Ten years today!

Ten years ago today I bought my first Ferrari. It remains an event in my mind up there in significance with getting married and the birth of my children, which may be odd, but there you go. I was in my early 40s and while I hadn't exactly dreamed of a Ferrari all my life - I was a car nut always but never really thought I'd get enough wealth to buy one - I had been plotting intensely for around five years.

I had my heart set on a 550, which were around £50-£60k here in the UK then (double that now), as a kind of gentleman's GT that could also be a proper Ferrari, but a friend who worked at Ferrari pointed out a low miles Testarossa for sale at a little-known auction house. Prices were jumping.

I drove (in a loaner FF) to Anglia Car Auctions with my daughter, who was 12, looked over the car, hung around, lost my bravery, left, took daughter to a nearby beach town for lunch, resigned to not buying the car. On the way back, we drove past the auction house and said, ok let's just drop in for fun in case the sale's still going.

The Testarossa was the next lot up. I set myself a limit, steeled myself, bid, and won.

Took it to a Ferrari dealer in London who cleaned it up, dealt with some surface rust underneath - the car was otherwise great - and then said a customer had offered 2 x what I bought it for. So I sold it without turning a wheel...and within the next two months bought my keepers, a F512M and a manual 575 FHP. I am about to drive the latter to my tennis club. Over the years also acquired a manual 430 Spider.

The Ferrari club is not one I ever plan to leave. Thank you to everyone here for your knowledge, smarts , passion and wisdom (mainly).