Joined
·
15,147 Posts
Agp22 and I went for a spirited drive along the Iberian coast this morning. As I normally drive solo on my morning jaunts, it was fun to have another Ferrari in formation. The pair on this excursion were my F40 and Agp22's beautiful silver 98 550 Maranello. We ran first along the coast with my F40 in front, then through a short valley before climbing into the mountains. Good driving roads but quite challenging to drive well. In the F40, this is all 2nd and 3rd gear territory of short bursts of speed in the straights, before braking going into the next hairpin. Other than two longer straights towards the end when you can spool the turbos up, throttle management is critical as you need to constantly add and substract speed without launching yourself into orbit.
Once out on the edge of the cliffs, we took a short stop for a very civilized coffee before heading back down. Coming out of the coffee shop we ran into a bus of Chinese tourists. They quite excitingly ran over and starting examining the cars. Not sure what they were talking about but I believe it had something to do with taking pictures of everything so they could make a knock off just as soon as they get back to the People's Republic.
Going back down the mountain, it was Agp22's turn to plow our path. Other than a short stop for pictures, we headed straight back down and then out toward the highway. Following the the big V12 requires careful alert driving. The 550 has excellent brakes and the F40 has twin turbos. Going into a corner, the 550 is able to brake later and get on the power earlier in the exit. The F40 can close the gap quickly as soon as the road opens up but you need to be scrubing off speed well before the 550. As usual, piloting an F40 is an exercise in driving.
Once out of the mountains on on the motorway, it was time to exercise the pistons. It has been over a year since I last drove a 550 and watching AGP accelerate in front of me was impressive. The 550 stayed absolutely flat through the curves and seem to always have plenty of power in reserve. A turnly impressive GT. After about 10 miles, we got off, lopped around and headed back. All in all we covered around 60 km and I at least, had a great time.
Once out on the edge of the cliffs, we took a short stop for a very civilized coffee before heading back down. Coming out of the coffee shop we ran into a bus of Chinese tourists. They quite excitingly ran over and starting examining the cars. Not sure what they were talking about but I believe it had something to do with taking pictures of everything so they could make a knock off just as soon as they get back to the People's Republic.
Going back down the mountain, it was Agp22's turn to plow our path. Other than a short stop for pictures, we headed straight back down and then out toward the highway. Following the the big V12 requires careful alert driving. The 550 has excellent brakes and the F40 has twin turbos. Going into a corner, the 550 is able to brake later and get on the power earlier in the exit. The F40 can close the gap quickly as soon as the road opens up but you need to be scrubing off speed well before the 550. As usual, piloting an F40 is an exercise in driving.
Once out of the mountains on on the motorway, it was time to exercise the pistons. It has been over a year since I last drove a 550 and watching AGP accelerate in front of me was impressive. The 550 stayed absolutely flat through the curves and seem to always have plenty of power in reserve. A turnly impressive GT. After about 10 miles, we got off, lopped around and headed back. All in all we covered around 60 km and I at least, had a great time.
