Club Scuderia
Club Administrator
Over last 10 months
Mileage: 5,930 miles
Faults: Faulty seat potentiometer
Loose oil pressure gauge connection
Bypass valve not opening fully
Immobiliser fault
Blowing manifold
Slow puncture
Temperamental starter
Broken headlight adjuster screw (my fault!)
Servicing/Maintenance: £1,566 (Fix bypass valve issue
Breakdown recovery
Refurbed manifold
Refurbed starter
Slow puncture fixed
Clutch lube
Replace headlight screw)
Upgrades: £3,703 (Momo Race steering wheel and associated bits
Capristo Exhaust
Immobiliser upgrade
Challenge Grill
Tubi test pipes)
03/2010
She's arrived! After much waiting (there were delays getting the fuel system recall done at Maranello's), I finally picked up the car from Mike Wheeler and Mike Lester at Rardley Motors, only 4 months after I started looking. It's a manual 1996 F355 Spider in Le Mans Blu/Crema previously owned by a Ferrari collector who had 2 other F355s(!) and 10 other Fcars apart from that....lucky man! Mike Wheeler has been very helpful throughout the buying process and had clearly spent a significant amount of time tracing the car's owner history through the DVLA to ensure it was as complete as possible. The few odds and sods highlighted by the PDI I had done (by Mike at QV) were quickly sorted. The only slight downer to the pick up experience was the fact that the hood decided to stop working the moment I arrived (actually, it only stopped in one direction!)....the Mikes both looked a somewhat embarrassed. After trying in vain to sort out the issue, they showed me how to trigger the roof manually and made arrangements for the car to be plugged into a diagnostic machine and be fixed soonest (turned out to be an unusually weird seat potentiometer issue)
Anyway, the drive back home up the A3 in the evening sunshine with the roof down was gorgeous, couldn't have been better and parking the car up at home, knowing she was all mine was an epic feeling
I've decided to name her Francesca btw. It may seem a little odd but I have a history of naming all my cars - Sabine the Porsche 996 C4S, Michela the Maser 4200, Sally the Honda S2000, Veronica the Renault Clio 172 Cup....the list goes on....!
So just to clarify, she is going to be used! She is my only car and hence my daily driver....it should make the monthly tinned goods run to Asda interesting
04/2010
Just got back from a 700 mile Easter road trip, car performed awesomely Even managed to average 21mpg despite good amounts of hoonage. A few minor issues have come to light including a few drips from the windows around the seals at the front (now strategically fixed with silicon) and the silly Italian driving position (being solved with new steering wheel when it arrives in the next day or so)
05/2010
I've had the car a couple of months now and nearly completed 2k almost faultless miles (oil pressure gauge insisted on registering well over the maximum pressure, turned out to be a loose connection in the dash) all done with a big smile on my face I managed to fit the steering wheel fine, it's significantly smaller than the original so the steering is nicely heavier at higher speeds. In town it's a tad too heavy I'd say, but I much prefer it this way and the higher speed stuff is what's important.
An issue also appeared that the exhaust bypass valve seemed not to be opening. I took it back to the dealer who had a check and a fiddle, and it definitely now is. I thought the on/off difference would be greater, but it appears that all these cars sound different, oh well! In the next few weeks another enthusiast has offered to help me check that all my vacuum lines are in good nick as this could potentially stop the valve opening fully if there's even the slightest leak.
07/2010
Okay, I finally caved to the peer pressure and had the old girl fitted with a Step 1 Capristo Epic fun so far, needs to bed in a bit, so hopefully the sound will get even better. Got to be careful with the right foot now so that I don't accidentally pedestrians in town a heart attack! Looking forward to trying it out in the alpine passes and tunnels on the summer road trip
10/2010
First update in 3 months, and what a pain in the backside they've been – nothing to do with the car itself mind, more insurance companies and an incompetent garage general manager. Oh, an an annoying immobiliser inflicted "breakdown" when trying to retrieve the car from Cannes in the Cote d'Azur....all will become clear in a sec. Anyway, to cut a very long and p!ss boiling story short, an 18 year old kid in France decided to remodel my rear bumper using his mate's Peugeot 206 near Cannes (while I was on a road trip) at the end of July. While I was stationary. It's taken 3 months to get the car repaired and back to Blighty, overwhelmingly due to an incompetence shown by my insurance company (PM me for the name) not seen since the charge of the Light Brigade was green-lighted. Anyway, the silver lining is that since the claim was no fault on my part, I told the Ferrari main dealer to go to town on the, really pretty minor, repairs – the end result being brand spanking new paintwork/panels on the back of the car, a Challenge Grill (for the princely sum of 230 European notes!) and an upgrade to a Step 2 Capristo They also fitted new wipers to boot as the ones I dropped it off with were definitely very streaky Just on paint work alone I reckon I'm up by £3k or so. Now if I get the front done to match, it'll look like it's just rolled out of the factory. Better go and shake the piggy bank to see what's available.
