Ferrari Day

This is me burning rubber around the International circuit at Silverstone in a Ferrari 360.

Sadly, this isn’t my car, as you can no doubt tell from the owner’s name written all over it. However, thanks to my brother generously buying me a Ferrari Driving Experience for my birthday I was able to take it for a couple of laps before I had to hand the keys back.

So, what’s it like to drive?

Well, at risk of stating the obvious, it’s fast. Doh! Quite a step up from my usual transport, and that’s not exactly a slow vehicle:

The above picture was taken a few years ago on a track day. I’ve since seen the error of my ways and sold my personal number plate through an agent presumably to someone with the same initials as mine.

This is another of the official photographer’s shots of me driving:

The car I drove had Formula One style paddle gear shifts. Or, as I tend to think of them PlayStation style. There is definitely something missing in a car that doesn’t have a proper clutch and gear stick. Sadly, technology is moving on and most sports car manufacturers don’t make them anymore.

The Ferrari 360 has a 400bhp engine and can accelerate from 0-60 in 4.3 seconds.

The Toyota Prius has a 134bhp engine and can accelerate from 0-60 in 10.6 seconds. Just saying …

Silverstone have a range of cars available for experience days:

Ferraris, of course:

This is a Lamborghini:

These are Nissans and a Renault in the middle. You can’t race the minibus in the background:

This is a Lotus Exige:

This is a Caterham, driven by an instructor:

Here you can see him chatting to the instructor in the passenger seat of the Lotus. I guess it must have been a pretty short conversation:

This is my Ferrari 458. Again, another present from my generous brother. It’s not as quick as the 360, or at least, mine isn’t. I’ve given it some hard driving since receiving it as a Christmas present. You can probably see the scuff marks where I reversed into a chair leg. Yes, sorry, it’s a radio controlled toy.

I’m proud of the photo, though, having spent a fair while fiddling with a table lamp, too small black paper backdrop, macro light and all sorts of different camera settings.