Personally I'm not a fan of the Testerossa. I drove one once, it was too wide. Especially with those wing mirrors about half a meter out from the bodywork each.
I couldn't get on with it. Oddly thought I loved the 328 from the off the moment I got behind the wheel of it.
The only proper supercar I ever drove was a Diablo. It was black, sleek and COOOOOOOOL in my twenty-four's mind... eighteen years ago... and it was lent to me for a day by a loaded friend when my BMW had to have the water pump replaced, back in those days, and it was in THAT car that I understood PERFECTLY and with years of advance what the three for Top Gear mean when they talk about a car that plots new and ever more exciting ways to kill you.
It wasn't a bad ride by any stretch, mind you, but on the Modena bypass (
the old one, before today's overpasses were made and there were still traffic lights every now and then to allow from traffic from inside the city to get out or from outside to get in) in a moment of very light traffic all around and with a good stretch of free road in front of me, in the good old days when the words "
speed" and "
cameras" were never put together, the only time i DARED floor the throttle, in third gear... in my terrified mind I could see a slitted pupil inhuman EYE opening itself in the center of the wheel, glaring death at me in a way that would have made Sauron in Mordor give himself of the amateur and begin taking notes.
And I was sober. I swear.
On the dry, good tarmac (
notice, it was dry and in good conditions, or I wouldn't have attempted to give full throttle at all), the back end came alive and began trying every dirty trick in the book, and some still unknown to mankind, to overtake the front wheels in spite of the chassis in the way, spinning in a cloud of burned rubber and making the car weave in an forward accelerating way, like a rocket going out of control... until I raised my right foot and cut power to the back wheels with the clutch, allowing them to recover grip... all of this in a cloud of blue-white smoke that attracted more than a single stare from all around... and I was screaming all the way in the same way Clarkson did in a crosswind or when a lorry overtook him when he had the brilliant idea to put a building block on that Citroen, in that self-built campers episode some years back. How I did not die that day is still a mystery to me.
Never dared put pedal to the metal again in that black clad ninja assassin on four wheel for all the time (
a day or so) I kept it.
About the Testarossa, I was talking about appearances. To say it's VULGAR... well... you must be British.
Cars are like music, deeply personal in what appeals and what doesn't.
Exactly what I meant when talking about tastes.
Ferraris for me come in two flavours, gorgeous and hideous with no middle ground. One thing I have noticed over the years however is when Ferrari are doing badly in F1 their road cars are just better than anyone elses. However when they're doing well in F1 their road cars seem to lose some of their magic... strange!
Oddly enough, you are in sync with the three from Top Gear, here. Having never had, nor I fear ever will, money to afford to drive Ferraris at the drop of a hat, I fear I will never be able to tell from personal experience. Pity.
There is no such a thing as overkill. Only unworthy targets.
by ozzy72 » Tue Jul 24, 2012 2:47 pm 
