The TEXAS Gentleman's Garage! Exploring a Supercar Hideaway

Welcome to the Gentleman's Garage, where you join me today here in Texas to take a look around this extraordinary collection. We're going to be meeting up with Lewis, who's kindly invited me to come and take a look at the cars that feature here, including the recently purchased LaFerrari, one of my favourite cars in the entire world. But it's a garage with Ferraris and plenty more, including one car which is actually a case of being reunited for me, a car that used to belong to a very close friend of mine. This is F40 Blue. I've actually driven that over in the United Kingdom. I've known the car for nearly a decade and it now resides here with the Gentleman's Garage. Each of the cars has a great story and we're going to be talking through them, the likes of the 458 Speciale Aperta. We've got a lovely 16M just here as well, next to the 488 Pista Spider, the 2005 Ford GT, and in fact the Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster here has a great story that Lewis is going to be sharing with us. Keep coming round, we've got some of the newer Ferraris, we've got some interesting oddball cars around, the Aventador SVJ Roadster, over here Cianciardale Countach, we've got the 599 GTO, we've even got a 992 GT3 RS. There's a lot to take in, but it goes without saying that this is the star of the show. In fact, it's this car initially which is why I'm here today, along with the story of F40 Blue and being reunited with that. But this particular LaFerrari has a few little details and things we're going to dive into. Hi guys, I'm Shmee. Hello and welcome back to the channel. Welcome to Texas and welcome to the Gentleman's Garage. How's it going? It is great, great to see you. Thanks for being here. Likewise, absolute pleasure. Thank you very much for the opportunity to come by. What an amazing collection of cars you've got here. Thank you very much. Each car here we're really, really proud of. Literally every car here we own for a reason. Each car has a story to it, so there's a lot of passion behind each one of these cars. But yeah, not only is there a story to it, but each car I have a specific passion and attachment to, so I'm really, really proud and really grateful to be able to share it with you and everyone else because that's really the whole point of the Gentleman's Garage, or starting in the Gentleman's Garage and starting to share this, is to share the passion not only behind the cars, but hopefully to inspire others to, hey, let's reach for what we want in life and go for it. And if we can, we can help inspire people to achieve this or something much, much more. You never know what might happen, but you've collected everything from, I believe, your first supercar. Yes, that's correct. That is correct. I was 28 years old. Lamborghini was the dream, which I'll tell you about with the Countach in a second, but this is the first one I was able to buy. And of course, a few years into that, the Aventador came out. At the time, I could only afford one at a time, so I had to trade my beloved Murcielago in to be able to afford the Aventador. But about a year and a half ago, my daughter and I had this kind of romantic idea of recreating a picture of she and my son sitting in this when they were little. And this very car when they were little kids. The very car. We tracked it down. I'd sold it, I don't know, 12 or 13 years ago. We tracked the exact car down. It really needed everything, so we literally restored the car soup to nuts. And I was able to recreate that photo. I think we've got a video on it or coming forward. But yeah, so it's kind of a dad moment, but also passionate about the car. And I'm so grateful. It's still amazing when I walk in here that this is back in my collection. This is amazing that it's back here. I love those kind of stories, because that's a big part of what it's about, because that was your first supercar. This is your latest supercar right beside it. This is what I first saw when you uploaded on your channel that you purchased the LaFerrari. I mean, it goes without saying it's one of the greatest modern hypercars out there. I couldn't agree more. We just shot a video on that as well. I've owned it less than six weeks. Already put a thousand miles on the car. Good effort. A thousand miles. Yeah, I bought it with $1,840. We've got over $1,940 on it now. I'm sorry, $2,840. My math's right, right? My math's not mathing at the moment. But yeah, I agree with you. Obviously, we're all familiar with the hypercars that are out, and everybody, there's brands out there making amazing cars. But for me, this one does everything extremely well. The one thing it does extremely well that I didn't expect is how daliable it is. I never thought I'd hear somebody say that LaFerrari is daliable. My wife and I date night this car all the time. We take some