The other silver lining of this episode is that I got to drive the Route Napoleon with a friend while bringing Francesca home. The weather was fantastic there, and all up through France so roof down all the way. We even made a side trip to the Circuit de Gueux for some flyby videos If you want to have a look, they're on You Tube – I'm user Mario149149. We completed 900+ miles from Cannes to London in less than 36 hours, awesome.
01/2011
Well, the car spent its Christmas at my mechanic's garage having Tubi test pipes fitted and a few other odds and sods dealt with including a refurbed manifold and starter – all for an incredibly reasonable price I might add. It's amazing, even having the car gone for 3 weeks in the middle of winter when I couldn't even drive it had me missing it! Anyway, based on the 10 mile schlep back across town in traffic, I can report that despite now running test pipes (so volume has increased slightly) and a step 2 Capristo, the car is not offensively loud from inside the cabin. I was a bit worried I was taking a gamble with the pipes, but it's all good so far. Now I just need to get it out over the weekend and see if there is any improved throttle response and maybe a bit more (imagined?!) oomph. I'm guessing if I'm going to feel anything it'll be in the mid range before the bypass valve opens, but we'll see. I think I'll need to take a friend along in a chase car behind me: I'm now hoping for some exhaust flame action
So the car is due a annual plus 50k big service in March. I think that at the same time I'm going to have the headlights upgraded to xenons as I'm getting quite annoyed when driving it in the dark. I'm also contemplating having the seats re-trimmed and maybe a few other interior bits re-trimmed/reconnolised. Problem is I don't want to have the car off the road for 2-3 weeks in summer. I might try and get it done while I'm abroad for a few weeks in July/August.
First day home after picking her up!
Wales Easter road trip
New steering wheel, I cannot recommend it enough
Weekend hoon with friends after Supercar Breakfast Club
London FGear meet
London FGear meet
Summer road/camping trip (Calais)
Summer road/camping trip (Le Mans)
Alps between Nice and Monaco
France on way home after picking Francesca up after summer incident (somewhere near Dijon I think)
France on way home after picking Francesca up (Circuit de Gueux)
France on way home after picking Francesca up (final leg home, my mate in photo)
Mileage: 5,930 miles
Faults: Faulty seat potentiometer
Loose oil pressure gauge connection
Bypass valve not opening fully
Immobiliser fault
Blowing manifold
Slow puncture
Temperamental starter
Broken headlight adjuster screw (my fault!)
Servicing/Maintenance: £1,566 (Fix bypass valve issue
Breakdown recovery
Refurbed manifold
Refurbed starter
Slow puncture fixed
Clutch lube
Replace headlight screw)
Upgrades: £3,703 (Momo Race steering wheel and associated bits
Capristo Exhaust
Immobiliser upgrade
Challenge Grill
Tubi test pipes)
03/2010
She's arrived! After much waiting (there were delays getting the fuel system recall done at Maranello's), I finally picked up the car from Mike Wheeler and Mike Lester at Rardley Motors, only 4 months after I started looking. It's a manual 1996 F355 Spider in Le Mans Blu/Crema previously owned by a Ferrari collector who had 2 other F355s(!) and 10 other Fcars apart from that....lucky man! Mike Wheeler has been very helpful throughout the buying process and had clearly spent a significant amount of time tracing the car's owner history through the DVLA to ensure it was as complete as possible. The few odds and sods highlighted by the PDI I had done (by Mike at QV) were quickly sorted. The only slight downer to the pick up experience was the fact that the hood decided to stop working the moment I arrived (actually, it only stopped in one direction!)....the Mikes both looked a somewhat embarrassed. After trying in vain to sort out the issue, they showed me how to trigger the roof manually and made arrangements for the car to be plugged into a diagnostic machine and be fixed soonest (turned out to be an unusually weird seat potentiometer issue)
Anyway, the drive back home up the A3 in the evening sunshine with the roof down was gorgeous, couldn't have been better and parking the car up at home, knowing she was all mine was an epic feeling
I've decided to name her Francesca btw. It may seem a little odd but I have a history of naming all my cars - Sabine the Porsche 996 C4S, Michela the Maser 4200, Sally the Honda S2000, Veronica the Renault Clio 172 Cup....the list goes on....!So just to clarify, she is going to be used! She is my only car and hence my daily driver....it should make the monthly tinned goods run to Asda interesting
04/2010
Just got back from a 700 mile Easter road trip, car performed awesomely
Even managed to average 21mpg despite good amounts of hoonage. A few minor issues have come to light including a few drips from the windows around the seals at the front (now strategically fixed with silicon) and the silly Italian driving position (being solved with new steering wheel when it arrives in the next day or so)05/2010
I've had the car a couple of months now and nearly completed 2k almost faultless miles (oil pressure gauge insisted on registering well over the maximum pressure, turned out to be a loose connection in the dash) all done with a big smile on my face
I managed to fit the steering wheel fine, it's significantly smaller than the original so the steering is nicely heavier at higher speeds. In town it's a tad too heavy I'd say, but I much prefer it this way and the higher speed stuff is what's important.An issue also appeared that the exhaust bypass valve seemed not to be opening. I took it back to the dealer who had a check and a fiddle, and it definitely now is. I thought the on/off difference would be greater, but it appears that all these cars sound different, oh well! In the next few weeks another enthusiast has offered to help me check that all my vacuum lines are in good nick as this could potentially stop the valve opening fully if there's even the slightest leak.
