Great event. Tipos as far as the eye could see. Warbirds display was spectacular. Great to meet Sandisk from here! Special thanks to the Nothants police officer, on traffic duty at a small local accident, who flagged us down to advise of a camera van on the A43 and to drive carefully.. Genuinely shocked when he asked if we could warn others via WhatsApp for safety reasons and to avoid unnecessary tickets.. Blown away by that and a great way to police. Respect to him. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Thanks for the picture and story: looks mighty impressive... like an endless sea of Ferraris!! Glad you enjoyed it [emoji6]
Lovely to meet a few of you for us as first time recent owners/attendees. Great day out and an enjoyable drive to boot! Sent from my SM-N986B using Tapatalk
A few phone pics Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Sent from my SM-N986B using Tapatalk
Apparently circa 600 Ferraris. Not many older ones unfortunately but a few, 365, 275 etc. And dome stunning planes. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
A few more Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
The event at Sywell was wonderful for the number of cars present. I agree that the number of "older" cars present was disappointing and the timeline was very poor, to say the least. Every owner who contributed their car to the timeline should be congratulated but the FOC should have done much more to encourage a greater turnout. However (and I apologise now if this makes anyone else feel old!), I attended my first Ferrari Owners Club concours in 1990 (at Brocket Hall). This was 31 years ago. Ferrari had just celebrated their 40th anniversary: they have more recently marked their 70th. In 1990 there were lots of front engined V12 cars at Brocket Hall with 250, 275, 330, 340, 365 and 400 engines, nearly all of which were less than 30 years old at the time. Back then there were Daytonas and Dino 246s which were less than 20 years old! The 348, Mondial t, 412, Testarossa and F40 were the current models. We probably need to reassess which cars we now consider to be old. Many of the owners at Sywell probably consider the F430, 456GT and F50 to be old! Cars older than that would be considered ancient: cars that I thought of as old at Brocket Hall in 1990 would be considered antique! We have to face facts here: the 308/328 cars are now old. Even the 348 is nearing that category. The 365/400/412 range of cars should be cherished for being part of the timeline of big (at the time but tiny now compared to today's saloon cars) front engined Ferrari cars going back to the origins of the marque. Things move on. The FOC have to cater for everyone but need to focus on the majority in order to survive. I am useless at judging the age of people but at dealer backed events (such as Donington Park last weekend) there are many owners who appear to be younger than the F40. We can bemoan the lack of "older" cars at events but must accept that for many reasons there are going to be fewer and fewer of them. We should treasure the ones we do see and need to appreciate the 550s, 612s, 360s F355s and other, post-Enzo era cars, before they too begin to disappear. Here are some of my pictures of the cars many of us wish we could see more of at FOC events: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
On the one hand I get your point. On the other hand there are many events where the vintage Ferraris still come out in force (Goodwood for example). I started going to big club events around the same time as you did (late eighties) here in The Netherlands and Belgium and my first visit to the UK was in 1994 (Coys Historic at Silverstone). I've always been impressed by the turn out of Ferraris at FOC events and especially that of vintage ones. So to see so few of them at the inaugural Owner's Day last year is still a bit disappointing, even when taking your point into consideration. I don't want to criticize those at the club who are trying to get as many interesting and vintage cars to these kind of events as possible. I know that it's a time consuming and thankless job. I do hope that this year with two anniversaries (Ferrari at 75 and the Club at 55) the owners of vintage and other interesting Ferraris will bring them out in force! Will there be a special timeline display again? So far I haven't read anything about it but I might have missed it.
Hi Peter There is no info out at the moment, but it was talked about at the FOC AGM today. They are doing their best to get as many older Ferraris as possible this year with a guarantied parking space in the time line.
This is the link to the https://www.nationalferrariownersday.com/ June the 4th at Sywell airfield. This is open to anyone who owns a Ferrari so you do not have to be a member of the FOC but you need to get a ticket via the link. It is supposed to be bigger and Better than last year. I am organising a convoy again, last year there were so many cars at the services we soon got split up on the A14, so this year we will be taking the back roads from the services to give us more chance of staying together. The plan for anyone that wants to join up en-route is:- to meet at Histon CB24 9PS, North of Cambridge, leave the A14 towards Histon/ Impington, Junction 32, after only 100 yards at the lights turn left and meet near small green at 8am– to leave at 8:15 am. Then the next stop will be at Applegreen Spaldwick Service Station PE28 0TD on the A14 at 08:45 for coffee and leave at 09:00, the services are just past the A1/ A14 new junction going west on the A14. Anyone going to Sywell, are welcome. I will post a route from the services in the couple of weeks.
Please see the map from the services to Sywell, with help from Phill. The last time I spoke to the club 1400 tickets had been ordered. Here is a google link to the map VIEW IN GOOGLE MAPS Phill says these are good roads that motorbikes use so should be fun. We cannot go all the way on back roads, so will have to go on the A45 for a short way which is a duel carriageway, so the leaders will go slow to enable people to catch up if we are not all together at that point.his is the route from the services. Grant Image Unavailable, Please Login
Enjoyed the day despite the British weather trying to spoil the fun, a couple of my favourites; Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Hate to say it but I thought it was utter garbage, there was absolutely shag all to do. I got there early doors for the runway run which was fine but the first group was pretty much done as the gates opened at 1000. There were a few food trucks around, people selling stuff, an auction and that was it. Yes, there were lots of interesting cars but after the umpteenth time of looking at them the novelty wears off. Buggered off home at 1130 sacrificing another runway run as I just couldn’t be bothered to hang around with nothing to do.
I do agree I got there late went in the auction just to keep warm but as you say other than looking at the cars there wasn’t much else. Needs to improve
About the same for us. We waited for the first aerial dogfight and then left early rather than wait until the end of event party. I could imagine if: – the area clubs had designated space under canvas (in case the weather is poor) and a place to meet those you may know more easily – a wider choice of food and drinks (queuing 20min+ for a coffee in poor weather is not fun), again under canvas – continuous charity runs rather than just a few "runway runs" – more stands showing a wider range of services and, of course, if the weather was better if could be a good 4-6 hours, perhaps all day event. Just starting the event an hour later would enable more people to have a leisurely drive to/from the event rather than having to stay over at the poor/adequate choice of hotels and shorten the day so less time to fill.
