Impromptu Encounter with Ferrari Enzo

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Okay, so I'm diddling along on a Friday afternoon on one of Kowloon's staid motorways near the old Kai Tak Airport (those who've been to Hong Kong will know what I'm talking about) in my modest little silver NSX and generally being nonchalant toward the coercion of many a Supra RZ, Maserati 3200GT, a truly malevolent MR2 with a huge air-intake duct on its roof, and one particularly gung-ho fellow in a highly-modified and bewinged charcoal grey S2000, all of whom have in turn come storming up behind me and, much to their chagrin, found me unwilling to play, thus having no choice but to move on and find other drivers to harrass, when suddenly the old Spidey Sense comes a-tingling and my rearview mirror was unavoidably filled by the image of a blood-red blur of metal and glass with a yellow prancing horse on its hood.

But wait, this was no ordinary Ferrari. I mean, in a town like Hong Kong, where 360 Modenas and 550 Maranellos are literally everywhere, and where Porsche 911s and Boxsters virtually outnumber taxis, it'd have to be a pretty unique car to really get you noticed. And boy, did I notice this one, for looming large in my mirrors was none other than the reigning champion of Italian machismo, the paragon of automotive fantasies...yep, it was a Ferrari Enzo.

Fortunately for me, I had my right foot already halfway buried in the accelerator as I was about to enter one of the few enjoyable sections of this particular stretch of highway, and so at the very least, it didn't appear as if the Enzo was going to go past me like I was standing still. :D And who would have thunk it? With the tangled web of traffic that Hong Kong's notoriously famous for, I was actually keeping up with him for a while (just doing my part to uphold the honour of NSXers the world over, hehe...) when we both had the good humour of slowing down to ensure that the traffic police (see picture below) giving out a citation (Is Chevrolet still building those? - Ed.) to a lorry driver on the opposite side of the road would see the both of us (one suspects the policeman only had eyes for the Ferrari though...:( ).

Anyway, the encounter was brief, but the wail of the Enzo's engine was intoxicating and this little interlude will probably remain emblazoned in my automotive memory for years to come. I wonder if that was Demi Moore behind the wheel. ;)
 

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Oh, I must apologize for the poor quality of the picture. It was taken one-handed with my cell phone, a Sony Ericsson T610.

:rolleyes:
 
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AndyH said:
WoW, I guess HK has alot of exotic cars :) but i heard that traffic really bad over there.

Andy> "Bad" would probably be the understatement of the year. :D But you're right on about Hong Kong being a mecca for automotive exotica. And come to think of it, this is one of the best reasons to drive an NSX, because these cars are truly rare here (there are waaaay more Ferraris than NSXs here, for example) and added to all the attributes of this car that you and everyone else on this board already know intimately about our favourite aluminum ingot, the NSX is hard to beat. I honestly cannot envision myself giving up my NSX for another car, ever. Adding other cars to my garage I would surely consider, but trading in this old girl? Never.

:)
 
EK4 hatchback said:
Hi Lazarus,

How come there is so many sticker on the back of the Farrari Enzo?? And i don't see the T-plate on the back................

EK4> Hey you, what's up? :) I think the car maybe being set up for some kind of ghia race or something up in Zhuhai or something. "Dentro", the big sticker you see on the center of the back of the car, sponsored a few cars during the Macau Grand Prix weekend last month, so that's my guess. And as for the T-plate (T for Test, for the uninitated), it's on the right hand side. Again, the image is a little bit blurry, partly because of the relatively poor quality of the camera/phone, but mainly because I was all giddy with excitement over what had just transpired. :D
 
hlweyl said:
Great write up! Thx for sharing

Thanks, it's just not everyday that something like that happens, and it just prompted me to put pencil to paper (or fingers to keyboard, in this case). I wonder how long it'll be before someone else on this board runs into a Porsche Carrera GT or something. That would be majorly cool.

I think there's a Pagani Zonda S and also a Mercedes Benz CLK-GTR here in Hong Kong as well. Maybe I'll do some supercar stalking when I've got more time on my hands and let you guys know what comes of that later on. Cheers. :)
 
LeftLane said:
Lazarus - I hope you caught up to him and told him he was driving on the wrong side of the road!;) ;)

Hey, that's not a bad idea. Or maybe I should have said, "Pardon me, but you wouldn't happen to have any Grey Poupon, would you?" :D
 
I made a brief stop in Hong Kong during my 2 week vacation in Asia. During my stay there I did see 1 Modena, a 550 Maranello, and what looked like a 348. There was a 911 GT3 parked outside were I was staying. I did see '91-'93 NSX near Stanley's Market, and another in North Point.

Where does everyone find the money to afford these things? Or is it all through financing with money they don't have? Seriously, the streets are filled with these cars. Most of the people driving them looks like they are in their early twenties. Wages are at an all time low in Hong Kong, a lot less than here. HK College grads are sometimes getting paid $15K a year! (What my HK friends told me.):confused:

Even with my connections with Lee Ka Shing, I don't seem to recall anyone I personally know that drive these cars.

