écurie25 held a glamorous launch event last night, to celebrate the Ferrari 458 Italia coming on the fleet. Tim Oldland was there for BOTB News located near the free bar…

I will admit, my head hurt a little this morning. But frankly, if your head doesn’t hurt after a launch party with a free bar – you’re not doing it right!

I arrived at écurie25′s London King’s Cross HQ at 18:30, and was greeted by an array of gorgeous supercars, including the Audi R8 V10 Spyder, a couple of Lamborghini Gallardos, a Nissan GTR, some Harley Davidsons, and a Ferrari California. These were periodically surrounded by models from one of the event sponsors in attendance. This also brought with it many many ‘fashionable’ people, some of whom i can only assume got dressed in the dark!

Utterly delicious canapés were being liberally consumed, as was free drink provided by another sponsor. As i walked around chatting to members i made sure i checked out the fantastic array of cars once more. I think when you see a Nissan GTR out on the road it looks fantastic, very purposeful and aggressive. Unfortunately a dull grey example in this exalted company just doesn’t cut the mustard! It looked overweight and a little bit dull next to the Gallardo Spyder and LP560/4 Coupe, which is a pity as they are amazing cars.

I very nearly incurred the wrath of my other half at one point, as i was very close to buying a rather expensive, but very nice B.R.M watch, who were also in attendance as sponsors. Luckily for my wallet, the unveiling interrupted the sale!

Membership Director Richard Thomas took the microphone and started the big reveal, and finally the sheet came off a stunning black Ferrari 458 Italia. This truly is the best looking Ferrari for many years – small, tightly formed, bursting with energy. The 400-strong crowd jostled around to try to get a look when the whole room was taking by surprise, by the unmistakable sound of the new 458 Italia’s flat-plane crank V8 engine being revved from behind them. Sure enough it turned out écurie25 had actually ordered two 458′s, and a Rosso Corsa red example drove into the HQ.

The crowd went wild as you would expect, at the sight of 2 of the newest Ferrari’s around (less than 10 RHD cars in the UK), and the crowds gathered around them for the rest of the night, with people sitting in them to have their photo taken. Others sat on the cars to have their photo taken though, which i must say is a pet hate of mine!

So all in all, a very successful night for écurie25, and one i won’t forget. Check out some photos from the event below:

So what do you think – are you fans of the 458 Italia? What do think of that man’s trousers?

Leave a comment below to let us know!