Wow what a day

As you may (or may not) know, it was my birthday on Saturday, and left over from the same time last year I had the present that Sarah had bought me to use up, A Ferrari Day. I hadn't booked it as soon as I got it otherwise I would have had to drive in November, not good for cars with 400bhp.

So I arranged the big day for May 22nd 2004, and what a day. It was held at Prestwick Hall just outside Loughborough. This is a bit of a trek for us from Chelmsford, but Hey, when someone's going to let you drive a 360 Modena Spider, you tend to not worry about little issues like that.

Let's get the worst bit of the day out the way first. The day lasted four hours. "Four Hours driving Ferrari's" you might think, but no, actually more like 10 minutes driving Ferrari's and 3 hours and 50 minutes standing around. However those ten minutes are amazing.

The weather was sunny and dry, perfect for trying to get Italian sports cars around racetracks, however this didn't stop some of my fellows from spinning, (perhaps that's why they called it a 360). The day starts with the usual briefing in racing lines and the standard do's and don'ts. "Do drive at 20 miles an hour max in the pit lane, don't drop the car into first gear instead of third by mistake on the way into the fourth corner, otherwise you'll leave the gearbox all over the track." etc. Then it's out into the sunshine to....

....drive Landrovers around a bit of muddy track while the other half of the room get to play on the track. Well, at least the really boring bit was out of the way first. then they take you around some cones in a VW golf with a football in a tyre on the bonnet, to check how smoothly you can corner a car. Pretty easy stuff for 90% of the people there.

Next it's onto the track proper, being driven around by the professional drivers in a Ford Focus WRC. Here you get introduced to the track and the racing lines, where to brake, where to floor it etc. Two laps later and your queueing up to drive the Ferrari 328 GTS. A nice car to look at, the 328, like Magnum PI used to drive, however, Magnum PI must have had tiny feet because even my size 8's required me to take my shoes off to drive it, the accelerator and the brake are so close together. Around the track it's not that much either, I think I've driven quicker cars on the road, but it was worth going out in to get a 'feel' for the lines of the track and learn the circuit.

Then came the big bit, the Ferrari 360 Modena spider. The guy who went out before me completely lost it on the entrance to the hairpin and span off the track. The professional driver in the car made him come straight back in. I got in and he said he had to do some paperwork so I'd have to sit there for a few minutes. I played around with the gearbox whilst he filled out the driving assessment for the previous driver : 'Can't drive at all' I remember seeing him write - Ooops.

Eventually I got the 'green light' and off we went. I took it tentatively for the first lap. The car makes an absolutely awesome noise as you go down the straight with your foot down to the floor, this huge screech coming from the exhausts like a Banshee who's just found out you've been sleeping with her sister. Then, very quickly I saw the first corner approaching, men of steel would have kept the foot to the floor until they got to the BRAKE sign, however, this was my first ever corner in the 360 and so I did the sensible thing and lifted off the power well before the sign. The pro driver said "don't bother braking until you're half way between the BRAKE sign and the TURN sign". "You must be kidding" I thought, but sure enough, as soon as you so much as rest your foot lightly on the break pedal the 360 clamps down like there's no tomorrow. After a couple of corners of this your confidence starts to build and you find yourself braking later and later. As for the cornering itself, well for me, it's like nothing I've ever driven before. You turn in and the nose comes across promptly, point at the apex cone and roll into the apex, then you squeeze on the power, slowly. You feel the power rushing to the back wheels and they do the best job they can to grip the track and not spin, but lets face it, 400bhp is a lot of grunt to contain. The feel is excellent though and you can feel if your pushing the pedal too hard and it's starting to lose grip. Thankfully I never actually span it, but I did feel it starting to step sideways a couple of times.

Overall the drive was great, if not too short. By the time you're starting to feel at home in the car and you start to get some real speed up, it's time to go back in. But I guess that's why, your confidence would grow, and grow until, snap, the back wheels overtake the front and you're wondering why there's grass clippings all over the bonnet.

So there you go, my first venture into motor journalism.

A great day.

Thanks.

R.