It took three years to find tyres for this Ferrari Testarossa

On a recent Euro road trip, however, he admitted that it had made for some uncomfortable overtakes…

“The longest journey we’ve done with it was a trip out to a Berlin scout camp. It was great fun, but for overtaking on the continent, you’ve really got to turn your head around like an owl before pulling out.”

Apart from his German road trip, McCoy hasn’t covered many miles in the six years that he’s owned the car – just 1,000 miles in fact, bringing the odometer to 33,000. 

While it was in excellent condition when he collected it from Foskers Ferrari Specialists at Brands Hatch, a lack of tyre availability meant that he couldn’t actually drive it for his first three and a half years of ownership. With a retrospective laugh, he explained: “It was MOT’d when I bought it but we were told the tyres wouldn’t pass the next MOT because there was some sidewall cracking. 

“And the only arrangement that I had with the dealer was that new tyres would be done at cost price as and when they were needed, and it came to needing new tyres and when it came to picking them up, they were looking around the workshop and they never appeared and never would. 

“The original tyres were the Michelin TRX, metric tyres, and it took us about three and a half years to find a suitable rim manufacturer for the replacement tyres, that Michelin specifically made for this model…”

Would he have bought it if he’d known the tyre trouble to come, I asked? 

“Probably,” he grins. “It’s something that I think I had on my wall as a boy, as a poster, and later on in life money was making nothing in the bank account so I thought why not have something I can enjoy and share with other people.” 

Otherwise, he adds, “it was pretty well pristine – it had been in storage for some time so it needed a bit of recommissioning work to get the engine sorted out, as it hadn’t been used for so long. Bodywork we haven’t really touched apart from giving it a good polish.” 

And what’s it like to drive? “Well, it’s a 180-degree V12 and it sounds absolutely amazing if you hold it under a little bit of power about 3,500rpm – if you’re in a tunnel, even better,” he grins. “It makes about 380 horsepower, and can reach 180-185mph. For a car from 1985, figures that are still pretty impressive today. 

“To drive, it’s lovely, it feels like its 30 odd years old – because it is – and it’s nowhere near as well screwed together as a modern car. In Germany, we took it on the autobahn – I didn’t go above 145mph because it is an old lady really. I’ve taken it on a couple of track days – one at Goodwood where we found a bit of an oil leak on the engine so just did two short stints and then a slightly longer track day shortly after I got the car.”

“In terms of brakes – if you’re going to go into a corner, make an appointment with it. Ferraris of that era, they’re fairly well known for making car that could go quickly, but stopping them is another matter completely. And steering, when you’re on the move, it’s delightful, but at low speed there’s no power assistance to it, and with really wide tyres, you do end up with arms like Popeye. The clutch on it is extremely heavy, the gearbox is a five-speed manual that is, to be fair, agricultural. 
But the best part, he adds, is the reaction he gets to the car. “The attention and being able to share it with other people is great,” he explained. “And looking at the amount of attention it’s getting here today it’s making something for a lot of people’s day.”

Photography by Joe Harding.