urbanmaser
Member
- Messages
- 2,911
My first and last encounter with Ferrari ownership came in 1976.
At the time I owned an Alfa Montreal, which whilst had supercar attributes like 2.5 V8 and drop dead gorgeous looks, never felt quite as raw as it looked.
Then one day when browsing the classifieds in the Sunday Times I chanced upon an add for a 1974 Ferrrari 308GT4 which had covered 4,000 miles and had full Maranello service history. The car was being sold privately by a Greek shipping magnate in Kensington and priced at £7,000.
I went to see it and fell in love with it there and then. A quick phone call to Maranello confirmed the car's history and within 24 hours I was weaving my way through London traffic in my very first supercar.
250 bhp 3 litre V8 0 to 60 in 6.8 seconds and a top speed of 150 mph..........in the seventies this was truly supercar performance.
My love affair with the car was short lived when it came to the first service ( service intervals every 3,000 miles). A routine service at Maranello cost me an eye watering £1500
If ya paid that today you would think OMG but back in 1976 that was extortionate.
My biggest mistake was thinking that I could use this car as my everyday transport. Much of the time it would be running on only one bank of cylinders spitting and coughing in heavy traffic - those Weber carbs were murder to keep balanced and in tune.
The real nightmare came when deciding to do a driving holiday with her indoors to South of France for the annual vacation. From day one my wife was complaining that there were drops of water coming into the car on the passenger side. I never paid much attention to it and thought it was probably just surplus water from careless use of the hosepipe when washing it.
We arrived in Cannes and the first couple of days went smoothly enough until suddenly the clutch began to slip The car was taken into Ferrari in Cannes and after 4 days was returned to me with a new clutch and an accompanying FAT BILL.
The evening it was returned we were on our way out to dinner. I put it into reverse gear and CRUNCH.......it refused to engage. The only way I could get it into reverse was to turn the engine off, engage reverse and start the car with my foot down on the clutch. I phoned Ferrari to complain, they picked up the car and took it away. "No problem monsieur" their service manager told me " All we had to do was make a small adjustment and everything is ok now"
Driving back to London on the Autoroute and suddenly the headlights started popping up and down one at a time - winking. I pull over and even with the ignition off the winking continues. I had to disconect the lights to stop it.
I continue on with the journey and then just outside of Paris the water temperature starts climbing into the danger zone. I pull over with steam everywhere and wait on the roadside till the car cools down. I managed to get enough water to replace the low level and I limped into Ferrari in Paris.
After waiting in the garage for several hours I am told that the winking headlights were as a result of a blown relay and the overheating was because the fuse for the cooling fan had also blown.
By this time my wife was getting very irrate and I decided that I would just get back to London and get the car sorted out at Maranello and I continue with the last leg of my journey to Calais.
Just outside of Calais and both my wife an I start coughing. The car starts to fill with a putrid acidic stench and we begin choking. I pull over and call out a local garage to assist. The breakdown guy tells me that the alternator is screwed and that the battery cooked as a result. He tells us that the only way we can get back to London is to disconect the alternator and to buy a new baterry - the juice from a new battery without the alternator would be sufficient to get us back to London.
Eventually, we arrive home. The next day the car is picked up by Maranello. It turns out that the blown relay which caused the winking headlights and the blown fuse for the cooling fan were caused by a kink in the drainage pipe for the air con.This caused water to run into the passenger footwell which is where the fuses and relays are housed. The water my wife had been complaining about at the beginning of the holiday was actually from the blocked drain for the air con. The blown alternator was also as a result of the water soaking the fuses and relays.
The final straw was when I am told that I need a new clutch When I pointed out that I had just had one fitted in Cannes they said that it had been fitted incorrectly and was burned out because it was adjusted to be permanently engaged. When the adjustment was returned to the correct setting guess what.........you could not get the car into reverse. Maranello in Egham replaced the clutch and sorted the car out for me. This cost me another fortune.
As soon as I got the car back I advertised it and sold it swearing I would never buy another Ferrari again. Whilst I got £7,000 for the car which is what I paid for it in the first place, less than one year of ownership had cost me £6,000 in servicing and clutches and tyres.
All that was over thirty years ago and time heals. Ferraris road cars of today under Fiat are a different proposition with much higher levels of quality control to survive in a a highly competitive market. Fixed price servicing was introduced and I would say that from the 355 onwards quality improved in leaps and bounds.
I know that today a 308GT4 can be had for Mondeo money but I would urge great caution in buying one of these cars and to get it thoroughly checked out before purchasing. Unless I was particularly unlucky, you have to budget big bucks to keep one of these babies running sweet.
With all that my dream is still to have a 599 and perhaps a Daytona for sunny weekends. There is something magical about Ferrari and that magic has stronger power than common sense.
