Stirling’s missile

There are moments, and this is one of them. A moment you’d like to instantly swaddle in bubble-wrap and drive straight to the framers. I am at the apex of Goodwood’s Madgwick corner, close enough for my front right tyre to be straying into that no-man’s-land between the white line denoting the suggested limit of the circuit and the grass that defines its actual edge.

I have no idea how fast I’m going; let’s call it plenty. The car is in the fourth of its five gears, and I’m hard on the power, sufficiently hard for its faintly understeering balance to be handing over to a stance that would become equally benign oversteer if the corner were not already opening out. Did I mention I’m in one of the most valuable Ferraris in the world? Show me the bubble-wrap…

The car is a Ferrari 250 GT SWB. Okay, if there is such a thing as the 250 GT SWB, this surely is it. It is the ultimate spec of the ultimate Ferrari Grand Touring race car – a genuine GT developed for racing, rather than a racing car that just about managed to squeeze into the class for GT cars, like its fabled 250 GTO successor.