Age you were when you first drove a Ferrari

I saw my first real Ferrari up close when I was only 8 or 9 (in the late 1960s). I even got to sit in the driver's seat but didn't get a ride. It was the most beautiful 275 GTB, medium blue in color, and like new at the time. An out-of-town business associate of my father had bought it and the car spent a day in our driveway while he visited. Ferraris were extremely rare in those days, so to even see one was a treat. I knew as I stared at it that some day I would own an F-car. As I grew up, I bought a few corvettes and a Nissan Z car over the years. About 6 years ago I drove my first Ferrari. It was a friend's Mondial and I loved driving it. It was great running it through the gears and trying to accelerate out of the corners. My friend rode in the passenger seat and answered all my questions on how expensive it was to maintain, how fragile was it, etc. A year later I bought a red/tan 328 GTS. And a few years after that I bought a silver/black 360.

So, if you catch a neighbor kid staring at your F-car one day, you might want to let him sit in the driver's seat or even take him for a short ride. Pay it forward.

 

It was 1989...

A Mondial 8 coupe, at Charlotte motor speedway. The owner of the steed just threw me the keys.

More than anything that day taught me that some true gents were car guys.

 

I got to drive a 328gts. I think I was 16. The owner is one of the most generous people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.

 

So far, this pleasure has eluded me. I was 25 when I got my first ride...yeah, I know I waited a while. Since then, I've had rides around Mosport Raceway in a 330, 308GT4, 348 Challenge car, 355, 360.

If anybody's willing to make this dream come true, it would be appreciated

It will however be a sweeter experience when I buy my first one...someday.

 

I drove my first ferrari, a '79 308 gts when I was 22. I bought that same car about a week later. This was all sometime last month : )

 

6 years ago when I was 29. Bought the 2nd one I drove...

 

I don't know, it hasn't happened yet...

 

Drove my Dad's 355 spider at 18. It was awesome and still a blast to drive a year later.
Erik

 

I was seventeen and it was a two year old 275 GTB4 with 4000 miles that was for sale for $6500.00 What a great test drive.

 

17...It was a Testerossa, I let the guy drive my 68 pro street camaro, and he let me drive it. It was fun, I just road in a 360 today I think i still have a hard on

 

I first drove one after signing the purchase papers on my 328. I had never driven a Ferrari before I had the keys in my hand -- not even the one I bought!

Probably the wrong way to handle it, but it's worked out.

I was 34 at the time.

 

17, I drove a 308GTS belonging to a member of the Meadow Club in the Hamptons home after he had a little too much to drink.

 

I didnt drive a Ferrari my first time until recently. Just about the time I was old enough to drive, actually a couple years after, Ferrari prices went totally ballistic. I live in minnesota so back then you just never seen those cars much anyway. I actually seen an add for a 250 GT California in 1975, listed for $10K needing a starter, but that was about the last of those kind of prices. Daytonas were going upwards past 2 million in the early 80"s as speculators auctioned them as fast as they could move them. They became relegated to museums. People dont just let you sit in multimillion dollar cars, and if they dont drive them, you sure as hell aint gonna. By the early 1980's even lowly used 308's were climbing over $100K. And as they kept climbing, less were seen of any Ferrari's. I think Daytonas may have hit up as high as 4 million dollars by the mid to late 1980's. A 250 GTO sold for just under 15 Million in around 1990.

Ferrari's became so expensive, that the difference in price between a Daytona GTB, and a GTS, was about a million dollars, and many GTB's were altered into convertable GTS's so people could cash in on them. I think a few 250 couples met a simular fate. I remember talking to a Ferrari shop in late 89' and being told how nobody drove them much anymore, to risky. I think it was around that time that the movie "Ferris Beulers day off" came out. The car in the movie was actually a fiberglass kit car, as at that time a real 250 California like I seen for $10K back in 1975, was now like 7 or 8 million dollars! My dream of ever riding in, seeing, or owning a Ferrari was continually climbing out of sight. Through the 90's, which was also my 30's, I lost interest in cars in general as the high prices forced all the dream cars up into no mans land.

I was late seeing the crash in prices, wish I had been watching when it bottomed. But about 5 years ago, at the young age of 41, I rode and drove in my first Ferrari, an 81 308 GTSi that belonged to a guy I met through another Ferrari chat site. One of the cars I always wanted, an early 308 GTB, is out in the garage now in a state of engine rebuilding and some restoration and hopefully will be out this spring. Its so remarkable to see these cars out being driven, being used. You young guys may not fully realise how very lucky you are to be able to fullfil your dreams. I hope that the market never goes through anything like that ever again. Oh, and that 250 California? They came up a bit in the last year or so, but about 3 years ago I seen one for $89K. Imagine losing 7 million dollars on a car.