short road trips in it all the time. Throw it in bumpy road mode, and it's pretty compliant. It rides great. It's going to be a short road trip because there's obviously no storage in the car. The most I can do is get my wife, if she's in a really good mood, to maybe put like a little overnight bag next to her feet in the footwell. But that's about it. But the car does everything extremely well. And then of course, you know, you kick it up in race mode or ESC off, and it's a thousand horsepower to the rear tires. Bonkers, insane performance. And let's face it, nothing sounds better than a V12. No, Ferrari V12s. And there are a couple of them around, but I think we should start actually starting with the one that's a little bit different. The 992 GT3 RS. Yes. I mean, listen, at the end of the day, obviously, if you look at the collection, there's a lot of Ferraris, a lot of Lamborghinis, but Porsche, there's just no arguing to the quality of the car that they build. I always say they're bulletproof. You know, everyone knows you can launch this car 50 times over and it's going to perform. You're not going to break anything. You know, what's amazing to me about the GT3 RS is every time that they make one, going back to like the 997s and the 991s and now the 992s, every time I get in one, I'm like, how can they make this any better? Yeah, I know what you mean. It's kind of the same formula-ish, right? You know, of what this car is all about. But yet, every time they come out with a new one, I can't help myself. I've got to buy it. And thinking I've already got a great one. And they've done it again with this car. This car is just fantastic. Really, really great. And coming from a guy that races the Ferrari Challenge Series, so I have a Ferrari 488 Evo Challenge car, amazing car on track, as great as that is, I can't wait to get this on track. I really want to get this in what I'm going to call its natural environment. Now, listen, you can drive this car all day long, on the road, it does everything right and does it very, very well. But you can really feel the downforce in this car. You know, they've got the DRS on the rear wing. And I'm here to tell you guys, it is not gimmicky. Even just going down a highway, let's say you're going 75, 80 miles an hour, you hit the DRS and you can feel the downforce come off the rear of the car. And you can actually feel it. And it puts a little smile on my face. No, that's really what you're supposed to do. It's not just a gimmick. It's not gimmicky. It's not gimmicky. The arrow on this car, I mean, listen, you know, it's not like it has a lot more horsepower than the previous generation, the 991, not at all. But it's definitely been packaged and put together in a spec that, boy, is it all about performance. It really is. So we go from the German flat six to a couple of Italian V12s. Oh, so the GTO, right? I mean, we all know the story of the Ferrari V12s and they come out with their special edition of that iteration. You know, you got the 599 GTO, the TDF, the 812 Comp and whatnot. And they're all really, really great. But there's just something about this 599 GTO that I just absolutely love. I find it to be more raw than an 812 Comp or a TDF. And the TDF is a fantastic car for sure. But this is even more raw. And I really enjoy that. I really enjoy, I consider myself a driver. I really enjoy driving my cars. And I enjoy driving cars that have its own individual personality and its characteristics. And even some of the things that people may talk about are a shortcoming or a drawback of a car or whatnot. More times than not, I find that part of the personality. It's what makes it special. It's things like the gearbox not being perfect. The fact that it's not absolutely a dual clutch, like the LaFerrari, don't get me wrong, the sound of that when you downshift is incredible. It's unbelievable. But you're more involved with it. You're more part of it. It absolutely is. And talk about the gearbox, it is single clutch, but I think it's a very, very good iteration. Ferrari did it very well. They do. There's another car we'll talk about here in a second that I'm going to go on camera, I'm going to go on record and say, I think is the single best, I'm sorry, the best single clutch gearbox ever of any brand, of any brand. We'll get to it in a minute though. I think I was it. This was it. This was on my wall from the time I was eight years old until I went off to college. And if people know much about my background, my story, I grew up on my grandparent's farm. And so I had never seen anything like this whatsoever. And I ended up getting the poster, put it on the wall. I wasn't even really sure what the heck it was. A buddy of mine came over like a day or two later. He was like, oh my God, it's a Lamborghini Countach. And being a young boy, didn't want to admit that I didn't know what that was like. Oh