Ferrari Mondial . Net

This was a great event last year at the spectacular setting of Highclere Castle, so I was interested to see how the new venue of Newbury Showground would work out. Clearly the venues were very different with the showground less of a backdrop but offering a much improved circuit for the charity rides, which was the purpose of the day after all. The whole of the track could be seen whilst wandering through the display of parked Ferraris, the sight and sounds of the cars whizzing round was quite something. There was even an F40 giving rides, I hope the people who were lucky enough to get the F40 felt as honoured and excited as I would have been! Overall the day had a different feel to last year, due to the venue, but was still a good event, and the amount of money raised by the charity rides exceeded last year’s total, all in aid of the Three Shires air ambulance helicopter fund.

Photos from the Ferrari Funday 2008 can be found here.

There has not been much luck for this event with respect to the weather for the preceeding two years. Last year the event had to be postponed due to flooding, and it inevitably rained on the rescheduled date too. This year the forecast was the uncertanty tinged “sun and occasional showers”. On the morning itself we awoke to glorious sunshine, so off we set on the fairly long drive from London to Walton Hall in Warwickshire. Even before we hit the motorway, dark clouds were gathering in the sky, and quickly “occasional showers” turned into a morning of driving through absolutely torrential rain! With the M40 being closed compltely at the exact junction needed for the event (presumably due to cars being unable to drive underwater) it was almost enough to make even a hardcore Ferrari owner turn back and head for home. Luckily my newly purchased TomTom One satnav saved the day and it calculated an alternative route through the countryside to avoid the closed motorway.

Our persistence was rewarded in the end, as on arriving at Walton Hall the clouds broke and the house, lake and lawns were bathed in sunshine. Thankfully only a few minor showers materialzed in the afternoon. As always everything was impeccably organised by the FOC (British Grand Prix on big screen, excellent!), and the turnout of cars was surprisingly good, though I’d guess not as many as last year at Broughton Castle. What amazed me was when we strolled round to the back of Walton Hall where there was a fantastic turnout of the really classic and priceless, rare cars, includingan ex Steve McQueen 250 SWB and Chris Evan’s £5.4million black Ferrari 250 California previously owned by James Coburn (Fistful of Dynamite always a fave film of mine). When you sit back and think about it £5.4 million is a lot of money, but after seeing the car I can safely say it was worth every penny Just a shame I had forgotten to charge my camera, so in the end I only have photos of it in general shots before technology let me down. As usual the concours cars were immaculate, of the 4 or 5 Ferrari Mondials present there was a very striking one in dark blue, unusual colour but I really liked it!

Limited amount of photos can be found here!