A35, west of Dorchester at Martinstown turning,
next to the MacDonalds Restaurant,
Dorset, DT2 9DL
Saturday 7th June 2008
10AM - 4PM
Put this date in your diaries - Ride in a Ferrari returns!
What to Expect
Roy Twycross is pleased to announce that the popular "Ride in a Ferrari" event is returning for 2008! For a minumum donation of £10 you will be able to take a ride in one of these tremendously exciting cars. The route will cover parts of the A35 and A37 nearby to the event.
There is no need to pre-book a ride in a Ferrari or guest car appearing on the day at the event, all rides are on a first come, first served basis. Guest cars this year should include an Aston Martin DB9 and a Jaguar XJS. There shouldn't be any problem getting a ride, but please note that it may be necessary to use a waiting list and limit rides in the more popular cars on the day. There will also be a full list of conditions to take part in the event as an advisory document available to view.
Roy is hoping that up to 25 Ferrari's and "guest" cars will be available on the day. The neighbouring McDonalds restaurant offers salad meals, filled rolls as well as the traditional hamburgers and is fully equipped to cater for disabled customers too. Marshalls will be on hand to direct people onto the site.
There will also be a prize draw of motoring related items. There will also be car pictures, brochures and CD-ROMs available to buy. To round off your day out, there are plenty of attractions nearby, most obviosuly the county town of Dorchester so you can include some time to explore the town or do some shopping.
Event Location
The event is very easy to find, on the A35, just West of Dorchester at the Martinstown turning, next to the MacDonalds restaurant. A clickable map of the location can be found by following this link: Streetmap or Google Maps. SatNav users should use the postcode DT2 9DL.
2008 Tombola Prizes
Roy has amassed an amazing collection of prizes for this years Tombola:
- Ferrari 308, 328 and Mondial car book
- Ferrari steering wheel, pedals and games controller console
- Two DVD set of the film 2001: A Space Odyseey and a short French film on the Le Mans 24hr race.
- Rolls-Royce book - The Complete Works: 599 Stories about Rolls-Royce
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - children's story book with still pictures from the film
- Mercedes E-Class book contains model launches, road tests and buying advice
- Collection of The Professionals annuals from the late-1970s/early 1980s TV series
- Set of six Ferrari News magazines from the Ferrari Owners Club all dated 2006
- Two launch photographs of the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano
- Set of two Jaguar XK brochures
- Set of two Porsche brochures: Cayenne 4x4 of Cayman sports car
- Set of three Porsche brochures: two on different 911 models and one of the Cayenne 4x4
- Set of three Porsche brochures: two on different 911 models and one of the Cayenne 4x4
- Bentley Continental GTC brochure
- Audi R8 press pack with photo's and CD-ROMs
- Set of three Bentley photographs: model cars, Continental GTC launch and the Flying Spur
Event Supporter
The event supporter for 2008 is local firm Southern Motor Services based at the Hybris Business Park at Crossways near Dorchester. Their donation is helping to run the event so please visit their website at www.southernmotorservices.co.uk for more information.
Update - April 2008
Roy has supplied the following update on the event:
"I would ask that owners of suitable cars to give rides, please arrive between 9am and 10am so we can start with enough cars to give rides from 10am.
I have been in touch with a number of motoring magazines and one or two freelance journalists who are either hoping to attend with a suitable car, or who I am hoping to hear from again about bringing cars recently tested in their magazines.
Regarding "guest" cars, I have been in touch with the Lamborghini Club and dealers and will be talking to owners at an Auto Italia magazine-organised event as well as paying a visit to our local Bentley dealer.
As arranged and offered by our event supporter, we hope to have goodies from the children's TV series, Roary the Racing Car to either sell or give away and through one of the staff at Southern Motor Services, we might also have an Autojumble stall and a man attending to sell jackets depicting the logo's of World Rally Championship teams from the last 20-30 years.
Finally, we are hoping to see a representative of Dorset Police attend on the day with a patrol car and perhaps to demonstrate and show some of the equipment carried, to interested children or adults."
If you'd like to help Roy with the event, please contact him via Allison at the JTSMA office, or e-mail via .
