My 12 month California T odyssey

Wow, that certainly ties it all together...

I am Red 10 currently. Figuring late January or early February. The anticipation is adding a touch more argento to my hair.

 

My upcoming Argento Cali T will have 553 times as much power as the Lone Ranger's Argento. With black and charcoal interior. And black tires.

 

I just moved from Red 10 to 20. WooHoooooo!

 

Here is where an earlier part of my 12 Month Odyssey pays off for me to extend the Ferrari experience:

Every owner should take the factory tour at some point, but if you are visual as I am, taking the tour when you have made your deposit and are in the Ferrari system is really a great idea. Your dealer can help set up an appointment for the limited slots, and they are only available at limited times.

But now, as I go to Status 20, I can sit back and picture where MY chassis might be. When I was there I was picturing the assemblers and dash component stations and especially the leather shop teams and was picturing mine flowing thru the process. I feel like I was 57 going on 14, in a great way...

We planned a trip around the available dates, took in Venice, Florence and Sienna, with much of a day in Maranello at the factory and the museum. Also lunch at Montana, for the best pasta we had the entire week. Didn't really need to look for the small sign for the restaurant, when we arrived there were 3 599s, a GTO and an FF parked outside. None white. Montana is right down the road. Straight down the road. As the bat flies.

 

Thanks. Hopefully at that point I will be on the water, and not the sauce.

...but if I turn out to be, should I go for white spirits or brown spirits?

 

During the upcoming weeks while awaiting production pics and the eventual delivery I'm prepping my garage space for the new Cali T. I'll send before and after pics, just ordered some stuff for it...

 

Now in Stage 30 - Painting. Moving right along!

 

Keith, I noticed you, like me, are working with Ferrari of Atlanta. I have not stepped foot there, have done all my activity via email with my sales person, who is very helpful and extremely responsive to all questions and requests. He shipped the leather sample collection to me, helped set up the Maranello factory visit and the New York Atelier appointment. I did not actually meet him in person until the Atlanta event with the preview cars that travelled around the US. Between all those and Ferrari Chat I was able to make all my selections based on help from a lot of people.

 

Yes, I also highly recommend them. I have been working with Michael Mills. I was at the Atlanta event in one of the last slots of the day, my wife, my oldest son and his girlfriend came to check it all out. It was fortunate timing as we were all together in Atlanta on that day, so it worked out well. It was good to get feedback from all of them. Very fun couple of hours.

 

I took Keithos27's advice and downloaded the 282 page User Manual. Lots of interesting stuff. I was not planning to ever take my upcoming Cali T to an automated car wash, but if I had considered it the manual would have talked me out of it:

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To perform the Carwash procedure, do the following:
- with the engine running, select the first gear;
- select neutral “N”;
- switch off the engine;
- turn the key to position II (key-on) within 3 seconds of switching off.

The message “Carwash mode activation” will appear on the TFT display.
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Don't get me wrong, I love the way the designers and engineers have facilitated so many functions without adding buttons or controls (ala Panamera). But for this one I'm picturing myself retrieving the manual and flipping thru pages while drivers in dirty cars behind me are honking their horns...

 

Continuing education is good for filling the time until I get to the next stage of production...

There is so much talk of the beauty and the horsepower and the driving sensations, I am not equally impressed with the subtle attention to detail found by reading the owner's manual. It's the little things that add up so many times. Spraying the windshield when low beams are on also spraying the headlights. Electronic parking brake engaging automatically when the ignition key is turn off. The damn car wash feature. Things that are so simple and elegant, but that most others do not build in. To the Maranello designers and engineers that peruse this web resource, I commend you!