Jess, All the great advice you have been given here, I didn't do. No inspection. Been sitting in a garage for years. Low mileage 25k kilometers. AC "just needs freon" (right!). First one I looked at. Bought from an unknown guy in Italy. No records past the last major service from a local mechanic a year before. Thought I was going to buy a 3.2 as it was a late 85 (its a QV with some 3.2 parts). It wouldn't go into 2nd gear until warmed up. It overheated in traffic. It wouldn't start when hot (until I sat and let it cool down). It had original metric tires (literally the original set). The windows barely went up and down. The headlights are feeble. Etc, etc,etc. I had to have it and found out the problems after. That was 5 years and 35,000 Kilometers (21,000 miles) ago, and I have never regretted a single day of owning it. All those problems got sorted as you have read from above: Redline in the gearbox, new AC compressor with R134 (cools great in the cabin); a new radiator core and a 2nd fan with insulation around the radiator (2nd fan standard on 3.2 and T); replacement rims for Michelin tires; replaced fusebox with one from Guido; most important and least expensive - a separate relay for the starter motor to eliminate the hot start problem (the heat drains the battery). I had the window mechanism cleaned and boosters installed. And yes it has needed the stuff that wears out: wheel bearings, alternator, seats retinted; exhaust manifold welded, and a lot more which I dont even remember. It doesn't matter. The motor has never let me down. The driving is extraordinary. The sound is transporting (in more ways than one). The clean design and road handling are always a wonderful surprise each time I approach and drive the car. I have driven 1000 kilometer days without feeling the least bit tired or tired of driving. And I cant wait for the next trip. So yes, I now have a QV coupe that has 60k kilometers (36k miles) and is well sorted. Just the sort of car the guys have been describing for you to look for. I do not wrench. I break more things when I try to fix something. And because it is an old school V8, most things can be addressed by a skilled old school mechanic unlike newer exotics. And while I dont really look on it as an investment which would be ridiculous if you want to drive it instead of it being a garage queen, with the natural appreciation of the last 5 years, I'm really not that far underwater with costs vs. current value. This last weekend, I drove it to town (35 miles on a wonderful windy road) to do my food shopping. As I came out to put the bags in the back seat (the trunk, while spacious enough, sits over the muffler and is more suited for cooking food than carrying it), an older gent was putting his stuff away in his modern car parked next to the QV. Spontaneously, I heard him say, in accented english, "That's when Ferrari's were Ferrari's". I looked over at him and smiled and thanked him. And he continued, "No really, all the modern sports cars look alike. If you dont mind, I'm going to stand here and wait for you to start up and drive away so I can remember the sound." I of course gave it a bit extra on the way out. You will too when you find yours. Good luck
Gerald, What a great story. Uplifting, heartwarming and inspiring. Thank you very much for sharing. Some say the Mondial is an ill loved Ferrari, or the Ferrari that everyone loves to hate, but fact of the matter is it has brought me nothing but love and endearing stories. It’s one of the biggest ironies in the Ferrari world and one of its best kept secrets. It takes a great deal of knowledge and sensibility not achievable to everyone, to want to own and enjoy a Mondial. Mondial owners in my book are a very special and unique breed of Ferraristi. Too bad I don’t own one anymore, but in a very nice way, although I left my Mondial, it has never left me. Kindest regards to all, Nuno.
