The fabric of time

The new soft-top Roma Spider can trace its roots back 60 years to the 275 GTS that revolutionised front-engined Ferrari convertibles. Simon Hucknall drives them both

Not good. I've selected first in the 275 GTS's open gate and tried to pull away but the car won't budge. Back into neutral, then into gear again: build revs, release clutch... Still nothing. I feel the car's transmission loading but its handsome Borranis will not rotate one inch.

Must be something I've done, but I replay in my mind the drive we've just had - a steady 60mph cruise on an open A-road, with very little need to brake or even change gear - and it doesn't equate. A quick call to the GTS's keeper, though, and, 20 minutes later, utter relief: when I'd backed into this pub car park to get my bearings, the rear brake pads, which have a habit of expanding when warm, locked onto their discs, rendering the car immobile. While I'd been waiting they'd cooled, and £1.5 million worth of classic Ferrari was once again good to go.

I dare say that such a faux pas would never beset the Roma Spider that has joined us today. We've brought together these two Ferraris the 275 from 1964, the open Roma launched in the UK this year - because between them they bookend a 60-year period during which Maranello produced some of its most memorable front-engined drop-top cars.