Buying my first Ferrari

We all know that there has always been great rivalry between Porsche and Ferrari, which also sometimes reflects to the owners. I was so into the German engineering skills and perfection of Porsche that I never gave a thought of buying a Ferrari.

Sometimes things change overnight and after a chat with my friend Erkka I decided to scroll on the internet for a Ferrari 308 QV. The search through Mobile and AutoScout did not pay of, and the thought faded a little. By some luck my friend Calle had found a car on a domestic German site “Quoka.de”. We went on to call the owner and Calle agreed upon a meeting to see the car. I had prepared a long list of things to check, as we were now talking about an Italian sportscar… During the day of the inspection I was working and we had just landed in Stuttgart when Calle called me up and said “I´m not going to need your checklist”. I did not agree and started to promote the importance of the checklist… well, Calle interrupted me and stated, the car has an own garage, it has never been driven in rain and the owners house shouts “Ferrari”. Guess that was it and I agreed to buy the car on spot. After the transaction we were ready for the flight back to Helsinki.

The day of pickup was then scheduled, and the plan was to drive the car to Rostock and take the ferry over to Helsinki. The car was absolutely mint and we set of towards Rostock. Unfortunately, the clouds started to build up and as we approached Berlin it was raining (30 minutes of ownership and the car had it´s first rain...). I would have been ok with that but then the temperature dropped below 0⁰C. This is not happening, I just bought my first Ferrari and after an hour of driving I hit a snowstorm, I can tell you that the fun of owning a Ferrari took a drastically change towards a nightmare.

We eventually reached the harbor and when driving on to the ship we were stopped by the crew members, stating “She is not going to the lower deck, we have a spot for her on the main deck, you know that a Ferrari is a she”. Quite a start in the Ferrari ownership… First impressions were a little mixed, the charisma was immediately there, but the driving position and feel to the road felt a little odd.

The car taxation to Finland was the next gamble, but that went luckily good enough and did not ruin the bank account. After owning the car for a few weeks and having time to familiarize myself with it, I must admit that the build quality was actually good. Many parts are shared with other Italian makes, but there are also a lot of German parts around as well. The most striking thing is of course the engine, such a lovely response and exhaust note. There is a saying that you are only happy with a Ferrari the day you bought it and the day you sold it. I would not agree upon that saying, the car was lovely to own and it did not miss a beat.

Well, there is usually an end to a story, and I sold the car to a friend 20 years ago to finance building our house. What is superb is that the car is still owned by him and enjoyed every summer!