Ferrari F355 Challenge

Back in April 2005, I took a trip up to Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground in Leicester where a race-prepped Ferrari F355 Challenge was waiting for me.

To the more uninitiated, the Challenge is essentially a modified F355 Berlinetta, with a stripped-down interior featuring a full roll cage, racing wheel, Sparco bucket seats and safety harnesses in place of standard seat belts. On the outside, the Challenge also gets bigger brakes – 14-inch Brembos to be precise, which nestle inside 18-inch Speedline alloys wearing Pirelli slicks. Underneath, the Challenge has an upgraded lightweight exhaust system and a competition clutch. The weight saving over the standard car is around 100kg. It’s all a bit serious.

The 380bhp mid-engined V8 supercar dispenses with 60mph in under five seconds and goes on to a top speed of 186mph. The Pininfarina styling is timeless – the car still looks fantastic from every angle more than a decade after its launch. The Challenge, with its rear wing and graphics-laden exterior is not as elegant as the Berlinetta, but the best features remain and, most importantly of all, it is definitively a Ferrari.

As it was the first supercar I’d driven, I took a naturally cautious approach when moving away for the first lap. One of the most unforgettable qualities of the 355 is the symphony it produces. In my mind, it’s one of the most recognisable exhaust notes of any car. I couldn’t help myself from prodding the throttle as the car sat in neutral just to hear the V8 pipe up.

I pulled away and worked my way up through the six speed ‘box. The first corner is a very gentle left-hander as you pass a decommissioned Boeing 747 sat in the midst of the former airstrip. The second is a sharper 90-degree right-hander, but the track is incredibly wide and it’s possible to take it at some serious speed.

As I was using the short circuit, rather than progressing on to the top of the two-mile back straight, I took the relatively open chicane that lead through to about half of the main airstrip and pressed my right foot firmly down. The acceleration was brutal and would have been uninterrupted for almost a mile had it not been for the obstruction of a temporary chicane mid-straight, which made speeds over 130mph unobtainable. Approaching the end of the airstrip, it’s possible to take the final two corners at a decent pace and then lay down a lot of power coming out into the straight and onwards to the first corner once again.

I spent less than half-an-hour with the Challenge, but it seemed like much more. For a 19-year-old male, not much can beat thrashing a Ferrari around a disused airstrip at more than 120mph. Bruntingthorpe is a great place to drive a supercar for the first time – there aren’t really enough corners to make it exciting, but when you just want to see the scenery vanish in the rear view mirror, other facilities don’t come close.