Got my 575M HGTC last week.

After a long long wait, she is here. I didn't quite post anything while waiting for her though. But here she is.

Cavallini, here are the pictures of my car as promised.

I only put about 570km on the car since I picked her up last week. More driving is coming this weekend as she will be taken to join the regular Sprint with our local F community. So far I have encounter some mix feelings as below.

1- Exhaust note: She's got great noise at idle, not too loud but in the mean time just enough deep growl to make sure we know she is not just any 575.

2- Ride comfort: I read in some mag that the GTC is set up just short of reaching the raw level of a 360CS. I haven't tried the CS yet, maybe this weekend, but I can tell you that she is a rough ride. However, the harshness seems to stop just short of the seat. I can feel the tires working and the suspension working but my butt isn't hurt!

3- Handling: So far, nothing concrete can be said about this area. I haven't really pushed her yet. I hope to have a chance to do so soon.

4- Workmanship: This is the only area where I find very disappointing. There are at least 2 defects on the leather used on the two seats, 1 on the leather shelf, and pen marks on the lower dash board on the driver side. There are at least 3 spots on the finishing of the car that I see smudginess underneath the final coat of the paint. The Scuderea shields were attached a bit off.

5- F1 transmission: I still have doubt about this one. I feel there must be something wrong with the way it is behaving. The rev drops about 1,000 or so rpm every time I changed gear. The problem is it doesn't pick up quite instantly. It takes one or two second before it picks the rev up, even when my right foot is not lifted. This is in Sport mode already. I'll give her a few more trips before I judge on this though. However, my last 360 F1 wasn't like this.

More report should be coming after I drive more.
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Unfortunately not. The CS is my brother's. They just share the garage. I'll get to try her tomorrow though.

 

The red plate indicates new car Ryan. It also is used in place of regular plate while the ownership is being transferred. The GTC is new, the CS is about 600km used.

I took her out for a Sprint with our fellow F cars club this past weekend. Here are some further reports on each points.

1- The Noise. It's a bit louder still when pushed to a higher rev. However, at idle the noise seemed to settle down a bit. But either way, she sounds pretty tough.

2- Handling. I didn't quite push her all that hard into corners so I wouldn't be able to tell you much in this area. Regular high speed driving though was very good. The suspension set in Sport mode is not too harsh now. She seemed to be settling down as a whole. The first few days she felt a bit jumpy, but now the handling is quite sharp. I took her into one fast corner and felt that she took corners in a very different way comparing to my old 360. Her nose wasn't quite as sharp and quick into corner as the 360. Overall handling while driven hard on public road is very very good and a lot of fun. I hope to drive her on track soon. I'll be able to report more on handling then. The brake however surprised me a few times with its less than immediate reaction to my right foot pressing hard. Comparing to the ceramic, smaller in size, sets in the CS, the 575 brakes are not up to par with the CS. In the CS, you step on the brake and the car stops. In the 575, you step on the brake and you have to push more, only then the car stops. I don't know if the dealer can do anything about this one.

3- Ride comfort. In Comfort mode, she is now more comfortable than the first few days. I guess this is for the same reason as above. Overall comfort in this car is first rate.

4- F1. The problem is still there. No improvement at all. I drove the CS in the morning part and found that the F1 in the CS is way superior to the one in my 575. This can't be true, can it? I'll bring her in to the dealer tomorrow for a check up of this transmission ECU. I hope she can be fixed.

We had only a brief drive of about 45 minutes together. The rest of the day was for a getting together and hang out and have some fun. I hope to have a day at the track soon as I am very eager to know the limit of my car, and I can't find out on public road.

You guys are welcome to check out some pics we took of the day at Ferrariclubthailand.com site. You are also welcome to join in and register as well.

 

Yes, I do have ceramic brakes, they are HUGE! It turned out to be just the different in setting up of the brake in the cars. The CS was set up to be more of a race car, so the response has to be sharp. The 575 on the other hand is more or a GT acting race-car-wanna-be so the response is less sharp. I did tried to brake hard a few times on my way to the dealer and it indeed was a bit softer to the touch of my right foot but once I got the hang of it, the brakes are as powerful as those on the CS. This was confirmed when talking to the mechanic at the dealer.

The F1 transmission though definitely got a problem. They are examining the car further but from a test drive, the mechanic thought that the ECU may be operating in what they call a "Limp Mode", whatever that is. They said that they can fix this. I'll know more in a few days.

 

The latest word I got from a dealer yesterday was that the F1 is okay and working as it's supposed to be. There was another GTC delivered a few days ago and it was test driven with the owner. They said the F1 was exactly like mine.

If this is true, it's very disappointing that a car this good will be hampered by the inadequate F1 system. In my opinion, the 575M is a GT car and the aim is for it to be smoother and less sharp than the CS. By direct comparison, the F1 in the CS changes gear very smoothly in regular mode, all the time regardless of where you are on the rev range. In Sport mode, she changes quickly with a quick snap and immediate pick up of the rev all the way to her limit. But the 575M changes very slowly and not as smooth in regular mode comparing to the CS. There is definitely no comparison with the CS Sport mode. It's like heaven and hell!

Anyone with a direct experience with F1 in both cars, or either of them, is welcome to give lots of input here. I do need to hear from you all because this is puzzling me and bothering me a lot. Everything else about the car is perfect!

Thanks in advance for all help guys.

 

She's back and cured now. I picked her up from the shop yesterday and drove home. In city traffic, the Regular Mode on F1 is now very smooth regardless of the slow changing. This mode is now much better than the one in my brother's CS.

On highway, the Sport Mode is now fast and precise. Plop-plop-plop with quick change up or down and no delay in reving up like in the past. Jerkiness is still there but very short and almost as nice as the Race mode in the CS. I think no recent F1 system can match the Race mode in the CS. That car is just incredible in Race mode.

I have yet to try Auto mode though. Totally forgot about it!

All the dealer did was disconnect the power and let the ECU do what they call a Self-learn again. It does wonder!

Now I am very happy.

 

Cavallini, if you are thinking about getting one, you'll love it. Test drive the car first though and make sure the F1 is working fine.

 

It's on every 575M, but some owners take it off because they want a cleaner look from the back. I was thinking about taking mine off also but decided to leave it on for a while before taking it off, in case I might change my mind.

 

I can't believe that my post will come up today. It's been more than a year now since I took delivery of her. She now has more than 13,000 km under her belt. I had to change a set of rear tires since the right side had problem a while back. The F1 is still working fine since that first cure. She now has Tubi on but the sound disappointed me somewhat. I was expecting a higher pitch kind of tone but all I got was just a louder and raspier version of the standard.

The one system I had disconnected totally was the tire pressure warning system. It never worked properly, not even after FOUR tries of everything including changing the whole instrument pod (???), so I decided to just not use it. I checked the tire pressure every so often anyway.

I am still happy.

As for the CS, she also has about 10,000 km on her as well. My brother complains about her rawness in everyway every time he drove her, but he also smiles while complaining. I took that as a bittersweet thing for him.

We are now building a new home for the two sister ponies.