First Face to Face with a Ferrari

When me and my friends were 16 we used to drive down to the Ferrari dealer when it was closed and press our noses up to the window and stare at the new 328s and Testarossas. We wouldn't shut up about them all night. When I was 19 I got a job selling Toyotas and the owner had a black 328 GTS. I seemed to be the only there that would get all excited when he pulled up in it. I'll never forget the day I talked him into taking me for a ride.

 

Mid 1960's and I'm at boarding school in Connecticut. A classmate's father shows up one weekend in his new red 275 GTB4 and about two dozen heads pop out of dorm windows. We were each given about 3 secs to sit in it (stationary of course) and I made myself a promise. I just didn't realize that life would happen in the meantime and that it would take 50 years to get there.

 

Easter weekend in the early 70's I was visiting my parents from college. Saturday AM I opened the garage door and there sat a red/white Daytona Spider at the bottom of my driveway. I grabbed my SLR (camera) and snapped a pix. My parents owned a home at the edge of a tract of undeveloped land in Lynchburg, VA. Somehow I found out the car was owned by a real estate developer from Richmond who was looking at the land to build another housing development. Had I been smart, I should have immediately gone into real estate instead of getting my BFA.

 

I can't remember the first, but the most influential was at a museum that used to drive the exhibits into a show ring and give talks about them - 1958(?) Super Squalo race car - sound doomed me forever

 

I was mainly interested in Maserati’s first. And spent a lot of time with them (circa 2010). Prior to this jump into European sports cars, I was always an American muscle guy. I was 22 and “Vanishing Point” had left an imprint on me.

My friend had recently purchased a 330 GTC, and we said “what the hell” and drove it from CT up to MA to go look at a Maserati 3500GT engine I wanted to buy. The owner also had an A6G Allemano covered by a tarp in his garage, but that’s a story for another day.

The GTC has this intoxicating sound at speed. Like it just kept begging for more and more and more. All 12 singing was this insane sound that could illicit a giggle from a grown man.

From that trip on I was hooked by The Horse.

I doubt I’ll ever be in the 330 realm, but a Mondial and 308 have come across my ownership since then. All before 30, maybe there is a future 330 for me

 

Although I'd been a Ferrari fan as long as I could remember, my father wasn't a car guy or in any way mechanically inclined (how I wound up being a pilot, airplane homebuilder, kit car builder, and bike restorer, etc. is beyond me) - the extent of his interest was the 308 he saw on Magnum P.I. The first F-car I remember seeing in person was also the first one I drove - a gorgeous 250 GTO.

I'd allowed myself to be dragged to a BBQ being held at the house (mini-estate, really) of my girlfriend's parents' friend and we walked in past this incredible car sitting in their porte cochere. Upon being introduced to the host, I asked him (completely jokingly - I was a 21-year-old wiseass) if I could drive it. He asked my girl's father if I knew what I was doing, he said "Absolutely!" (I'd already driven his E-Type and 427 Cobra), and the guy tossed me the key and told me not to hurt it. If I'd known what it was worth, even then (1987), I'd have probably passed. As it was, I drove it very carefully around the neighborhood and brought it back with a huge grin on my face.

I'll probably never drive another, but I'll always have that one.

 

My first face to face was in the early 90's at a wedding in CT. It was a red Testarossa. You just don't see many (if any) Ferrari's in this part of New England. I couldn't believe how low and wide that car was. But it wasn't until the mid 90's when I first saw the most beautiful Ferrari I've ever seen (in my opinion) the 355. I was in my 20's, so no way in my budget. But I said "maybe someday". Now there is one in my garage waiting for the snow to go away. And honestly, there has never been a car that makes me smile ear to ear each time I drive it as that one.

 

Late 60s, driving around with my parents.
Spotted a 246 Dino, had no clue what it was .....burned into my brain forever.
It looked like sex, and at the time ( age 12 ?) I had no clue what sex was

 

Was that Giltraps Museum down at Coolangatta?

 

yes... long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away

 

Yeah, I remember going there with the family when I was a kid.

 

For me, I was about 15 and my mother was driving us into the city in Brisbane. We were stopped at a red light and all of a sudden a white on white 308 (could have been a 328, what the hell did I know?) pulled up next to us, then roared away when the light turned green.

I remember the license plate on the back read "KIMBA", which seemed kind of weird. There was once a children's manga cartoon series on TV called "Kimba the White Lion", and all I knew about Ferraris was their symbol was a horse, not a lion, so I was very confused.

Then, in about 2004 I got to ride in a Giallo Fly 246GT that a guy I worked with owned and I was hooked forever.

 

should copy this into the Aussie page and see if anyone remembers that car

 

My very first experience with a Ferrari came when I was quite young, maybe in the late 80s. My great aunt and uncle lived in Danbury, CT, and my grandmother in nearby Sandy Hook. We'd visit them quite often, as it was just a 5 hour drive from our home. Every time we visited my aunt and uncle, there was a small shop on New Street that had a miniature glassed-in showroom, with a gleaming red Testarossa inside. That car always beckoned me, and I sneaked off to 'visit' it often. My dad and I even built a 1:16 Mongram Testarossa (which I still have), and of course it was red.

Google maps now shows what looks to be a small two-bay garage there now, the glass has been removed. Not sure

Now of course, my blood runs Rosso Corsa - I've now been to Maranello as a tourist, cherish every single run-in with a Ferrari, and my parents now own a wonderful F355 Spider; which is amazing not only to behold, but to be behind the wheel of.

 

A 250 GTO as a 1st Ferrari drive .... a - maze - ing !

