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This is Robin @brogenville's car. Jay Emm's review is unduly negative. It's surprising, because he has a 550, which he adores. He starts with the obligatory bagging on the factory three pedal 599s. "It's terrible. . . . Ferrari did half a job." Jay Emm credits @360trev with fixing the factory tune's issues with rev drops between the gears. He reports that Robin is running Fiammenghi headers and X pipe through the factory HGTE valved mufflers, and that the "race" setting is too loud; loud enough to "wake the dead." Even at normal setting, Jay Emm opines that the exhaust tone is not suited to the 599. Furthermore, the sound level in "race" is "wrong." He says that the headers and Trevor's tune have diminished the low end torque that make a stock 599 feel as quick as an F12, making the standard tune preferable for normal driving. He says the steering in all 599s is not particularly brilliant or "feelsome." In conclusion, he would not convert a good-running F1 599, particularly one with the quicker shifting HGTE coding. On the other hand, he would convert his car whenever it has any F1 issue, including clutch replacement.
Hi Bill, James was pretty clear from the off that the exhaust wasn't for him. I'm not bothered by that, or even the comments saying it sounds like a honda civic (please bring me the mythical orchestral V12 civic!). I actually don't see it as an overall bad review, exhaust notwithstanding, which is an entirely personal choice. Firstly I think it shows that James isn't just one of these youtubers that you pay to review your car and get some praise - instead he's trying to be as honest and objective as he can. Ultimately I think he's saying that he likes the manual, but not enough to go to the expense of the conversion unless there was some other reason to take the car apart, including something as "small" as replacing the clutch. I'm also pleased that the effort I, and my interior guy, went to in order to make it look as OEM as possible was acknowledged. The carbon is the correct weave, the leather is correct, the bezels are correct, the spacing of everything is correct... all this takes effort, and I'm pleased with how its turned out.
I have a couple of thoughts on this, first is that I have my car set up with Fabspeed straight pipes and Tubi exhaust with the flaps pinned open. The sound is very similar to using Fabio's headers, close enough that I can't justify the cost of changing the headers. Second is that while I have no doubt that 360 Trev's tune is better than the factory set up, do I really need this thing to go any faster?? Third is the conversion dilemma. For those of us that own these cars we know that this is a BIG car, it's not like throwing around a little 308 or a 550 or a Porsche. For me I don't really think I want a stick in a car this big. I'm getting close to a new clutch (50K on the clock) and I don't think I would be doing the car any favors making the conversion. All that being said, I love my 599!