I would actually like to take you up on that offer at some point, not even to drive it so much as to just sit in it and get my bearings. I'm just shy of 6'0" and I'm not small. Small cars don't actually bother me, but entry/egress is something to consider in any car. I'm most worried about the footbox in the Mondial, both as a driver and a passenger. My wife is my same height but with much longer legs. Her primary car is a Lincoln MKT and the front wheel wells intrude quite a bit, and make riding from the passenger's side a bit of a chore as there are no pedals or footrests/dead pedals on that side. I was going to buy a Chrysler Crossfire coupe at one time until I test-drove one and found the interior out of sorts. The clutch pedal went way too far down; to get the proper setup, I had to get under the wheel, but that made fast steering difficult and the gas pedal too close. Not a lot of adjustment to a Crossfire, either, so if it feels wrong at the outset it's probably going to stay that way. The only other car I've been looking at lately (because it has the same layout as the Mondial) is a Lotus Evora. Hard to beat Toyota for engine reliability, and Toyota doesn't get nearly the credit it deserves for engine tech. The 1JZ and 2JZ straight-sixes are the favored engine for swaps among the Conquest/Starion set -- streetable 600 hp when built, with reliability. The Evora takes a V6 out of the Camry and adds an Edelbrock supercharger. But finding one that hasn't been ragged out means taking the price of a good Mondial and almost doubling it. Plus, nothing against Lotus at all -- the Esprit will always be one of my heart's favorite cars -- it is not Ferrari. Thanks again for your generous offer. I'll try to make it to Atlanta sometime in the next few months and see it. Jess
Drewbdo, Thanks for the compliment. It's crazy how cheap a V12 Jaguar can be found for. I hate seeing the Chevy V8 conversions, but I understand them. The engine is actually very stout and reliable. It's the electronics that go nutso and people either don't want to fool with them, or can't find anyone to pay to fool with them in their stead. Jaguar never built its own transmissions, and all those XJSs either came with Borg-Warner T3 kits or GM400 transmissions. Thus, throwing a Chevy 350 with either the 400 or the 700R4 into the car is easy. From what I understand, no cutting (or very little) is needed and the shifter stays in the same place. The V12 (that's actually Jaguar's official engine code for the motor, easy enough to remember) makes about 300 hp and can be built up to 500-600 and stay streetable. The lack of aftermarket support, though, makes it expensive to do. But when you get one idling and running well, it's a dream. Mine is about to come out of resto(mod) here in the next month; my new 17x8 CCW wheels arrived last week so I can get some better, more modern tires under it. We've really built the suspension and steering up as well. The XJS is a pure GT cruiser in factory form, not a sports car. I'm hoping what we've done changes its personality a bit. Jess
I feel like I'm reading a lot about myself in this post. I can wrench a few things, but I am much better off letting another do it. I tend to let "sad story" cars get the best of me. I feel like they need someone kind to come along and save them or they'll be done for. These are the same reasons I stay far away from animal shelters unless I know ahead of time it's OK to leave with something. I never understood the hate for the Mondial, or even mild dislike for it. I love the shape, particularly the buttress/C-pillar line to the back. I love the horizontal vents that stretch all the way across the "front trunk." Pop-up headlights with four bulbs. The classic Ferrari round taillights. I like that I can put my son in the back seat if I need to. The sensible Ferrari, as it were. A few years ago, I was in Montgomery, Ala., and got invited somehow to come to a garage tucked away in a commercial district of the city. There, Automobile Magazine writer Jamie Kitman was scheduled to come through in a McLaren MP4-12C. He was going across America with it and somehow decided to bring it through Montgomery, a city of about 250,000. I'll link his story about the car at the end of this piece. The garage we were visiting belonged to some local gentleman who had his own mechanic watching over the collection. I'm pretty sure the mechanic was a Ferrari mechanic by trade and may have been from Italy originally. Anyway, the collection of cars was huge. I remember a Lotus 7, a Ferrari 456 and I think a Testarossa as well. There were some old American cars, a vintage Mach-1 Mustang if I remember correctly. But the one car that just jumped out and held me was a Mondial. I remember thinking, "Oh, there's a real Ferrari right there," and then being taken aback when I realized it had a back seat. Soon enough, Kitman gets there in his McLaren, but I kept circling the Mondial hoping someone would volunteer to let me in it. Sadly, they never did. Jess Kitman's McLaren piece (the Montgomery stop made the story, but me and my XJS did not): https://www.automobilemag.com/news/ultimate-fantasy-3-mclaren-mp4-12c/
You will fit, my good friend who drove it a bit last year is 6'8" and pretty large as well. Of course with height requires the seat back so far the back seats are totally useless except for bags, groceries, etc.. with no leg room at all. Not that there was much as it is Just PM me when you happen to be headed this way.
Glad to hear this. I had been leaning toward the cabrio due to my height. I'm 6'4", and wondered if I would fit the coupe. Sounds like I should fit either.