07/2010
Okay, I finally caved to the peer pressure and had the old girl fitted with a Step 1 Capristo
Epic fun so far, needs to bed in a bit, so hopefully the sound will get even better. Got to be careful with the right foot now so that I don't accidentally pedestrians in town a heart attack! Looking forward to trying it out in the alpine passes and tunnels on the summer road trip10/2010
First update in 3 months, and what a pain in the backside they've been – nothing to do with the car itself mind, more insurance companies and an incompetent garage general manager. Oh, an an annoying immobiliser inflicted "breakdown" when trying to retrieve the car from Cannes in the Cote d'Azur....all will become clear in a sec. Anyway, to cut a very long and p!ss boiling story short, an 18 year old kid in France decided to remodel my rear bumper using his mate's Peugeot 206 near Cannes (while I was on a road trip) at the end of July. While I was stationary. It's taken 3 months to get the car repaired and back to Blighty, overwhelmingly due to an incompetence shown by my insurance company (PM me for the name) not seen since the charge of the Light Brigade was green-lighted. Anyway, the silver lining is that since the claim was no fault on my part, I told the Ferrari main dealer to go to town on the, really pretty minor, repairs – the end result being brand spanking new paintwork/panels on the back of the car, a Challenge Grill (for the princely sum of 230 European notes!) and an upgrade to a Step 2 Capristo
They also fitted new wipers to boot as the ones I dropped it off with were definitely very streaky Just on paint work alone I reckon I'm up by £3k or so. Now if I get the front done to match, it'll look like it's just rolled out of the factory. Better go and shake the piggy bank to see what's available.The other silver lining of this episode is that I got to drive the Route Napoleon with a friend while bringing Francesca home. The weather was fantastic there, and all up through France so roof down all the way. We even made a side trip to the Circuit de Gueux for some flyby videos
If you want to have a look, they're on You Tube – I'm user Mario149149. We completed 900+ miles from Cannes to London in less than 36 hours, awesome.01/2011
Well, the car spent its Christmas at my mechanic's garage having Tubi test pipes fitted and a few other odds and sods dealt with including a refurbed manifold and starter – all for an incredibly reasonable price I might add. It's amazing, even having the car gone for 3 weeks in the middle of winter when I couldn't even drive it had me missing it! Anyway, based on the 10 mile schlep back across town in traffic, I can report that despite now running test pipes (so volume has increased slightly) and a step 2 Capristo, the car is not offensively loud from inside the cabin. I was a bit worried I was taking a gamble with the pipes, but it's all good so far. Now I just need to get it out over the weekend and see if there is any improved throttle response and maybe a bit more (imagined?!
) oomph. I'm guessing if I'm going to feel anything it'll be in the mid range before the bypass valve opens, but we'll see. I think I'll need to take a friend along in a chase car behind me: I'm now hoping for some exhaust flame action So the car is due a annual plus 50k big service in March. I think that at the same time I'm going to have the headlights upgraded to xenons as I'm getting quite annoyed when driving it in the dark. I'm also contemplating having the seats re-trimmed and maybe a few other interior bits re-trimmed/reconnolised. Problem is I don't want to have the car off the road for 2-3 weeks in summer. I might try and get it done while I'm abroad for a few weeks in July/August.
First day home after picking her up!
Wales Easter road trip
New steering wheel, I cannot recommend it enough
Weekend hoon with friends after Supercar Breakfast Club
London FGear meet
London FGear meet
Summer road/camping trip (Calais)
Summer road/camping trip (Le Mans)
Alps between Nice and Monaco
France on way home after picking Francesca up after summer incident (somewhere near Dijon I think)
France on way home after picking Francesca up (Circuit de Gueux)
France on way home after picking Francesca up (final leg home, my mate in photo)