Now while I may not have rode in or driven a Ferrari when I was young, I drove other things that are almost as out of reach today as some high end Ferrari's. In the early 70's muscle cars were being almost thrown away. My very fist car was a 1966 GTO, 421 HO motor with 4 speed, and 6.13:1 rear axle gears. I bought it for $300! I could get the front wheels off the road when I nailed second gear. I drove cars off car lots on test drives that you cant hardly touch now. I test drove a Dodge or Plymouth Superbird, lots of other 440 mopars, a Dodge Dart with a 440, 428 Cobra jet Mustangs, 427 and 454 Vettes and other Chevys, 455 Pontiac coupes, and lots of lesser varieties of all those cars. I remember in around 1977 looking at a nice Plymouth GTX with 440 6 pack 4 speed, on a car lot for $1000, well $999!, and the salesman wanted to deal! And car lots also had lots of British sports cars cheap too. Triumph TR4's, and TR6's were everywhere, Alfa roadsters, Fiat roadsters, and even Jag XKE's were around, but they never really gave those away. I did drive a 3.8 roadster with hot cams and side draft webers once though, that lil car absolutely flew!

 

The first time I drove a Ferrari was when I took a 550 for a test drive at a dealership. That hooked me. Because I drove sleds all my adult life, I did not realize what driving a fine car was about. After the test drive, I set a goal of buying a Maranello. In two years, it was mine.

Why did I not drive one earlier? If I had, I would have had one long ago.

By the way, getting a test drive from a Ferrari dealership is interesting. One does not just go there and get into a Maranello. I have owned my beast for almost three years and I was 55 when I drove a Ferrari for the first time.


Only drive 12 cylinders

 

I was either 18 or 19, can't remember exactly.

I do remember that my 365 was the first car that I owned that had a manual gearbox.

 

My first drive was when I was 25. It was a 348, and I bought it.

 

My first drive was when my car was delivered to my house from Cali.. bought sight unseen off of Ebay and had it shipped to Raleigh, NC. It is my first and current Fcar, a 360 spider and I was 34 years old.

 

At 43, August 2002. Rented a 355 Spider for 24 hours
at Dream Car Rentals in Las Vegas. $ 750.00 + milage
came out to 1K total. I've been obsessed ever since.

 

i was 22 or 23, can't remember( i'm 24 now). the car was a red 360 spider. i've driven many amazing cars and many with much more power than the 360, but none of those cars could touch the overall experience of the ferrari.

 

I was 27-ish, I think. It was a 348 TS and within about 100yds of pulling out, I nearly put it in a ditch! I was only going about 15 mph in a country lane and the car coming the other way didnt give me much space. I hit the brake and revved it at the same time.

Needless to say, I nearly shat my shorts.

The owner was the passenger and I didnt scare him too much as he has since let me drive a 550 Maranello, a 355 Spider, a 456 GTM and a 360 Spider F1 which he has owned.

 

Well, my first driving experience came last year when I was only 15 years old. It was at a Ferrari show in Hartford where my former math teachers boyfriend had his 550 Maranello. I was volunteering at the show and I told him that I would park it for him, I was just kidding but he handed me the keys and said go ahead. I almost crapped myself but had to hold it in cause the interior was far to expensive to do that. I got in and I was shaking I was so excited, I still can't believe I didn't stall the car because my left leg was so uncontrollably shaking. I only got to drive it around the parking lot and park it but it was still the coolest thing i'd ever done.
So tell me guys how many of you would give your F-car and your girlfriend to a 15 year old and let him drive it around with no liscence no permit and insurance that only covered you driving the car, and then let him park it in between two other Ferraris?

 

1998 would put me at 26. I read an ad in the paper for a 308GTSi at Downtown Ford in Sacramento. It was priced at $30K and only had twenty-something thousand miles on the odometer. They let me take it out for a test drive around town. The car seemed to be in great shape, I couldn't find anything wrong in the drive, though after it was warmed up in the drive, I could feel subtle rattle in the steering wheel making turns. My heart said get it now! But common sense said let it go. This Ferrari, had no papers, no receipts, no history of anything and all the dealership knew was that the previous owner died and the car was moved to their lot for quick sale.
I'm glad I let it go, because I have been spoiled on v12 Ferrari years since then.