Get Out Quick !!

Every so often comes an invitation you can’t say no to. The invite to a track day at the Mallala Race Circuit, north of Adelaide in South Australia was a “No Brainer” – it never entered my head to say no.

It was a small corporate event. The hosting firm’s owner happens to own and race a 458 Ferrari in his spare time. The idea was to invite selected clients to participate in the experience by being a passenger whilst the car was driven by a professional race car driver over five laps.

How could I say no?

The opportunity to drive a race prepared V8 Ute under the guidance and supervision from a qualified and experienced race instructor was also part of the day. Having a similar V8 ute as my day to day drive, also made this very appealing.

The Mallala track hasn’t a long straight.

The 6 litre ute was easily hitting 200 kilometres per hour and lap by lap I started to settle in and really start to get my lines correct. Braking and accelerating were improving dramatically with the instructor barking at me – Brake hard!, off the brakes, on the throttle, full throttle now ! Don’t touch the brakes, back off, turn, full throttle, GO !!! And on it went. I started to get the feeling I was getting closer to the “Edge of the Envelope”. My feeling was correct as I went into the “S” bend way too fast, hit the throttle too soon and ended up in a cloud of dust spinning the V8 ute around twice. It happened in a split second ! Wow. How cool was that !

Though I have to admit a case of over confidence had me pay through a serious reality check.

Now having shown my prowess (or lack of) how much better could it get!

I was now being strapped into the passenger seat of a race edition 458 Ferrari. A pit crew member assisted me with my helmet, my full racing harness was adjusted to a point where I had absolutely no movement – just the ability to breath was about it. I am now part of the wrap around race seat.

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Holy shit! This thing is a rocket ship, the acceleration is phenomenal and we are close to 300 kilometres an hour down the straight. We are then perfectly into the bend. The experience of being so close to a professional driver working his craft, the foot work, the lines, the control are unbelievable skills honed over many years.

As we approach the next series of bends I say to myself “I thought he would be a bit quicker through here”.

Then the words “GET OUT”  quickly overtake my thoughts as I start to realise what is happening. The Ferrari comes to a rapid stop with the driver releasing his harness and escaping the car in haste as smoke starts to fill the cabin. Now here’s the thing – No one actually told me how to release the race harness – or for that matter how to open the damn door. There isn’t actually a door handle, it’s a piece of looped wire which is all to do with reducing the weight of the car apparently.

So, now I’m stuck. I yell “how the F___K do I get out of this thing!” I was pretty happy to see the immaculate full face helmet re- enter the car and release me and which by that time I’d worked out the door mechanism. I’m now safe as houses and out of the car – bloody hell what just happened?

As it turns out, Ferrari never really thought there would be a passenger in the car – that when under massive braking, they would brace themselves by applying such pressure to the floor pan that would be sufficient to close the gap between the two battery terminals that sit within millimetres on the opposing side of the floor pan. This effectively caused the terminals to create an electrical short. The smoke entering the cabin ended up being the battery being cooked and whatever else may have been damaged in the process.

Anyway, it seems I was unknowingly and unwittingly a  participant in the process of improving Ferrari’s design. Gotta be happy with that! – RD

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