Ferrari 250 LM: This is what it's like to drive this ultra-rare classic

[MUSIC] Welcome back to car faction and my home studio here where today I want to talk to you about the Ferrari 250 lm because once upon a time I did actually drive one And this is not the most cinematic of experiences you're about to see but there is some footage out there and it hasn't been shown anywhere before. And to be honest, it's a Ferrari 250 lm. So I thought, let's put it out there. And then You can see it for good and bad, but it's just an experience. So I'll tell you a little bit about the background to it. This was good about three years ago, I think 2017 and it was a festival of speed and I was there I was driving other things. In fact, some footage of something else I put up later, but Enzo magazine was about to be launched by my colleague, john Barker. And he'd been wanting something from there because it was the 70th anniversary of Ferrari at Goodwood. And we tried to get into all sorts of different cars and it just something was going to be potentially modern road car and then It wasn't really working at the last minute,suddenly John calls me up and says, DK Engineering have said you can drive that 250 lm? Well, you could have knocked me down with a feather,frankly. It was the most amazing weekend in general for Ferrari's,i remember, I've got some footage as well actually of a 512 Starting up and just being warmed up in the paddock and I just remember standing there looking at it because it was in the Sunoco livery. It's owned by Lawrence Stroll. So Lawrence Stroll's father the chaplets just bailed out Aston Martin and done quite a bit. Sneaky deal in the process. Anyway, it was there. It was just just wonderful listening to 12 seconds of that revving up. [NOISE] Back to the 250 lm. I'm gonna paddock, I just about squeezed myself into this car. Quite how I'm not entirely sure and it's a very odd car to sit in because, as you can probably see from some of the footage, it feels like a car where they decided that it should be central seat And then somebody said No, no, no it has to be production cars have gotta have two seats in it. Right. Okay. So move the seat cross, but left the pedals in the middle. You're all screwed around and I was doing this but if you have the chance to try when you're not going to turn it down, I could be probably folded double and I would still trying to drive it 250 lm was is meant to be the sort of successor really in the GT class to the famous 250 GTO. And the trouble was that they probably never built enough of them to qualify for the GT class or production GT class. So the powers that be at the mall said no, you've got to run the prototypes. However, it still won the race because the prototypes the 330s I think it was, and the Ford GTS expired in the heat that year. And so actually 250 lm came first and second was last time that Ferrari won. More. Now, technically it should be called a 275 lm because the engines in the back of it is a 3.3 liter, not a three liter, the 12. And the way that for naming conventions work is that it's all based off the sweat volume of an individual cylinder. Were a couple of very early 250 LMS that were three liters, but the rest of them rule 3.3. And again, Enzo Ferrari said, No, let's keep them is 250 because it kind of though again, they were trying to help with the homologation of this car. And I think they wanted as many as possibly just keep it simple. Cool ball 250 so, should be to send five actually 250, and, I got into this car, and the, engine is just fabulous it, Ferrari, I'd be lucky enough to drive, a couple of really old Ferrari's, and, my word. He knew how to build an engine. Spine tingling and feel really really like a race engine as well. And really nice warming up coaxing sort of bring to life gently. The gearbox, however terrible, and I've given some fantastic Ferrari gearboxes, but this was really not good and I was told I was worn straightaway That it needed double clutching all the way up so, double clutching just in case you're not aware, apologies, if you are, but for those that aren't, just describe it. It means you have to go from say you're going from first to second. You would be in first get the clutch, neutral, clutch pedal back out again. So you engage neutral And then classical back in again. And in a second, if you're always going back down so it's again, fourth, the third. When you're in neutral, you then flip the red. So if you're braking at the same time, heel and toe, and then you go into gear,. So it's to just help ease the gearbox through. Nonetheless, really difficult and the trouble is, you don't get a chance to practice these things. So it's in at the deep end. Anyway, I remember coming out into the holding paddock and I didn't get out because well actually sort of squeezing myself out and getting back in again seemed like such a pallava and you never quite know sometimes somebody blows Wilson's got to, go got, to go and it was going to take me probably 10 minutes to get back in uncomfortable so I thought I'm not doing that and I just sat down remember looking at the backwards Nick Mason off to my left was Bernie Ecclestone I think in front of me is Jackie Stewart come towards me and you know he's a classics of flight Captain powder blue race overalls it was just even by good terms. Incredibly special to be there. And then we went down to the holding air at the beginning of the hill climb and again, always ambulance metal which and I took a few photos I did get out of the cars focus on you getting racing for a while, and I had the f1 car starting up and had to run up the hill. Apologies for certainly the gear change going into Vulcan. I will confess this, it was. Not very nice because the brakes also needed pumping going in there, Malcolm is the corner where everybody crashes in fact, because they get the right handed before wrong then going into the left hand okay that quickly, but quickly enough that when you go to the brakes and discovered you really need to stop pumping them to get them to work. That's not very nice in the 250 lm with an awful lot of people watching. So trying to combine that with then double clutching, that I shouldn't have been lifted third and got on with it. But if you've got the chance to hear that V 12, revving all the way around, then you do everything you can to get back into second, hear it climb up again and then then change up. So that's what I did. You will actually see that the best gear change I do is after the finish line over here [NOISE] [SOUND] [bbb] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [SOUND] So there I am across the line, elated that haven't got some hill top of a hill in one piece. Actually you're probably just about see that I I get my best gear change because I give the camera a thumbs up, after I cross the finish line .There we go. But it was fabulous. I remember thinking just how different the balance,you really feel the difference in the balance and just a lovely controllable feeling. And I spoke to Nick Nasia and he'd driven. One out the revival before and he said it's just a fabulous car to be absolutely on the limiting. So so well balanced and some of these cars overseas have they've been settled and bought very much up to date. Should we say sort of modernized really with things that wouldn't have hadn't appeared but this isn't just a completely stock Standard car from period handled beautifully, which is why they've done very well in the wet the revival before as well. After we got to the top of the hill I think I said a bit to camera. So this is an interesting that will go here. As far as experiences in cargo that's pretty intimidating [UNKNOWN] Ferrari, they know how to build an engine are is just just amazing. And you can instantly feel so much more you know compared to the front engine cars it really does feel very different it's obviously mid engine and you do you feel that, I mean sitting in here it's, [LAUGH] you can see how far my legs can go to the left and it's a bit like a Built a centre seat car and then forgotten to put the seat in the middle. So, yeah, what a thing. Kind of pump the brakes obviously, into the corners. I always do that. Such a privilege to drive this car, it's amazing. Always people around. So good. What a lucky boy. So there was me looking quite sweaty and sort of happy. Then we went down the hill and they collected everyone outside the house. We can go back to the main paddock. We went. Outside the main Goodwood house, and there was a band being flown in from Italy playing the Italian national anthem and big banners with 70 on and people waving flags, and it was just extraordinary. All these fabulous racing drivers around there. And to top it all off. I was talking to Derek Bell, who I've talked to on a few occasions I know Well, he's not a friend but, He recognized me just enough to say hello and I asked him about his experiences of Ferrari for the for the story and that sort of thing. And then there was a call for they wanted a big group photograph. And clearly it was for the drivers for the likes of Ignacio and Derrick Bell and all the others there. And so I sort of stay rooted to the spot not really knowing quite what to do. And the terrible breeze on me and said, Come on, come on me photo taken, because tomorrow you might be driving a monster. But today you are Ferrari driver and then we'll be off to Guns stand in the photo, which was just the the loveliest thing to do. And so there we are. That is my experience of driving a 250 LM, apologies the footage isn't massive, but hopefully you enjoyed it for what it's worth. And we'll see you next time on channel. See you