First Ferrari: Pat Devereux
Posted by Pat Devereux at 3:30PM on Monday 11 June, 2007 4 Comments
First we heard a noise unlike anything we'd heard before. Then we saw the low, black car powering up the hill, ricocheting through corners in a blaze of up and downshifts.
It was the summer of '77. We were cycling across the North Yorks moors.
Me and my mate Robert were 14. Neither of us had seen a Ferrari in the flesh before.
"Fookin' ell!" said Robert.
"Fook!" I agreed.
"What d'ya think that is then?" he asked.
"Dunno! Is it a Ferrari?" I offered.
"Noh. Is it fookaslike a Ferrari. Ferraris are red! That 'un's black," he said. Before I could say anything else, the mystery car was upon us.
As it hammered past, we just stood there speechless, watching it fly off into the distance.
"Bah-luddy 'ell," we eventually said looking at each other. "It WAS a Ferrari!"
"Thought it might be," I said, trying to act cool.
"Clever bastard," said Robert.
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I had an experience a bit like that once.
It was in a cinema car park in Bracknell, and I still don't know exactly what it was, but it was definitely a Ferrari, a dark blue convertible with tan leather and roof.
I looked at it hard after such questions as "What is it?" and "How come it's not red?", the first thing that came to mind was a 288 GTO, but I could only see it from the rear and didn't really know my pre-F50 Ferraris that well, as I was only 9 or 10 (the F50 was the first Ferrari I fell in love with). But I did know that 288 GTO Spiders don't exist.
Eventually, the owner of the mystery Ferrari turned up, put the roof down and noticed a crowd of little boys behind it, so he revved it up for us.
WHAT A SOUND!! I'm pretty sure it was a V8, because Italian V8s make a sort of 'screaming orgasm' sound compared with the low growl of US V8s. But either way, wow! We were deafened temporarily, but that didn't drown out the bombardment of inevitable woahs.
First time for me was in Italy with a friend from high school at 15 in the 'Piazza Espagna'.
My friend had an old instamatic camera so we have the moment in picture.
One of the happiest moments of my life
My 'first Ferrari' was in Sydney in 1987... parked outside an upmarket nightclub and blocking the entrance to my driveway. Don't know what it was, but it was red and low and had a private number plate on it, 'No 1', which I removed and now have hanging on a wall in my garage in Sweden. Thanks, mate!
I still remember the hot smell of that Ferrari 308 parked at a 'SchnellImBiss' at the autobahn in Germany, back in 1978.
And I remember thinking that "yes, they really do exist they're not just something made up by my imagination"...