It’s safe to say Ferrari had a pretty good end to the 20th century. Michael Schumacher had joined their Formula One team for the 1996 season, and by 1999 they had secured the Constructors’ World Championship. Off the racetrack, things were looking pretty peachy too, with the widely-adored Ferrari 550 making its debut in 1996, hot on the heels of our star car today: the incredible Ferrari F355, provided kindly by Modern Classic Collective.
Finished here in the incredible shade of Giallo Modena and equipped from factory with a leather-wrapped rollbar and the all-important manual gearbox, it's the perfect follow up to our last Night Drive in a Porsche 964 Turbo S Leichtbau and the ideal choice for a nocturnal dash around Cape Town as we take in the sights and sounds of the Mother City.
We begin our journey during the tail end of golden hour at Table View, just as the sun begins to dip below the horizon, casting beautiful light across the bay and allowing that Giallo paintwork to truly sing. While the F355 enjoyed a healthy production run that saw over 11,000 of these mid-engined beauties roll out of Maranello, this particular car belongs to a much rarer subset of under 500 right hand drive manual Berlinettas, a small fraction of which were finished in yellow.
With the benefit of hindsight, we can now appreciate that these cars truly represent the pinnacle of modern classic Ferraris, offering an advanced 5 valve per cylinder, 375 horsepower 3.5-litre V8 in a lean 1,350kg frame and positively petite dimensions by modern standards. This example, equipped with a Tubi-style exhaust, sounds even better than it looks, and rolling out of our chosen parking lot for beauty shots, we’re able to savour the F355’s 8,500 rpm redline as we cruise up to Cape Town’s city bowl via the R27 highway.
Our aim is to reach the Tafelberg Road, which runs along the base of Table Mountain, past the Cable Car station, just in time to savour the city lights from the totally opposite perspective from where we started. However, one of Cape Town’s most notorious meteorological phenomena is threatening our chances of success. With a southeasterly wind blowing up against the mountain’s slopes, directing moisture up into the colder air, the “table cloth” is formed as a blanket of orographic clouds drape over the top of Table Mountain.
Luckily, one thing the F355 has in spades is pace, and we make it to our destination with enough time to soak up the view for a few glorious minutes before the clouds bring an end to this fabulous Night Drive.
Photos by Mikey Snelgar
