Ferrari Mondial . Net

Early June is the time of year for the annual super car run out to Cliveden House in Buckinghamshire, and an extra early Sunday start was the order of the day in order to make it in to central London for the traditional pre-event meet up, and subsequent convoy out to the house. As usual there were some great cars at the London meeting; Lamborghini Diablos, (inlcuding a very noisy yellow Diablo
Roadster), Gallardos, Ferraris (including an F50 and a super cool yellow Testarossa), which were joined by many more Italian and other supercars at the house itself. The “other” supercar section included a Jaguar XJ220, Skelta, supercharged Lotus Exige, TVR Sagaris, and Porsche 911 GT3.

This year I managed not to lose the convoy at the first set of lights, and it must have looked an impressive and noisy site through the peaceful Sunday morning streets of the capital, not to mention on the motorway too… not something you see every day, and some inhabitants of the small villages we passed through near Cliveden house had slightly bewildered expressions on their faces as yet another brightly coloured and noisy car passed them by.

On leaving this event last year my trusty satnav managed to take me down a narrow country lane, en route to the M40, which became more nightmarish still with the presence of a 6′ 6″ (or 78 inches) width restriction at the wheel level, in the form of a really high kerb to ensure destruction of wheels and side panels, and not just scuff your wing mirrors. With the 348 at 75 inches this didn’t leave much room for error (3.5 cm each side). This year I thought I would fox the satnav by driving about 15 mins in completely the opposite direction, towards Slough, then let it recalculate a different route. The satnav duly obliged and a new route popped up which looked totally different, and seemed to be heading in a new direction altogether. Imagine my surprise when after 20 mins of driving I saw the dreaded 6′ 6″ width restriction warning sign whizz past… arrrrggh! I don’t understand why there isn’t a feature on satnavs to find a route avoiding tight width restrictions, how do lorry drivers and Testarossa owners survive?

Every year supercars descend on Ford Dunton in Essex to give charity rides to members of the public round Ford’s figure of eight test track, all in aid of Little Havens Children’s Hospice. There was a great turnout of italian supercars, Ferraris (including an F40), Lamborghinis (Diablo, Gallardo, Murcielago), plus Caterhams, a Noble M400, a Porsche 911 GT3, a Dodge Viper LM, TVRs, an Ariel Atom and KTM X-Bow… basically quite a lot of awesome cars, to see more take a look at my videos from the day below! Well done to all the organisers and thanks to Ford for use of their great test track.

The Scudrunners are private club formed by a bunch of Italian car enthusiasts who regularly meet up to socialise and go for drives, usually through central London. This time was no exception, as despite the main event being held at Cliveden House in Berkshire there was an option to meet up early morning at Hyde Park to have a quick blast through the city, before heading off as a convoy. I was a little apprehensive about taking my Ferrari 348 into central London, with all the speed bumps, speed cameras, traffic light cameras, potholes, congestion, not to mention double decker buses and black cabs cutting up an occasional city driver up at every opportunity. However the trip to Hyde Park was pleasant, with no traffic at all, as you might have expected for early on a Sunday morning, though there is an irritating number of speed humps around Hyde Park!

Once the Scudrunners were located there was time to admire the great turnout of cars for such an early time of day. There was about 30 Ferraris and 10 Lamborghinis, with the different marques parked on opposite sides of the road, all gleaming in the early morning sunshine and set against the green, leafy backdrop of Hyde Park. The highlight for me was the arrival of a red Ferrari F50, and to keep the Lamborghini fans happy there was also a couple of mean looking Muircialagos. Before leaving for the main event at Cliveden House most of the cars opted to go for a leisurely drive as a convoy through the famous streets of London, taking in such delights as Picadilly Circus, the Houses of Parliament, and of course Hyde Park corner.

With the arrival of a final few cars everyone was set to head off to Cliveden House in a mega convoy of gleaming Italian supercars. The only flaw in this cunning plan is the nature of the streets of central London with the presence every 25m of traffic lights, As soon as we turned out of Hyde Park myself and two other cars got held at a red light so became detached from the others. Our efforts to relocate to convoy failed, so on came the sat nav and we headed out to Cliveden House on our own. Given we didn’t see a single other car from Hyde Park on the way I can only assume our sat nav route was different to the main route of the convoy. It’s a shame the organisers of Scudrunners didn’t inform everyone of the route before setting out, or maybe have a regroup point just outside of London to allow the convoy to reform.

Cliveden House was a great venue for the show itself, with a long drive up to the main house perfect for lining with Italian cars. The house also has extensive grounds, picnic areas, water features, and such like to explore. Ferraris outnumbered Lamborghinis and other marques by 2 to 1 or even 3 to 1, and there were some unusual examples on display from each. All in all a good day out, just watch out if leaving Cliveden House and using a sat nav to get back on to the M40, almost immediately on leaving the house mine took me down a country road with an almost impossible 6’6” width restriction, with no turning area to allow cars to turn back, and restricted at the kerb just to make it even harder to navigate and ensure complete destruction of your wheels and bodywork. At the kerb it was definitely narrower than 6’6”, luckily I had a passenger with me to get out and guide, I’m reliably informed I had about 2cm max clearance each side!