At the time I owned an Alfa Montreal, which whilst had supercar attributes like 2.5 V8 and drop dead gorgeous looks, never felt quite as raw as it looked.
Then one day when browsing the classifieds in the Sunday Times I chanced upon an add for a 1974 Ferrrari 308GT4 which had covered 4,000 miles and had full Maranello service history. The car was being sold privately by a Greek shipping magnate in Kensington and priced at £7,000.
I went to see it and fell in love with it there and then. A quick phone call to Maranello confirmed the car's history and within 24 hours I was weaving my way through London traffic in my very first supercar.
250 bhp 3 litre V8 0 to 60 in 6.8 seconds and a top speed of 150 mph..........in the seventies this was truly supercar performance.
My love affair with the car was short lived when it came to the first service ( service intervals every 3,000 miles). A routine service at Maranello cost me an eye watering £1500
If ya paid that today you would think OMG but back in 1976 that was extortionate.My biggest mistake was thinking that I could use this car as my everyday transport. Much of the time it would be running on only one bank of cylinders spitting and coughing in heavy traffic - those Weber carbs were murder to keep balanced and in tune.
The real nightmare came when deciding to do a driving holiday with her indoors to South of France for the annual vacation. From day one my wife was complaining that there were drops of water coming into the car on the passenger side. I never paid much attention to it and thought it was probably just surplus water from careless use of the hosepipe when washing it.
We arrived in Cannes and the first couple of days went smoothly enough until suddenly the clutch began to slip
The car was taken into Ferrari in Cannes and after 4 days was returned to me with a new clutch and an accompanying FAT BILL. The evening it was returned we were on our way out to dinner. I put it into reverse gear and CRUNCH.......it refused to engage. The only way I could get it into reverse was to turn the engine off, engage reverse and start the car with my foot down on the clutch. I phoned Ferrari to complain, they picked up the car and took it away. "No problem monsieur" their service manager told me " All we had to do was make a small adjustment and everything is ok now"
Driving back to London on the Autoroute and suddenly the headlights started popping up and down one at a time - winking. I pull over and even with the ignition off the winking continues. I had to disconect the lights to stop it.
I continue on with the journey and then just outside of Paris the water temperature starts climbing into the danger zone. I pull over with steam everywhere and wait on the roadside till the car cools down. I managed to get enough water to replace the low level and I limped into Ferrari in Paris.
After waiting in the garage for several hours I am told that the winking headlights were as a result of a blown relay and the overheating was because the fuse for the cooling fan had also blown.
By this time my wife was getting very irrate and I decided that I would just get back to London and get the car sorted out at Maranello and I continue with the last leg of my journey to Calais.
Just outside of Calais and both my wife an I start coughing. The car starts to fill with a putrid acidic stench and we begin choking. I pull over and call out a local garage to assist. The breakdown guy tells me that the alternator is screwed and that the battery cooked as a result. He tells us that the only way we can get back to London is to disconect the alternator and to buy a new baterry - the juice from a new battery without the alternator would be sufficient to get us back to London.
Eventually, we arrive home. The next day the car is picked up by Maranello. It turns out that the blown relay which caused the winking headlights and the blown fuse for the cooling fan were caused by a kink in the drainage pipe for the air con.This caused water to run into the passenger footwell which is where the fuses and relays are housed. The water my wife had been complaining about at the beginning of the holiday was actually from the blocked drain for the air con. The blown alternator was also as a result of the water soaking the fuses and relays.
The final straw was when I am told that I need a new clutch
When I pointed out that I had just had one fitted in Cannes they said that it had been fitted incorrectly and was burned out because it was adjusted to be permanently engaged. When the adjustment was returned to the correct setting guess what.........you could not get the car into reverse. Maranello in Egham replaced the clutch and sorted the car out for me. This cost me another fortune.As soon as I got the car back I advertised it and sold it swearing I would never buy another Ferrari again. Whilst I got £7,000 for the car which is what I paid for it in the first place, less than one year of ownership had cost me £6,000 in servicing and clutches and tyres.
All that was over thirty years ago and time heals. Ferraris road cars of today under Fiat are a different proposition with much higher levels of quality control to survive in a a highly competitive market. Fixed price servicing was introduced and I would say that from the 355 onwards quality improved in leaps and bounds.
I know that today a 308GT4 can be had for Mondeo money but I would urge great caution in buying one of these cars and to get it thoroughly checked out before purchasing. Unless I was particularly unlucky, you have to budget big bucks to keep one of these babies running sweet.
With all that my dream is still to have a 599 and perhaps a Daytona for sunny weekends.
There is something magical about Ferrari and that magic has stronger power than common sense.
Last edited:
