I arrived at FerrariChat.com on the November 14, 2002 and stumbled across it by coincidence with a Yahoo search. I had loved Ferrari’s since I could remember and  I didn’t even think twice joining the board. My approach, on the other hand, was not that well thought out. I signed on, and thought that this could be a cool site on which I could create a completely different identity. Suddenly, I owned an F50, F40, Mondial and a 355 GTS. I was also the proprietor of the Official Ferrari Dealer in Denmark. With my new identity ready, I announced myself on the board as Carsten355.

My first thread was called “Modena” and was about my frustration of why people said the Ferrari Factory
was in Modena, when it was actually situated in Maranello. The responses went rather quickly away from
the initial question and onto my status as a Ferrari owner. I was sold as a slaughter pig instantly. Thanks
to some very observant eyes, I was quickly called out as an impostor and caught in a web of lies.  I
continued. I boiled my lie down, to only owning the 355, but that didn’t work either. The truth was, and I
don’t know if it ever came out back then, the house and car that I was claiming to own actually belonged
to a friend of mine. When I couldn’t provide a real VIN for the car, I was called out once again. Third
time.  After I realised that this was getting nowhere, I finally admitted my wrongdoings and settled down
rather quietly only posting in a few threads.

I started to get to know people, but it was hard in the beginning because I still had a terrible reputation
hanging over my head, as it does till this day, but I made some pals.  I’m reluctant to use the word
friends, as I do not know any of them personally. I did make one friend though. His name was Brian, and
he was a fellow Dane who owned a 360. He’s a friend of mine today, and I talk to him often. My activity
on the board continued to rise, and soon I was posting there everyday. It became a habit and I started
checking the board around 20-40 times per day (Rob could probably verify thatJ).  Talk about being
addictive. Then, after some time, FerrariChat changed. Not only in the size of members, but also in
appearance. The board had grown very large, and the need for change had come. The new board was well
accepted, and I loved it too. I did not know at that time, that times would become far worse than it had
been when I first arrived.

On the new board, there was something called “Politics & Religion” – two things I have an immense
interest in. I checked it out once or twice and just browsed through some of the threads without posting.
One day, a thread I just had to reply to come up.  I can’t remember which one but that was the start of a
hard time on the board. Something that I didn’t realize at first, and that probably still hasn’t completely
soaked in today, is that my rightwing conservatism here in Denmark was extreme liberalism, or at least
liberalism, in the US. As the bigger percentage of the board is American, those were the ones I would
have to answer to. Thread by thread, I made one mistake after another. I continued to spew my liberal
nonsense to people who weren’t interested in hearing it. And my hard headedness just made it more
difficult for me, because I really wanted people to understand what I meant. When discussing politics,
there are so many important things to remember, things that I just completely blocked out of my mind
because I was too eager to tell people how things should be done, and how it was done best – completely
missing the point that no one way is better than the other, that it’s all in the mind of the beholder. I did
not understand that I could not force my beliefs of a semi socialistic society down upon these people on
this board, and have thought to myself many times “How blind are these people? Do they not see anyone
else in their society other than themselves?” without realising that maybe I did not take a close enough
look at how I thought about political issues. And boy did the Americans on this board teach me a lesson,
they sure did. And maybe in a way they haven’t even realised before reading this what I’m about to say. I
found my beliefs changing unintentionally. When I was talking politics with my friends here at home, I
was suddenly a bad guy. I had taken some of the arguments and ideas that people here expressed and I
had suppressed and started using them here to my own advantage. Now I was suddenly a capitalist and a
greedy money whore. I found myself in heated arguments with my friends about how our society should
be functioning. I was talking the “propaganda” of my enemy. That said, I was still not a conservative of
the American kind, but I was more right wing than I had ever been.

I had by now made a lot of enemies, and said a lot of things that I regret to this day. I have pissed people
off that I do not wish to piss off, and that I would gladly take out for a cold one if I ever met them in real
life. I was given an endless row of second, third and fourth chances when I first arrived, and how do I
repay the people who had forgiven me so many times before? By pissing them of with anti-American
spew about how my country was much better. I will never be a republican, my upbringing and cultural
background is simply too strong, but I am man enough to apologise, and that is what this little short
story is about. It’s an apology to all the people, which have had patience and just a shred of confidence
that I would try and pull my act together and start acting like someone the age I truly am, instead of a
child who didn’t get what he wanted for Christmas. All the people who I am talking about know who they
are, so mentioning names is not necessary, but I’ll do it anyway simply out of respect. When it comes to
it, we are all insanely interested in Ferraris and that is what drives this board.  I love discussing these cars
with all the people on this board. It’s a huuuuge database of info and pictures, and we should all feel
lucky that this place even exists. I use this board so many times everyday and I couldn’t imagine it NOT
being here. I am lucky that I am a user of FerrariChat and am grateful to the many kind and helping
people who also use it. Thanks.

My sincerest apologies to:

Bruce, Matt, Dave, Scott, Rob, Rivee, Frogman, Nibblesworth, Darth, Mike, Dave and Wax – I hope I
have not left anyone out, and if I have, and you know it – then, I am sorry.

If anyone wonders why this comes so suddenly, and out of nowhere, I can tell you that it really hit me
when I read Matt’s column in Velostrada last month. I sat there reading it, and realised what a complete
jack ass I had been.