yeah, sure. It looks cool. But you know, this car represents so much of my life, right? It's not just, is it the coolest car of the eighties, right? I mean, it is. But, but this, this was on a wall, on my wall. And it, it, that's why I'm here today. Quite honestly, this car is why I'm here today. It inspired me. It wasn't just about the car. It was about the fact that there was another level of life that I could strive to, that I could try to achieve. And it inspired me to do that. And it motivated me to do that. And quite honestly, that's why we started the Gentleman's Garage YouTube channel is to now share some of this and share the passion of this. Cause there's so much passion and emotion tied up in cars. And, and I do find it to be very inspirational to others. And you know, now I'm at a place in life where I'm mostly retired. And my joy now in life comes from inspiring others and hoping to, one of my favorite things in life that I like to tell young people is where you come from is not indicative of where you, where you end up. You have a choice in that matter. And this car was the nucleus of that inspiration for me. That's cool. I can't believe it's actually my collection today in the real. I drive it a lot. I bought this car. It's a downdraft carbureted version. So it's, I consider it very special. And if you look at the condition of the car, it's darn near perfect. The interior is neat. The interior is incredible. It's not an in the footwell. I have to be very conscientious of what shoes I use that I wear when I drive the car for sure. Otherwise you're mashing the pedal in the brake, you know, in the clutch at the same time, it's a mess, but get some driver's shoes on. I drive this car a lot. I bought it. It only had 3,200 miles on it, whatever that is in kilometers. Cause it's a Euro car, but I added it up last week and I've put over 1,500 miles on this car and I've had it right out of year. Wow. I've driven it in the rain. I know that, I know that doesn't sound a lot to some people, but when you have a collection with many different cars to drive to do 1,500 miles across lots of them is actually like it adds up. Well, you know, you have to drive all these cars, but, but I put it in this perspective. Uh, this was 1989. I bought it a year ago. That'd have been 2023. So that's what, uh, we do the math. 34 years, 34 years while you're quick. Thank you. 34 years, 35 years. It only had 3,200 miles on it. I've put over 1,500 on it in less than a year. Yeah. So to give us a built for it is, it is. And there's one of my favorite fun facts about this car. I don't think anyone's ever talked about. Okay. You mind if I share it with you? Yeah, for sure. Okay. I'm totally up for learning something new as well. For sure. All right. So yeah, let's see if the great schmee one 50 knows this fun fact. All right. Back here. I'm a golfer. I love to play golf. Okay. Back here. If I take my driver and my three would out, I can fit my entire set of clubs in the back of this car. Was that intentionally made to just fit a club set in the back? You know, I, let's just go and say that it was, I don't know, but, but it was a great surprise to me. And so I'll just lay the driver and the three would in the passenger seat, you know, right there in the back. And the clubs are back here. I can still sit like a duffel bag. I recently went on a, uh, went to a golf resort. It's about two hours and 10 minutes away from where we live. And I drove this car there, had the clubs in the back. It was only supposed to rain for like 10, 15 minutes. And I was leaving. So I was like, Oh, the weather will clear. It'll be great. It rained the entire drive there. And, uh, but there's a car you and I'll get to here in a minute, but I was actually on that road trip to go play golf, driving this in the rain when we negotiated and finalized the deal on the blue at 40. That's amazing. Yes. I was in this car. How about that for a throwback to the late eighties, nineties, and you negotiate on the F40 and they're both 1989. I know that's so cool. That's so crazy how things work out. But yeah, so this car has meant so much to me in my life. It's inspired me, um, and, and, and motivated me to achieve, you know, higher things in life. Uh, and it, it, it pushed me and motivated me to, to, to strive for more in life, to continue to push myself. Even listen, it's never an easy ride that, that, that line from where you're at and where you're trying to go. It's not a straight line. There's life setbacks and things like that. Having that on the wall and always hooking up to it always brought me back to what I really wanted in life. And it, it, it, it actually motivated me to continue to push through, you know, all the hurdles and things that life throws at you. So the car means a lot to me. I'm going to say safe to say it's pretty special in the collection then. Very special. Very, very