History of the Event
The 'static' format of last year's show proved a disappointment for Roy, although it was still a valuable fundraiser. Roy takes up the story of his planning so far for the revamped event:
"The re-launch of Ride In A Ferrari in 2008 will be on Saturday 7th June between 10am and 4pm and will be based next to a branch of McDonalds in a paddock field just west of Dorchester in Dorset, right next to the A35. I agreed terms with the tenant farmer there recently and the field will have the grass cut and cleared. We will be able to separate the Ferrari's and any other "guest" cars giving rides, as well as one or two display-only vehicles I've already been promised, from the public car parking area, the field being around 1.5 acres in size. We will of course, be raising money and awareness for the Jennifer Trust for Spinal Muscular Atrophy and again for the Ridgeway Ward at Dorset County Hospital in nearby Dorchester. I have spoken to the manager at the McDonalds next door to our site and they have full disabled access and facilities for customers."
Roy continues:
"I don't set out with unrealistic ambitions. I don't seek to emulate Lord March at Goodwood and his Festival of Speed and Revival Meeting, or the successful Ferrari Fun Day at Highclere Castle run by fellow Ferrari Owners Club members, which at the time of writing has experienced its' second very successful event. I am just one man organising a small event at which people can experience the thrill of a ride in a Ferrari as a passenger for a modest donation to charity. I will be keeping the "minimum donation" we ask at £10 per ride."
Thanks as always go to the Ferrari-owning enthusiasts that make the event a reality. The owners donate use of their cars, time and even the costs of running their cars on the day - fantastic people indeed. Roy is hoping for further support from this great crowd to support his already substantial fundraising efforts:
"I am hopeful that Ferrari owners will support this date with the same enthusiasm that has been shown for a number of other fundraisers recently reported upon in the Club's magazine, Ferrari News. I think this event can now be counted as one of the originals of a new crop of days to raise awareness for good causes although it is now only one among many organised throughout the year up and down the country within the Ferrari Owners Club. We have averaged 15 cars per event since starting in 1999 and have so far raised £10,650 for the Jennifer Trust charity alone and nearly £18,000 for good causes overall.
It has been a long road (if you pardon the intended pun!) for putting this new event together. I had been discouraged from giving rides on the existing stretch of road we used outside Wyevale Garden Centres at Owermoigne in Dorset by the local Police, due to complaints they said they had received over noise and speeding and I decided to organise a static show for 2007. Enjoy Ferrari was, in my opinion, something of a failure. Being used to raising around £2,500 to £3,000 from each event and putting in enough effort to think I would see that amount again, to only collect £900 for the Jennifer Trust charity was frankly, disappointing. I know people who contacted me afterwards, congratulated me on the achievement (no small feat, some said) of raising that sum, but I had expected so much more."
Roy's searched far and wide for a suitable venue for the return to the classic Ride in a Ferrari format:
"I realised that it is rides that people want, so I set out to discover where I could get a new venue to host a re-launch of Ride In A Ferrari. I travelled the county near and far, wanting if I could, to keep the event within Dorset. On one particular fact-finding mission, during a week's holiday in September 2007, I did travel to Somerset to the National Trust property, Lytes Cary manor house and to Wincanton Racecourse as well as Blandford and Bovington Army Camps in Dorset. To cut a long and arduous story short, it worked out that the answer was virtually on my doorstep at Dorchester with the field being suggested by the owner of the Porsche 911 GT3 and GT2 cars we'd seen featured at Ride In A Ferrari as a "guest" before. He is now the proud owner of a Ferrari, a 360 "Fiorano" fresh out of the Ferrari factory's own Driving Programme in Italy now that they have switched to the newer F430 models."
Roys fundraising in 2008 will have joint beneficiaries of the Jennifer Trust for Spinal Muscular Atrophy and the Ridgeway Ward at Dorset County Hospital, for orthopaedic patients. Roy is looking forward to a successful event in 2008:
"In conclusion, I hope to emulate my own success by raising somewhere between £2,500 and £3,000 on the day and would invite any owners reading this, to pledge their support for these worthy causes by contacting me through either the Jennifer Trust or the Ferrari Owners Club offices. Any enthusiasts can do the same. Let's hope once again we can provide some real, help for today and hope for tomorrow, as is the pledge of the Jennifer Trust to its members."
See you there!
See also:
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