hi guys im gonna be taking delivery on a 2004 360 spider f1 soon.. this will be my first experience with a f1 shift type car, any recommendations/tips to help towards long life of the transmission?
In a nutshell: treat it like you're driving a manual where someone else is operating the clutch pedal for you, and you'll be fine. Do NOT treat it like you're driving an automatic; I suspect many F1 users are people who can't drive a manual... don't understand what's going on... and expect to be able to drive it like an automatic. And the poor clutch doesn't respond well to being treated as if it was a viscous torque converter.
well explained Brian! Avoid prolonged slipping on hill starts etc. Don't lift the throttle when shifting up, the computer takes care of that. Dont expext it to be like the F2004 Schuey drives. On the road, they can be tedious around town, but get on an open road or race track and you'll love it.
also when you come to a light shift into neutral -use your breaks- i don't mind city traffic but on the open roads and the track it is a joy.you will enjoy-i don't regret one minute of owning an f1-i was a die hard stick shift guy.also drive the car-van
One more little thing. When you launch the car, try to commit on the amount of gas you apply. Sometimes, it is going to feel like you are applying to much gas and sometimes the car will start too slow. However, varying the amount of gas during the launch make things worst. AW
No one told me this before I bought my car but it has a little quirk where if your foot is not on the brake or gas for a few seconds it will beep and default into neutral. No big deal but I initially thought something was wrong with the transmission the first few times this happened. Like the other poster said when at a red light either keep it in neutral or keep your foot lightly on the brake. Ben
i know somebody in a technical capacity at ferrari. here's what he says about breaking in the F1 gearbox: "Gearboxes, these on a race car are what are needed to be run in as they are tight and eat a lot of Power. You should do 500 miles and change gears as many times as possible, 1000's of times. On a road car it does not really apply but again at 500 miles you could change the oil. This is never mentioned but in my opinion it is more crucial. When you drain oil in modern vehicles you rarely see metallic particles in engine oil but in gearboxes it is quite common. Gearboxes are not cooled as well as engines so the oil has to work much harder."