The Auto Italia spring show at the historic Brooklands motor racing circuit is always the first major show of the year, held on the early May bank holiday weekend. The weather had been very temperamental so I had been glued to the weather forecast for the preceding week, but my fears were unfounded, the prediction was for a warm sunny day, and I awoke very early that morning to glorious sunshine.

The reason for getting up so early was to meet up with a convoy of approximately 55 Ferraris at the Hilton hotel near Brooklands and then to head into the circuit in a convoy to enter the circuit via Mercedes Benz world, thus beating the rush and jams that can occur at this popular event, especially when the weather is favourable. On arriving at the meeting point we were not disappointed, the entire car park was full of Ferraris, including a brand new Ferrari California in light blue. It’s definitely a departure from the sleek Ferrari designs of the past, with a rather more chunky front and rear end. I’ll pass on giving a my verdict on the design until I’ve seen, and hopefully heard, a Rosso red one in the flesh

Once inside Brooklands there was a great display of a variety of Italian cars, no doubt boosted by the favourable weather forecast. Some highlights included an original Ferrari P3 330 Le Mans racer, the above mentioned Ferrari California, an F50 (rare enough as it is) in an unusual graphite colour, matching Ferrari F430 Scuderia 16M spyder and berlinetta, a Ferrari 365 berlinetta boxer (easily mistaken for the slightly more common but equally beautiful 512BBi), a Ferrari 166 Barchetta (the 44th Ferrari ever made), and a 1930s Alpha Romeo (an original P3?) racer badged with Enzo Ferrari’s prancing horse shield, and a rare Alfa Romeo 8C ompetizione, I have to say it did look good. Whilst eating ice creams in the sunshine and goggling all the great cars on show I looked round to see none other than radio DJ, and avid Ferrari collector, Chris Evans chomping on a cigar as he pulled up with his wife in his £5.4million Ferrari 250 California. If that wasn’t enough he was closely followed by a friend driving a white Ferrari 288 GTO (I presume also owned by Mr Evans!), complete with baby Evans Jr in a baby seat as the passenger.

On top of all the fabulous Italian cars on display the Brooklands museum itself is well worth looking round. Some of the old racing cars they have (from around 1900-1940) are stunning, like the 24 litre Napier racer (yes 24 litre… mpg and CO2 emissions anyone?), and you won’t see cars like these in many other places in the world. There was also a Formula 1 exhibition which had Frentzen’s Jordan car, as well as Senna’s classic Malboro McLaren, this one was a demonstration car that never actually raced, but was used in promotion, so probably had the man himself pose with it for media photos at some point. Also in this exhibition, but sadly temporarily out of order, was a sit in computer simulation of driving the original Brooklands circuit. The driver initially gets a lap in a virtual Formula 1 car, but for the second lap this is replaced by a car with typical handling characteristics of a 1930s racer… we were reliably told that whilst people complete the first lap with ease, most people crash almost immediately on the second lap. Obviously car handling has improved a lot in almost a century

The ticket to the AutoItalia show also lets you leave the Brooklands complex and take the short walk to Mercedes-Benz world. This was the first time I had been and I can say it’s well worth the visit. There are some pristine, classic Mercedes-Benzs on display, including a 300SL Gull wing Coupe, and the 1970s dictators’ (Idi Amin, etc) favourite car, the 600. You can also browse, and even buy, the latest Mercedes-Benz and Smart car range, plus out the back there is a mini race circuit and wet skidpan where you can watch professional and novice drivers putting the cars through their paces. If you are feeling brave you can pay to either be taken round by a pro in an AMG, or actually have a go yourself. Booking in advance may be best if you want to do this as it seemed very popular. For the less adventurous there is plenty of picnic space, and an indoor viewing area in case the weather isn’t so great, to watch the cars from. Mercedes-Benz world is a slightly mad place, it’s a museum, new car show room, and driving experience school all rolled into one!

This very early spring outing had been planned by the top guys at the Wheels in Motion wheel alignment centre and the Ferrari Owners’ Club. Basically turn up in your Ferrari and you got a free wheel alignment and geometry check using the latest state of the art equipment. As luck would have it the weather was very pleasant for the time of year so it was an ideal opportunity to take my newly acquired black Ferrari 348ts out for it’s first public event. With the weather being so unexpectedly good there was a big turnout, I was lucky to be squeezed in for a wheel check. I was a little apprehensive, as with my 348 having had 355 wheels fitted at some point in it’s life there could be potential for them not having been fitted and aligned properly. My worries were unfounded as the Wheels in Motion team found only minor, run of the mill, slight misalignments which would only affect the handling if I were doing any serious track days, so I’ll put it on my list of things to do. A big thanks to everyone at Wheels in Motion for all their help, free tests and hosting such a good outing.

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!

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I found a cool video of Andrew Holman’s Ferrari 348tb fitted with an X-ost exhaust on YouTube, it sounds pretty awesome, crank up your sound and click on the video control to take a look! You can order one of these beasties from www.scuderiasalesandspares.co.uk for about £1300-1400 including VAT and fitting. Quite expensive I know, but what do you expect given that each exhaust is hand made! Anyway it sounds awesome, so it’s clearly worth it… especially if you do a lot of driving in tunnels… or underground car parks…