What sort of Ferrari driver are you?

I am too young to drive a ferrari I still have about 14 years before i can afford to buy one with my own money. But many owners i know are the safe driving typeswho only speed on the track or a very clear motorway during the day (which is also very unlikely). I think most ferrari owners should make the most of there ferraris before it's too late, I remember one saying of a fellow f-chatter,
'use it or lose it'.

 

What sort of Ferrari driver am I? I think quite different from what you are. I have never been on a track with my car and I think I will never be.
I by far prefer to use somebody's else car (driving school's etc.) for that.
I drive quickly, mainly on B roads abounding in northern Italy, but I honestly admit that I have never been even close to the limit of the car. Too dangerous on open road.
I take care of my car in a maniac fashion but I drive it as often as I can. I just enjoy the feeling of it, even without the racing bit.
Ciao
Eugenio

 

I drive the cars rapidly and the way they were meant to be driven. Back when there was a 348ts in my family I would routinely go out into the country, or to one of the several wide open stretches of road around here, and just open it up. I drove the car regardless of if it rained, snowed, or anything else. Although, I will admit that the snow part was kind of accidental, and would not be duplicated again.

The way I look at it, we all could be dead tomorrow and today is all we really have. If you actually think about that and try and take it in, not just shrug it off, you may realize that owning any exotic sports car is a gift that really should be used. How many people on here BEFORE you had your Ferrari, said, 'Wow...I really want to buy a Ferrari and let it sit in my garage,' and mentally pictured that?? Probably almost none. Most of us wanted to hear that wonderful motor singing at full song....so, why not do it?

 

Very interesting question. I used to drive my F cars on daily basis. Stopped that after I got my JCW Mini Cooper S, which took over the daily driver duty. Its dimunitive size is way more fun in Hong Kong city traffic.

So F cars are now just for weekend relaxed drives. Try not to exceed the speed limit (well most of the time) as street racing just does not do it for me. Although I still heel & toe at every stop. Reserve all my bonsai dives and full throttle high speed turns for the track with Formula cars.

 

I'm a racer so I love tracks, blowing away cars w HP, outbraking them & running away through the corners R,R,R !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I also like crusing SoBe & once in a while I'll do a rally

Not a big fan of the concours. Nice to watch but I get bored just sitting there for hours

 

LOL, I agree! I go to a concours to glance at some eye candy (the cars dumbass!), but mainly to tell lies and bs with all the people there. But the social stuff is just that much less time behind the wheel.

Dr "Git ya motor running" Who

 

I go with the thought that we could all be dead tommorow....so we had better enjoy it now!!

I like to drive fast!! That's why I buy fast cars. I drive fast on the street and I love to test mine and the cars limits. I also enjoy the track....which is a great place to learn how to 'raise your game'.

Concours are great to attend.....but I really don't care "if the door pulls or brake calipers are original"!

Ciao.....Dino

 

i m sort of a cross between...driving miss daisy and o.j simpson behind a white bronco...

 

Well............if you going to pay all that money for a car that can do XXX mph, why wouldn't you occasionally drive it at that speed.

The answer is obvious (danger, breaking the law,.....).

I am Ferrariless at the moment but my last 4 years of Ferrari ownership where limited to the track only (12 + events per year)

Before I got into the track day scene and racing, I did really stupid stuff on public roads with my Porsche's and Ferraris. Every new car I bought the first thing I did after the break in period was run the car to it's top speed. In a 3.2 911 it was 145, then 160 mph in a 993, then 175 mph in my TR, and then an act of complete lunacy I topped that figure in the 355 (street car).

When you are young you are generally dumb. I nearly killed myself in 94 at the wheel of my new 300ZX Twin Turbo (Stillen modified with 480 wheel horsepower). Lost the back end on a country road and went into a ditch and missed a telephone pole by inches (the retaining wire sliced half the body panels off the car).

That wasn't enough to scare any sense into me though as two months later I got a passenger ride in Mr. Koenig's 600 hp 348 (we topped 200 mph on the autobahn). Complete lunacy!

In the mid 90's I decided this was all very stupid and started doing track days, then migrated to racing.

I do still miss cruising around in a nice sports car (my daily driver is a 3/4 ton truck) but get my jollies at the track.

For this reason it is no longer important to me to have the latest, fastest Ferrari. I am never going to test the F430's new top speed on a public road so the cruise factor is more important.

Regards,

Jon P. Kofod

 

Nice comments. I agree. I enjoy to push it every once in a while but street driving to the extreme usually has its pitfalls. I try not to ever go over 140 unless it is for a short period of time and only on the Highway. I live for the twists and turns in the hill country.

 

I can relate. In NE Alabama there are some wonderful roads for turns and twists. Heck even coming out of my neighborhood I feel like I am running a Mini circuit. When in a 355 your butt is so close to the ground sometimes I feel like raising in the seat so I don't drag

 

I'm a passenger seat driver.

 

During the summer...daily driver...occaisional sprint up to 80mph on a few roads I know are relatively barren and twisty but careful not to push the corners too hard as the ditches are deep.
Track days...2 to 3 times a year. Top speed to date...130mph; 2 spins (downhill lefthander at 50mph, downhill righthander at 70mph...no damage).
Best place to have fun!!

 

i love my ferraris and do drive them about 2k miles/yr. i drive them very deliberately and love the "event" that a ride in my boxer is! i have been known to drive my f cars to places where i can simply enjoy a cup of coffee and just look at and enjoy the car.

i drive them w/ regard to my goal of enjoyment and preservation. it seems wrong to abuse the older cars...the newer cars seem disposable to me.

now...i'm a racer too...when i want to go fast i get in my 930 hot rod or go to the track on my motorcycles to drag a knee.

i guess i'm the good kind of ferrari driver...i covet my f cars and abuse my other stuff!

 

That is the one thing that bothers me most when they stay in that blind spot.

 

funny...the term "punked" is the same one i use when driving my 930!

allan feidler (ex ferrari chat) said it best..."never mess with a bad a$$ 930"!!

you have very good tast in auto btw!!

 

jeff... i understand...happens to me alot too !

i cannot tell you how many times i save a rear ender each time i drive that damn 930 !! lol!!!

 

I, too, have slowed down considerably on public roads, and stay away from idiots, rather than having it out with them. I enjoy long distance, back road driving- often alone, no particular destination in mind when i start, throw a bag in the car, see where the spirit takes me. After many hundreds of miles, find a great place to hole-up, get showered, have a good meal, turn in early and get ready for another day of driving:- love starting before the sun comes up, finding a spot to pump coffee and enjoy a view. I've done this a couple times up around Big Sur (shipped one of my F-cars there; on another occasion rented a Maser for 9 days to drive the PCH); the formal ralleys are fun, too, but there's too much "organization," my requirements for hotel and food usually exceed what's budgeted on these affairs, and frankly, while driving with a pack of hi-performance cars can be fun, its also very limiting (and also tends to bring out the macho in some). I do tend to put miles on my exotics, though, and that hasn't changed over the years. I will do the occasional show, but i agree it gets boring quickly, after i've had a chance to scope out the rest of the scene, i'm usually ready to leave...

 

I am a sort of different Ferrari driver from most of you guys. To tell you the trueth, I enjoy staring at it, looking at it from different angles more than driving it. I didn't really tell my wife this but many time I would to take her to get coffee or something. But what I really wanted to do was to have my car parked and looked at it. I can spend hours. It really relax me. My mother can spend hours looking at her jewellery now I understand her. As far as driving is concerned, it doesn't really matter, fast or slow I enjoy it all...