PV Ride and Drive

By: Jeff Littrell

Given the weather in January this year, it shouldn?t surprise you that the club?s first event of 1995 encountered a bit of rain. Even so, that didn?t deter the true Ferrari enthusiasts from showing up and having a good time.

Early on the morning of the event, the weather was bright and sunny so the decision was made to break out the Ferrari. We piled the family into the 365 GTC/4 - the "family Ferrari" - and headed for the departure point. My 2 year- old daughter?s car seat fits nicely up front in the passenger?s seat and my wife, Sunni, can just barely squeeze her 5' 2" frame into the poor excuse for a back seat behind it.

When we got to Ports o? Call, we were pleased to see three other Ferraris already there (plus one Acura NSX). Who says Ferrari owners don?t drive their cars?

Much to my surprise and delight, one of the cars was Tom?s silver 512 TR! As he pointed out: "The car was probably built in the rain and it was probably tested in the rain, too. So, I guess a little rain won?t hurt it."

The other cars included Don Laughton?s blue 308 GTB and Drew Kelley?s much-driven silver 330 GTC. The NSX belonged to a graduate student from Cal Tech who I met over the Internet and invited along.

Bryan Chow - NSX
Drew Kelley - 330 GTC s/n 9911
Don Laughton - 308 GTBi s/n 39905
Jeff Littrell - 365 GTC/4 s/n 15505
Tom Brockmiller - 512 TR s/n 90927

After having a little breakfast at Ports o? Call, we left under sunny skies to drive past the fishing boats through San Pedro and around the coast at Point Fermin. From there we headed up the hill through winding roads past Miraleste and back down towards the coast to our first stop. We had a panoramic view from the Vincent Thomas bridge over LA harbor past Catalina Island and all the way over to Point Vicente at the old Marineland park.

We then went down the switchbacks and through the Portuguese Bend Landslide area to our second stop at the Whale Watch center on Point Vicente. It was whale watching season when we arrived and I still haven?t figured out what drives people to sit in the cold wind staring through a pair of binoculars for hours on end just hoping to glimpse some whale breaching for a couple seconds.

We proceeded to take the long route around the peninsula where it began raining quite heavily. So much for the sun. We all got to test the state of our seldom-if-ever used wiper blades and eventually made it to our final stop in Malaga Cove where we met up with some other friends and had fine conversation and food.

Ride and drives remain popular events because they are low key, low cost, short duration, and yet lots of fun. Come out for our next one on March 12th. See you there.

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