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?

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!