Yes I did! And what a surprise!!!!!!!
Here is what happened: a friend of mine wanted to take some pics of his "stable", he owns the black Modena you saw at the aspahlte.ch meeting, an E39 M5 and a Clio Sport 182. Beeing alone, he needed somebody to help moving the cars. Having nothing else to do, I said ok, so did our Shin! So we met up, parked Shini's SLK55 and TT's E36 to pick up the stars of the day.
And well, I was expecting to be handed the keys of the Clio honestly, but he said "Matteo, you take the 360".. I laughed, dumb smile on my face and kept chatting. The the time came to take the cars on the first pictures location and well, I was given indeed the Ferrari's key!!!! Well, no time to be shy, jumped in and after some difficulties I managed to turn it on.. BOYS, how cool it is to fire up a Ferrrai when you are behind the wheel!! And alone in the car! It's soemway scary too! Pedals are offset to the right, wasn't expecting it to be that much, but still acceptable. Thy are very firm, both the clutch and brake pedals need some positive effort to be depressed, but finding the clutch's balance point is pretty easy. Yes it's a manual by the way! So, first gear engaged, and off we were. The Clio with its owner leading, Shin's following him in the M5 and TT's in a Modena closing the little convoy, savouring every second. It wasn't a long drive, maybe 3 or 4 km to the first shooting location, but it lasted like 5 hours! Changing gear in a the beatiful H gate is orgasmic, with that clinching sound
While downshifting at low speed I had some difficulties in slotting in the lower gear, but it works better at speed. Of course I even tried some heel-and-toe and it's easily doable. Only thing is that the gas pedal is way more "delicate" than in my BM, so I gave it way too many revs LOL. But it made such a good sound that well, it was a welcome mistake
You sit low, the car is wide and we were on small country roads, through small villages and all, but ARGH, I still have shivers going down my spine! Cruising in a black Modena is something soo damn weird, and beeing alone in it, with no owner or overstressed dealer with you, really let you relax and enjoy it! I was just feeling bad when ppl started to wave at me, do the "thumbs up" and so on since the car wasn't mine LOL, but well
I didn't really push it, I was actually always shortshifting, just pushed it a couple of times up to 4000 or 5000 rpm which is actually were the V8 starts to show its muscles, but well, I had to cope with a Renault's pace
no seriously, on such roads you really don't dare. Just once the car had to use it's magic to control some wheelspin in a tight corner, it came much sooner than I expected actually
Still, when you take a corner, you really feel this is business and no pussy! Brakes are very well too, the steering directly and plenty of feel comes to you through it! It has a stock exhaust, and while from outside it isn't THAT special, inside you get the full V8 singing behind you and it's pure pleasure!
So, today I drove my first Ferrari!
I thought this day would never come, and then, BUM, with a 60 minutes advance I was asked to give an helping hand I ended up driving a Ferrari! Respect to the owner, a true carnut wanting to share his passion!
BTW, at the second location we met a Lambo LM002 owner (white). He wasn't there with it, but he got my card in case he wants to do an indepth
Only proof I have about the F ride:
I didn't want to risk my life and the car's while taking 100 pics of myself in it
More pics to come obviously