LA DOLCE VITA
trip around Italy in a Ferrari convinced Fox Footy’s expert panellist Dermott Brereton that life in the fast lane was a good place to be.
“I was driving a Ferrari F430 in Italy for Getaway and an Italian cop pulled me up,” Brereton recalls.
“I thought I’d done something wrong — I was doing 110km/h and being passed left, right and centre — and didn’t think about the fact I was driving a new Ferrari. This guy just wanted to sit in it and talk about it — it was like he’d found the Holy Grail.
“I asked him what the speed limit was and he goes, ‘it’s 110 (km/h) but in a beautiful car like this, you should do 140-150’,” Brereton laughs.
“Then when I told him we could be booked for going 4km/h over the limit in Victoria he shook his head and goes ‘You Australians. Two world wars and being occupied, that is a problem. Driving four km/h over … that’s not a problem.”
The memory enamoured Brereton to police and products from the Maranello factory and he rates a new Ferrari as his dream machine, though is torn between the 488 and 812 Superfast.
“I know you can spend a whole lot more than that but I think after driving the F430, I think I would probably go for one of the newer versions of the Ferrari.”
The former Hawthorn champion’s daily drivers are a 2012 BMW M6 diesel and a 2005 Toyota HiLux with the 4.0-litre petrol engine.
“They both do the job. The HiLux gets a workout lugging stuff and the BMW is a goodlooking car that goes all right,” Brereton notes.
“I’ve also got my pet drive, a ’71 XY Falcon. It started its life as a Falcon 500 but I had the engine taken out and dropped a Cleveland into it and then had it bored out to 392 cubic inches (6.4 litres).
“It really is a stunning vehicle — it’s painted in quicksilver. I hadn’t kicked it over for six weeks and I went to drive it and the damn battery was flat.
“When it does go, there’s a big throaty growl when you put your foot in it and to feel your spine press into the back of the seat is a fantastic feeling.
“Given what I’ve spent, I’d probably have been better off buying a GT Falcon”.
It’s a long way from Brereton’s first auto purchase.
“The first car I ever paid my money for was a VC Commodore. I bought it from Paterson Cheney in 1982 — it was $5399 to buy that vehicle, which I reckon was about 18 months old. That was a lot of money to an 18-year old,” he says.
“Shortly after that I bought an RX-7 off (fellow AFL player) Geoff Raines for $12,000. It was a 1980 model and I bought it in 1983.”
Dermott Brereton’s Fox Footy duties include live commentary, the AFL 360 show with Gerard Whately and the Saturday Stretch.