Syeed (Ferrari 348) This was the first car meet I ever organised. A few months earlier I had just picked up a Ferrari 348 and having done a couple of countryside runs with other Ferrari owners I thought it would be nice to do one nearer to home and at a much slower pace. I persuaded Dem, who I had met at a previous meet to get involved, although I think his then girfriend, now wife Hayley did most of the work!! She came up with the idea of the Sanderson Hotel as the final destination point and Dem picked up the trophies. The meet was posted on the Ferrarichat forum which many UK Ferrari owners used at the time. The list of attendees slowly grew and Dem and I didn’t actually think all of them would turn up. I was the first to arrive that morning and I remember thinking that most people would still be in bed. It was October after all., but then the Ferrari’s started arriving and kept on coming. Parking now became an issue and they were double parking alongside each other. In the end we had well over 40 Ferraris turning up. I recall one owner driving down from from Birmingham to join us. He eventually got lost during the cruise. The route was a big loop taking in some of the London’s landmarks. Hyde Park, Picadilly, Soho, Tottenham Court Road, Euston Road, Baker Street, Oxford Street and back to Hyde Park. It was such fun that we did the loop again. The unforgetable moment for me was whilst leading the cars and waiting at the lights on the Baker Street/Oxford Street juction, I could hear a couple of Ferraris revving their engines and other Ferraris joining in and creating a symphony of noise echoing off the surrounding buildings. As the lights turned green and I turned right into Oxford Street to find countless pedestrians waiting for us to drive past drove past. We did get a bit of criticism about the meet afterwards from fellow owners. One individual said that it was against the ‘ethos of Ferrari’, whatever that means. All I can say is that they didn’t understand what the meet was actually about. Yes, it was a bit of posing in London, but it was ultimatly what the Drivers Union is all about, a way to meet fellow enthusiasts. I made a lot of friends that day, many of whom over, 15 years later, I’m still in touch with and often drive with. They are of course also Drivers Union members.
Dem (Ferrari 355 Spider) I don’t do early mornings. I especially, don’t do early mornings when there isn’t an obvious coffee stop along the route. However, I’d been persuaded by Sy that an early start was definitely the right thing, for
14
The Drivers Union
what we expected to be, a reasonably well attended Ferrari meet and drive through the heart of London. So, we settled at him getting to the Hyde Park meet point at 10am and me some time after that; after all, it was a long way from my house in North London. The meet and drive was planned not long after we’d first met at a smaller Ferrari gathering I had organised in Epping (Essex) a few months earlier. It was a time when there was pretty much only one stand-out Ferrari themed internet forum, Ferrari Chat, so most events were organised there. I’d dipped my toe in the water to organise a meet the previous year, not long after I’d bought my Ferrari 355, managing to attract a whole two other members to turn up at the pub. Neither of whom had brought their Ferrari. Hmmmmm….. Comforted by the fact that the choice of a North London pub as a meet point on a wet and windy weekday evening wasn’t the best, I came off the ropes swinging for round two; a sunny Sunday in the Essex countryside. Not only did this smash my personal best with a grand total of 6 cars, but it meant I met Sy for the first time With barely a pause between sarcastic jibes throughout that day, it was clear that we could work with each other. So, fairly soon after, we began concocting a plan to organise something bigger and better; something that really captured the essence of Ferrari ownership; something that was absolutely nothing to do with exploiting the great speed or handling of these cars. And so, the Poseur Run was born. The concept was to bring together a decent enough number of Ferraris to the centre of London and drive them around so that a lot of people could see them. See them, or see us driving them? Either way, we came up with the ‘Poseur Run’ moniker for the event. I remember Sy selecting that spelling as opposed to using ‘Poser’, believing that it might add a hint of classiness to what we were going to do. On reflection now, by definition (according to Google), “calling someone a poseur is an insult because it insinuates that the person is a liar, a sneak, or delusional. The word poseur is derived from the French, like the words raconteur and liqueur.”. Ah well, nobody who signed up for the meet seemed to notice. Anyway, over a few weeks we had the framework for the event. A start point, a route map and a drinks / lunch venue. We even decided to prepare some awards for distribution after the drive at the final destination, The Sanderson Hotel in North Soho. Sy planned with the hotel to expect a rabble of noisy cars and people. I made arrangements for trophies to be customised and ready for the day. We agreed that these should be awarded for the loudest exhaust, best car, most laps of a roundabout and the biggest Poseur. Of course, it was all a very subjective and a bit silly, but then, so are me and Sy. So, with our plan fairly well sketched out and too eager to wait for the following
