Kate Bush and the Ferrari 308 GTS

Ah Stranger Things. Netflix’s runaway hit show has entered pop culture on many levels.

We’ve already discussed Steve Harrington’s burgundy rot E23 BMW 7 Series.

And we’ve un-ironically drooled over the Russian-designed and built UAZ 452 ‘Bread Loaf’ Transporter that’s also featured in the hit show.

But, one of the unintended impacts of Stranger Things 4 has been the resurgence of 1970s and 80s pop goddess, Kate Bush.

Thanks to the show’s use of her 1985 hit Running Up That Hill from her fifth studio album, Hounds of Love, the reclusive Bush is again topping the charts.

An entirely new generation of fans is discovering the delights of Kate Bush’s music, propelling Running Up That Hill to the top of the pops, the song officially Number One on the music charts in the UK, USA and even back here in Australia.

Bush herself has expressed shock at the song’s runaway success nearly 40 years after it was first released, telling the BBC in a recent interview, “just extraordinary… quite shocking really, isn’t it? I mean, the whole world’s gone mad.”

She added: “It’s such a great series, I thought that the track would get some attention. But I just never imagined that it would be anything like this.”

Bush has remained steadfastly private since storming to the top of the music world in 1978 with her classic hit, Wuthering Heights. Aged just 19 at the time, Bush has gone on to sell millions of albums in a career spanning six decades.

Just days after the release of Wuthering Heights in 1978 Bush flew to Italy for a promotional photo shoot with Italian photographer Angelo Deligio. As well as a raft of evocative studio shots, Deligio captured Bush striking a confident pose in front of a yellow Ferrari 308 GTS.

Little else is known about this specific car, but in researching the origins of this iconic Bush image, we stumbled across another Ferrari with direct links to the famed singer-songwriter.

According to the UK’s Cotswold Car Broker, which sold this stunning example of a Ferrari 348, the original owner was listed as none other than Kate Bush who bought the car new in 1993.

It’s believed the L10 WOW registration plate is a reference to Bush’s song of the same name (Wow) from her 1978 album Lionheart (L10). Bush reportedly then gifted the car to her sound engineer.

The Ferrari 348, designed by Pininfarina, was powered by Maranello’s 3.4-litre V8 making 221kW and 324Nm. Power was sent to the rear wheels via a five-speed manual transmission. When hooked up, the 348 was capable of hitting 100km/h from standstill in a fraction over 6.0 seconds along the way to a top speed of 267km/h.

Following on from its first registration to on 24 September 1993 to one Catherine Bush, this particular 348 has been through several changes of ownership. We can only hope the current owner sometimes slips Hounds of Love into the 348’s CD player and hums along to Running Up That Hill as that glorious Ferrari V8 howls just behind their ears.

(Photos by Angelo Deligio/Mondadori/Getty Images and Cotswold Car Broker)