What goes 0 to 100 in 3 seconds, has white knuckles and swears a lot...

Me driving a 2010 458 Italia Ferrari. 570 bhp. A very fast car and dangerous in the hands of someone like me, especially someone who has been driving a camper van for the last 5 weeks.

I was spoilt today. No churches, no shops, no emptying the campervan toilet (actually that was done) and just one museum - the Ferrari museum in Maranello, the home of Ferrari. The museum itself was very informative - even Esther enjoyed it. There were lots of cars from the old to the new. I wanted a photo from my favorite in the museum.....







We can all dream - the 458 Italia. Naomi wanted a photo with her favourite - me!

We left the museum and were hounded by youngsters trying to sell us time in fast cars for competitive prices. And they thought I was an easy sell. And they were right.

When we got 'dragged' to check out the cars on offer at one place, they actually had the chance to drive the 458 Italia. Good choice said the co pilot - it was his favorite and also happened to come in as the most expensive. Typical.

With fantastic bartering on my part, I managed to get a 13-14 minutes (instead of the 'usual' 10) of driving time and a free in car video.

I signed a document (after reading very carefully), was put in the car, given about 10 seconds of instructions and then asked to drive away.

I have never been so scared on the roads in my life (apart from that time when I had my Paris incident and that other time when Esther was driving......only joking).

So here is a pic of me looking very comfortable before I got into the cockpit...







(I'm the good looking one who hasn't shaved for the past 2 months).

I was directed out of town, which was down two or three roads until we got onto what can only be described as straight road with no houses on either side. 'gas, gas' the co pilot shouted. Foot was down with a nice tempered acceleration. Went pretty fast pretty quickly. Next bit of straight road. Slow down, let the cars ahead get further ahead. And then 'floor it', so I did - the form I signed said I had to follow all instructions. Difficult to describe, but probably like a bat out of hell, but faster. Next time I got more cockey and went for gold. I risked looking at the speedo. Over 170 kph, and in a 50 limit and back down to 50 in less than a few seconds.

A once in a lifetime experience and I fell back down to earth as soon as I jumped into the camper van and headed out of Maranello, the home of Ferrari (and probably a few unpaid, and unissued, speeding tickets).

Laters
Alex (Schumacher) Skinner
PS the scariest is when he told me to floor it and overtake two cars on the inside. They didn't even get a glimpse of me as I sped off.







PPS I want one - don't we we all

PPPS I actually bought one on the spot, admittedly not an original but one by

PPPPS I will be holding private viewings of the in car video for those interested