As a christmas present from POKE this year, Simon Ridgwell and I received a Ferrari Experience from Red Letter Days. People who know me know that I’m not only a huge fan of the Scuderia Ferrari (Formula 1 Team), I’m also a huge fan of the the main sponsor of the team: their amazing road cars, and that this present is realistically the closest anyone could get to giving me the perfect present without spending about £100000 (which would be overwhelming, but I wouldn’t turn it down).
It was something special.
As the title implies, I lost my license two days before I was scheduled for my mighty experience. I didn’t lose it on a traffic related incident, rather in a weird “Disappeared Along With My Wallet and Mobile Phone From My Fat While I Was At Home” incident… it is still not resolved (and probably never will). It looks like someone just walked in through the front door and picked them up from the table and left.
When I realised that the wallet was nowhere to be found, I got a cold-sweat whether or not I would be allowed to drive with no physical driving license, just a photocopy of the passport and driving license I sent to the Smile bank when I applied for an account.
It turned out that the people at Donington Park were very relaxed (and understanding) over the fact that I just had a black-and-white copy of my driving license.
Getting there
Since it was a bit of a special day, and since Simon Ridgwell is a proud member of Classic Car Club, he decided to go there in style. We left from Hammersmith at 6.30 and arrived to Donington Park Grand Prix Circuit at 9:14, which gave us about 60 second to sign in — which was plenty, in a Rolls Royce Silver Spirit. To be honest, the gasoholic Rolls Royce probably shares more genes with his cousins at sea (boats) than it’s fellow friends on the road (cars). Smooth ride though.
Introduction
Before we got guided to the track we had a short introduction. It was a brief outline of the day, some rules and some history about the track. Very brief but very helpful. What I didn’t know (and that was a pleasant surprise) was that they actually had a Formula 1 race at Donington Park, the 1993 European Grand Prix, which is mainly remembered for Ayrton Senna’s opening lap.
MINI Copper S
The first step was to learn the track, so we got behind the wheel of a MINI Cooper S for 15 minutes with an instructor. The MINI Copper S was a very pleasant surprise and a very very funny ride.
For me the first step was split into two parts.
- Learn to change gear with the right hand.
- Learn the track and drive it race-driver style and not road-driver style.
After the first corners, Redgate, going into Craner Curves, my instructor asked me, very politely, “Nico, have you ever driven a manual?” Obviously I wasn’t doing that great on point A. I told him, “Yeah, just need to get used to the gears”. Around corner 7, McLean’s, still on the first lap, he asked me again, this time with a bit more seriousness in his voice. “Nico”, he said, “are you sure you have driven a manual before?”. Then I just had to give the long explanation that I’m not use to having the gear stick on the left side.
On the third lap going into corner 4, Old Hairpin, I was already making huge progress, and about 3 laps later I was throwing the gears into place (mostly just between 3rd and 4th) and could finally focus on part B — drive the track like a race-driver and not a road-driver.
Towards the end of the session I was doing OK. But I wasn’t like, “get on with it, I know this!”, rather, “can’t I stay in the Mini for another 15 minutes?”
Single-seater
So, going into the single-seater I wasn’t that confident. I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t be able to get the most out of it.
The single-seater had the gear-stick on the right side, which was nice, but what a gear-stick…
The cockpit was tight. And everything was in “race mode”, with that I mean the clutch, the break, the throttle and the gear box were not very polite; they were very stiff and — you know — not very “comfortable” or “forgivable”. It took me four attempts to get the car going. It stalled 4 times. It wasn’t that embarrassing, it was more worrying to what would happen on the actual track…
But once I got going it was just fine. It wasn’t a comfortable ride as in leather seats and classical music (or lovely engine sound), but it was comfortable as in: this thing is stuck to the road. The max speed was (supposed to be) 145mph (234km/h). I don’t know if that was true or not. All the indicators in the car were switched off. On the Strakey’s and Weatcrof Straight it felt like the car had reached it’s full potential, and it didn’t give the sensation of 234km/h… maybe I’m just greedy ;)
Ferrari 360 Moderna
And then it was time for the finale — the Ferrari 360 Moderna. During the day the Ferrari’s had been on the track creating lovely acoustic, and every time they got on the straight you just had to look down towards the end of Weatcrof Straight. I’m sure it’s just a novelty, but the sound of the engine is hypnotising.
Im not unique being a great fan of the Ferrari road cars or the Scuderia — they are very easy to like — but Ferrari, to me, is something unique, and the more this world “evolves” the uniqueness of Ferrari as a brand and idea just grows. It might seem as an easy formula, but they do what they do with great passion, the heart in the right place and for the right reason.
The 360 Moderna had no clutch or gear stick, instead you, in true Formula 1 style, use paddles situated behind the steering wheel to change gear. This was soooo nice. I don’t know whether I would prefer it over a normal gear-stick on the right side (probably not on a race track), but now, sitting on the left — this was just perfect. Now I could focus on listening to my instructor, focusing on the apex and improving my driving.
It was magical.
I have no idea, and to be honest — I don’t care, what top speed I got up too. It didn’t really matter once you were out there. A) Because it did go extremely fast and the car just kept begging for more. B) It was more about getting the whole thing to flow smoothly and letting the engine sing. I actually didn’t look at the dashboard once during my drive.
To me, if somethings gonna be magical, special, unique; it has to have at least two reference points or units. Having a high top speed, being rich, being happy etc and so on, it’s not special or even a hard achievement; it’s when you add a second or third unit to the equation it’s get interesting, special, hard or admirable.
Having just a high top speed is a bit like buying a pair of “nice” and expensive sunglasses and not understanding that it is totally irrelevant how the sunglasses look on the shelf, it’s when they are resting on you nose in-front of you eyes that they should fit. Ironically, the sunglasses mistake is something Italians do all the time.
The biggest disappointment with the Ferrari was the amount of time I got to spend with it. Think we only did four laps.
Lotus Elise
As a bonus, we got 2 laps in a Lotus Elise with a professional race driver. He was good. Very good. Professional.
I wished I got this ride before going into the Ferrari… but I do understand why they give you this treat after. Quite sure that if I drove the same line as he did, today Donington Park would have one less Ferrari.
Finally
Before I post the last photo of me getting out of the Ferrari, I’d like to raise my hat to everyone who works at Donington Park — especially the instructors. Everyone was extremely friendly and helpful. A huge plus and many thumbs up.
And, to be honest, if I was the instructor in the Ferrari sitting next to myself, I wouldn’t have pushed or let me drive as hard, and fast as he did.
Yesterday we at
This past weekend, the entire company of POKE went on a city break together. Third year running, this little “company get away” has become a nice little tradition. First year we (then 12) went to Tuscany in Italy, last year we (then 28) went to Sussex in England and this year we (40) went to Llangadog in Wales (just west of Brecon Beacons National Park). I don’t want to compare them to each other, since they have less incommon than common. What they do have in common, though, is that they are a bucket full of fun.
