Following on from this post I was amazed to find myself on the end of some more Ferrari Mondial related fame, no less than two people emailed me having spotted the following article on the Top 50: great ’80s cars published on MSN UK.
Yes it’s me again, I seem to be popping up everywhere… surely I must be entitled to royalties?! 
Imagine walking into your local bookstore, you see a compiliation magazine of the best Ferrari articles from Evo and Octane magazine to celebrate 60 years of Ferrari. “Great!” you think, and as you have a few minutes to spare you have a quick flick through. Loads of cool stuff in there, comparisons of an F40 to an Enzo, reviews of 275 GTBs, Testarossas, etc, then you notice at the back there is an index of every Ferrari road car ever made. Naturally you would probably look up your own Ferrari in the index to see what they say about it. Then imagine that as you are reading the brief summary for your Ferrari you notice something quite familiar about the photograph, you can’t quite place it, as you look closer you recognise the driver… it’s YOU! And it’s your car!
That’s the strangely surreal situation I found myself in after spotting the above publication at the shops. There I am on page 255 proudly representing Ferrari Mondial QV / Cabriolet QVs from 1984 – 1986 (oh and earlier Mondial 8s too). I can see myself driving in the original picture, and also clearly recognise my passenger. It took me a while, but I worked out the photo must have been taken as I was leaving the Silverstone Classic 2007.
So fame at last! More importantly, does anyone know if I’m entitled to royalties? I’m guessing the Silverstone Classic ticket probably has terms and conditions that you may be filmed or photographed on their land and the copyright remains with them, or some legal get out clause along those lines…
ps It’s not the most factually accurate index of Ferraris, check out the top speed of the Mondial 3.2 / Cabriolet, 188mph?! Faster than the Testarossa, umm I don’t think so (it’s more like 155mph)! Plus the top left photo of a “308″ is surely a 288 GTO? Hmm good to see they proof read these mags before going to print!
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We went to the Silverstone Classic on Saturday 28th July 2007, making good use of the two for one ticket offer from the Ferrari Owners’ Club. Thankfully the weather was warm and sunny, I even managed to top up my tan a little bit! The quantity and quality of vintage, classic and modern classic cars in attendance was amazing: pre World War 1 motorbikes, Bentleys, Austin-Healeys, Jaguars, Corvettes, Porsches and of course Ferraris! Not to mention all the racing cars that were not only on display, but also being driven hell for leather round the legendary Silverstone track itself.
Luckily we had applied for, and received, a centre parking pass in the FOC display area. It was great to be waved in straight through to the centre of the circuit by the stewards, and then guided into a parking space between two 355s by a man in a Ferrari uniform 
I have to say the Ferrari display was stunning, and all the cars immaculate, so in the end I was glad we had been out in the dark the night before polishing up the Mondial! The area was pretty much full, so I think this must have been around 80 Ferraris. The ones that stood out for me were: an original Testarossa, a great 512BB, the row of Dino 246s and an F40 parked side by side with an Enzo.
As mentioned above there were some fabulous cars brought by enthusiasts on display, there were so many it was hard to recall them all. I can’t even begin to name the really old (pre WW2) and classic vintage ones (how do they keep them in such good condition!). For me some of the more contemporary classics that stood out were: a white James Bond style Lotus Esprit, the legendary Jaguar XJ220, Lancia Stratos 80s rally cars looking resplendent in their Alitalia livery (I had the scale models as a kid!), a mean looking white Ford GT40, and many more.
Overall a great day, in fact there was too much to see in a single day, I think I’ll go for the weekend next year!
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