Hollywood legend Paul Newman and speed demon Paul Newman on Thursday toured Ferrari's headquarters and tried out its latest top-of-the-range jewel. The 81-year-old star drove several laps in a 599 GTB Fiorano and appeared visibly excited as he stepped out of the flame-red sportscar.

Newman, whose own motor racing career started 45 years ago, was shown round the Ferrari factory and track by team chief Jean Todt. The screen icon first became interested in motorsport while shooting the 1968 film Winning. He said racing "was the first thing I ever found I had any grace in." He debuted on track in the early 1970s, won Le Mans in 1979, and in 1995, at the age of 70, became the oldest driver to drive for a winning team in a major event, the 24 Hours of Daytona.

He co-founded his own team in 1983 and still takes the wheel in the occasional race. Earlier on Thursday, Newman toured the site where his first Italian camp for seriously ill children is being built. "I'm thrilled. This is going to be the most beautiful camp of all," he said.

The camp, in the mountains above the Tuscan city of Pistoia, is being built by Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang Foundation - named after the bandits in his 1969 hit Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - and Italy's Fondazione Dynamo.
 

Thursday was Newman's first visit to the site, which will give kids a chance to take a break from hospital in beautiful natural surroundings, play with animals and take part in a range of other activities like fishing and bird-watching. The camp will soon have a theatre, gym, swimming pool and arts and crafts workshops. Newman's foundation, which is backed by other showbiz stars like Julia Roberts, Robin Williams and Paul McCartney, has eleven kids' camps dotted around the world from Ireland to Hungary and various African countries. They host a yearly average of 13,000 children for an average two weeks. The camps take in 7-15-year-olds with diseases like cancer, leukaemia and cystic fibrosis.

Report: ANSA