First Face to Face with a Ferrari

Don't recall the first time I saw one, but a friend of mine's dad had a 328. first person I knew who actually owns one.

 

First Ferrari I ever saw I bought (if you consider a 246 Dino Gt a "Ferrari")

It was on a trailer behind my friend's Italian auto repair shop in Phoenix. I drove by to say hello and he showed it to me. It was a complete mess having been left outside in the desert sun for about 7 years. The tires where melted to the trailer, the interior was complete dust, the red paint faded to a dusty pink. It was some kind of divorce fight and owner wanted to sell it.

It was a complete basket case but it was complete, intact, had low mileage (something like 3000 kilometers), no rust, and my friend who owned the shop said he could vouch for it as he knew about the car for years. So I bought it as a non-running hulk for $8000. My folks thought I was crazy. 2 years later I drove it for the first time as I slowly invested money in it to get it back on the road.

The first 12 cylinder Ferrari I saw must have been when I moved to LA but I don't remember when.

 

I had an experience like that with the owner of the team I worked for. He had one of two made in silver. It was a stunningly beautiful car. He brought it to Miller Motorsports in Salt lake. I was just beside myself. "Pete, can I sit in it?" Pete: "Yeah, sure, knock yourself out, it's just a car" *brain short circuits*... the way the door just slowly raised, the thump of it shutting...just...damn....i'm still speechless.

Pete called us all around as we were leaving that evening. "Okay everyone get a coin, now flip....heads...tails, you're out....flip again....heads.....tails you're out...." slowly it was down to two guys. The winner got to drive himself and Pete back to the hotel.

sjd

 

I grew up in a small town near Winnipeg, Manitoba in the 60s/70s - on the Canadian prairies, farm country, all straight roads. Despite the complete lack of sports car roads, there was a surprising number of sports cars in Winnipeg, the British marques Triumph, MG, even a fair number of Jaguars. Fiats were around, some Alfa Romeos, but never Ferrari - until 1972, a small dealership called Cars International opened in Winnipeg. They always had interesting cars, so I made sure dad would drive by whenever we were in the city, a couple of times a month. One day in 1972, I was 13 - and they had a yellow Dino GT in the showroom when we drove by. I made dad stop in to see it, it was mesmerizing, I'd never seen anything like it. I'd started reading Road & Track that year and was beginning to know a bit about the name, but to see one of the fabled cars in person was fantastic. I was hooked for life, but it wasn't until 40 years later when I finally got my own Ferrari! (my current 308 GTS QV Euro).

 

The first Ferrari I saw outside of a magazine was sitting outside a car dealer in Calgary, AB in (I think) 1977 or 1978. 308 GTS. Red. I was smitten. Oddly though, the part that still resonates with me is that I looked at it and thought “Wow. It’s so small. I thought it would be bigger.”

Fast forward a few years to the early 80’s and I was in school in Toronto. Living in a “mixed” sort of neighborhood that the locals might know as The Annex. At the time it was being gentrified, even before that term was common. I rented a room in an ancient run down Victorian semi with five other guys, but directly across the street was a newly built “McMansion.” No curtains, so at night you could see all the cool modern art paintings on the walls. I kept thinking junk bond trader money. Anyway...

One morning I walked out to head to the subway and sitting in the driveway across the street was a Boxer. An actual, never thought I would see one, red and black, with the orange front lights, actual holy crap Boxer!

I just stood and stared.

There was no one around to ask about it, and I didn’t want to walk up and ring the doorbell, so I just stared for a while, sighed, headed to the subway and went to class. I never saw that car there again, but I never forgot it either.

 

Yes, I remember the first time I saw a Ferrari. Elementary school, late afternoon in autumn (I think It was near the end of November). It was a bit foggy and cold, but me and a friend of mine were sitting in the school's courtyard, talking about our favourite videogames and stuff while waiting for our parents to pick us up.

