The wife took one look at the newly delivered red Ferrari 430 Spyder gleaming in the drive and dismissed it. “It’s too red, too low and too noisy” she huffed. Dave and I stood aghast - surely that’s what this car is all about?! Still it meant an hour more in the car for us which was a good result.

Pausing to admire the sheer beauty of this car (along with next door’s builders) we jumped into the car and were ready to go. Ignition on, starter button pressed and the 4.3 litre engine about 12 inches behind our heads growled into life. What a sound! Lesson number 1 - this car does not do quite. The delivery guy had told us that we wouldn’t need the radio / single CD player because we’d be listening to the ever changing sounds of the engine - he was right. He also told us to ‘watch the gear box - my Golf’s got a better change than this’ - unfortunately he was right here as well. Slow speed changes around the lower gears invariably ended up requiring a couple of hefty shoves to engage the cogs. Drive for more than 20 minutes around town and your hand begins to ache with the effort.

Annoying, and probably a fault just with this car, but endearing as well. It’s just because - Lesson no. 2 - this car does not like to do slow. The engine begs to be revved and rewards you with a whole range of growls, roars, bellows and F1 sounds as it races through to 8500 rpm. The acceleration is ballistic and becomes almost frightening when you’ve got the roof down with the air rushing past.

So is it a license loser? Funnily enough I’d say no. Because there’s such a sensation of speed with the top down it much easier to keep within limits (and have fun) than in the cocooned environment of a Bentley where 80 seems like 30. Despite being supremely well planted on the road, flowing through bends with ease, the width of the car also makes you drive more prudently on narrower lanes.

I first noticed this as I was showing a little Vauxhall Corsa a clean pair of heels through some twisting back roads. Clicking down a gear, loud pedal pressed, engine howling and wind blowing I accelerated away with the ‘That, my friend, is what a Ferrari can do’ kind of look in the rear mirror. Only thing is, when I looked in the mirror a minute later he was still there. It’s not that he was racing it’s just that I was only doing 50 (feeling like 80). The Corsa driver, unaware that I had just done my best Schumacher impression was happy just to follow this thing of beauty whilst using about a third the amount of fuel in the process (Lesson 3 - the Spyder has a tendency to generate a smell of lawnmower petrol under heavy acceleration as unburned fuels swirls around the open cabin).

There is no doubt that this is a seriously quick car - 483 bhp, 0-60 in just over 4 seconds, top speed 193 mph. What’s great about it is that is does slow quickly as well. The flip side is that it IS tiring to drive long distances just because of the pure assault on the senses. If you’re tall watch also for the folding roof - Big Dave got squashed when we put it up (the folds of the hood encroach about 6 inches lower than the final roof line as it’s unfolding!)

How to sum this car up? Drop dead gorgeous, fantastic sounding, brilliant to drive but probably only a high days, holidays and sunny weekend car. What to drive on boring old weekdays? Well, you could try a Corsa…..