The Official "Jay Leno Doesn't Like Ferraris" Thread

Still no comment regarding the photo I posted with the Ferrari IN Leno's garage. Thought surely that would stir something.

 

Maybe you should read the whole thread. It's mentioned on the first page and it belongs to his mechanic.

 

I would care more if there were an AMC Gremlin in Ralph Lauren's garages than a Ferrari in Jay's.

Who really cares what he drives? He's a car nut and he's entitled to drive whatever he likes without us criticizing him or judging him for it.

 

Been there covered that....


Back to what I was going to say earlier....

Really, Jay can drive whatever he wants. He chooses NOT to patronize Ferrari, so thats fine. What does it matter to YOU or ME or ANYONE else?? It doesnt and thats the bottom line. Just as it doesnt matter to YOU what I drive....or matter to me what YOU drive.



PDG

 

been covered on here several times in the past.
i seem to recall that it belongs to one of his staff/mechanics

see here http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=225317&highlight=jay+leno

 

because F-cars are but a part of what makes up automobile-dom...

pinnacle to some yes, to some no... it's really that simple.

 

Its about the interaction more than adding value. You missed something - no biggie. Jump right in and tell us what you think!!!




PDG

 

I have been fortunate enough over the years to know Jay, and have seen his collection on a few occasions, but when I owned my Miura SV about 10 years ago, I had asked him why he hasn't owned a Ferrari, and I believe he said many years earlier, when he started to get serious about his car collection, Frank Sinatra had said, " In this town, BEVERLY HILLS, when you want to be somebody, you drive a Ferrari, if you already are somebody, you drive a Lamborghini." Jay happens to own the ex. Dean Martin Miura, and likes Ferrari's very much, and would probably own one tomorrow if they would make it with a electric, or steam engine, with a 6 speed. As we all know Jay is a TRUE car guy, and very well respected among the car community, as well as the entertainment community, and his love for all makes and models, especially of the vintage variety, is second to none. We should all be so lucky.

 

I'm sorry, I dislike being this confrontational on a forum... but his might be the dumbest thing I've ever read on the interwebs. Really. I ASSURE YOU Jay Leno does not lose sleep at night knowing he does not have your approval. He does not need you for anything.

On the other hand, this next quote was one of the smartest I've read....

If this is not on your 'car guy radar' you're WAAAAY behind schedule. Will any modern car be collectible in 50 years? And not just Fcars, it's any car with a computer and, let's review, that's all of them.

Jay's Stanley Steamer will still be running in 100 years. Will an F430? This is one reason the true investors are going with American Muscle. Those cars can effectively be perpetual. Unless all the manufactures start releasing retired code or some SERIOUS open source project gets started, we could easily lose every car made after about 1996.
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Having said the above, I 'get' what Leno is saying. There is a thread in the California section of this forum about which is faster a GTR or a Cali. Few people on this forum would disagree with the notion that the GTR was the better performer but was too 'clinical' for their tastes.

I think that's part of what Leno is saying. He is a car guy and does get his hands greasy. With the more 'clinical' nature of servicing a modern Fcar, it reduces his enjoyment of the ownership experience. It's hardly a tough concept to comprehended.

Why is it so hard for so many people -most of whom don't do their own maintenance- to accept?

 

Related thread on F-Chat... "A Day With Jay."

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=312784

 

Your point about the built-in obsolescence of a modern Ferrari's electronics is a good one. But I believe you are overstating the potential problem by a large margin.

It's true that, 20 years from now, finding EXACT electronic parts replicas will be difficult if not impossible. But there will be solutions.

Take my 1966 Mustang GT. It's nearly one-half century old and a few years ago I replaced the old points-style ignition with a modern ignition system that sits under the original distributor cap and is virtually undetectable. It's better than original and, unless somebody starts removing parts from my car, they're never going to know it exists.

In the future, will there will be sufficient demand to entice a company to manufacture such parts for Ferraris?

My guess is, yes.

 

Electronics are cheap things is only the research that costs. In reality any electrical engineer should be able to fix this things or make new ones with just some tools.

 

+1

 

I'm sorry but you have a fundamental misunderstanding of today's electronics. If you have a smartphone today do you think it will work in 50 years? Do you think any electrical engineer could replicate it with "just some tools?" Where is he going to get the display? Where will he get the operating system? Do you think he can just whip a smartphone up with with "just some tools?"

Of course not.

Same with today's cars. They have multiple sophisticated computers that read dozens of sensors and control hundreds of functions.. For starters, this requires software...Yeah, code... And that's before you get to custom microcontrollers and signal processors.

How is some EE 50 years from now going to reverse engineer both the hardware and the software with "just some tools?"

You have absolutely no idea what goes into making these components.

Say what you will about Jeremy Clakson but he had it right when he said, "We no long drive cars, we're driving laptops."

 

You're right, all car enthusiasts are, and always will be, anti-capitalist, illiterate day-laborers who couldn't program their VCR to save the world.

