THE Ferrari Thread

[LateFan]

The '80s were a dark time for anything that wasn't a 288 or F40.

Exactly...look at those white shoes!

[ELVA164]

The 512TR is an interesting car though because it's probably the closest Ferrari has come to making a muscle car. Way too heavy (with handling to match), average brakes at best...but serious get-up-and-go.

[flyboyx]

testarossa? yes, those are really nice.

i would say ferrari has made quite a few muscle cars. 275 gtb/4's were around 300hp. that was in the 60's when the cars only weighed 2800ish lbs. daytona's had great power to weight ratio. what about the 550/575? front engine v12 around 500 hp. yes, they do weigh close to 4k lb, but 0-60 in 4.2 sec. thats fast enough to make someone who is faint of heart piss their pants.

on another note, i opened up an account on ferrarichat last week. i have spent lots of time over there learning and reading. i have to say that their forum is boring as hell. its dryer than s14. the members are stuffy old bastards. reading it makes me miss r3v.:eeek:

[The Dark Side of Will]

do it and drive it like this

You mean drive it through a green screen room and add some bad CGI later?

i called ferrari houston today. no....not to ask about the f40 dammit.

i wanted to know how much it costs to do a major service on a 550. oddly, it is much cheaper than i would have expected. the guy said it includes a synthetic oil change, timing belt replacement, tune up, brakes, checking all the diagnostics, resetting the codes if necessary, basically giving the car a complete once over and fixing whatever little things that usually go wrong with them. the service manager said a complete major service only costs about 1300-1800 bucks. they are so much cheaper than the mid engine cars because you don't have to pull the engine out to do any work to it.

i also called haggarty insurance to see what kind of rates i would be looking at. i selected 2000 miles a year, kept in a locked garage, a household of 2 owning 4 cars (still need to keep the Mtech as a daily and the f350 for construction), no tickets or accidents in the last 3 years.....the rate was only about 1500 bucks. once the car hits 20 years old, the rate would go down to less than half of this. (assuming an agreed value of around 75k)

normally, i would want to do all the maintenance on any car i own myself. i love working on my own cars. i am on the fence in this case though. a car like this seems to have more value when there is a good service history.....i wonder what would be the trade off?

so.....insurance and assuming a major service every 2 years, this equates to around 200.00/month in ownership cost. certainly tires will come into play at some point. clutch replacement. who knows what else.....

it seems crazy affordable for the amount of car you get.....

i was talking to my wife on the phone tonight. she asked when i was planning to fly up and look at the car i've had my eye on.

no problem

Parts receipts should cover the service history. '90's Ferraris aren't any more complicated than '90's cars from other marques... simpler in some ways because of the way economies of scale work out.

Doing your own work and not getting parts from the dealership is the "secret" to affordable Ferrari ownership.
Ricambi is one of the common mail order parts suppliers.

Check out the projects forum at www.ferrarilife.com for some nice 308 builds.

I have a 308 that I bought with no engine and the powertrain from a 348 TS. I'm going to get them together and have a party... but life gets in the way of cars sometimes, so they're in storage now.

[The Dark Side of Will]

one of the most important things i took from the conversation is that he mentioned service history is critical with a car like this. unless they are serviced by a ferrari dealer or a very renowned ferrari mechanic, most ferrari people won't buy it. he stated that unless good history is present with the sale of the car, you can expect it to be worth about 20% less than one that has it. i guess this means i won't be doing much work on a vehicle like this myself.

Interesting... gotta spend money to please the snobs, I guess.

he also stated that ferrari uses proprietary software for their engine management. in order to get access to it. you have to pay the mother ship about 25k a year. as a result, no one can diagnose the engine unless you have/pay for the software. this is one of the main reasons why it is apparently important to get the work done at a reputable place.

I can believe that for "extended PIDs", ABS computers and diagnostics of other vehicle systems via the databus, BUT I would be floored if it won't talk to a standard OBDII code reader to deliver the standard set of OBDII codes.

NOBODY gets to negotiate with the EPA. Not even Enzo.

[GillesBigCowboy]

Nothing like the Ferrari mythology. I am a believer!

[francogt1]

Lately i been thinking about selling my E30 M3 now that the prices are in the sky and dumping that money into a "real super car" Ferrari or Porsche 911.

I would be doing this only for investment reasons i don't think e30 M3 prices are going to continue to climb that much higher.

What do you guys think

[ThatOneEuroE30]

For clean examples e30 m3 prices will only get higher

[redsubdivisions]

sigh, some day, my dream car



I love Ferraris, I think they fall into the same class as BMWs with the stereotype of attention seeker/rich prick etc, but I think they are glorious drivers cars.

I'd love to say I will own an F40 some day, but realistically I will at least own a 348/355 or a Testarossa/512 TR sometime in the moderate future

Fuck yeah. Agreed 1,000%.

[bikerbill2021]

You mean drive it through a green screen room and add some bad CGI later?

I have a 308 that I bought with no engine and the powertrain from a 348 TS. I'm going to get them together and have a party... but life gets in the way of cars sometimes, so they're in storage now.

Neat, got any pics? If you dont mind me asking, how much did you pay for the 308? And the 348 power train? I want to know what I'm looking at, b/c realistically I'll most likely be purchasing a Ferrari that will need some work

This is a great thread. I love BMWs, but Ferrari is right up there with them, and I feel the two brands are very similar in many ways, mainly being great drivers cars that sadly have a rich/douchey stereotype, but when looked deeper, share a great culture behind them :up:

[SkiFree]

Figured some may appreciate this. From back in my design student days (circa 2008).

Downstairs Pininfarina HQ. Class was posing next to the 1:1 clay models of the 599 and Enzo. The teacher .... Mr. Castriota (in the center, top row).



Best priced F-car today would definitely be the 550/575.

Even found a spare hood for you .... (this was taken behind the Zanasi body shop).

[flyboyx]

^i agree with you about price point. 550/575 were the flag ship autos for the make during their years of production. (other than the unattainable enzo) there were only abou 3000 550's built and about 1500 575's. it really seems to be a lot of car for the money.

i have been doing lots of reading on the ferrari forums. i don't think the italian make has the reliability anywhere close to that of bmw and i do find this a bit worrisome. they have some fart smuckers over there that have come of with a few pretty ingeneous fixes to the car's shortcomings. (marranelo skunk works and scuidera rampart industries to name a couple)

the more i read, the more i think i will be doing my own service on the car i eventually buy.

[e30onBBSs]

An f40 would be so dope. that engine bay is :crazy::crazy::crazy:

[LateFan]

Columbo





(I love the spare spark plugs in their little holders)

[flyboyx]

Was gonna go look at another 550 in New York tomorrow. However, the dealer called today and said he took a deposit on it this morning. i had a guy lined up to do a ppi this week. ah well. things happen for a reason......

i was supposed to be finished with my trip today but the weather is too shitty here in the rio grand valley for airplanes to land. my flight canceled so i am stuck here for another day. turns out i wouldn't have made my flight anyway......