Porsche 991 GT3, Ferrari 488 Pista

MEMBER’S CARS: PORSCHE 991 GT3, FERRARI 488 PISTA

After a string of Porsche GT cars, a Ferrari is the last thing we expected to see in SCD member Richard’s garage. We catch up with him to find out why he made the change, and why he’s since found himself back in another Porsche.

Tell us about your car history

My passion for cars came from my dad and grandad who both liked nice cars. My dad had a bad motorbike accident when he was a kid and back when I was 16, everybody was getting motorbikes, so my dad bribed me. He said, “If you don’t get a motorbike, I’ll help you buy a nice car when you’re 17”, and he gave me the difference between secondhand and brand new so I could buy a new one. The car I bought was a Mk3 escort 1.1 which I tried to make look like an XR3, that ended up in the body shop several times! After owning many derivatives of Mercs from a 190E through to a CLS, I bought my first Porsche from Tom Hartley back in 2006 — a delivery mileage 997 Carrera 4S. Every time I’ve tried a different brand, I’ve always jumped back into a Porsche and thought the build quality was so much better, and I’ve since owned three 997s and six 991s including three GT3s and two GT3 RS. I also had a 993 Carrera which I had made into an RS replica by the boys at Strasse, and that’s the car I have the most seller’s remorse about.

Why the change to Ferrari?

What made me change at first was the silly allocation drama at my Porsche Centre! Ferrari offered me one of the first allocations for an F8 so I gave my deposit and went for it, but on the day I went to look at the newly arrived F8 demo to see if I’d ticked the right boxes, a Pista reversed into the showroom. It turned out that car was on sale or return, a deal was done and I owned my first Ferrari. It’s Rosso Corsa with the blue and silver stripe, black wheels, red calipers and it’s dripping in carbon with most of the essential boxes ticked. Another SCD member’s Pista was actually next to it in the showroom and it was almost identical in spec, but the guys laughed at me when I said, “I like him but I’m not sure I’d want to buy one of his cars!”.

What is it like?

It’s so different to a Porsche in so many ways. At the moment, it still scares me a little because it’s just so fast and sometimes feels like it wants to kill me, but it’s great fun. The power is just phenomenal, it’s ballistic and in some ways it has too much power to be able to enjoy on a normal road. You’re doing crazy speeds before you even know about it without even meaning to. A GT3 is still a really quick car, but slightly less licence-troubling! The response of the gearbox is brilliant and I prefer the static paddles compared to the Porsche ones which move with the steering wheel. I think the steering is a little bit too pointy if anything. If you’re going down a bumpy road, any small movement of the wheel does pull you about more than you’d like. I find it to be a bit quirky in its controls, and the infotainment feels a bit prehistoric to navigate compared to modern touchscreen systems, but It just feels so special. When you’re a petrolhead, being in a special Ferrari is amazing, and when you squeeze the loud pedal, wow! Even when I open the garage door, it’s like a piece of art dripping in carbon fibre.

Why did you buy another GT3?

The reason I bought another GT3 is that I feel I can use it a little more most of the time. The Pista is so fast that I never feel like I’m really pushing it, but I do in the GT3. I also thought it may push me over the finishing line for an allocation for the 992 GT3, but still no chance!

What is it like?

I just think the GT3 is perfect as a car you can jump in and have some fun. After a white 991.1 GT3 RS, I bought a yellow 991.2 GT3 and I did the full day Wales drive with SCD. After that drive, I came home and genuinely thought that it was better than the 991.1 RS on the road.

The engine is amazing and the motorsport noise really adds so much to the driving experience, and something you might not think about is the fact it’s a small car. The new one is going to be a big car, but this has the narrower body so you don’t have to breathe in when you pass another car on a B road, something you really feel you have to do in the Ferrari so you don’t get your mirror taken off or something. A bit of a silly thing, but I’m a nerd when it comes to cleaning cars, and if you take the Pista out for a blast and it rains, you know it’s going to take you two hours to clean it with all the little details and the carbon engine bay, but the GT3 is more like a normal car and it’s back in the garage after half an hour.

Any plans going forward with either of the cars?

I try to get to as many drives and meets as possible but I do have to miss a lot due to being busy in the summer months farming. I can’t wait for the time my summers are free and I can commit to European drives and lots more events and track days, which I hope is sooner rather than later.

Me and my wife are doing the Grantley Hall event which will be nice as something different to just enjoy socialising with everybody, and otherwise I’ll just try to jump on as many drives as I can as they come up between now and the harvest.

If you could only keep one, which would it be?

Flipping heck, I don’t know! They’re two different cars, but I guess if I had to pick, it might be the GT3 because it’s half the price and doesn’t feel like it wants to kill me so much, I hope.

What’s next?

I’m playing it as it comes really, but at the moment, I’ve got an inkling the Pista might be a keeper. Looking at Ferraris going forward, the SF90 is nearly a half-million-pound car and I don’t know what they’re going to do with the F8, if that will have a special version. We’ll have to see, but the Pista is just such a good-looking car. I don’t know what the 992 is going to be like, but it will have to be something special to beat the 991.2. If I do find that the new GT3 is mega, I’ll probably end up chopping mine in against one of those. I could also be tempted to go backwards to be fair. A 997.2 GT3 would be nice with the manual gearbox, or even an RS with the blue and silver livery if I could budget for one, I just think they look amazing, but the money they’re worth right now doesn’t quite make sense to me. The only other brand I like is McLaren. I love Luke’s 765LT that was in the previous magazine. That is an awesome car and I’m watching him very carefully because, so far, he’s said it’s better built than previous models. I couldn’t live with my pride and joy being up and down the motorway all the time in a covered wagon to the dealer, so fingers crossed it could be the start of reliable McLarens, because if they get the reliability there, I think I’d have one.