It’s Friday, people! Act like it! Kick off your weekend by riding onboard with Marino Franchitti in an authentically-recreated Ferrari 250 GTO for a few laps of the Goodwood circuit. Obviously this is the kind of experience that very few people in the world get to enjoy, because most of us aren’t as talented behind the wheel as Marino Franchitti is. But that doesn’t mean we can’t sit over his right shoulder and enjoy a fierce battle as he spends a stint of this race right up the chuff of a TVR Grantura and a Bizzarini 5300GT.
The 250 GTO is a recreation of the extremely rare Series II car, built with exacting detail to the original over ten years—finishing in 2008—and used extensively since. The real deal would cost someone several handfuls of millions of dollars, so it makes a lot of sense to run an exact replica, even a quite expensive one, in vintage racing, rather than risk the real thing. And I’m quite glad they did.
This is a wonderful ten minutes of video, despite little actually happening in the form of on-track passing. I don’t know who was driving that Grantura, but they’re wicked quick in the thing. That the whole dance is set to the glorious high-revolution sounds of a wailing Ferrari V12 only helps amplify the incredibility of it all.
It’s flat out from the chicane across start/finish, nearly making it to the top of fourth gear before feathering the throttle through Madgwick. The Ferrari catches its rivals quite nicely here with mid-corner speed. Onto the straight, there’s a shift into fifth, and hard down on the accelerator for just a second before breathing through Fordwater. Down to fourth and scrub some speed with a drift from the tail at St. Mary’s. Hard back on it, then down to third to negotiate Lavant. Upshift, upshift, dodge the grass on the left, then let it sing until you get to Woodcote. Second is necessary for the chicane, and you’re back across the line.
Astonishing stuff. I could watch it again and again.
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