special. So to whistle through what's up at this end. Okay. So here we are. Uh, Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale. Um, the 360 is the first Ferrari I ever actually got to sit in. I was in Las Vegas, late twenties, maybe 30 years old, somewhere in there. And it was a 360 Spider. Uh, Steve Wynn still had the Ferrari dealership at his, uh, uh, casino. And that was the first time I ever sat in one. And I was just now starting to get in a place in life where I sat in the car and going, I could almost afford one of these now. I wasn't quite there, but I was getting there. And, and then of course, I ended up getting to my first car, which was the Mercy Lago a couple of years later. Um, but I always wanted a 360. And then once I learned more about the Challenge Stradale, this I think is one of the best examples I've ever seen. It's in fantastic condition. I love the fact that it's got the all leather interior versus the Alcantara. The Alcantara doesn't quite wear that well on some of those usual spec anyway, because strike delete is a rare one. I actually drove a friend of mine's Sam seen through glass his car quite recently. First time I'd driven a CS, I was impressed. It's a lot of fun. It is very go-kart like that. That term gets used a lot more, more than I think it should. This is very, very go-kart like for sure. So here, you know, we've got the comfy grand tour Bentley. Bentley always does it very, very well. This car is fantastic to, but it's a spec that it's one of those things like we didn't inspect this car out, saw it in the showroom floor of the dealership and seeing the two cars together, I would have never picked these two myself. I'm not that creative. Whoever did, I think they did a fantastic job. It's a beautiful car. And every once in a while, you just kind of got to slow things down in life because I drive one of these every day. These are kind of my day. I don't really have a daily driver, but every once in a while you want something still fast, but really fun and sporty and comfortable. And this does it. It was a little boy. I was born in 1978, Smoky the Bandit, the movie, had to have one. It took me a long time to get where I finally got this in a collection. Obviously it sticks out like a sore thumb compared to everything else. It's a little bit different from the European exotic car. Very different, very, very different, but it means a lot to me and I'm so happy to have it in a collection. Actually, it's a ground-up build from an Art Morrison chassis, so it drives way better than the original. Okay. 78 trans-ems, they're not that great to drive. So we learned the hard way. Yeah. Aventador SVJ, as you know, I've got a passion for Lamborghini as well. Love what they do. There's just something about the Aventador. I was fortunate enough to own every iteration of it, of the Aventador. So you had it all the way through the original, the S, the SV. Yep, yep, exactly. Yeah, Coupe, then Spyder, then the 2016 SV Roadster, then we had the S Roadster. Thought I was done with Aventadors. And my wife's like, you've had five of them, we're done, let's move on. And then I saw this spec in the SVJ and I just absolutely fell in love. And I called my wife and I'm like, can we get another one? This is our sixth one and it's coming home. Sorry, babe, please forgive me. But I just love the Aventador, the single clutch. I know people knock it, but like we were just talking about, to me, it's a big part of the character of the car. And I think that's going to be that way as we move forward. Obviously the Revuelto, dual clutch, this is the last time you'll be able to get in a car with this character. Isn't it interesting how manual gearboxes, there was a period where even the manuals weren't highly desired. That's right. They hadn't reached that yet. I suspect we'll see a future where single clutch cars like this become desired even more because of that gearbox. That's a great point. It'll be interesting to see what happens with that. These things are iconic, right? If you ask somebody to draw a supercar, they draw something that looks like an Aventador nowadays. They might color it red to be a Ferrari. Looks like an Aventador. Right. Because there's just icons. They most certainly will. And listen, Lamborghini does drama and theater better than anybody else. Can't deny it. My very first car, we had it fully restored. I was 17 years old, 1994 Z28 Camaro. It's definitely one of those sentimental things. What's really, really cool. Coolest thing about this car is once we got it back, got it fully restored. Obviously when I was 17 years old, I did a lot of burnouts and learned how to do donuts in this car. Yeah. And my son, who's now 17, drives it pretty often here and there. And he's got his own car, but he still likes to drive this. And he sent me a video. He's like, dad, please don't be mad, but I'm going to show