Earlier on the month I was not here – that is to say not in the SEGA office, becuase I was on one of those incredibly rare things a SEGA  outing which I was able to go on!

In fact what it was, was something I myself (in effect) set up because I was on a plane heading for Bologna, Italy for the final leg of the OutRun The Rest competition we did for OutRun Online Arcade.  If you recall we held a competition for 360 owners to compete in a simple game of one-upmanship.  They had to get from the start to the GOAL in the fastest time possible on OutRun mode. Of course it soon came to be obvious certain combinations worked better and a good chunk of you were chucking out times left right and centre and even the well known OutRun racers were joining in.

This was paired with the mysterious Challenge SEGA driver, who looked nothing like me whatsoever, who was giving racers from all over the world the opportunity to play SEGA at their own game.  Those that beat Challenge SEGA AND won the race got a classicly styled OutRun t-shirt.

When the chequered flag fell on the main competition one man stood head and shoulders (and rear spoiler) above the competition – his name is Michael Legg but OutRunners know him as F40 or Red Scorpion and it was with him and his partner that I and a member of SEGA PR, Luisa (who happened to be Italian which was handy) joined on a British Airways night flight to Bologna Airport.

F40… With an F40 (and a copy of Coast 2 Coast)

After the flight (and absolutely shocking landing) there followed a rather long late night taxi journey to the hotel, I have to say myself and F40 were very upset by the taxi driver’s technique. He didn’t use the full width of the road, he didn’t drift, he didn’t use the slipstreams properly and he didn’t get close to busses and lorrys in order to accrue big scores.  Pff, amateur.

We were going to settle in to our hotel, when we realised just how far away we were from the Ferrari factory itself. How far would that be?

Ferrari By Night

This far. Across the road. Craziness!  Of course in the day time it appeared somewhat clearer.  See below – ironically as we were leaving we’d notice the roundabout between the hotel and factory had a massive silver prancing horse in the middle of it!

Ferrari By Day

So on to the trip, as winner of the competition F40 got a tour around the Galleria Ferrari – or the Ferrari museum to me and you, a gallery with untold history and adventure – and its the photos from that which I’ll be revealing soon including so many Ferrari cars you’ll struggle to keep your brain from imploding from the sheer number and value!