Page 126 - Bespoke Issue

used to and the info on the digital dash ahead of me. I switch on the ignition and thumb the starter button, the V8 twin turbo’d prancing horse bursts into life behind me. The turbos dampen some of the sound, but you can still hear the familiar sound of Modena. The throttle is light and responsive as I give it a blip. Gino warns me that the tyres are cold and we have 700bhp to play with, he also tells me the turbos can deliver all the power very quickly so be careful when getting back on the throttle. The marshal waves me out, I ick the right paddle for rst and ease my steed onto the pit lane. I’m about to double tick the bucket list...
I run out of the pit lane accelerating down the hill toward the Raidillon passing the D2P Ferrari 458 Challenge that had left ahead of me as I climb to the apex and on to the Kemmmel Straight, the familiar feel of the Ferrari gives me so much more con dence and therefore ability to explore the circuit, the immense brakes peel off the speed as I turn in to Les Cambes, this is awesome. Gino is giving me his thumbs up signal that I can carry
more speed as we exit Rivage into the fast downhill left hander of Pouhan. There’s a yellow ag as I approach the next bend, so I bring down our speed and settle in behind the other cars on track, as I get to the Chicane the green ags are waving so I pile on the power up toward La Source stepping out to overtake a Green Mercedes AMG GT, I’m about execute my manoeuvre and claim my line through the hairpin as we get full course yellows, which means the entire track is under a yellow ag. There is a recovery vehicle on the circuit as someone has put a car in the gravel trap. I then get two long slow laps under the yellow ags, but this gives Gino plenty of time to explain certain things inside the car and show me the exact line through Eau Rouge. This legendary curve can be taken at if you know what you’re doing, but there is only one line that will allow you to do this without coming to grief. Just after the pit exit white line you need to be hugging the wall on the right hand side before sweeping across the left curb of the “S”, almost on the grass, then to the right curb and aiming at the left curb on the blind brow of the hill... this will
run you out to the right of the circuit as you hit the Kemmel Straight...
The lights go green again; I accelerate mindful of the temperature drop on my tyres as I head down the hill from Poubon, all I am thinking about is getting back around to try my newly learned line on one of the most famous bends in motor sport. The 488 is a delight to drive, I am not even close to its potential and even on cool tyres the grip is immense as I brake into the Chicane, Gino says one more lap, so I push up the start/ nish straight and brake hard for La Source hairpin, remembering Gino’s instruction I’m on the wall, then the curb, to the other curb, he’s giving it thumbs up to stay on the power as we hit the brow of the hill, the adrenaline is pumping as I ick up another gear waiting for Gino’s closed st for my braking point; hard on the ceramic brakes and down two gears I turn in tight and let her run to the opposite side, before icking back for a late apex and powering through the last section onto the short straight, now I’m on the downhill section, the tyres are back on, so I
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