this to you. And there's my son showing me a friend of his, videoing him doing donuts in this car. And I'm like, it's come full circle. Yeah. You're like, I kind of want to be mad, but I'm not mad. I can't be mad. I can't be mad. I'm like, oh my God, my son's doing it in the same car I learned to do it in. It was pretty cool. 296 GTS. You know, we all know about this car. Look, the car is actually really, really fun to drive. I love the fact that it's rear wheel driven. Ferrari's definitely got the formula down, I think, for the hybrid, the twin turbo hybridization combination in this car. And you know, what's amazing about this car is, again, you could drive this car every day. Oh, for sure. I mean, I basically am with mine right now. Like it's really usable. I also have to compliment you on the spec. It's a little bit different to a lot of your other cars, but the painted livery is stunning on here. Oh, thank you. Thank you. It's a Zerodino, isn't it? A Zerodino. We, just like you, we did this to pay homage to the first time Ferrari put a V6 in a car was in the Dino. And so you did Rossodino, I believe, in yours. We did a Zerodino in this one, but I just wanted to break up the overall blue here. I'm really, really glad I did. It's one of those things where, I'm not that creative of a person, so I was super nervous about how it was going to turn out in person. And I saw it and I was like, okay, I think it looks pretty good. I love this particular red so much that we ordered our Spider, SF90 Spider, in this same color. And of course, now we've got the SF90 XX coming. Can't wait to show you guys that spec. It's completely different than anything else we have in the collection. I've done that as well. My XX is also something wildly different. I mean, you look at this row of cars, there's just a sea of red here. And, you know, listen, there's no greater color on a Ferrari than Rosso Corsa Red, but at some point you want to change it up. And, you know, I think what's really cool, kind of like, you know, you and I done differently with our Dinos, we're doing differently with our XXs. I'm starting to see, it's much more common to see Ferraris in a very broad range of colors other than Rosso. So I'm really excited to see that finally happen with a brand because, you know, before recently it had to be red, maybe white, you know, some basic colors. And now you see those. And then of course the Murcielago 2005 Roadster that we brought back to glory here, fully restored it. We spent about, I don't know, 15 months. And I mean, everything's been done. It's immaculate. That looks brand new. Yes. That looks like it's in a showroom right now. That was the goal. That was the goal. I get a little OCD with the cars for sure, but that's the way I enjoy them. You know, I've got such a strong passion for the cars that I really enjoy to have them in as great a condition as possible. Everything here, you know, runs and drives great. You can hop in anything. That's an expensive thing to keep disabling cars at that level. Everything's serviced and running. Right. Especially if stuff gets a little bit older. I really, I almost feel like I need to be like Jay Leno where he's got like a full-time mechanic crew. Like I think I'd be cheaper having him on salary. Maybe that's for the future. Maybe, maybe so. I don't know. 2005 Ford GT. This car is so great. It is just, I think it ages very, very well. Yep. Really, really well. There's so many things about this car that I love, but my wife and I did a 16 hour, two day road trip in this car. I thought it was going to be a disaster. It was her idea. And we ended up having the time of our lives. I dare I say it's the most fun I've ever had in a car. I love to drive very spiritedly for about 30, 45 minutes and then do something else. And so I'm not a long range road trip kind of guy. This car is amazing on the highway. Really, really great. And it's, it's a basic formula, but it's a car that's 19, almost 20 years old now. I still think it's fantastic. Drives and handles great. And it's just gorgeous. Yep. Stunning. A hundred years of Ford and they celebrated it in style. They did do it in style. I got to hand it to them. Right. Now we get to your, your, your V8 convertible Ferrari. Here we go. Yeah, here we go. So kind of working backwards, I guess here, uh, coincidentally piece to spider, uh, you know, this came after obviously the four, five, eight. Uh, so it was the first time that they, well, that first one, but they went from the natural aspirated and put the twin turbos on this car. And I was kind of worried about how that was going to, of course, it's going to have more, more horsepower, of course, it's going to have more torque, but what's it going to be like to drive. Right. That's really what I care most about. And this car is fantastic. It doesn't disappoint in any way. Um, I actually think, you know, I