Giles’ 360 Modena on-line scrapbook

[giles]

Today I have taken my summer (original) set of wheels in for refurb to Lepsons in Wolverhampton. They offer a basic 2 stage powered coat then lacquer finish £50/wheel (special offer up till the end of Jan) or the 3 stage, powder coat, wet paint then lacquer OEM finish for £70/wheel. In addition to that they have special finishes like a chrome look or satin finish. I’m tempted with the OEM silver special finish, which of course will be a bit more than £70 per wheel.
The example wheels in their reception looked absolutely superb, so fingers crossed mine will come out ok
Cheers, Giles

 

[giles]

Hi Folks,
I’ve done a few miles now on the winter tyres. Initial impressions are good. Instantly could notice the much more compliant ride (I guess softer sidewalls?) and much quieter on the road. So NVH is a big plus. They appear to grip well at cold temps although slip can be easily induced activating the ASR intervention (have I got those letters right?). Not had any snow as yet, it’s a pretty rare thing in the U.K., so can’t comment on that. Wet road handling seems really good and it handles standing water very well.
One thing that I’m really surprised at is, well, it’s hard to describe, but I’ll have a go. On the summer tyres when on full lock at walking pace or slower, you get a lumpy slip on the tyres, it sounds awful and you can feel it through the steering wheel, but it’s to do with the geometry, my GT4 did it too. But with these winter tyres it just doesn’t do it whatsoever. It’s a binary thing, it did it every morning as I left my drive without fail, now with the winters it never does it.
For info the fronts go from 215/45/18 to 225/40/18
The rears go from 275/40/18 to 265/40/18
A bit wider at the front a bit narrower at the rear.
The summer set of wheels and tyres should be ready by the weekend

A great bonus with the new world of working from home is when you do go in to work the multi story car park at work is empty!



Suspension looks lop sided, it not, the floor is not as flat as it looks! Check those winters out!
Cheers, Giles

 

[giles]

Hi Folks,
Today I picked up my set of summer wheels and tyres after getting refurbished at Lepsons in Wolverhampton. First impressions are very good, the finish is excellent with only the most minor of inclusions or variability in cosmetic appearance. The cost was £280 plus £10 to scrap my spent tyres (£2.50 per tyre).
The colour is very good, I think it’s spot on with a bright silver finish (they call it OE Sport Silver). The metallic sparkle is a touch too sparkly with a little too much silver metallic fleck in the paint, mindful that this refurb is a 3 stage process, powder coat, wet paint then lacquer (as apposed to the winter set of wheels which were just powder coat and lacquer).
I’ll get some photos of the wheels on the car towards the end of March, but these are the wheels as picked up today from the refurbers…. well the front wheels as I’m too ashamed to show the rears with, how do I say(?),…. budget tyres (where is the ashamed emoji! )




Not sure if I have anything else planned for a while, it’s all pretty good at the mo, famous last words!
Cheers, Giles

 

[Nosevi]

Not sure if I have anything else planned for a while, it’s all pretty good at the mo, famous last words!

They look good, Giles, and that's less than I thought it'd be.

Re your last comment you're a brave man committing to something like that.

 

[sssdu01]

Giles I thought you were a Pirelli man ?? be interested to see what you think of the super Sports once they are run in

 

[giles]

Giles I thought you were a Pirelli man ?? be interested to see what you think of the super Sports once they are run in

Yes, I would like to run only the OEM Pirelli P-Zero’s but they couldn’t get them, they batch build and when I needed them they didn’t have any. So this set is what came off the second set of alloys I bought (well 3 are, 1 tyre I had to buy to match the other budget rear tyre).
My intention is to replace the budgets with Michelin Pilot Sport 5’s (to match the fronts) when needed. It appears availability of the Michelin tyres is much better than the P-Zero’s and I’ve heard good things about them.
My 488 runs Michelin Super Sports, and they are a great tyre
Cheers, Giles

 

[Mark Blanchard]

They look great and that's a superb price. Down here in the South Oxfordshire / Berkshire area it would be double that.

 

[Kyodo]

They look great and that's a superb price. Down here in the South Oxfordshire / Berkshire area it would be double that.

And that's why I haven't had my Boxster wheels done!

 

[A348W]

Looks good Giles.

For us in the west country tpcs-magnesium-refurbs.co.uk

He has done various components over the years for me; with my 355 magnesium rims going in next year for powdercoating.

 

[giles]

They look great and that's a superb price. Down here in the South Oxfordshire / Berkshire area it would be double that.

I understand there is a Lepsons in the south too, although not sure if they have the same prices as the Wolverhampton unit.
Regarding the quality of the refurb, these wheels will be Spring, Summer and Autumn only so no real chance to test the finish to a full-on British winter.
Cheers, Giles

 

[giles]

Today, just your usual tip run in your usual tip run car!