I would give up while you are ahead

 

I don't remember the very first time I was face to face with a Ferrari, but I do remember the first time I saw an Enzo. Something about that moment was genuinely surprising. I had seen so many videos and pictures, and yet seeing it in person it felt like a completely different car. Stunning. Simply regal. I know people say that cars look different in person all the time, but this moment legitimately had me shocked.

 

@Booker -

I had the same experience - the Enzo was otherworldly when it was released. In Burlington, Vermont, they used to close off the upper block of Church Street and parade Italian cars (mostly Ferraris) up to the top. It was an annual summer event through about 2005 or so.

I had the opportunity to see a YELLOW Enzo turn onto Church Street and roll slowly up the pedestrian portion of the street, as the 'leader' of the group. Being that I was in Vermont, I thought I would NEVER have the chance to see one, let alone get the chance to be so close to a running example as close to me as the screen is to me now. I can't remember what I had for dinner last night, but that memory is permanent.

 

My first face to face was with a Testarossa.

It was an incredible moment and experience, it left in awe and in disbelief.

 

My first face-to-face sighting was of a 308 was thirty or so years ago. Youthful and excited, I thought, “Wow that is the same car in Magnum PI … how cool is that, but I could never afford a Ferrari.”

About fifteen years ago I was riding shotgun in a 355 during a track event, and my inner soul reminded me of that 308.

About ten years ago I was riding shotgun in a 360 during a track event, and my inner soul reminded me of that 308 and that 355.

About four years ago I was invited to tour the shop at FoH, and my inner soul … you get the idea. At that time I told myself I will have a Ferrari within a year. After financial obligations are in order, why not reward yourself (myself)? I began with a 360 and now have a 458. My next target is an F40.

 

The first face to face I clearly remember (there may have been others but I wasn't into cars at all at the time) was in the 2003/2004 when I was working my first job. A guy and his son were sitting in the parking lot in a grigio alloy 360 spider. I caught the bottom of the wheels out of the corner of my eye as the rest of the car was obscured by a banner we had hanging up. I couldn't leave the store so I used a display digital camera to snap a picture of it.

First Ferrari I ever sat in was a (THE?) Rosso Dino 430 Scuderia at Miller Motorsports Park.

First ride in a Ferrari was in Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina.

Second was in Paris. My wife and I had arrived about three hours prior, checked into the hotel and were walking around Invalides when I spotted a guy, a photographer, and a 456. Upon speaking to the guy I learned he just bought the car and was doing a photoshoot with a friend. He offered us a ride and soon we were blasting around Paris in a V12 Ferrari. A true gentleman if there ever was one.

https://1drv.ms/i/s!Aguh2btnWEVMgZF53ld0CCxbN3UJxg

 

Back in 1982 I worked as a valet at a Country Club in the Chicago burbs. We drove everything imaginable except a Ferrari, then one day my friend showed up there in a new 308. He wouldn't tell us where he got it and I stopped asking. So we left work and took it out for a "quick ride" on condition that I wouldn't tell anyone and I would also give him a ride in my brothers 1970 GTO. No problem! The Ferrari was sublime, an awesome drive and we got it up to well Over 100mp! I then took him out in the GTO and to try to prove it was faster (he only had it up 130) I got that old goat up to 135 before it started shaking badly and scared the hell out uf us, then shut it down and brought it back to the club. A great memory and I did prove who was the faster (dumber) driver, not the faster car.

 

It was 1969. I was 11 and I had been into cars since I was 6. I read every issue of Road & Track, as they were the only magazine that covered the European cars....... especially the Italian exotics...... Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati! My dad hated cars, but I would drag him to the NY auto show and he begrudgingly would take me. It was his annual obligation.

They put the exotics in the basement of the NY Coliseum and I pointed us down the escalator. We got to the bottom and there were the only 'Big 3' that counted to me. My dad just wanted out of this area as he felt that all I was, was a 'pipe dreamer' and I'd never amount to anything and people like 'us' didn't have things like this.

I worked my way to the Ferrari stand and on the other side of the ropes was a yellow Daytona coupe. It was stunning and I just wanted to look. However my dad was grabbing me and trying to get me out of there. He partially spun me around, but when I turned back towards the car, all I could see were the suit pants of a very Italian salesman. I looked up at him and he smiled and said, "Would you like a to sit in a da car"? I shook my dad off like I was breaking a tackle in the NFL and in an instant I was behind the wheel.

I can still smell that leather. I couldn't see over the dash, but I swore I would have a Ferrari. My dad laughed, told me I was just a pipe dreaming loser and I'd never have one.

Well...... it's been a few years since that day and he was right, I didn't get one. I've had 10+. I wonder if that salesman back then knew that his kindness to a little kid ended up selling allot of cars.

 

So far back I can't remember when or what model, but I was always car and motorcycle crazy. Had a poster of a Porsche 917 and a yellow over black Berlinetta Boxer in high school. Got two or three car mags and another couple of motorcycle mags. Drove a '69 Beetle and then a '74 X1/9. But I do have one cool Ferrari story.

When I was a doctoral candidate and broke, the original 456 came out. It was featured in one of the car mags I got, and I thought it was the most beautiful car I had ever seen. So, I got a couple of car guy buds together, and we took a trip to the Ferrari dealership in Plano to see the only 456 on a dealership showroom floor in Texas. It was dark silver/light gray with a black interior, IIRC. I couldn't stop looking at it. Meanwhile, my two buds were smitten with a yellow 355, but I was completely uninterested in that. I just kept walking around the 456 to take in every angle.

Eighteen years later I got the 456M as my first Ferrari.