If you ever got excited about a Ferrari Mondial, chances are you probably stopped when you realized there’s a reason they’re so cheap. Or you saw one from the side.
The Mondial is one of the most maligned “exotics” in automotive history, but a Ferrari F40 racer and expert is about to tell you why it’s great.
You could say John Pogson’s blood runs red. Well, he is a human, but also because Ferrari has stitched the fabric of his professional and personal lives together for decades.
Having trained as a Ferrari technician, put championship trophies in his case behind the wheel of an F40, and founded Ferrari specialist outfit Italia Autosport in the middle of England, Pogson has a more intimate relationship with the prancing horse brand than some of us do with our own spouses. He owns this silver Mondial QV coupe, and loves it.
“My car guy pals think I’m just a little bit strange,” admits Pogson in this video from /DRIVE. But he’s not a single-minded enthusiast either, brand-bias animosity baffles him. “I don’t understand why the Ford guy thinks the GM guy has a crap car,” he says. “Perhaps you need to just take your blinders off and have a look at this wonderful world of cars and engines.”
I’d argue there’s nothing wrong with a little friendly rivalry, but I think what Pogson is really trying to say is that you shouldn’t shit on cars because you don’t happen to be driving them—you don’t know what you don’t know. And apparently nobody knows that with a few suspension tweaks, the Mondial creates a remarkably “communicative” driving experience that is actually excellent.
I have to say, the silver shark looks pretty sharp carving up the English countryside. Is anyone else convinced the Mondial might actually be awesome?