The front luggage compartment on the 360 is good for 40 litres of used engine oil, perfect!

With the occasional overnight frost we have had plenty of salt down on the roads so the car has been pretty filthy lately.


So as soon as I got home, out with the Maguires Gold Class shampoo and gave it a wash.



I have been thinking about upgrading the audio with a flip out Apple car play type Pioneer head unit, can’t quite bring myself to do it as the Ferrari Becker radio just looks correct/appropriate.
I get around not having a modern head unit by using a good Bluetooth transmitter. I say ‘good’ because I’ve tried cheap ones and they are hopeless. The device I have can Bluetooth my phone radio/music or a USB Memory stick and works really well.
The multi 12v power accessory is switched on and off at the vehicle’s cigar lighter plug in lead. Double sided tape holds the 12v adaptor on the side of the centre console. Down sides are, ugly, cigar lighter swing open cover needs to be permanently open, you need to remember to switch it off as the cigar lighter is permanently live and also if you switch the ignition on without turning the 12v multi sockets on you get white noise static from the radio.

No drinks holders in the 360 but a 500ml bottle fits snugly behind each of the seatbelt buckle, see photo. Plus the gorilla.

 

[Mark Blanchard]

Hi Giles,

I hope you don't mind me asking but are those your car ports / canopy's on the right of the above photo? I'm wanting to get some just like that, do you know who makes them please?

Thanks for your time.

Mark.

 

[giles]

Hiya Mark,
Yes, that’s my double carport, aka tent in the front garden! Connie just loves seeing these every time we get home! (Head in hands emoji!)
The company to use is Gala-Tents and you are looking for their biggest diameter frame Pro 50 or such like. Essentially it is the most expensive one they do, the 6m x 3m one was about £600 from memory, the 4.5m x 3m one was about £500. However, it will come with a green (you can pick your colour) lightweight canopy which will fail in about 3 years. The best quality replacement is from a company in Staffordshire / Walsall way I think and again you are looking for their high quality canopy (about £150 ish from memory), it will last much longer than the original canopy supplied by Gala-Tents.
I’ll try to post some links.
https://www.galatent.co.uk/shop-gazebos

When I bought mine the Pro 50 was the best but now there is a Pro 60, which is what I would go for, you want the strongest you can get!
I tether mine down with a combo of leg weights, ratchet straps and ground anchors, both spreading bolt type and large cork screw type ground anchors.
The replacement canopy I get from here, you will love this photo!

There you go, told you, you would love it!
I find these shelters excellent and I’ve had them up (to Connie’s delight) since 2015. I drop the height when the clocks go back and I raise them again when the clocks go forward. This is to make them less vulnerable in the storm season. So far no issues other than having to clear snow with a broom in the winter.
Cheers, Giles

 

[Mark Blanchard]

Brilliant, thanks very much for the information Giles. I've just bought my 3rd V8 car and have run out of garage space, so one of these will be perfect.

 

[giles]

In Scotland with the 360 at the Lake of Menteith in Stirling. Luggage space again proves to be plenty!



Tomorrow we are off to what I believe is the U.K.’s highest road at Glenshee, the A93 Old Military Road and then on to Loch Ness.
Cheers, Giles

 

[mon the fish]

A93 is the highest public road in the UK and only an hour from me, enjoy - not much snow about this year so you shouldn't have any skiers to worry about. Stop at The Bothy in Braemar for a coffee

 

[giles]

Out and about in the Scottish Highlands….







Anyone for a pair of salty tips?


At Glenshee ski, not enough snow for the skiers today….



From there we drove out to Inverness then down to Loch Ness, great drive, fab scenery and lots of average speed cameras, pretty much the whole of the A9!

From here we are off to London(!) for the day to submit our visa applications for our next holiday, that will be a monster of a drive in one hit!
Car is thoroughly filthy, will need a deep clean when back home. Winter tyres doing well in the cold temps so far, no snow but down to minus 2 in the mornings and zero over the mountain passes.

Cheers, Giles

 

[mon the fish]

I live here and I get bothered about the daily getting that salty, never mind the toys!

 

[giles]

I live here and I get bothered about the daily getting that salty, never mind the toys!

Amazingly the following day’s heavy morning down pour pretty much rinsed off all the salt, including the wheels, still needs a wash but it’s no where near as bad/horrific/embarrassing!
The following morning it looked like this….



I guess that is the wax in action, enabling the salt and grime to be rinsed off by the rain(?).
Cheers, Giles

 

[giles]

After washing the 360 the difference between the Collinite wax and the Carlack Complete wax is very clear now….
Collinite:

Carlack Complete:

Cheers, Giles