First Ferrari: Jeremy Clarkson
Posted by Jeremy Clarkson at 1:00PM on Thursday 14 June, 2007 6 Comments
It really was the most beautiful evening. The sun was a huge orange orb sinking slowly toward the curiously messy Tuscan foreground. The olive trees were haphazard. The vineyards looked like they may have arrived on parachutes. The houses were random.
But there was nothing out of focus about the car I was driving - a Ferrari 348 GTB.
Ooh, it was good. There was a pop and a bang on the overrun. There was a snarl on full throttle. And there was the way it hugged the road as we surged through that evocative, orange landscape. This was my first ever drive in a Ferrari and I was loving it.
Except for one or two tiny details. Actually, there wasn't really a pop and a bang on the overrun. There was no snarl on full throttle. And it didn't really hug the road because, truth be told, it felt like the tyres, and everything that connected them to the seat of my pants were made of wood.
I wanted to say all that to the camera that was bolted to the dash at the time. I wanted to say it was a bit of a disappointment. But that would have been like a young priest, on his first trip to church, saying "He walked on what!? Water? You've got to be joking".
I had been brought up on Jody Scheckter and Gilles Villeneuve. I had sat in a Daytona as a small boy. Ferrari was the holy grail. The ultimate. The automotive God. And if I didn't like the experience in the 348, then plainly, there was something wrong with me.
So I talked about the popping, and the snarl and the way it hugged the road. And I came home, and talked a breathless talk about what it had been like to drive a Ferrari. In the same way that someone might talk if they'd scored with Uma Thurman.
I was lying though. And I kept on lying until, a few year later, I drove a 355. I loved that so much, I came home and bought one.
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6 Comments for "First Ferrari: Jeremy Clarkson"
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I suppose its a little like me liking my Fabia VRs and saying i hated it...
i understand why you lied. Even just looking at a ferrari is a monumentous occasion, i remember the first time i saw a prancing horse; i came away wishing i had put a bucket on my lap for the drool.
Mr. Clarkson, your metaphors are what I'd like to have for breakfast everyday.
You mentioned the 355, I remember watching you test drive the 355 and how much you loved it. You even said it was the best Ferrari ever.
I don't know whether its appropriate to mention another sports-car you tested, a German sports-car, which you went home and bought! Let me not name that one on a Ferrari blog! I love that car, too.
I can relate to that. I had a similar experience with Uma Thurman. Dead disappointing.
If I ever get to drive a Ferrari, I have made a vow that I will NEVER downplay it, no matter how much it irritates the people who I tell, at least 1000 times over, to each person.
No one ever forgets their 'first', especially when it's a Ferrari. Mine was a 360 and I remember it every day.
Those who think it's just an expensive car are merely displaying their lack of understanding for the passion...