After snaking the Ferrari 308 from Caroline over the weekend, the first place I headed was the Rock Store in Malibu. It was packed on Sunday, with so many rows of bikes lining the street I had barely had room to park the Ferrari. Saw a Ducati Desmosedici RR, a couple hundred Harley’s and Jay Leno. The Ferrari ran perfectly the whole day, so good, in fact, that I took it for another drive on Monday.
This time I headed to Angeles Crest Highway. It’s less crowded than Malibu and a recent repaving has made the road much smoother than before. There was still plenty of snow past Newcomb’s Ranch , but the road was clear and dry.
With the top off and the sun shining, the 308 felt like the perfect car for the drive. Sure, our M3 would have been faster up the hill, but the Ferrari sounded great and felt more involving at lower speeds, a good thing on the well-patrolled Crest Highway. The narrow seats never got uncomfortable and even the somewhat awkward driving position felt fine after awhile.
Probably the best part of the drive was the look on the faces of all the people who were up sledding and snowboarding. Seeing them all bundled up as I ripped by in my t-shirt in the Ferrari was priceless. I included a video to give you an idea what it was like, but unfortunately the audio is nothing but wind noise as my amateur camera doesn’t have an auxiliary microphone input. So yes, once again, you are denied the sounds of the 308.
Ed Hellwig, Senior Editor @ 52,175 miles
SubyTrojan says:
11:28 AM, 02/21/08
Sweet blog entry, Ed! :thumbsup:
I went up and down Glendora Mountain Road (GMR) on Monday. :o)
Up, Down
estreka says:
02:18 PM, 02/21/08
Speaking of cameras, I really want a video cam for this very type of video. Does anyone have any suggestions?
desmolicious says:
02:29 PM, 02/21/08
I rode up to Newcomb's a couple of weeks ago and the road had water/melting snow all over it in a bunch of places.
Is it still like that? (end result was a slow ride and a dirty Ducati..)
desmolicious says:
02:32 PM, 02/21/08
p.s. nice pics Ed!
Here's one of mine.
aps2 says:
04:53 PM, 02/21/08
I told you guys that fixing the turn signal lens would make it more reliable...
Nice video, it helps explain the purpose of the car (just figure out how to convey the soundtrack next time).
firstwagon says:
07:18 PM, 02/21/08
On the video, dub in "On days like these"...
If you remember the start of the original "The Italian Job", that's what the video reminds me of. (without the tragic end)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vpq1_AphUSY
rick8365 says:
07:24 PM, 02/21/08
Wow, looks like it was a great drive - beautiful. If your camera did have an aux mic input; would it work to position the mic back by the rear plate? Or, would you just have it down in the cockpit - away from the wind? I would love to here the exhaust note(s) to go with the rest of it.