Ferrari is special.
Could there be a word to describe the overwhelming visual impact of seeing 55 staggeringly beautiful and strikingly individualized Ferraris parked in one place? (One of them was even bright metallic pink.)
It would seem not, because most people whom I watched being confronted with this sight – even the Ferrari owners who’d paid to be part of this incredible gathering for the Ferrari 75th Anniversary Tour – were lost for any words at first, their jaws hanging open and flapping in the breeze. (OK, so there were quite a few “oooohs”, but is that a word?)
There are many words, however, for the noise that such a cacophonous collection of exotic and borderline erotic machines makes when all of the assembled V12, V8 (and just a couple of very loud V6s) roar, grumble and howl into life at once.
Magnificent, deafening, overwhelming and operatic are just a few, but it’s a noise best summed up by the sight of a young child covering their ears, their eyes popping and mouth smiling fit to burst.
An exclusive event
Gatherings like this do not occur very often in Australia. Indeed, this was the first time for an event of such magnitude, involving 170 people in total driving from the Gold Coast to Sydney with several sumptuous stops for celebration along the way.
But this special occasion – to celebrate the 75th anniversary of one of the world’s most iconic brands – was such a success that there’s a good chance it could become an annual event.
Various tours like it are held for owners around the world, but the most famous, and fabulous, is the Ferrari Cavalcade, held in Europe each year. Involving dozens of Ferraris, the tour includes visits to iconic locations like the Fiorano test circuit inside the Ferrari factory in Maranello, or parts of the famous Mille Miglia road-rally course.
This was the first time for an event of such magnitude, involving 170 people in total driving from the Gold Coast to Sydney with several sumptuous stops for celebration along the way.
But what does it feel like to be part of such an event – to stroll through a car park with a notional value well north of US$40 million, surrounded by people who look very satisfied with their lots in life?
Well, it’s a bit like being a hugely wealthy celebrity for a few days, not only because people stare at you with the kind of wide-eyed shock that suggests you may have forgotten to put pants on before you left the house, but also because you are feted at every turn with the very finest food, wine and hotels.
The idea of the Anniversary Tour was to encapsulate the joy of driving a Ferrari along with the kind of lifestyle that its owners enjoy, and allow more than 50 of them to do so together. Taking part was not cheap, of course, at a cost of US$30,000 per vehicle – plus the expense of shipping your car to the start line for most participants, including a few who had their Ferraris airfreighted in from New Zealand.
Culinary delights
From the very first night, at The Darling on the Gold Coast, it was clear that the bar was going to be set stratospherically high as the gathered glitterati, only some of whom chose to wear Ferrari-branded clothing, enjoyed Charles Heidsieck Champagne and finger food by the rooftop pool, before strolling inside for sashimi, oysters and lamb.
Then small groups were whisked upstairs for a further special tasting experience of the entire range of Charles Heidsieck’s work, including some vintage offerings worth US$400 a bottle, and all paired with yet more food.
Already full to the eyeballs, and possibly weeping excess caviar by this point, another door then opened to reveal a dance floor surrounded by what felt like hundreds of dessert options. This included Ferraris molded out of chocolate and special cocktails, like a Lemon Meringue Pie you could drink (which was possibly the greatest glass of excess ever).
At the end of the trip, I could at least imagine what it feels like to be part of the Ferrari-owning family. It’s beyond special, beyond money and even beyond words.
Remarkably, no one’s hangover was rough enough the next day to stop them revving their giant engines enthusiastically as the hugely beautiful group of cars rolled out onto the highway for the first day’s blast, with stops in Byron Bay (which seems like the kind of place people have traded their Kombis for Ferraris these days), Coffs Harbour (for lunch in a giant beach canopy, next to a full-sized Ferrari sculpted from sand) and Port Macquarie, for yet more fine dining.
While there were a lot of freeway kilometers to cover (the next day’s run ended at Bannisters at Port Stephens, for some Rick Stein magic), some of us did take the odd detour to properly enjoy some bends in our cars.
Superb super hybrid
Fortunately, Ferrari had lent me the greatest car it’s ever built – at least in my opinion – the 296 GTB. This incredible new super hybrid (there are only three in the country, and all of them were on display as part of the Tour) combines an implausibly loud and powerful 3.0-liter V6 with an electric motor, so it’s like merging a Tesla with a normal Ferrari.
The result is 610 kilowatts and 740 newton-meters (plus 315 newton-meters from the electric motor) of phenomenal spine punch. That’s a whopping 80 kilowatts more than the V8-powered Ferrari F8 Tributos a lot of Tour entrants were driving, and even more than the V12-powered 812 Superfasts (588 kilowatts and 718 newton-meters) that were also left in our wake.
Unlike them, of course, our Ferrari’s hybrid system meant we could switch into eMode and drive completely silently, which, in a supercar, seems very strange indeed. However, it does mean that you could own a 296 GTB and not have your neighbors hate you every time you started it up.
This incredible new super hybrid (there are only three in the country, and all of them were on display as pat of the Tour) combines an implausibly loud and powerful 3.0-liter V6 with an electric motor, so it’s like merging a Tesla with a normal Ferrari.
While the 296 is stupendous in a straight line – hitting 100 kilometers per hour in 2.9 seconds or 200 kilometers per hour in just 7.3 – it’s the way it corners, and speaks to you through its super sharp steering while doing so, that leaves you whooping and realizing that even a week of driving it would be nowhere near enough. You really would need to find the US$538,600 that would allow you to join the queue to buy one.
With the big miles covered, from Port Stephens the snake of Ferraris headed for more fun – and a closed-road hill climb-style blast – in the Hunter Valley before heading for a Sydney soiree that somehow managed to eclipse all those before it for sheer magnificence and hedonistic heft.
At the end of the trip, I could at least imagine what it feels like to be part of the Ferrari-owning family. It’s beyond special, beyond money and even beyond words.
