Everyday. Stopped by Jason’s shop on Friday just to check and see the E30 since I hadn’t really looked at it since Roebling in May? Anyway as this blurry and poor camera pic shows he had a Ferrari 456 sitting in the shop. It was a 1995 with 23k miles and wouldn’t pass emissions. A new catalytic converter costs $8000 from the dealer. I ‘think’ this car cost maybe $225k when new? Anyway I talked Jason into a ride around the block. Lots of show, and no go. Granted its more of a touring car but still not that impressive. In typical Ferrari fashion the V12 exhaust did sound cool. So Jason schooled me on crossplane vs. flatplane crankshafts. The crossplane is a more ‘merican deal and gives the V8 its distinctive ‘burble’ sound or rumble. The flatplane allows a V8 to rev higher and is more of a racing spec, used by the Europeans notably Ferrari and Lotus. Ted also has a Testarossa in his shop waiting on a 160 hour ‘minor’ maintenance. Divide 160 by a 40hr work week. The lesson for today is – there is no such thing as a cheap Ferrari!
I hope that 160 hour service is “every 160 engine hours” and not the labor time!!! With your parade-wave driving style, that would be about a 5,000 mile service.
Interesting stuff about the crank design. I always wondered why the Ferrari V8 sounds so different compared to a domestic…
TODAY you learned that there is no suck thing as a cheap Ferrari? This seems to be a trend – lets call it the “there’s no such thing as a cheap ____” phase. Figure out a good wiring plan yet?