D-Day has arrived - New (non-red) 328 in my hands!!!

What an amazing day that started in Denver at Sunrise and ends for me in Kansas City at 10:00 pm at a Holiday Inn.

Flew to K.C. and took a one way rental car from Avis to the Springfield, MO airport and then picked up and delivered to the doors of Motorcars-Intl. GREAT SERVICE, GREAT EXPERIENCE, and a GREAT CAR!

I can't say enough great things about Randy and Gary and their crew at Motorcars-Intl. I am sure I will need a separate post to show the level of detail they went through in sorting my car so that I am now set with no issues looming and happy ownership on the large horizon.

I surprised my 10 year old son with the news that our get-away weekend was indeed to pick up the new addition to the family. He knew I was looking for a non-red 328 and was excited when I told him that I closed the deal some weeks ago, but he has a lot going on with activities and wasn't sure when I would pick it up. He was so excited (me too) to get going on the journey.

It was a fantastic (minus the Missouri humidity) day. No unexpected events so far after driving for 4 hours on the way back. Lots of thumbs up and honks from lots of women on the road. Not a bad start although I am not looking for the paparazzi lifestyle... Still have a ways to get back to Colorado. Should be a fun adventure.

I am so pleased with the car, it's color, condition, and small touches here and there, that I can honestly say it is one of the happiest days for me. And I have lots of great days and great moments. Today on a roadtrip with my 10 year old in a dream ferrari is a wonderful day that I hope all of you can experience. It feels so good to make that decision to just do it and go get that F-car. Now I am driving one of my dream cars from my the posters in my room growing up and my favorite era - the 80's.

Thanks SO MUCH for all of the help on the forum the last four years. In particular - Bullfighter, sherpa23, dino944, franc308, thecarreaper, SeattleM5, hardtop, fastjon, Jeff Kennedy, Dave328, and nopiston, and all the other posters that make the site great and read my pm's and posts.

On with the photos. I will try to post many more tomorrow as we make our way down the road.

Robb
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It's 8:30 and I don't know how I fell asleep last night with all the excitement about the new F-car and it being down in the parking lot. I went down to check on it last night around 12:00am.

I asked the manager nervously if there was a big bar crowd that would be coming back at some point. I told him about picking up a new car and that I was anxious to see it through the night without incident. He says:

"Is that your lamborghini in the parking lot?" We were wondering who's car that was. "We like it better than the one in Batman..."

I had a good time telling him that it was a Ferrari. He replys: "Oh, I wasn't sure if it was like Magnum PI..."

He wanted me to bring it up front in the drop off area right next to the office front window. They said that they would watch over it throughout the night. They said that they park Harley's there all the time and that this was a similar situation .

I only had to check on it one more time at 1:30 am.

Then I fell asleep.

My son and I will have some more fun today. We are in no hurry to get the final 600 miles under our belts. 200+ down so far.

More photos for your perusal...

Robb
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More pics:

Robb
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More Pics:

Robb
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I'll have to give credit where it is due. Randy at Motorcars Intl. is the photographer for these images. I will be busy adding to the library myself when you replace the steering wheel with my canon. It was truly a great surprise to find these photos in my inbox and many more last night at 10pm after arriving at the hotel.

I am a photo junkie and Randy fed me so many images during the entire process:

initial look at the car
major service photos with the engine and car apart
stereo hookup and adds to the car
final detail
D-day for pickup.

He is one of the nicest guys and most knowledgeable 328 guys out there. He went out of his way so many times and I didn't even ask for most of it. Those little things. I'll be finding a TR from him somewhere down the road.

Couple more details for you guys. I replaced the '88 alpine unit with an '08 version that is the ipod/radio/sattelite version only without a cd player. I think it is the #100 model. Easy to use with the ipod hookup cord in the side pouch. New alpine Amp replaces the '88 version that was back there as well. Kept the eclipse speakers. Good sound given the speaker placement and limitations.

Steering wheel s the MOMO monte carlo which roughly matches the oem wheel but adds some more anatomic grip here and there without looking like a ricer...

More later. We are headed out.

Robb

 

Thanks for all the comments guys. F-chat is such a fun community and the posts, stories and info is so good!

We made good time the last three and a half hours. Filled up and am averaging 21 mpg. So far so good. About two hours into the trip today, we stopped to put the targa back on as the sun was getting pretty high in the sky and it is 95 degrees outside and very humid. No big squeeks or rattles with the top. The rubber seals are fairly soft and I'm thinking that's a good thing. The air conditioner was just recharged and is blowing colder than I ever expected. With the windows up and top on, driving is about right and comfortable, but still not modern.

The iPod is playing on some Beck, and about an hour layer, the alpine unit says that it can't find the iPod device. I reach down and the side pouch is 1/4 full of water dripping from the a/c. The sceeen has a fishtank now... So while not perfect to have to dryout and likely repair the new iPod, I'm not sweatin it and know these things can pop up. What a great roadtrip!

We stopped at a gas station near Wilson, Kansas and pretty much stopped all activity while we filled up. Nobody left until they heard us drive off, which I did a proper exit and took it all the way up getting back onto the freeway on-ramp right there. Well hopefully they liked the sound as much as we did. The car's attitude absolutely changes above 4000 rpm.

We stopped on the side of a feter road to shoot some photos near a large windfarm. Will post more photos tonight with the next installment of the drive.

Robb... Somewhere in Kansas.