My latest Ferrari.

[KS]

Mike, just an idea, but have you seriously thought about taking up photography for a living?

[sladey]

You write quite well Keith - ever though of doing something with that?

[neilbardsley]

So now the travelogue for those who don't know the area! North Devon is a wonderful place to visit especially with the new roads
built since I lived there make it really accessible from the M5. Might be best to go out of season though, it can get really busy in
the July/August time.



Its the stunning coastline that's the attraction and the estuaries of the rivers Taw and Torridge coming together form a really
diverse natural and beautiful eco system in the area. Barnstaple is the main market town but can get a real bottle neck, but it's
the villages of Croyde, Putsborough and Woolacombe that people head to for the great beaches and the surfing, probably some
of the best in the UK. Saunton Sands and Braunton Burrows behind, was my old playground, an incredible area featuring not only
one of the longest beaches in the Britain, but a huge area of sand dunes leading out onto the Great Field, an alluvial plain and
natural phenomenon formed by the confluence of the two rivers.



Baunton where I lived was a sleepy little place years ago, but now it's all trendy surfer dudes and surf shops as far as the eye can
see. The Saunton Sands Hotel has stunning views over the bay and I'm sure the food is a lot better since I worked the summer in
the kitchens! Not cheap though.....

http://www.sauntonsands.co.uk/

South of the estuary is Instow and the Wayfarer already mentioned, and then Bideford a great little fishing town which had a very
prestigious art college renown for turning out the odd photographer......

Just seen this the Bardsley family are massive fans of Croyde and have sent many a week there. I love to run from Croyde beach
via Baggy Point to Putsborough. Fantastic views. I actually managed to run on all three of the beachs during our time there.

[356boy]

great story, great car and has come at the right time as i'm falling for the gt4

[Mike]

Being a quiet Saturday, thought I'd just post a little Ferrari detail I've recently discovered.

Turns out that in a similar way to Porsche's, each Ferrari car has it's own production number for it's model as opposed to it's
chassis number. So like the number stamped behind the knee bar and written by hand under the dash on the early 911's, the
Ferrari has it's production number all over the place stamped on parts. I'd noticed it as I'd been working on various bits, #30,
a nice number showing how early in the production run it was.



But it's only been over the winter as I was refurbishing the interior that I saw my first hand written number, this one on the back
of the door cards, good to see 'Giuseppe' had a nice artistic flourish to his hand writing!

[Bertroex]

I do appreciate a detailed journey about the car and the spirit within, but then

But it's only been over the winter as I was refurbishing the interior

Oh no!

Do we need to brace ourselves for a massive, amazing and somewhat epic "doing a Mike" once again?

Here is hoping that you have taken Helen & the kids out for a spin and a nice bite afterwards before the works started?

Loads of love,


Bert

[Mike]

Never knew this, a great old clipping!

[Mitch]

That's a good find Mike, nice cutting. I agree with Niki, definitely a good buy at £12,000

PS They needed a better press photographer!

[Mike]

good find Mike

Not me Mitch, it's the guys on Ferrarichat who came up with it, followed this afternoon by this spread picture from Auto Zeitung
of Lauda behind the wheel. I posted it in our non-porsche pic of the day thread but in fact it's my pic of the year so far, so post
it here as well! Even my exact colour combo interior as well, so identical apart from the wheel on the wrong side of course...

[Mike]

Another spread from the article show Lauda behind the wheel on track, he's obviously not hanging about with the way the car
is up on it's suspension as it corners. But the picture bottom left is a bit special, as it shows Enzo himself standing by the car.

[dragonfly]

What a great bit of history. I finally saw 'Rush' at the weekend, so quite interesting to see this straight afterwards and NL looks about as cheerful as he was portrayed too.
"steering light enough for a woman" - how times have changed!

[Mike]

"Baptism of Fire on the Test Track" with Enzo Ferrari and Niki Lauda.

[Mike]

with the famous 312T F1 car testing behind.

[Roddavies]

What a great lunchtime read Thanks Mike.

[Mike]

Glad you liked it Rod, I can't wait for next month when it emerges from winter hibernation!