THE sound of thunder boomed around Cadwell Park racetrack when Ferrari fan and Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason got into top gear.

His Ferrari 512 – worth a cool £1.5-million – tore round the track at up to 150mph, powered by its 600bhp engine.

It was a welcome return to Cadwell for motor sport racer Nick, who flew to Lincolnshire in his custom-painted Squirrel helicopter from London.

His treasured Ferrari was used in the Steve McQueen movie Le Mans in a crash scene, and also driven by legendary racing drivers Mario Andretti, Ronnie Peterson and Arturo Merzario.

Its wreckage was lovingly restored thanks to Nick (65).

The car – which has 12 cylinders and is capable of 200mph – was driven around Cadwell by motoring journalist and racing driver Mark Hales to take part in a comparison test drive with a £2.4-million Porsche 917, owned by former racing driver David Piper.

Mark co-authored a best-selling book with Nick, called Into The Red.

Nick said: “I have raced with the Vintage Sports Car Club, which comes here regularly. I raced a Bugatti.

“It is a great circuit and it’s so nice to see the infrastructure looked after so well.

“The car is a fairly fierce bit of kit and was made for 1,000km races such as Le Mans.

“With a small wing at the back, it is particularly exciting to drive.”

Nick was introduced to motor sport by his father and documentary film maker Bill Mason 60 years ago.

He was a regular visitor to Grands Prix while Bill made films on motor sport for oil giant Shell.

He said: “Formula One is such a technical sport that 90 per cent of the contest is missed by viewers.

“It could possibly do with more information for viewers about how the fuel calculations are made and how the teams always watch each other.”

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