uk.jalopnik.com/5760248/how-ferrari-spins
Yes, I know it's in the paper but I went to the trouble of looking it up. Interesting. So I'll stick with the Passat for now.
John
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What does it really matter? 99.9 per cent of Ferraris never go anywhere anyway.
You should see them in Monaco - it's a sad joke. Blast of sound in the distance, a Ferrari (usually nearly or brand new) emerges from an underground car park, brap, brap brap it hares through Casino Square and round the block twice, then scuttles back underground. Ditto Lamborghinis, Aston Martins, Maseratis, etc. The Footballer VW Bentleys are the only ones that seem to be used as everyday cars, among the Fiat 500s and the Smarts.
I suppose it makes a change for a journo to face reality.
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I suspect the last reasonably usable Ferrari supercar was the Daytona. Even that cost a fortune to maintain. Its immediate ancestor, the much better looking (IMO) 275 GTB4, must have been an owner's nightmare. All four camshafts had to be replaced every 2,000 miles to keep it going properly. Perhaps Daytona ones were made of a harder grade of gorgonzola.
I see that recent big Ferraris have started looking decent again after the hideous wide flat mid- and rear-engined jobs of the eighties and nineties. But most of the ones people drive about in are the small 3 litre V8s. They make nice burbling and whanging noises. But what'll she do mister? She'll do her clutch in at the slip of a spud-faced nipper's metatarsal, that's what she'll do.
I often say I would fancy one of those superlight cart-sprung rear axle 1.5 litre V12 front-engined barchettas of the fifties. Six twin-choke downdraught Webers or Dellortos to literally tune with a stethoscope, what fun, and only 160-odd bhp too. But they are priceless icons now and probably a bit dangerous to drive. Still, I'd try to get one if I were Bill Gates. Apart from that though, and quite fancying a drive in any Ferrari actually, I haven't wanted a Ferrari for donkey's years.
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>> Too simple for you then AC?
You're being cruel Tooslow. That's an all-time favourite needless to say.
The sort of thing that makes me wish I'd put my money where my mouth was, just once...
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Sorry AC. I thought that sort of thing matched the general decsription you gave (and I've always admired them) but only 4 cylinders and what have you... :-)
John
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A110 was a great looker, and looked exactly like what it was: an essentially tail-happy, perfectly proportioned lightweight rare sporting car.
Later Renault Alpines and Renaults had a V6 in the tail and went faster but weren't really as purely sporting. A friend, a 911 man really, had one and said that after one very frightening experience he had to have an aftermarket splitter put under the nose to prevent the car from going straight on sometimes instead of turning in. A question of insufficiently developed aerodynamics.
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"insufficiently developed aerodynamics." - like many things back then. Not as much was known about aerodynamics then as now and there weren't the computers to try so many permutations. Just look at F1 or GT cars from the era. "Splitter" sounds like a later era addition rather than something contemporary?
From Wikiperia "due to the rear-mounted engine there was no air-intake grille on the front of the body. Cooling air was scooped from below the chassis and exhausted thru near-horizontal openings on the rear fenders above and aft of the rear wheels"
Probably got the idea from the Skoda Estelle ;-)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine_A110
John
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I saw 2 ferraris yesterday. An F40 that I see a few times in the warmer months and then a normal flat bodied wide thing. Couldn't tell you which one it was.
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 8 Mar 11 at 01:14
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Sounds about right.
Our publication had hassles recently over the california review we did...
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I like that Chris Harris, he's a really good competition driver and he's not bad at being a motoring journalist either.
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Ferrari aren't / weren't the only ones. The Autocar and The Motor magazines' tests of Jaguar's then-new E-type in 1961 were notorious for allegedly using uprated engines to reach the speed of 150mph in a car no-one else could get past 140.
www.aronline.co.uk/index.htm?etypestoryf.htm says: "There is strong evidence that motoring journalists were provided with either carefully blueprinted or tweaked engines in order to attain headline grabbing results in order to create the myth of the 150mph Jaguar E-type."
Last edited by: Dave_TD {P} on Sat 5 Mar 11 at 22:36
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emperors new clothes
innit
i took a short video in monaco last year as the police (1 to every 4 residents or something) removed 3 cars from the road near the ferrari shop,efficient,fast and the access road was cleared
wish this happened in blighty
oh and i loved the noise as the boys played with their toys
jealous?
oh yes
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A bike publication called New Motorcycling Monthly that appeared sometime in the seventies got round the problem of specially prepared test bikes by buying the bikes from showrooms, posing as ordinary customers. Their first issue featured the new Norton Commando and they were scathing about the weedy starter motor which was useless with a cold engine, the Commando then echoing the industry wide trend of also having a kick start.
IIRC they didn't carry advertising from manufacturers either. Too good to last though.
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£350,000 invested in apprenticeships in this country by ferrari
now thats nice news to read
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Ferrari, telling fibs? - Mike Hannon