This other kid was quite excited and said "I'm super happy today because my daddy is home, I usually don't see him much..but he'll be here any minute now!" Little did I know that his father was a wealthy businessman (always travelling for work) with a thing for sports cars. The one I heard a few minutes later down the road was quite loud, a beautiful sound I never heard before: a red 512 TR.

"He's here, he's here" my friend started shouting, while I was there staring at this magnificent silhouette through the mist. I was literally kidnapped by that sight. My friend said a few more things but my mind was in another place and I only heard "...see you tomorrow!", after he crossed the road to reach his father. After a few seconds, the car revved up and disappeared around the corner.

That's the day when I fell in love with this brand, its cars and its engines (and pop-up headlights, too).

 

In the 8-10 year old range circa late 80s/early 90s, I recall riding along in the family mini-van, spotting the 308/328s, 348s, and Testarossas of the era. Though somewhat rare sightings I'm sure, the vividness with which they are burned into my memory make it seem like yesterday. The radical strakes covering the intakes on the sides struck me as awesome, like an armed fighter jet, and defined the word "Ferrari" to me. If you had asked me (or pretty much any other car-loving kid of the time) to draw a Ferrari on paper, the defining feature would be those strakes. I can still see in my mind the "testarossa" and 512tr badging on the rear, and the muscular hips of the 348s rear profile when driving behind. I remember where we were, or what road we were on. It's a pretty cool feeling to be able to walk out into the garage, see that same form, drink it in, and reach back through the years to that younger self and touch back to those first memories and emotions. I was worried when purchasing my first Ferrari, that owning, and interacting with the car, meeting your hero so to speak, would somehow dull and tarnish those youthful memories and feelings of excitement, but it hasn't. Not one bit.

 

Sebring 1958
Ferrari 250 Hill,Gendieben. 1st place

Bought my first this month
612 OTO

Took 60 years but I did it!!

 

Late in high school (2000ish)... I grew up in the suburbs where there wasn't much money. Had never seen ANY kind of exotic before... Ferrari/Lamborghini/Bentley/Rolls, etc.

I'd love cars all my life... played all the racing games.... had tons of magazines/posters.

I was at a gas station after dark, and a grey 550 Maranello pulled up next to me. Some older guy and his wife.

I couldn't believe I was seeing one in real life.... I was staring while the guy was pumping his gas... his wife saw me and laughed a little.

 

In the mid 90s I had just started my first job (a mechanic at a motorcycle dealer) and one of our customers and his brother owned a temp agency in buffalo not far from the shop. They would come in and buy all sorts of stuff and they were very nice to me each time we met. I saw one of the guys at a local race track later that year and he invited me over to his pit space to meet his crew and there it was..... a Testarossa. My jaw dropped. I think I was 16 at the time so my love for Ferrari was going strong for around 12 years by then. I had seen one or two parked or on the road but just for a few seconds. This was the first one I had ever been close too. It was larger than life to me at that point. He said to me, "this is my brothers, would you like to sit in it?" Of course! By then his brother comes over and says, "get in and start it up!" I rememeber it clear as day, the sound and the feeling. I revved it up a few times, as the owner just smiled and knew it was making my day. Afterwards I just walked around the car for several minutes and just took it in. The F40 is my dream, but the testarossa was my crush. Funny how almost exactly 20 years later when my car came off the truck and I first sat I'm "my" ferrari, I had the same feeling.

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First time I clearly remember was in 1984. I'd have been about 10. Miami Vice was all the rage, and there was an article about the show in the paper with a photo of Crockett and Tubbs leaning against the Daytona Spyder (replica). I showed it to my Dad and he said, "Oh, so and so has that same car". I freaked. Next weekend we met up with my Dad's friend and there it was...a genuine Ferrari Daytona Spider in black with tan leather. He explained the history of the car, mostly that it had started life as a coupe, and some crazy anecdotes about former owners. Then he explained that the car on Miami Vice was a replica, and showed us a few of the major differences. He'd bought his car around 1981, a few years before the show aired so I think he was proud of the fact that he had beat them to it. Haha.

Anyway, after that day I was a 100% Ferrari nut.