New Mondial

On Thursday I flew to Pittsburgh to pick up my 1986 Mondial 3.2 cabriolet, red/tan/black. Bought from a collector in the area. The car had less than 19k miles and is utterly pristine. It (like every other Ferrari and Lamborghini the seller owns) genuinely looks showroom condition.

As with my last Ferrari, I had decided to drive the car back to its new home in Minnesota. My dad came along for the ride.

Everything was going great until we got around 350 miles into the drive. All of a sudden, the air conditioning stopped working. Then the car began to overheat. We immediately pulled over. It didn't take much thinking or inspection to see that we had lost one or more accessory belts.

Within an hour or two, Hagerty Plus provided a flatbed. Since everything was closed and it was starting to rain (hard), we asked the driver to take us back to his garage so we could get it inside for the night. He kindly agreed.

Plan B had always been to ship the car home in the event of a breakdown and then fly/bus/hitch our way home if need be. But we came up with a genius idea: uhaul. Readily available just about anywhere. Cheap. And it would carry us and the car home.

A few clicks online, and we had a truck lined up for the next morning. Which happened to be game day. Against Michigan. In South Bend. That made hotels and local taxi transportation challenging, but we managed.

Loaded her up with ease (the Mondial is a cinch on the standard uhaul car hauler) on Saturday around 10am and hit the road. It was an easy drive, and we made it to Minneapolis by about 8:30 Saturday night.

My friend and mechanic Tim (aka 2NA) kindly agreed to take a look that night, so we went there.

Tim figured out what happened pretty quickly. Pulled off the inspection panel and then the little fiberglass shield that covers the pulleys. We could see that the main pulley that turns the accessories had worked it's way out about 1/2". The large bolt that holds it in was completely undone and rolling around inside the pulley; it and the pulleys only stayed generally in place thanks to that little shield.

Tim got everything back where it should be, replaced the dead belt, topped up the coolant -- and we were home by midnight, only 12 hours late and under our own steam. We even got rid of the uhaul en route home.

This morning, the car was running perfectly. We even made it to the Wheels of Italy show in Minneapolis before my dad flew out to where he lives.

To those who fear "garage queens," I suspect this issue would have come to light and been fixed long ago if the car had been driven more than 1000 miles in the past six years. On the other hand, the thing just looks and drives like it is new. Perfect paint. Almost no wear on any interior surface. All electrics work. Excellent.

All that, and it fits my kids. Hoping for no more bumps in the road for a while, and certainly missing my beautiful yellow 308. But very pleased with my Mondial overall.

 

Sorry that was impossible to read -- not sure why. Reposting with normal margins (hopefully) here.

On Thursday I flew to Pittsburgh to pick up my 1986 Mondial 3.2 cabriolet, red/tan/black. Bought from a collector in the area. The car had less than 19k miles and is utterly pristine. It (like every other Ferrari and Lamborghini the seller owns) genuinely looks showroom condition.

As with my last Ferrari, I had decided to drive the car back to its new home in Minnesota. My dad came along for the ride.

Everything was going great until we got around 350 miles into the drive. All of a sudden, the air conditioning stopped working. Then the car began to overheat. We immediately pulled over. It didn't take much thinking or inspection to see that we had lost one or more accessory belts.

Within an hour or two, Hagerty Plus provided a flatbed. Since everything was closed and it was starting to rain (hard), we asked the driver to take us back to his garage so we could get it inside for the night. He kindly agreed.

Plan B had always been to ship the car home in the event of a breakdown and then fly/bus/hitch our way home if need be. But we came up with a genius idea: uhaul. Readily available just about anywhere. Cheap. And it would carry us and the car home.

A few clicks online, and we had a truck lined up for the next morning. Which happened to be game day. Against Michigan. In South Bend. That made hotels and local taxi transportation challenging, but we managed.

Loaded her up with ease (the Mondial is a cinch on the standard uhaul car hauler) on Saturday around 10am and hit the road. It was an easy drive, and we made it to Minneapolis by about 8:30 Saturday night.

My friend and mechanic Tim (aka 2NA) kindly agreed to take a look that night, so we went there.

Tim figured out what happened pretty quickly. Pulled off the inspection panel and then the little fiberglass shield that covers the pulleys. We could see that the main pulley that turns the accessories had worked it's way out about 1/2". The large bolt that holds it in was completely undone and rolling around inside the pulley; it and the pulleys only stayed generally in place thanks to that little shield.

Tim got everything back where it should be, replaced the dead belt, topped up the coolant -- and we were home by midnight, only 12 hours late and under our own steam. We even got rid of the uhaul en route home.

This morning, the car was running perfectly. We even made it to the Wheels of Italy show in Minneapolis before my dad flew out to where he lives.

To those who fear "garage queens," I suspect this issue would have come to light and been fixed long ago if the car had been driven more than 1000 miles in the past six years. On the other hand, the thing just looks and drives like it is new. Perfect paint. Almost no wear on any interior surface. All electrics work. Excellent.

All that, and it fits my kids. Hoping for no more bumps in the road for a while, and certainly missing my beautiful yellow 308. But very pleased with my Mondial overall.


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Thanks, ceb39. I actually feel great about the situation. It was an adventure, and we got the problem solved. The belts were fine -- just done last year. I think this was a case of a bolt that didn't get torqued down and then had plenty of time to work it's way loose during our cross country drive.

I'm completely in love with the car. Adored my 308. But the reality is that this is a far more useable and refined version of that same car. What's not to love?

 

Interesting question. My 308 was a 1980 model with about 60k miles on it. As a result, it was underpowered compared to the '86 Mondial 3.2 (down by about 60 horsepower). But I otherwise find the driving experience to be very, very similar. The Mondial might corner ever so slightly flatter, but not a big difference, and some of that might be due to the 308 having more miles and wear on the suspension bits.

One big difference in terms of the driving experience is the clutch. The Mondial is hydraulic, with a very nice light feel. The 308 had a mechanical linkage and took quite a lot of leg strength to hold it down through a long light.

Other smaller differences are in overall refinement. The 308 is a 1970s design. It has an incredibly cool feel inside, with all the old school rocker switches and such. I probably have a slight preference for all that. It's just neat. The Mondial feels much more refined. The ergonomics are better. The materials are comparable or nicer. Much more stuff is electric (a blessing for ease of use but probably a curse for reliability).

Of course, the primary difference -- and the reason for the change -- is space and usability. The Mondial has a legitimate back seat. I am over 6' tall, but I could fit back there in a pinch. It isn't like a 911 rear seat. It's more like the seat in an Audi A5 or something. I can get two kid seats back there. The rear trunk is larger than the 308's, and it isn't shared with the heat and fumes of the engine bay.

One downside: The 308 was never water tight, but it would keep most of the water out with its targa roof in place. The rag top on the Mondial might keep you dry in a light sprinkle, but we got caught for a bit in a pretty serious downpour coming back. And the water was just getting in everywhere. Made me nervous for the leather and the electronics.

Those are my main thoughts. I loved the 308. Great car with drop dead looks and good reliability. But this is, in my estimation, a notch better in overall driving experience. The Mondial is not quite as iconically pretty, but great looking compared to just about everything else on the road. And it fits my life.

 

@ PV Dirk: I think part of the issue might have been user error. The rubber gasket seems to be in good shape (stored in a heated garage all these years). But I don't think I had the little adjustment nuts snugged down on the ends. Hoping not to have to test that again...