Too many Ferraris--indeed, too many great cars of all breeds--end up garage queens. What a shame: All that factory development effort, all that performance, and all that style caged up behind closed doors. For no one to see or enjoy. Least of all, the owner/driver.
This is why, these days, car clubs of all manner are biasing their calendars more toward driving events. Ferrari North America, in the name of customer-relationship building (and just for the fun of it) puts on just such a gig for its owner body. It's called the Challenge Rally and has taken place more or less annually for the last five years. We rode along, as 50 Ferraris of all shapes, colors, and price points navigated through 850 miles of some of the best driving roads in North America.
As the name implies, this was a Time/Speed/Distance rally, complete with routebooks, checkpoints, and true times. Some of the crowd had never participated in a TSD event before, causing one female copilot to inquire if "the event price includes the cost of a divorce attorney." The party took place in Northern California starting at Lake Tahoe in the shadow of the 1960 Winter Olympics site. The route would take us through Yosemite, right past Half Dome, and ultimately land us in Monterey three days later.
The Silverglides, father and son.
The organizers included a couple of short closed-course speed runs, called Special Stages, which enabled the participants to hang it out, in the hopes of minimizing dangerous and ticket-earning driving situations. Even then, the driving was spirited on public roads, and several local law-enforcement agencies took the opportunity to beef up their retirement funds. "Like shooting fish in a barrel," noted one Mondial pilot.