Daydreams and poster walls of billions of boys over the past several decades have consisted of a Ferrari finished in a piping hot shade of red. And yours truly actually had a chance of living this dream on a balmy Sunday afternoon set in Jaipur at the Ferrari Weekender. There was a long line-up of some serious set of Prancing Horses which you can see on our Instagram handle, but my eyes were set on a particular set of wheels. There it was, a 296 GTB finished in shiny red colour called Rosso Corsa in Ferrari speak.
At least Rs 90 crore worth of cars
I couldn’t have a lot of time with the car while it was stationary as it was occupied in the shoots. But after the agonisingly long wait, it was my job to pilot this 819 bhp rocket ship towards Delhi. So, I spent a lot of time with it where it matters, i.e. on the road.
The 296 GTB finished in Rosso Corsa shade
We started out by filling its belly with 95 octane fuel. We should’ve fueled up with 100 octane petrol but this was the next best thing given that we were in the middle of a Jaipur highway. My first few kilometres were so slow that I could qualify for, “my granny drives faster than that” jokes. I was keeping my right foot on a tight leash and gently caressing the throttle as even in the Wet mode where all the electronic nannies are deployed, it can catch you off guard.
The 296 GTB does 0-100 kmph in 2.9 seconds
That said, my guard was not up because of the car, but the haphazard, criss-crossing traffic that you get subjected to on the Indian highways. And driving a red, attention-grabbing Ferrari, only adds up to your woes when the roads aren’t the smoothest and the roadmates aren’t on their best behaviour. Even the innocuous camera toting junta isn’t any less dangerous as they want to capture all the angles of the car and would swerve more than Nora Fatehi’s waistline. Even with 819 bhp of horsepower on command, all you can do is to wait for the road to clear out in front of you.
Passersby had their camera phones ready for the sight of a passing Ferrari
There was a convoy of the Ferrari owners that had left an hour earlier and I never intended to catch up to them. So there was nobody to fall back on except a BMW X1, our support car that as you can imagine was quite far behind me. It was just me, the dusty old road and the 296 GTB for most part of this journey. The stiff suspension setup, the extremely precise steering and sporty seats meant that I was driving on red alert through the whole way.
Also Read: Ferrari 296 GTB Review: Cooking Up A Storm
To my surprise, the roads weren’t as bad as I had expected. Except for crossing the speed breakers and dodging some potholes, I didn’t have to slow down. Since I didn’t leave the highway, I didn’t even use the lift function once.
The exhaust note is no less than the bigger capacity Ferraris
Just before Dausa, there’s a tunnel where I pulled down my windows and switched the manettino from Hybrid to Race mode. My left fingers downshifted to hear that glorious V6 which Ferrari also calls the Piccolo V12 which means ‘little V12.’ Despite being a six cylinder unit, the 296 GTB’s exhaust note plays a glorious tune. I didn’t let my foot off until I heard that exhaust reach the crescendo. I’m sure that the fellow road users got a taste of Italian opera music that Sunday afternoon.
The Delhi to Mumbai expressway offered enough tarmac to stretch the 296 GTB's long legs
After this visceral experience, I switched back to hybrid mode and went on my way to catch up with our cameraperson who was waiting for me on the newly laid Delhi-Mumbai expressway. Entry to the expressway was no less dramatic though. A strange lady among a huge crowd of people at the toll gate, asked me for a lift. It wasn’t her lucky day and neither am I a big risk taker. But kudos to her optimism.
Once, on the expressway, I stretched the long legs of the Ferrari. I was expecting the slow moving drivers in the fast lane to give way to this angry, red prancing horse but it wasn’t to be. Since their egos were bigger than my engine capacity, I had to overtake them from one of the three other lanes on the 8-lane (4 on each side) expressway.
An epic end to an epic journey
Meeting the cameraperson, we did whatever shoot was possible as the car seemed to have caught the fancy (and attention) of almost every other car on the highway. We finally stopped some 30 km away from the Manesar toll booth to get the car up on a flatbed for the rest of its journey to Delhi. Stepping out of the driver seat was not difficult for my lean frame but for my heart it was. The pounding in my chest was prominent but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Also Read: Ferrari 296 GTB Review: In Pictures
Also Read: Ferrari 296 GTS Review