 

I'm afraid you are missing the point:

There will be NEW computers and NEW code installed into components that will perform the same functions. They won't be the same parts; they will be BETTER.

The attempt to compare an iPhone to a Ferrari isn't accurate. The computers found in a Ferrari exist to support the larger functioning of the car, not the other way around.

Think of NASA's Space Shuttle as an extreme example. The Space Shuttle is nearly 40 years-old. The first computers on board were dinosaurs compared to the computers on board today. They didn't scrap the Space Shuttle when the computers became obsolete, right? Instead, they replaced the old computers with newer, smaller, better, faster, more reliable ones. That is the nature of technology. It's Moore's Law.

Computers have been used in cars for decades. 20 year-old cars can still be found on the road. By your logic, that shouldn't be possible.

 

Sorry but I don't think you realize what goes into these components on a car. You are comparing 30-40 year old or older technology to a new generation smart phone? A smart phone has more computing power in it than a dealerships lot full of cars.

Engine controls have not really evolved in decades, that small little computer has to do the same thing as a carb.... really not powerful or complicated at all, really the only thing that has changed with engine controls since the advent of electronic fuel injection is variable valve timing (which is just adding one function), and the sharing of signals with other components such as the ABS system (which also controls traction/stability control ect...).

Probably the most advanced system on a modern car is the ABS module but then it's just taking digital inputs from a few sensors and then just sending signals out to different components to tell them to turn on and off such as the hydraullic control unit.

Really you could build every piece of hardware to make up an entire cars elecrical components from radio shack. Maybe not as small and compact or look the same but you could.

Now the software is also not that complicated especially since most of the parameters for everything have been published in shop manuals or people have already reverse engineered it. The other thing do you think people are going to throw away the factory diagnostic equipment when these from any mfg cost 10000$+++? People are going to keep these, repair them, and keep them running just like the old tech down the street still has distributer testers and the such, if not it's great here in the states with OBDII most of this stuff is already available either for free or for a fee as required by our government.

People see modern cars and freak out (Jeremy Clarkson), when in fact they do not understand that the most powerful computer installed in a car is a system like Fords Sync... Most the ECU's in a car are not much more than a calculator with a couple more functions added, people see the information thats pulled up on factory diagnostic equipment (modern laptop based diagnostic equipment) and think OMG the cars doing all this and the laptop is just a window to let you look at it. No the laptop takes the basic digital information the ECU's and sensors are sending out and converts it to what you see on the screen which is easy for humans to understand not the other way around.

Another thing people see the word Ferrari and tend to think latest and greatest. Let me tell you every Ferrari that's been produced to this point is not any more advanced (mechanically and electronically) than say a 15 year old Honda with Vtec, ABS, traction control, and stability control. Heck the new FF which is a huge technological leap for Ferrari is about on part with Land Rovers since 03, or some Subaru's or Mitsubishi's or other modern AWD cars. Ferrari's done a great job with marketing to make people think otherwise.

I've been a master technician since 95, grew up with electronics in cars, built and wrote tunes (software) for race cars and have lived my whole professional life dealing with electronics in cars, and guess what I can't tune a carb because I've never had too. A carb scares me with all it's tiny parts, screws and springs, I would much rather some one give me a laptop and a DVOM and point me toward a car.

 

Are you insane?

First, you have not been in a Radio Shack in decades because they don't carry near the parts they used to. But I digress.

How are you going to make the multi-layer circuit boards? And how are you going to mount the surface mount components? ... even if RS sold them.

I promise you RS does not sell Amtel automotive microcontrollers. Much less an HCS12 or anything with real power... You'd be lucky to find an ATmega168. And do you know how to write code for an AVR? Even if RS sold it?

Do you have any idea what those things even are without using google?

If you'd like to actually learn about the challenges of making your own ECU, google up the megasquirt project and see what a community of people have managed to produce after a decade of effort. Even with all they have done, they have hardly scratched the surface.

And I've give you a hint, it ain't nothing you'd going to go buy at Radio Shack.

Never mind, you're obviously WAY over your head.. I'll let you labor in the self-delusion of your choice.

 

Subtlety.

So underrated.

 

I may be off base but...

Perhaps Jay simply has a hate on for the politics at Ferrari.. so wont own one.

Scenario: Perhaps Ferrari pissed him off because he wasn't able to become part of their "preferred customer" exclusive inner circle.. and hence could not get the low SN, factory-direct FXX he wanted??

Perhaps for a reason such as that, he wont own any f-cars, on principle alone..

 

Leno is a real car guy...he doesn't like Ferarri?

He likes Vipers ( I own a Viper coupe myself...it's a great car)

I don't think Jay even owns a Lambo either?

 

There is another thread on the topic. I'll link it once I find it.

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6682&highlight=Jay+Leno

There is another, I can't find it though.

 

serious?

google, it's your friend...

my guess is there might be an answer out there easy enough to get to with less typing than the original post took.