Event Report: Enjoy Ferrari, 3rd June 2007.
Wyevale Garden Centre, Owermoigne, Dorset
Roy Twycross writes:
I had hoped to be writing a fulsome, positive report of a day in which 20-25 Ferrari's and a mix of Bentley and classic American car owners descended on Dorset to give people an idea of what owning such cars would be like and to offer a limited ride service. In the end, just six Ferrari's turned out on what was forecast to be a terrible day for weather but which actually turned out to be one in which to top up your tan. Was there something else on in the south that no one told me about or was it the fact that I asked £20 from owners to be part of the show that put them off?
However, I wanted to be positive with this report and will begin proper by saying that our "Ferrari" guest of honour and someone I actually only got a few minutes to talk to, was Mrs June Willoughby, wife of the late Geoff Willoughby, well known of course within the Ferrari Owners Club as one of the founding members.
The six Ferrari's that attended were two F355's brought along by Tim Bingham and Andrew Goord, a 456M GTA brought by Phil' Grimshaw, a 360 Modena owned by Andy Peters, Barry's F512M and event regular Tim Gosling with his much admired Mondial Cabriolet. Among the "guest" cars, the Enjoy Bentley section contained only a Continental GT driven by Barry from dealer, Bentley Hampshire - for sale at £130k if you're asking! - and a 1951 Bentley Mk VI owned by Keith from the Classic Charity Vehicle Club. A Jaguar XJS with a bespoke interior attended along with a Porsche 928 and a modern Trans-Am that nearly outdid the Ferrari 360 Modena for exhaust noise when someone asked each driver to start them up! Lastly, on the "what attended" front were three modern Mercedes-Benz. A good friend of mine got to drive the Jaguar XJS as well as having a ride and currently has his nose in the latest copy of Classic and Sports Car magazine, wondering how he's going to afford the insurance. The Porsche 928 owner brought along various Porsche memorabilia including a Porsche-shaped 'phone to display in the open hatchback and his Honda Gold Wing trike, which proved popular with a few children for photographs!! My Dad got to give a ride to one very impressed young girl in his Mercedes-Benz C180. She is only six and was just as impressed with this as she was with her ride in the Bentley last year.
The planned "convoy" of rides in the Ferrari's went ahead only once during the morning but was greatly helped by the attendance of PC Andy Steel from Dorset Police. He bravely stepped out into the road to stop the traffic so the cars could all go out in one line. Tim Gosling was nominated to lead the way as Richard Irwin who had suggested the idea to me, did not attend the event.
One young man celebrated his 18th birthday with us and despite the low turn-out of cars throughout the day, his Mother thanked me for the best day they'd had for a long time. He sat in several cars and got a Ferrari ride in the convoy. John Lawson from the Yew Tree Gallery - www.yewtreegallery.net - attended and sold several prints of super car pictures donating all the proceeds from his sales to our fundraising. As I said, I think it was perhaps the weather forecast that put off many owners from attending and the fact that I heard during the morning that there was another event taking place at Goodwood in Sussex, one of their Breakfast Club days. It also seems to me that many owners prefer the Ride In A Ferrari event format. I also think that we staged it on the "wrong" day of the weekend, there not being many people who came our way, despite the garden centre venue seeming to have quite a lot of customers. Many people had said they might prefer the event to be staged on a Sunday, but the sad truth is that we only had a handful of visitors. The location still seems to be good but if we return to the Ride In A Ferrari format there, I would need to be sure that I could convince the Police that no one would seriously break the speed limit. As the cars came back in a different order to that which they left on the convoy and despite my asking that there be no overtaking, I cannot be sure that some owners would not break the speed limit should we do a day of rides again.
Finishing on a positive note, we did make £900 clear profit from the event, which is all going to the Jennifer Trust for Spinal Muscular Atrophy charity.
Last year, I joked at the end of my report that the first song I heard on the radio when driving home was "Don't Stop" by Fleetwood Mac. This seemed appropriate as we wanted to continue giving some sort of Ride... event in the area. This year I didn't even switch the radio on, driving home, but the first words I heard from the radio when I got home were: "I get knocked down, but I get up again..." Still quite appropriate I think!
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