If You Want A Ferrari Buy A Mondial Now

They are the real thing, thats for sure. And I have headroom for my cowboy hat, and large parcel shelves behind the front seats cleverly designed to mimic rear seats. And the car does not look like a warp drive space thing that, in actuallity, might be given a close run by a good 6cyl Honda.

And there is not one person I have ever encountered who did not believe it is beautiful. And its reserved design makes it intimidating. "Just exactly What Is This Thing?" Hit 7,000 rpms in second and before the surprise wears off you are gone.

I have been driving mine as my daily car for the past year. It starts every time the first time. Runs better, smoother, with more throttle response at any rpm then any car I have ever owned. Now I have tires that match the suspension [Continental ExtremeContact Summer DW at 40 PSI all around] and if I had bought this car new off the showroom foor would expect this feel. Solid.

But I wax enthusiastic. Perhaps next week something will choke me down. And true, I abused it early to find its limits and scattered a clutch at 90F and 7,700 rpms. Don't do that anymore. Actually, I do not see a lot of advantage above about 6,500. And a local mechanic did the clutch for $2000 plus parts I supplied plus 'birdmans' instructions.

Even the windshield wipers are improving since driving in the rain they get some easy exersize.

But in all this I am biased.

 

Paul

Yes. There is nothing better then getting into a car that fits like an old shoe. Starts every time and drives off as easy as Detroit Iron, but with a cam, and like a scalded dog. The suspension is better then any I have engineered over the last decades. [At this very moment my mechanic has a 1988 Lincoln Mark VII up on lift installing cryo dipped rotors, custom specified brake pads, stabilizer bars Arnold Swarzineger would envy, plus a possitive displacement supercharger at 7.5 psi on top of a Ford 5.0 HO]

The mechanic talked me into exhaust pipes the size of storm drain pipes [the last ones I heard were the best Detroit burble I have ever heard] and a performance steering rack. And other brick a brack. But I doubt it will replace the Mondial in the daily line up. I drove a similar Mark VII 190,000 miles and the reason I am building another one is I sold the old one to the mechanic and he won't give it up.

But by then I had put a 347 stroker in it with cam plus supercharger. Ah. Well. To late now. I got mad at the car when I flamed the tranny practicing torgue braking. I will live with the little bitty bitty 5.0 simply because I like how the car looks. It is in many ways near show room.

 

This is a continuous dicscussion and I agree with you, Nuno. My 1986 Mondial had 44,000 miles on it and all the paper work showed well kept up to date. But still. That was only a couple of thousand miles per year. I had no complaints. It ran OK, not perfect. The brakes were iffy. Some other stuff. And as is my custom I put the car to test.

The brakes needed serious exercise. I filled the cabin with fumes on several ocasions and now they are correct. The engine was not as strong as I had hoped, had a bit of lean surge on light throttle from 3,000 rpms. But fine to drive. I tested injectors with some sort of spray which indicated some air leakage. All I did was drip some power steering stop leak on them [just softens them up and some swelling] and now that is gone.

I believe the slugishness was due to carbon build up. This is a known problem with K-Jets, especially BMW of the era. They simply ran crushed walnuts through the system while running. Lacking crushed wall nuts I used lots of chemical cleaners, and specifically kept the rpms up, especially on warm up. By that I mean 2-3k. Then routinely shift at 3-4k.

I am also running 20-50 synthetic oil because I was getting some leaking at the oil cooler and out of the front main bearing. I included about half a dozen various 'stop leaks' and the front mains seems fine for the time being, and the oil cooler too. And infamously I have always added about 6 oz of 2cycle oil to add protection against ethel alcohol, and to lube anything in the mechanical fuel injector system that might benefit. Like the injectors themselves.

Although the car now seems, both mechanically and suspension, like a new car. I would not invite anyone to buy it. I have treated it the same as my Corvair, Z-28, or any of my other vehicles. It does not seem to me a Fabrege egg. And whatever might go bad I can get it fixed well enough.

But in going on 10,000 miles? One clutch [my fault] and one starter. Thats it.

PS: One concern is I get a valve tappet click for a few seconds after start up which I did not get before. It is on the passenger side and is not severe. And never re appears during the day. But if it swallows a valve I will not be surprised. If not I will not be surprised. I would rather have a slightly loose valve then one to tight.

 

Same here. At some point it will either run perfect [not much to add] or start getting worse. Generally my cars seldom if ever run worse then I got them. Almost all of them either run the same or get better.

 

My '86 now has 53,000 miles and runs better and better. Perhaps it is rebuilding itself? At 44,000 miles ran OK. Now it runs like an new car.

 

I have been using my Mondi as my only car and put on about 400 miles per month. But I add oil because there is a leak in the oil cooler. My mechanic is busy buildy my fast GT Mark VII and does not want to mess with the Mondi till he is done. Its not as if I never had other used cars that needed oil.

 

This is the best running car I have ever owned. How a car with 7,000 rpm cam can happily lug up my little mountain at 1,200 rpm in third is beyond my comprehension.

 

Well, I waffle over whether to use the car as a Sunday Driver, or as my favorite daily car. [I have three others.] In the next six months my Fast GT Lincoln will be finished and I will see if I am satisfied. Seven point five psi on top of a Ford 5L and all the suspension and cryo-dipped brake stuff can also be seductive.

One of the great pleasure of this car is how much pleasure it gives to other people who see it. For instance, I was wheeling a grocery cart from the local Ingles, and an elderly lady came up. She was waiting for me because so many people had been wondering about it, taking pictures, and speculating.
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She just wanted to know what all the fuss was about. Then I noticed I had left the keys in the ignition. I cupped my hands as they walked away and shouted and said I had left my keys in it and it could have been GONE! The two elder companions about doubled over in laughter.

I like that sort of stuff.