think this, I've had this car almost five years now and it's another one that I think is actually getting a little bit better with age. When it first came out to me, my eye, you know, it was kind of more of the cleaner lines of the four, five, eight. And then when they came out with a piece to, it was a lot of arrow and stuff going on here. And I thought it was a little, I don't use the word fussy, but busy, busy, but now I think it just looks better and better. I probably like the car now, uh, even more than I did when it first came out. I told you my favorite single clutch. You knew it, you knew it. I love being around another guy. I thought the 16 Ms were like 2009. I think they came out. That's right. And I only drove one for the first time, maybe five years ago, but I couldn't believe how good that single clutch is considering it was one of the first, because all the stuff that came since the R8s, the acid advantages, the Lambo E gear stuff never did it as well as this. You know, it's funny. Uh, we were, we were kind of in a, my wife and I were in a kind of a place in life where we're with our, with our collection. We started buying, we had all the modern stuff. We started buying older stuff. Right. Uh, and, uh, this was one of the acquisitions that we went for. Uh, and we, it was at a local dealership. We had to fly to Florida to get it. And my wife was just like, I don't understand. Well, make it clear. We had driven a four 30. Yeah. Okay. This is drastically different than a four 30. She's like, when we drove the four 30, she's like, she wasn't that impressed with the car. Let's say it that way. And so I'm telling her about the 16 M and I'm getting all hyped up about it. And she's like, you're going down a rabbit hole, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We get there, we get to the dealership. I'd never done business with this dealership before. So the sales guy gets in the car with me. We take him around the block. I was blown away. I mean, the way that thing shifts, it just kicks unbelievable. And then the exhaust note, this is stock and it sounds amazing. Uh, so we pulled back up in my mind, like, this is a done deal. I'm like, listen, I know you, I was talking to the sales guy. I said, you don't know me. Never done business together before, but it would make this a lot easier for me if I could take my wife around the block in this car. And she did not, she had no desire. I get her in the car. We didn't make it to the first stoplight. She's like, oh yes, this is coming home with us. So we love the 16 M. It's funny today. It's probably my wife's favorite car in the collection. Really? Yes. She loves it that much. Cool. I also like the consistency you have with the liveries on the limited Ferraris, the red with the black stripes. Yeah. You know, and, and, and, and maybe that was subconsciously intentional. It wasn't intentional, but it kind of worked out that way. Cause you know, the, the piece of spider came way before we collected this guy here. So it was kind of funny. Uh, three, five, five spider. This was a car gated manual, flat plane crank V8. Uh, it is so much fun to drive. Uh, and what actually really surprised me about this car, it's got a very comfortable ride to it. I, uh, you know, there's, there's a couple of places that I go to in this car frequently. It's about a 50 minute drive. It's fantastic. It rides great, drives great, but you know, star of the show is that gated man. Uh, for sure. I absolutely love driving this car. Um, it runs great. Drives great. Everybody knows, you know, kind of the service binging out every three to five years, it's pricey. Uh, but, but I'm part of the ownership. Well, you know, my son being the son of a passionate car guy, his first car had to be a manual. Yeah. Right. And, uh, and it still is to this day. And so, uh, that kind of got us going. What, what's the greatest gated manual. Yeah. I see that. I see that saying it's the greatest, but it is pretty awesome. Just, just quickly, I gotta say Cullinan behind. Yeah. So we do have one daily. Uh, I don't, this is my wife's car. These are my dailies, right? I drive one of these every day. Um, I think life's too short to drive anything boring. And, uh, so I'm not going to do it. So, uh, right. Thank you. But yeah, this is my wife's calling it. It's her daily. She drives us every single day. Uh, whether it be to the grocery store, we have two huge German shepherds. Our male is 145 pounds. He's massive. Uh, and we have a female and she hauls them around in the back. I'm sure there's dog hair on the back of the car right now, which drives me nuts, but, uh, this is her daily. We absolutely love it. Rolls-Royce does what they do. And I think what they do, they do it better than anyone else. Incomparable. No question. Exactly. You know, you and I were having this conversation earlier, there's, you don't compare the