon valley so there are a lot of nice cars.

 

When I got my 355 I told my parents and one of my best friends (who's a huge car guy and knew I was looking for an Fcar). My neighbors knew I always had sports cars and they were cool about it and felt the same about the Ferrari.

I didn't really tell anyone that I worked with but one of them saw me driving it on a Sunday so word spread kind of quickly. They also knew I had a sports car addiction so I didn't really get any sort of bad attitude.

I never brought it up but in many social situations friends would do so and I always felt a bit awkward. Surprisingly not once did I get a negative comment. I'm 29 but can pass for 18 at times and I was always afraid people would think/say "oh look he's driving daddy's car" lol.