Scuderia GTO Members

Firstly a bit about me, I am from South Africa, Cape Town to be precise. Sure its not London, Paris or New York but one thing we do have hear is great scenery, a fantastic importer and great roads. I am in the fortunate position to have a very close friend of mine who owns a 599 GTO and I am friendly with 2 other GTO owners. Generosity runs deep here from all concerned, it was me who sat down with said friend and helped spec both GTO's, I enjoyed a phone call last November as my friend stood waiting at the factory about the take delivery of his GTO. I waited with excitement as numerous containers were opened at the end of Dec to see which one has the GTO in it. Almost every Saturday is spent in the GTO, coffee at the importer followed by a usually absolutely astonishing drive.
I am also an honory member of South African Ferrari Club.

With this in mind decided in consultation with M Individual and Speed Racer that perhaps some sort of newsletter may be nice for Scudera GTO members. I am happy to write one up at periodic interval and I welcome and material from Scuderia GTO members, by pm or otherwise. Its my experience that passion for Ferrari transcends all barriers, as Jim Glickenhaus pointed out to me when I spoke to him on the phone a year or two ago.

I was lucky enough to spend some time in the passenger seat of the GTO around our local track below are my thoughts, written up fairly quickly so do forgive any slight(or not so slight errors)

"The force pinning me back into the seat, the scream of the V12, 8500 rpm in 1st, 2nd and third, the tyres. Ahead the first corner is approaching at a seemingly impossible speed. I close my eyes.

Wham, down a gear the V12 sound even with a helmet on is shattering, I open my eyes, ahead of me looms the specter of Table Mountain, power, that feeling of being again shoved into the seat, the rear squirming on cold tyres. No much time to take in the view, the V12 filling the cabin with an angry bellow, the next corner looming large and still no sign of my driver braking, 50 meters, hard on the brakes from around 180 km/h, the nose bites, the rear starts to move, this is oversteer, power out of the corner towards the switch back section, hard left than hard right, full power, rely on the systems and again the rear does a squirm. Wow, not sure if this is fear but I am seriously worried about the next complex of corner, taken around 180km/h, it’s a double corner where one carries big speed.

Little of no braking, surely this is too fast, I brace myself, thinking to myself if this is end well what a awesome way to do, but no, the V12 screams as the driver downshifts and again I hear the sound of throttle pedal hitting the floor, some tail movement but not to much. Thankfully there is now a reasonable straight, in a 430 challenge max speed along here is 230 km/h, the GTO, well that’s much faster, 150 meter braking mark passed, hard on the brakes for a the ultra banked, hairpin corner. The seatbelt biting in my chest, I subconsciously wonder if this is the hand of Enzo. Before I could do too much more wondering it was wham wham down 3 gears for the slow 2nd gear corner, max power the mighty V12 jerking as the traction control takes hold for a moment. Flat out over the start finish line, the people on the pit wall a blur, the cabin filled the angry scream of the V12. 255 km/h at least and again very late on the brake, into the left hander, again full throttle, jerking again as the V12 is reigned in the traction management, still the tail is moving around on the exit. Much better exit this time round so even more speed down the short straight, Table Mountain again staring at me, from where I am sitting the wonder is nature is rendered irrelevant, my hear is pounding, a few years ago I witnessed a 360 hit the wall at this very point but, the Michelins are really starting to bite in the tarmac down and the switchbacks are deal with easily. Too much speed into the next corner, some under steer but the front end power is immense, hard on the power, big movement from the tail, left front wheel nearly off the track on the exit.

Screaming up the next straight, wham wham down two gears, my word do those high rev downshifts sound great and full power through the double corner, gentle movement of the tail. Ahead a familiar site looms, it’s the other GTO, the cabin is filled with scream of the V12, 8000 and a bit in 3rd and 4th, both cars blasting down the straight, one of those goose bump moments.

Three more laps followed of probably one of the most awesome passenger laps I have ever had and that includes time spent in a 430 challenge. There is an equal measure of fear and adrenaline but the fear does become less when you actually feel the systems working, There are brief time to thing and the words of a factory test driver become more and more apt “go flat and trust in the system” but what he doesn’t tell you is that you need to be able to manage the GTO, boss it and really commit and luckily for me the man sitting next to me does this, a master behind the wheel, at over 70 years of age he loves his Ferrari’s and to be able to experience someone get this much out a GTO was a very special experience, to feel the systems working, having that V12 bellowing in my ear( despite spending every weekend this year in a GTO the engine takes on a whole new dimension when on the track) Those 6 laps were amazing, the cooling down lap gave me time to reflect, it’s not possible to fully describe such an intense experience but knew I just had to try.

In life we don’t live by numbers, we live by experiences, in a perfect world we could quantify everything but emotion and feeling can’t ever be quantified, the GTO gives you that very special feeling. I am not sure words exist to convey it but what I know is those laps will be with me for life, an experience that has become one of my fondest Ferrari memories. Thank you Ferrari for creating this fantastic machine.

 

Thanks for the kind comments, whats interesting is the total difference to the 458 around the track, the 458 is less dramatic, still quick but the experience is different, so different in fact that its my feeling that anyone who directly compares the two is making a fairly large mistake. Its also telling that I hear many GTO owners also have 458's, suggesting both complement each other rather nicely.