The privilege of driving a Ferrari is something that should never taken for granted. No matter how many times you take the seat and start the engine you should always make a mental note that you are enjoying a wonderful piece of engineered art. Like Barry Cohen you may have a moment in your life when you first fell in love with Ferrari? This is his story about his first Ferrari experience.

Barry Cohen, 60, is the founder and co-CEO of San Rafael, California-based Luminox watches, on his Ferrari 550 Maranello, he tells his story to  A.J. Baime:

When I was 12 growing up in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., I heard a sound that changed my life forever. I was in my house awaiting a friend and his father to pick me up when they arrived in a Ferrari 275 GTB—one of the most exotic sports cars of the 1960s. The purr of the V12 engine was intoxicating. It was like I was drunk on the sound. When I squeezed into the front seat (there were only two) and we pulled away, my dream took root. I was too young to understand what made a Ferrari so special, but I knew that someday, I had to have one.

The more I learned about this car, the more I wanted to know—how a man named Enzo Ferrari  created a company in bombed-out Italy after World War II turning out the fastest automobiles in the world. I read in Road & Track about cool guys like James Coburn driving their Ferraris around California.

It took years to make my dream come true. In 2001, I bought a 1998 Ferrari 550 Maranello, a front-engine V12 model in the same lineage as the 275 GTB I first fell in love with.

Now I own 3 Ferraris. Every time I drive them, the sense of wonderment I experienced as a child returns.

Source : The Wall Street Journal – Business Section