Blinded soldier Drives Ferrari 360 Modena Round Race Circuit

Ben Shaw Driving Ferrari 360 Modena

By Clinton Deacon
May 14, 2008 11:04 AM
Filed Under: European, Ferrari

A former soldier who lost sight in both his eyes whilst serving in Iraq achieved something special at the weekend by driving a Ferrari 360 Modena around the Knockhill race track in his native Scotland at speeds of up to 70mph. Brave Ben Shaw was cheered on by thousands of spectators during Motorfair, Scotland's biggest motor show and the former rally mechanic has some more impressive achievements ahead of him as he aims to eventually break the world blind land speed record which currently stands at 165mph on a motorbike.

A heart-warming story started when Ben's Battalion was hit by an unavoidable roadside bomb, he instantly lost one of his eyes, but unfortunately surgeons where unable to repair the damage to the optical nerve to his other eye, they did however manage to save his arm which was also badly injured.

It has now been more than a year since the incident took his sight and he now spends a lot of time raising money for charity and intends to start IT training with the RNIB for Jaws voice software.

Click here to read Ben's full story.

Source: Scotsman

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Comments

The_woo_factor

May 14, 2008 12:59 PM

With no disrespect to this blind soldier.....i would like to ask....HOW ON EARTH DO YOU DRIVE WHEN YOU ARE BLIND??? (without use of alcohol)

BabyMilo

May 14, 2008 1:27 PM

yeahh i agree... i wouldnt like 2 be in the passenger seat. no offence to the soldier

Spyshot-73

May 14, 2008 1:20 PM

Erm co-driver maybe?

ck314

May 14, 2008 4:45 PM

If he was silly enough to risk his life, and willing to take the life of many innocent civilians away for the sake of oil, greed and power disguised as patriotism, it means he was already blinded by brainwashing before this tragic incident disabled him for life.

Indykat

May 14, 2008 4:52 PM

ck314....i agree with all that you said except the civilain part...thats not very fair to accuse someone of something like that. Otherwise everything else was pretty much a fair assesment.....although he is not the first to do this.........Al Pacino in Scent of a woman did it......

ck314

May 14, 2008 6:09 PM

indykat, if you take into account what i said, youll realize im not accusing him by any means, since he was under brainwashing, but the bloodthirsty warlords that pulled the strings.. let us be realistic: when you join a professional army you are trained to kill, period.. just check out the number of civilian war casualties so far

Indykat

May 14, 2008 6:16 PM

Yes but what I meant to say and should have said was that this is a car forum , not the place for political views and such. Brainwashed or not ...implying that he was willing to take many civilian lives was still out of line.

ck314

May 14, 2008 6:38 PM

Dude, if he werent willing to he would have been the cook, or simply would have chosen another job. While it's true we need an army to protect ourselves from eventual exterior attacks, this was exactly the opposite, and is an inherent growing trend for as long as the world rulers are a gang of ruthless power addict psychopaths. And don't tell me these are unsolicited political views, because nowadays everything *is* politics, especially in the automotive industry. Like it or not.

Indykat

May 14, 2008 6:50 PM

LISTEN......this site is called WORLDCARFANS....its not an open mike political forum.I`m not saying i disagree with you, I simply said that there is a time and place for everything. This is not the time or the place.

ck314

May 14, 2008 7:02 PM

Sure buddy, yet I never saw you complain about WCF being a porn site for posting pics of half naked bimbos.

Indykat

May 14, 2008 7:16 PM

Half naked bimbos.....most of them are students just trying to put them selves through school. Why are you so aggressive? You need to relax a bit man.

ck314

May 14, 2008 7:21 PM

lol I'm the agressive one now! Some nerve... I highly doubt miss tuning 2008 has troubles with college fees, and don't try to attribute things to me i never said. Did I criticize the fact that WCF posts pictures of scant-dressed good looking girls? NO, I was simply making a parallelism with your alleged off topic complains.

Indykat

May 14, 2008 7:26 PM

I'm off topic?? yoÃ¹'re the one posting all the poilitical stuff about a a huge government oil conspiracy and then jumped to half naked women....I'm not attributing things to you just simply pointing them out.Perhaps you would like to bring up the excessive tire dumps across the nation and the lack of reclycling facilities.....see thats off topic, like everything else you wrote ...dont forget this article said Blind soldier drives around race circut.....not please leave a political statement!

ck314

May 14, 2008 8:00 PM

no, no can't you read?? it says your *alleged* off topic complains youre attributing to me.. well my comment was perfectly in sync with the article.. the fact that we mainly comment on car issues doesnt mean you cant make an incision related to the context, and here the context isnt a dude racing a ferrari around the track but a wounded soldier from irak that should have stayed home doing more productive things than fighting for oil, and which would have kept him healthy instead of disabled forever.. summing up: if that was offtopic, the entire article is

Pablomar69

May 14, 2008 7:44 PM

indykat, you're wasting your time. Its pretty obvious that ck314 has fully committed to breaking off on his tangent. Forget about him buddy, the rest of us are hear to talk cars.........

Blackeyes21

May 15, 2008 1:09 PM

There is time watch in his hand can he read time also.

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