A swim in the sea Ewen? You really are a hard lot up there. Probaly still got
What Ferrari model was it? I should know but somehow the body styles post 488 have become so generic or maybe because its out of my financial comfort zone that I dont take much interest. Incidentally a pal with a new 812 spider had a similar experience to you as indeed I had when being given a demo drive on an early California. I have every confidence in the Ferrari mechanicals which is why I went backwards model wise to a 360. I have little confidence in their electrics / electronics which is why I never bought a 458..
As for taking the car out and just going for a drive - the last time I did that was in my old Lotus and that was before the proliferation of scameras. Have never done it in any of the Ferraris perhaps because you need empty roads to allow for the speed you need to enjoy them. Bikes are different. Even filtering through a jam down the M4 gives the level of concentration / involvement that you get with a fast car on a circuit or nice clear moorland road. And I do occasionally just take the bike for a ride into the Black Mountains with a sandwich in the top box.
I dont see how auto boxes and flappy paddles can go with driver involvement and fun. The family Merc has an auto box and some idiot in the design department saw fit to add flappy paddles to a 300 diesel. Never once used in 30k miles to date. Its family transport for heavens sake. No one is ever going to press on in a diesel. Thats not why you buy one.
The 360 Spider on the other hand was chosen because its a manual and with an NA engine. To rev match the box changing down at 7k rpm is sheer joy. In fact it is a lovely car to drive on an empty open road and remarkably comfortable to boot. Having only 400bhp, its isnt really a supercar by todays standards, just a nice open sports car.
I am an old man so I am probably repeating myself with this tale but it does illustrate the change in my lifetime. My home was in Bradford. University was Oxford. I was lucky enough to have a Triumph Spitfire as my car and in that car, without motorways or even dual carriageways I could once manage to average just on 60 mph for the home to college journey when the cars max flat out was 90mph and a 0 to 60 was maybe 15 secs. . That was 1964 when roads were empty and plod was in Morris Minor panda cars. And I suppose you could say that I was a daft young idiot though I never crashed my car or got a ticket.