Cullinan to anything else. It's, it's a Rolls-Royce. It's a Cullinan. It is what it is. Right. And, and, and I love that. So it gives us this car, this car, its own identity, uh, and it's beautiful regal. Uh, it's like sailing on a yacht. Yeah, for sure. Very waffy. For sure. Now we've had the, the Contach, the Murcielago and the Aventador. Yes, we have Diablo. Yes. So, uh, like I said, we started kind of going backwards in our car collecting and the Diablos have just exploded in value. Yeah. Big time. And which is exciting to see. I didn't know that was going on until I decided I want a Diablo. Yeah. And I'm looking at these numbers going, are these like, is this real? Everyone else decided this at the same time as me. I'm like, yeah, what's got us all on about this at the same time. So started educating myself on the Diablos. I thought I wanted an SV and they are gorgeous. The Diablo SVs are gorgeous and SE30. Oh my God. You know, that purple just, just takes my breath away. But what I learned was that this was the, not only the final version of the Diablo, but this was the first car launched under Audi's ownership. So, and I've had the opportunity to compare it directly next to an SV. They were literally sitting next to one another. The fit finished to build quality. Everything improved a lot. Yes. I drive this car a lot, a lot. Gated manual V12. Yeah. It is special. It is really special. I'm speaking with a, a, a car maker right now, very small car maker right now. And I told them, they asked me what I thought one of the, if they were going to model like a gated manual, what would it be? And I told them this one right here. Oh really? Yes. I love the way just where the shift knob sits. You've got your arm on the hand rest, your hand falls right on that knob. I think it's the perfect height and it's gated perfectly. Well, it's balanced. It gets through shifting through, you know, you never get caught in the gating and whatnot between gears. So I absolutely love driving this car and it sounds mega and it screams nineties, right? Some of the best of the XS. I love the smile that car's put on your face. I see it in the way you're talking. Yeah. And you know, one, one of the things that blows me away about this car, and I don't know if you'll be able to get it on camera with the lighting, but all the carbon fiber is actually blue carbon fiber. Already? Yes. It's unbelievable. So inside and out, let me see if I can get some, I'll shine, shine some light here for you, but I don't know if you can get it on camera. Blue weave in a 2001 car. Interesting. And that's all the interior? All the interior, everything. Wow. All blue carbon fiber. And you know, and then the, the, the instrument, the layout of the, of the gauges, the instrument gauges. I just love it. It's, it's, it's, it's old school enough to still feel old school. That's really nice. Actually. It's really cool. The way, and the way they swooped that dash on, on the, on this iteration versus the earlier ones were, were not quite as swoopy. I love it. They were a little more boxing. Special, another special car, literally speciality. I think as time goes on, right. You know, when you think about the F40, as soon as it came out, people would go, Oh, this is the greatest Ferrari ever that time in history told that story. In my opinion, I think as time goes on, this will go down as one of the greatest modern Ferraris made. The love, the four, five, eight gets now is going to another one going out, going up in value. You can only even the regular Italians and spiders, especially LA. And of course the ultimate limited edition version is especially this, this, this, this, I still come in here sometimes and I talk to this car. That's how much I love this car. I'm not kidding. Actually. My kids will verify that. And so that comes to the last one we have sitting here in the collection today. Uh, the one and only, uh, Zanossi painted that I know of a blue F40, uh, something that, that, that connects you and I, uh, I, I watching your videos, uh, truly, uh, and knowing about the existence of this car, uh, has a very, it had a very large degree of influence on me buying this car. I listed this, this is it. Yeah, this is it. Right. You know, for me, the F40 is one that I always wanted. We've, we've, I've had three slipped through my hands. We're, we're, we're releasing some content and telling that story. It's a hell of a story. Painful story. Thank you for getting a car, having money on a car and then losing it. Uh, but, but listen, all those roads led to having this one. And I could not be more proud to own this particular one. It's got such a tremendous history and story to it. Uh, it was a Liberty Walk car. Uh, it was bought by your dear friend, uh, Sam Moores and sent back to Zanossi, which, which works with the Ferrari Classica division and completely restored, uh, repainted in this special