Hello Everyone, I have long followed the 575M's and 599's and finally pulled the trigger on this car through Bring-a-Trailer. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2003-ferrari-575m-maranello-5-2/ I'm very excited to take delivery of the car and beginning to sort through things. First order of business will be a service and inspection for any immediate needs. The car is lightly optioned and has a couple modifications. Fabio's exhaust will definitely be considered. We will see about the modified stereo system. I will likely revert it back to original and will probably never use it. Minor interior repairs to leather and conversion of the rear shelf to leather will be done as soon as possible. There were a lot of comments during the auction about this being a good candidate for a manual conversion. I am not particularly interested in doing that. I plan to enjoy the F1 system as Ferrari intended. I look forward to learning more about ECU upgrades that are frequently mentioned here. If there are any past owners of the car on this forum I would love to hear from them and I will post photos when the car arrives. Cheers! Walker
You did very well at that price. Welcome to the forum. I’ll look forward to hearing more as you enjoy the car!
Thanks Terry, I've learned a lot over the years from your posts. Thanks for sharing your knowledge of these cars!
Very nice 575 at a good price. Personally, I wouldn't consider modifying anything, except for things like rear shelf until you have owned and driven the car for awhile. Have you identified who will be servicing the car? If so, I would have them go over if after it is delivered; IMO, better to identify potential problems before they become very expensive problems.
One thing I have a question on, it appears in the photos that there is some yellowing of the engine manifolds and cover. What causes this and is there a remedy?
Thanks Stephen, Black Horse Motorwerks south of Kansas City is going to look it over and do an oil change as soon as I get it. I've always heard favorable things about Vince Hill and his team. I certainly won't do any major mods right away. I'm looking forward to getting to know the car for a while before doing anything significant.
Congrats! Looks great!! Fellow 2003 owner here. While I did convert mine, the F1 is pretty fun and demands a little more than just point and shoot to get the most from it, unlike DCTs. Drive it like a manual, sans clutch of course (if that makes any sense)! I see this is your first Ferrari…what a great way to join the fold!!
a maranello is a fantastic choice for your first. What happened to me was that I drove it alot when I first got it, because it had hardly been driven, hoses had become unknowingly brittle, driving, especially sustained and higher revs, flushed out those issues. Enjoy the time you have together.
Brief update.....I've had the 575M for a couple weeks now and it just went in for a thorough inspection and service. Unfortunately the shocks and brakes are shot, which I suspected immediately when I drove it. So those are being replaced along with a few other small items like power door locks, headliner, and alarm. A couple questions for this group, Vince (my mechanic) noted that there is an unusual amount of engine noise coming into the cabin. He mentioned he has seen this before with an improperly sealed windshield. Has anyone else experienced this and are there any other known causes? Also, at what point will you start noticing slippage in the clutch that would indicate it needs to be replaced? Clutch is at 60% remaining. I suspect I will need to do that at some point but didn't know how far to push it. The car only had a couple service records and I don't know if the clutch has ever been replaced. The car is a blast to drive and I'm thoroughly enjoying the f1 transmission. To me these cars feel just the right size with a ton of power. Love it!
There's no reason to expect the clutch to need replacing and your 60 % remaining is easily possible on the original clutch
"unusual amount of engine noise coming into the cabin." ***** Just my experience and paranoia but when I or my wife have noticed changes in engine noise, has turned out to be tensioner or cam sprocket bearings. Only mention this because the end result, if neglected can be $$$$$$. BTW, when was last belt service and who did it?
The last belt service was in 2020. A shop called FMS in Van Nuys, CA did it. I'm also doing what equates to a full major service on it. I had planned to do this regardless so I could be comfortable with the service schedule: General description: INSTALL NEW TIMING BELTS, TEN BEARINGS, CAM COVER GASKETS, END PLATE GASKETS, SEALS AND O RINGS INSTALL NEW INTAKE GASKETS, FLUSH BRAKE FLUID, SERVICE GEAR OIL AND DIFF FLUIDS, SERVICE COOLANT, TEST WITH LEONARDO FOR CODES, SERVICE ENGINE OIL AND FILTERS, AIR FILTERS, CABIN FILTER, DRIVE BELT REPLACEMENT
Note you have a transaxle, so only one GL5 fluid for transmission and limited slip differential. You might also consider having a full four-wheel alignment done. Being strapped down on trailers can affect the alignment enough to quickly wear tires. Power steering fluid should be changed out regularly, too.
I was going to say from your first post that you'll probably want to firm up the suspension, maybe see what they used for the HGTC Handling Pack cars. I've driven a stock 575 F1 and the suspension was too soft for my liking, especially how the car 'porpoises' a bit on throttle.
They will have to do an alignment on the front with new shocks. I had not considered a rear alignment, I'll ask about that. The power steering was a whole separate line item. They are going to flush that system and refill. He advised to protect the power steering with your life, if they go bad not easy to find OEM parts.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the OEM HGTC shocks are not compatible with the older 575's without other modifications. I believe they can only be used post AN 55769
They work, but you need all new mounts. Adds quite a bit to the overall bill, but the actual chassis mounting points are the same. Shocks are not normally a problem on 575Ms unless they are leaking. Ryan- Way too general a statement, since the handling on 575Ms varies widely depending on assembly number and shock ECU. Driving one F1 575M does not nearly cover all the possibilities. Likely 131983 has shock ECU 201673, which is a huge improvement over 183960 fitted to early 575Ms.
All 4 shocks are leaking. Front far worse than rear. That was surprising to me because I had read a lot of the past posts about the 575 shocks being pretty reliable.
Walker- Affirmative, that is very unusual. One leaking is unusual, four is kind of unheard of for our Sachs shocks. You can put HGTC shocks on her, you just need to buy all the mounting pieces that go with them. Cleaning and resealing the injectors with Viton is something most of us have had to do. Gets rid of the hard, stumbling start.
Thanks Fred! I've wanted one of these cars for so long I'm enjoying everything about it. I'll admit there was more wrong with it than I expected, but I'm excited to get it back and feel the improvements. Don't even mind spending the money. One bonus is that we've had some hot days here lately and the a/c will freeze your a$$ off. No issues there.
