Daytona drive from Lancashire to Maranello. Ex- TVR boss Martin Lilley still relishes the memory
EX-TVR boss Martin Lilley will never forget driving his new Daytona Spyder from Preston to the Ferrari factory – for a service
‘The Ferrari could hit 175mph and I had no fear of driving it at high speeds. The exhaust note was mesmerising with the top down and beautifully enhanced whenever we went through long tunnels’
Ibought a Ferrari 365 GTS/4 Daytona Spyder in 1974 and drove it down to Ferrari’s headquarters in Maranello, northern Italy soon after. It was a tremendous long- distance touring car, especially with the hood down. I loved that trip. At the time I was living in the village of Great Eccleston, near Preston and the organisers of the annual village fair asked me if I would act as chauffeur to the Gala Queen. TVR didn’t make a soft-top at that time so I telephoned Preston specialist car centre William Loughran to ask if they had anything suitable in stock. They offered me this wonderful red Ferrari soft-top.
I drove it at a walking pace initially but felt so at home in it so quickly that I bought it. I hadn’t had the chance to check the car over properly so I telephoned Ferrari, made arrangements for its engineers to examine it at the factory and then asked a friend to accompany me on the long journey.
As we were passing through the Côte d’azur on the Mediterranean coast we came up behind a lorry carrying scrap metal. A piece flew off the back of it as we were driving through a tunnel and hit the left-hand- side rear wheel, splitting the tyre. I stopped on a viaduct on the other side of the tunnel to change the wheel, only to find that the spare was flat because of a damaged wheel rim. I stayed with the car for five hours while my friend walked to a local village for help. They managed to locate a tyre in the next town, came back for the Ferrari and took it to a garage where they changed the tyre.
Unfortunately the workforce was on strike when we arrived at Ferrari’s HQ so we were taken for a tour around the factory instead. I remember thinking that while we at TVR bought in our drivetrains from BL and Ford and made the rest of the cars in-house, Ferrari did the exact opposite, producing its engines in Maranello and buying the bodies from companies such as Pininfarina and Bertone.
To fill in time while engineers gave the Ferrari a once- over, I rented a Mercedes and we drove round southern Italy. Then we collected the Ferrari and drove back up through France and headed for home. With its 4.4-litre V12 engine producing 365bhp, the Ferrari was capable of hitting 175mph. Even so, I had no fear of driving it at high speeds because the brakes and handling were superb. The exhaust note was mesmerising – especially with the top down – and beautifully enhanced whenever we went through long tunnels. I’ll never forget that trip to Maranello. I had that Daytona for ten years and really wish I’d kept it, judging by what good ones sell for now.