color. And they've done a great job. You know, that, that restoration was done in, it was almost nine, 10 years ago. And trust me, I've put almost 2000 miles on this car. I drive it for all that it's worth and she's never let me down yet. So they did a great job. Well, it was this month, nine years ago that I met up with Sam when he had just got it back from all the work being done. Amazing. So literally you made a video on that. You guys have content on that. Yeah. Do you know one thing now that I'm around the back that I really like? Yes. The F40 blue plate on the back. There was no way. There was no way I could let that go. Obviously we're in the United States. I should have a U S plate. It's in the car. Um, love you guys. Thanks for all you do, but I'll gladly pay the ticket and I understand it and respect it, but this can't go. Sorry. It's when I remember when Sam Faddix, obviously blue and Italian is written BLU exactly like that. The plate was too perfect for the car. He has a 997 GT3 RS and we actually had gone together to collect that car. Gosh, that was three or four years before this. Um, we went to the Porsche dealer to pick that up and his dream was to own an F40 and to do it in his choice of color. Hence going for this. It's called Aqua blue. It's actually a Porsche color from the time, as you know, but I feel very closely kind of attached to this because I've known its whole story. You know, we're, we're great friends. We had gone to school together and done many road trips and rallies and different things together. And at the time he bought this, we were doing the Gumball 3000 together each year and just like lots of cool stuff and following the journey. And, you know, I was getting the updates whenever there would be an exciting photo come through. Never did I think though, when he sold it and we were sitting together and at the time following the auction, when he sold it online, the fast forward, and I might be reunited with it again out here with you. So I got to say a huge thanks for the opportunity to come and see this because I think cars like this have such a story to this for sure. You can find a perfect low mileage red example, and it's just another F40. They're all kind of a similar story. They all tell a very similar thing, but this is one that certainly for me means a whole lot more, you know, like couldn't agree more. And that's why we're so proud to own it. This car's got such a story, such a background to it. As you and I were discussing, it's been on at least three continents that we know of, Japan, UK, and then of course North America. And this car made so much more sense to me to buy as well, because as we've talked about, I drive everything here. So I was never going to go buy a, you know, a 1500 mile F40, because I'm going to put thousands of miles on, I'm going to drive and enjoy it. To me, that's, I respect every collector's objectives. Everybody has different, yeah, different ideas. But for me, I don't want to save it for the next guy. You know, I want to drive. I want to use it. I want to enjoy this. This is why I own it. So this car made so much sense. But now that I've come to understand the full history of the car, I think it makes it that much more special. And it makes me that much more proud to own it. One thing I do got to give a shout out to Sam about, people always ask me about this particular shade of blue. And I always give you Sam credit. I didn't pick this. I didn't have the ability to do it, but I don't think he could have picked a better shade of blue on this car, the way it plays off the red interior seats. It is stunning. It looks absolutely beautiful in here. Mega. The depth of the paint color, like the way your lights are right above, hit off it and you get the lighter sections with the darker elements, looks absolutely beautiful. Thank you. I certainly feel the same way. And I always tell people I can't take credit for it, but I can't wait to shake the man's hand that did. Well, we'll set that up. Well, the heavens have just opened. It is pouring with rain outside, but you won't be surprised to know that we've taken this out. We've been for a run in F40 blue. I couldn't be reunited with Sam's legendary icon of the eighties and not do a full feature. So stay tuned for that as well. But for now, a big thanks to Lewis. It's been an amazing visit to come here, to see the gentleman's garage, to see the collection of cars and to get a bit of an understanding for what all of this is about. It's definitely a bit of a thunderstorm out there, but for now, thank you very much for watching guys. I'll pop the links down below to the gentleman's garage here on YouTube. Also on Instagram, do go give them a follow to keep in touch with the racing and with more of the cars in the collection. That's it for this time though. Thanks for watching and I'll see you again very soon. Cheers.