Intro/Seeking Advice and Input

Good morning all,

I'm a long time lurker, but new member to the forum and have enjoyed all the info here. I'm a die hard, committed, eat, sleep and repeat, self admitted car addict. I drive them, race them, break them and work on them. It's in my blood. My roots lie in drag racing and American cars. I have in recent years ventured outside that world into GT cars and racing with my Z06. I bleed American muscle and have been awed by the feats of engineering accomplished in recent Corvette platforms. But I have ALWAYS had an itch for the Italians. The Lamborghinis are too noisy, flashy and edgy for me. Too much about the appearance. But the Ferrari is truly about the experience, the driving and craftsmanship of the car. There's nothing quite like the pony.

I'm finally shopping for my first Italian and I've decided on a 430. I think it's the best choice for me for several reasons. I had considered a 360 and have found several with excellent service records, recent maintenance, low miles (of course) and very reasonably priced. As this will solely be a play toy that will be driven on weekends and an annual track day on sticky tires, the 458 is outside the window of what I what I want to spend for something to fill the void. But the 430 brings everything to the table I need from it.

So my questions/need for info are as follows: I'm aware of the clutch life importance and the need for proper service and supporting records. What I don't quite have a handle on is what would be considered clutch life percentage that would be of concern or in danger of needing replacement soon? If I find a car that checks all the boxes but, say has 25k miles on it, should I bat an eye at that mileage or should I try to find something with 15k or less? Obviously I'll try to find the newest car with the least amount of miles that's inside my budget window, but what do those boxes that need to checked look like? The Scuderia is not an option. I'm mainly shopping for F1 transmission cars as the manuals are bringing very big $$ right now and I have always wanted an F1 trans car. Aside from clutch life, are there any other measurable wear items to consider or ensure have been serviced? I'm also aware of the tie rod ends and ball joint wear issues and their solutions from Hill Engineering.

Most of what I'm asking and what I should look for is probably obvious, but not always and this community has yielded some excellent info thus far. Any guidance is appreciated!!!

Thanks,
Mike

 

Bump. I'd like to know the answers posed here also. My F1 430 has about 24k miles and I'm interested in when the clutch would need service, etc

 

I'm still a newbie so take my advice with a grain, but... Don't worry so much about the mileage but rather the condition of the car and it's history. I've seen plenty low mileage cars in very rough shape and vice versa, high mileage that are flawless. I have a 2002 M5 with 75k miles on it and it's honestly in better shape than my (new to me) F430 with 17k miles on it. With all that said, for me personally I specifically looked only at Fcars with under 30k miles. The reason being is that I plan to trade up to a Scuderia or 458 in a year or two and thought having a relatively higher milage car would limit prospects when it came time to sell.

The same goes with clutch life. Some higher mileage cars will have more clutch % just because they were properly driven. Or maybe it was replaced recently like mine was.

Take your time and make sure you do your diligence on any car you seriously consider moving forward with. Get the service history, check the carfax, and definitely get a PPI which will give you a clutch life reading.

You will definitely love being an Fcar owner so congrats!

 

Almost like a stick shift manual, clutch life is highly dependent on the driver. If the prior owner did a lot of backing uphill on the driveway (which never really lets the clutch engage fully), or floored it a lot from a standing start (which has the same effect as doing it with a third pedal), the clutch could be close to toast, even with low miles. The only way to tell how much is left is with an inspection and readout from a Ferrari SD2 machine. Good luck. You will love it, but don't expect to win drag races against Corvettes.

 

The clutch and the tie rods/ball joints, as you know, are the $ items that can all add up. But a good PPI will, as said, will identify these so you can budget them in or work the deal around it. At 25k miles I would budget for the works, depending on what has already been done.

 

I tend to agree with you on mileage vs condition. I've seen some of the same you're describing. It's all in the owner. The sense I'm getting is to not sweat the mileage and, like you said, focus on the condition of the car and service history. I plan to keep the car for a bit as I hope to enjoy playing with it and making it my own, (wheels, suspension, ect.), so low mileage for the sake of resale isn't so much a priority as in your case. I plan to drive this car and drive it like it was designed.

I'm in the early stages of shopping and upon the advice of a friend who deals in vintage, European luxury/super cars, I'll be going to look at a few cars with a checklist in hand so I can get familiar with the ins and outs. I by all means plan to have a full and proper PPI done on a final candidate. I'd be insane not to. Thanks so much for the real world experience and input!!

 

Excellent input! I plan to have a well seasoned expert do a complete PPI once some final candidates are found. And I will NOT be drag racing this car against anything!! It was never designed for that and to be honest, drag racing can be disappointing in street cars after you get out of this........
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I wanna see the Z06

 

Roger that. I've already started to source the replacement Hill Engineering components so when it's time to pull the trigger I can either work the deal or have in hand what may be needed. Thanks for the input!!