"Babying" the Ferrari causes more harm than good?

I have heard numerous stories of ferraris driven hard and regularily exceeding 100k, so either way the car is going to last unless left to sit. The real point is why have a ferrari if youre not going to DRIVE it. The whole beauty of these cars is when they hit their stride. Driving a v8fcar at below 400 rpm means the owner has never actualy enjoyed it in the physical driving sense.

Maybee the engineers in the group disagree but my car definatly runs better after a GOOD drive, maybee the extra fuel flow cleans the chambers and injectors better, or maybee all the seals lubricate. In any event these are italian cars each one has at least the illusion of some animal personality thats part of their appeal. For the others there are porches good performance lacking personality and happy to drive slow forever.

The whole point of an italian car is to DRIVE con brio, the whole point of a jet is to fly fast not do circuts, the whole point of a well bred racehorse is to let it run, the whole point of a harley is to cruise and the whole point of MV augusta motorcycle is to speed and turn. Its horses for couses and we dont use thouroughbred racehorses for pulling hay carts.

Get in yoiur car and DRIVE

 

I've got $5k (parts only, I did the labor) in a Porsche engine thanks to a spirited downshift on a motor not fully warmed up; the head of an exhaust valve broke off it's stem...head, case, all pistons/liners, bearings, valves and quides while I was there. I don't think I'd be let off that easy $$$ in the F-car.

 

Dude,maybe you should dump the porsche now that you fixed it.

 

Nah, It's my 'grocery getter!' And in some respects, its more fun than the F-car. Besides, now that I've sorted it out (and matured my driving style) I'm more or less married to it. It does come in handy when I'm waiting for those unobtainium parts from 'Italy.'

 

Been there, done that only minutes ago. Boy was it fun

i detected ZERO carbon build up

 

Too lazy to read thru every single post, but like many others have said it earlier. Once the oil temp is warm enough, rev the hell out of it. The TR certainly loves it more when I shift at 6K+ revs. The car cries out in pure ecstasy!! You can almost hear it say, "MORE, MORE, MORE, HARDER, HARDER, HARDER!!" You get the idea.

 

Lest there be any doubt that we attribute animate qualities and behavior to our machines, I refer to Bubba's post:

"Once the oil temp is warm enough, rev the hell out of it. The TR certainly loves it more when I shift at 6K+ revs. The car cries out in pure ecstasy!! You can almost hear it say, "MORE, MORE, MORE, HARDER, HARDER, HARDER!!"

What I believe the car is really crying out for is moderation. Ah, but money can buy ecstasy. Money can support our imprudence. Money can support our parts supplier and mechanics.

Jim S.

 

Jim,
I have to keep going back to my original reply....If you are afraid to break it, sell it!! If you are always worried about how much it's going to cost to fix, you will never really enjoy it anyway. I don't relish the idea of spending thousands of dollars on my car but I will because I love to DRIVE it!

I also think that most of us did agree that driving this car CONSTANTLY at low RPM'S MAY cause harm like..carbon deposits on the valves (not really damage but not really good for the car either), and unburned fuel in the cats (and we all know that can lead to really bad things like FIRE!!).

I guess the only thing you and I can really agree on is that we disagree!!


One more thing also repeated from earlier........
DRIVE IT LIKE IT'S STOLEN!!!!!!

Thanks,
John

 

I baby it in the garage on service and drive it like Tazio on the street, Ferrari's are meant to be driven

 

By the way Rascalif I bet you never thought your simple question would end up with this many replies did you? Good one though, it started a very good discussion!!

 

I've seen you use this quote before, but if I may, I'd like to over-rationalize it: If you "drive it like it's stolen," shouldn't you drive so as to not even remotely have the off-chance of attracting attention of local authorities?

 

I'm not so sure it's that simple.

Back in '88, I test drove an M3 (E30?). I didn't much like it. It had a lot of understeer, but mostly because it had very little road feel, compared to the Alfa GTV-6 and Spider I was driving at the time.

I don't give my cars "cutesy" names. I don't think they're going to chew up my slippers. But they do talk to me.

And if you listen carefully (with your ears, your fingertips, etc.), you can often tell when something bad is happening deep in the mechanical bits, the same way that the car will let you know just before it loses traction in a turn. With experience, I like to think you can tell when you're reaching the mechanical limits of the hardware, so you can "baby" the car without under-driving it.

I suspect that people who simply crank the wheel, stomp on it, and hope for the best tend to wind up with far more mechanical problems than those who antropomorphize our vehicles because we spend so much time trying to mind-meld with them. (Insert eerie bass guitar Spock theme here.)

Certainly the younger, less experienced drivers over on the EVO list seem to have more issues with the EVO than the older drivers. (The EVO "feels" more fragile than the Ferrari, or even the Celica it replaced.)

I listen to my cars, and they rarely leave me stranded. The only car that had to come back on a truck twice was the Celica ... and after 30 years of Italian cars, I don't really speak Japanese.

"It is not logical, but it is often true." Live long and prosper.

(Come to think of it, the last three pair of Florsheims wore out at the h/t contact points. The Ferrari does chew up my leather sole "slippers". )

Maybe that should be "drive it like you're valet parking it". (ducking)

 

jdubbya - I have enjoyed the chat dialogue. I believe that we are in agreement on most if not all points. My only issue was with the implication that it was both good for the car to drive it hard and it (the car) felt better after a hard drive. This clicked in my pea-brain that there are numerous discussions on this board about rather insignificant mechanical issues, such as a few oil drops on the floor, or slightly low compression, or I may have some oil on my belts (as if they are not designed to live in an oily environment), etc.

On one hand we baby our F-cars (fix that 2 drop per month oil leak) and on the other we recommend red-line at least once each day (or once each red traffic light). Seems a bit inconsistent, doesn't it? (Inconsistent if you subscribe to my earlier premise that wear is a function of revolutions per mile).

It all comes down to pride of ownership, and what rings your bell. I enjoy the engineering and design of cars. As mentioned earlier, I do not have to drive them fast to get a thrill. If I want a thrill, I will take my 23 Window 1963 bus down a hill and try to stop it. Now that's a thrill!

Drive your car as you must. That's, as they say, what makes horse racing.

Jim S.

 

I obviously missed your other posts.

Just would like to clarify a bit, I don't keep the car at high revs for extended periods of time. I am just referring to the car's responses when I shift to the next gear. The sound when you reach high revs is much more rewarding because the car doesn't mumble it roars. The car also responds better at higher revs as it becomes much more lively. Yes, I suppose the car's behaviors are just my own feelings. Having said that, almost 2 years into owning the car, I am glad to say that I haven't had to pay lots to keep the car running.

Anyway, drive whichever way you enjoy the most.