Must be someone wealthy whose primary work operations does not lie in Hong Kong.
 
RyRy210 said:
I made a brief stop in Hong Kong during my 2 week vacation in Asia. During my stay there I did see 1 Modena, a 550 Maranello, and what looked like a 348. There was a 911 GT3 parked outside were I was staying. I did see '91-'93 NSX near Stanley's Market, and another in North Point.

Where does everyone find the money to afford these things? Or is it all through financing with money they don't have? Seriously, the streets are filled with these cars. Most of the people driving them looks like they are in their early twenties. Wages are at an all time low in Hong Kong, a lot less than here. HK College grads are sometimes getting paid $15K a year! (What my HK friends told me.):confused:

Even with my connections with Lee Ka Shing, I don't seem to recall anyone I personally know that drive these cars.

Must be someone wealthy whose primary work operations does not lie in Hong Kong.

It's funny you should mention this, especially the part about your connections with Li Ka-shing, because one of Li's lieutenants, the managing director of one of his main subsidiaries, happens to own about 70 supercars, mostly located back in Ye Olde England and he keeps his cars in a huge paddock at a now-defunct airport which he bought many years ago solely for the purpose of blasting these cars down the runway as fast as he can. What a nutter. :D

Another one of Li's subsidiaries is run by total Ferrari fanatic who owns an absolutely mint (but yellow, hehe) Ferrari 246GT Dino and a perfectly restored Jaguar XK-E roadster in British racing green, and this is in addition to his collection of the run-of-the-mill F355s and whatnot. He keeps all his cars stored in these climate-controlled plastic bubbles and only takes them out when he has a 90% certainty the weather won't go bad on any particular day. He's got over a thousand Ferrari model cars in his office just to satisfy his lust for the marque. Gosh, and to think that some of the folks on this board are fanatical about their NSXs, this guy takes this whole thing to the next level. ;)
 
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Haha, I guess I don't have enough presence to make acquaintances with the people you just mentioned. Actually I met him through his son, so its not a direct connection so to speak.
 
I saw an Enzo in San Diego a few months ago. I did not much like the design of the car as see in pictures. But in person, WOW, I have changed my opinion. It is stunning.
 
Lazarus, I'm glad you mentioned the Macau Race. I have left HK for almost 10 ten yrs now, wondering if you know anywhere I can buy any videos recording or others VCD of something of the Macau Race???
 
check out the BMW club Hong Kong's website. They have a few video clips and tons of pictures of Macau races and ZhuHai races. You can find the site by google.
 
Lazarus said:
Impromptu Encounter with Ferrari Enzo
When I first read the name of this topic, I thought it said:

"Impromptu Encounter with Enzo Ferrari" :eek:

Which reminds me of the line from "Hotel California":

And I was thinking to myself, this could be heaven, or this could be hell...
 
As the author of this thread stated the sound really excited him,and I too have lasting memories of the sound of an f-50 as I drove behind and arround it at Bridgehampton LI before it closed!Sent shivers up and down the spine,amazing muffled f-1 sound.
 
I was just driving down Glencoe away from my home and a silver Enzo was heading in the opposite direction...scary (but highly doubtful) thought that someone in my neighborhood might own an Enzo. I was in a loaner TSX since my NSX is having its windshield and passenger window replaced.

And now that I've seen one in person I can honestly say that I don't like the look of it.
 
Amazing story. I find the story about Li Ka-shing more interesting though.

According to Forbes, he's made his money in real estate, telecommunications and energy. Sounds like a modern day Rockerfeller.

How on earth can some one build up $11 billion net worth in such a small island like Hong Kong?

And I'm also curious how there can be so many super cars in Hong Kong, where does the income come from?
 
NSX_Dreamer said:
Amazing story. I find the story about Li Ka-shing more interesting though.

According to Forbes, he's made his money in real estate, telecommunications and energy. Sounds like a modern day Rockerfeller.

How on earth can some one build up $11 billion net worth in such a small island like Hong Kong?

And I'm also curious how there can be so many super cars in Hong Kong, where does the income come from?

NSX Dreamer> Good question regarding how Li accumulated such wealth. He diversified, basically. Over 60% of his corporate income is derived from overseas sources, a good chunk of it from the Felixstowe port in the U.K., and remember, he also owns the biggest ports at either end of the Panama Canal. But those are relatively recent additions to his empire. Real estate is where he made his first real fortune, and from there on, he acquired what was to become his main subsidiary, Hutchison Whampoa (with quite a bit of help from HSBC) and the rest is history.

:)

As for your question about how there can be so many supercars here, well, it's simple. There is no middle class here. There are the rich and there are the poor. The rich, it turns out, are fabulously so, and tend to have more money than sense. So that's why you see Murcielagos and Diablos trundling along at 15 mph on congested roads here. Haha...
 
I was chatting with a Ferrari collector today who agreed to take me for a ride in his Enzo and 288 GTO!! I felt so excited I smiled all day thinking about it...I will let you guys know how it is. :)
 
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