Polar expresS

A DROP-TOP FERRARI ON THE COLDEST DAY OF THE YEAR? ANDY ENRIGHT RUGS UP FOR A FRESH BLAST THROUGH SOUTH GIPPSLAND'S FINEST ROADS

- ANDY ENRIGHT

THE TECHNICAL TERM is an Antarctic vortex; a cold front dragging air from the south onto the windward side of the Great Dividing Range. Right now it's manifesting as intermittent rain at sea level, snow on the hills inland and is slashing sideways through the cabin of this Ferrari 296 GTS every time I crack the window open.

The mercury was barely above zero when I nursed the 296 out of the garage this morning, sneaking out at an ungodly hour in full EV mode. It feels languid and longlegged running on its 7.45kWh battery pack, despite the fact that you'll only get around 25km from a charge and enjoy acceleration that's Golf GTI standard at best. A red Ferrari's hardly low-key but you'll feel reassuringly smug that you're not playing up to every supercar owner stereotype by whirring along modestly.

Photographer Ellen Dewar's Outlander PHEV is waiting for me at Cape Paterson boat ramp. It's bright and blowy, the wind whistling in off the Bass Strait. We're not quite poking our nose out into the Roaring Forties here, but it feels like it, the bite of the wind genuinely wince-inducing. "Hood down" comes the inevitable instruction.

For some obscure reason that must have some sort of justification within the halls of Maranello, to make the hood lower, you pull the switch upwards and vice versa. I find this deeply troubling. Probably even more so than those idiotic sequential gearboxes that you prod forward to change up a gear. So, pull the roof switch up, and the folding hard top hinges back from your gently nestling thatch, the rear tonneau elevates and then it all settles back into position in around 14 seconds and at speeds of up to 45km/h.