Page 73 - Decadence

As 2017 saw the 70th anniversary of Ferrari we couldn’t let it pass without a dedicated section. We decided to look at a what we thought were a few interesting stories from the brands long and well documented history. John has delved deep into the Phil Hill story, to this day still the only American Formula One world champion. Phil Hill was inaugurated into the FIA Hall of Fame as we went to press. It is also a perfect excuse to ll a few pages with marvellous pictures of beautiful Ferraris and indeed re ect on our personal experiences with the brand.
Ferrari has played a key role in Formula One from the series’ inception and has a true racing pedigree, probably more than any other car manufacturer, right from the very beginning Enzo Ferrari developed every component for the track. Even a company such as McLaren whose road cars division came many years after their race cars, they still don’t make their own power trains like Ferrari.
For me Ferrari has always been that aspirational brand, the heart and soul of what a true sports car should be. My love affair with Ferrari started as a young boy, I would watch the Formula One races on our black and white TV with my dad, but we all knew the Ferrari was red, so it centred the imaginary colour pallet as we watched. By the time we had a colour TV in the early 1970s my Sunday morning viewing was developing from the black and white produced show Cassy Jones and his steam train the Cannonball Express, to the colour and glamour of The Persuaders, where American Danny Wilde (Tony Curtis) and the very British, Lord Bret Sinclair (Roger Moore) righted wrongs from London to the Cöte d’Azur whilst driving a red Ferrari Dino and Gold Aston Martin DBS. I was captivated by the Red Dino, my love affair with Ferrari started.
I continued to watch Formula One, the epic Hunt - Lauda battles, always cheering for Ferrari. TV was now giving us our Ferrari x by way of Thomas Magnum and his (or rather Robin Masters’) red Ferrari 308 GTS, the car starred alongside Tom Selleck and even had its own opening sequence shot peeling away from the curb. Then came Miami Vice, Michael Mann’s crime drama series that changed the way TV was produced. Again, the star of the show was a Ferrari, vice cop Sonny Crockett
would drive a ‘con scated’ black Ferrari Daytona Spyder, seen through ‘never been used before‘ camera angles thanks to genius director Mann. In the later series’s Ferrari realised the potential of the association and provided the show with a white Testarossa - of course we now know that the Daytona was a Corvette based replica, and not a great one at that, but it did the job and my love for Ferrari grew deeper. My bedroom wall poster was the Athena print of the pro le red over black Ferrari Berlinetta Boxer, which followed a similar line to the Dino.
I had set myself a goal to own a Ferrari, it started at 18, and moved through 21, 30, etc until I was lucky enoughtoownmy rstFerraribytheageof39,so I beat my reset 40 goal. It was 360 Modena F1 in red, a left hand drive car originally from Monaco. I had ordered a new just released Mercedes AMG SL55 and somehow Mercedes managed to cock up my order which took me from the front of the delivery list, meaning my car wouldn’t be delivered for nearly a year. Opposite my Mercedes dealer was a Ferrari dealer, so on one visit whilst waiting for them to do something to my Mercedes ML I walked across the road and browsed the red Ferraris. A young salesman started a conversation and I told him my SL55 plight, he said why not have a Ferrari? The price of a used 360 was less than my SL55 AMG, to which I was surprised. The salesman produced a set of keys and said let’s go for a drive, right there and then, as I pulled away in the 360 demonstrator I knew I would own my rst Ferrari.
Now my mind was spinning. I needed an everyday car, the SL could do that, but could the Ferrari? I knew a friend of mine who owned night clubs had got a 360, so I called him to ask about its practicality and drivability. We met up and he took me for a spin, widows down, we entered the Queensway Tunnel though the centre of Birmingham and he dropped into second gear and oored his right foot, in and out of the traf c as we screamed through, this was a very different demonstration to my friendly Ferrari dealer. I was hooked, the noise, the feel the way it moved was unbelievable. He used it every day, but he offered to sell it to me. He changed car quite frequently but it was also dif cult to park all night outside his night clubs, mainly because he had to mount a very high curb to park.
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