My First F-car!

Great looking car! When you get a chance I think it would be great to see a video posted of how the whole car is operated by you. I think the targa is definitely the way to go.
BT

 

That is sooo cool! Congrats on the car man, it is gorgeous and Giallo GTSs are quite rare too! Enjoy it and welcome to a very exclusive brotherhood.

 

Beautiful ride and the best personalized tag I've seen. Congrats and enjoy!

 

yellow, thank you for the very inspirational post. Keep up the great work, and enjoy that yellow beauty!

 

gorgeous rig, marc!!! congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Beautiful, Marc! Great choice!

I'd second the request for a video on how the hand controls work. It looks elegantly simple, but I'm still not sure how you steer and use the paddles and the hand controls all together.

Happy Driving!! Great tag!

 

Wecome to the board. Ferraris are a joy. Out of curiousity, wasn't there a woman who suffered similar injury and raced her 348 or 355 with hand controls a few years ago?

 

You are the man!

How do the controls work?

 

That is just plain wonderful to see. Amazing car as well!

 

Damn Marc, you are the man! What an inspiration! We sometimes get blinders on in life and get caught up in our own personal dramas, ie mileage, models, exhaust etc. Then somebody like yourself comes along and pow, the little dramas suddenly become totally meaningless in perspective. Bless you my friend for bringing the day and its promise a bit closer. And have a blast out there storming around the Michigan back roads. John

ps Marc I was just showing your post to my girlfriend and we got to talking about the mechanics of your set up. Can you explain how it all works? Do you operate clutch and gas with one hand and shift with the other?

 

Yup, Carol Hollfelder http://www.tiger-racing.com/driver_bio.html watched her race the 355 a few times on Speedvision. Never ceases to amaze me either. I can't for the life of me figure out how the hand controls on this 355 work though. Engineering rules.

Oh and welcome to the club Marc. Beautiful choice!

-R

 

Congratulations! Beautiful car. Nothing like finally living the dream.
John

 

Never say Never!

 

Very beautiful and Congrats on the new car!

 

Congrats man!

 

First off congrats on the new car!! Very impressive. I love that color on 355s!

As everyone has said already, its very impressive that you can drive that with hand controls. I never imagined that was possible. Way to go!

I also love that plate! very fitting.

 

Like most guys with a 15 year old mindset, i looked at ALL of the pictures before reading ANY of the text...

When i saw the plate, i thought it was unique... It wasn't until after i read the text that a smile broke over my face and thought it very witty...

Marc, you're an inspiration to us all... Congratulations on not letting a disability stand in your way and congratulations on the success that brought you to Ferrari ownership... And a BEAUTIFUL Ferrari at that...!!! Feel free to tell us the serial number if you want...

Lastly, but certainly not least, welcome to FerrariChat... It's already very evident that you'll be a great contribution to the community...

Oh, PS, any chance you could get those hand controls made out of carbon fiber...? i think that would kick ass - and they would be so much lighter, too...!

 

Nice car. Congrats! Enjoy her.

 

Wow... !
You`re inspirational ;-) Gorgeous car too.
Thanks for posting. Enjoy the ride.

 

That's awesome! Congrats on the new ride, and do tell us more about it, and your driving impressions.

 

congratulation.
i admire your passion and determination.

 

Guys
Thanks for the kind words. I never thought I'd get 43 replies to my post.

I've always be a very optimistic person and have never let the disability get in my way. I've always thought there is a positive to every negative and I've always believed you have to have fun in life. Being in a chair is not the end of the world....now I get all of the good parking spaces and I also get the big stall in the bathroom! The tag for example, I think it's pretty funny but some folks don't like it....some folks are just too serious.

As far as the controls go, they are custom and very easy to use....it helps when your best friend owns a machine shop. The set in the photos are made of aluminum but the idea of making them out of carbon fiber is very intriguing, much more trick. As far as their operation, you brake with your hand on the "T" handle and gaz-it with your thumb. I often switch hands while driving so I can up-shift with my right hand, down-shift with my left hand, other times if I'm just taking it easy, I'll just reach over with my left hand to up-shift.

I work for DaimlerChrysler and change vehicles frequently. I needed a set of controls that I could install in a short period of time. I can put them on in about 10-minutes, take them off in less time than that. There are many different types of hand driving controls. The "permanent" style controls usually require modifications to the car and take hours to install. Six years after I "endoed" on my bike (1995) I raced a Dodge Neon in the SCCA, SSB class and those hand controls were completely different because the car was a true 5-speed. Like someone mentioned in one of the earlier posts, the gas was a twist-grip (motorcycle style) on a bar that was mounted slightly below the turn signal lever. You pushed the lever in to brake, twisted the grip to go and we had a switch mounted on the lever that operated the clutch. When I wanted to shift, I just pushed the button with my left hand, then manually shifted the car with my right hand. This set-up worked ok but at times I was short a hand. With that set-up you could not shift in a corner. Someone else mentioned Carol Hollfelder, who raced a 355 with ultra-trick hand controls. I believe the controls on her car were a duplicate of the hand controls on former Ferrari F-1 driver Clay Regazoni's car.

If you would like to see video of me driving the car, I'd be happy to shoot some. That actually sounds like it would be fun. I'll work on getting that done but it might take a while.

Again guys, thanks for all of the kind words. I'm flattered that many of you think I'm an inspiration to you. Personally, I don't see it. I'm just an every day guy who works hard, plays hard and likes to have fun. I'm very thankful for everything that's come my way in life.

Thanks again. marc

Couldn't resist posting one more pic of the car and one more pic of some short guy.
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YOU MY FRIEND, ARE A HERO IN MY BOOK!

CONGRATULATIONS...GOD BLESS YOU...AND HAPPY F-MOTORING

I almost cried when I read about your condition...you truly are an inspiration....my goodness, I feel like something is about to explode in me here...ooh, thank you Jesus!...Halleleujah!...Lord I thank ya!

Congrats again..

 

Saw this thread for the first time, you are an inspiration!

 

Welcome to the world of Ferrari! Unless someone is already marketing your gas and brake extentions, if I were you, I would start marketing them. My sister-in -law had a van built for her and her wheelchair that cost a ton. Your idea is very simple and to the point and could save people a lot of money.