Silly Questions about my Lusso

So, I just got mine. I love it. Already been on epic 2500 mile road trip to Pacific Northwest with 2 buddies and my large standard poodle. It was epic. One of my buddies was a professional photographer if you want to see the images, they are here.

I’ve worked out most of my questions, but these are still pending. I’m going to DE at Utah Motorsports. All these are minor.

• I have a Novitec Switchronic installed, but it is not working. I think it is something fairly simple, e.g. remote not communicating, but I’m told they will need to remove the bumper to check; and if a part is needed, it will take awhile, so thinking that I just leave the valves open permanently until I get the time to remove the bumper and then consider this alternative to Novitec, which will sell and allow me to return easily, unlike Novitec. https://tagmotorsports.com/capristo-remote-ferrari-812-superfast-gtc4lusso-f12?find=ferrari-gtc4-lusso-2020-coupe-6-3l-v12-40037. Can you easily leave the exhaust valves to always on? or, will that create a problem or check engine light?
• should I run in 4th gear on wet or track to ensure i have 4 wheel drive working even when going at some speed, vs. 5th gear which is just 2 wheel drive
• I thought I saw my passenger window go up on it’s own, but can’t replicate. can passenger window auto up?
• I thought I saw full screen for the camera function, but can’t seem to replicate. Not a big deal, but just curious. I am finding the camera and sensor warning to be very inaccurate as is. When I think I’m on top of something, I have a full foot, which I guess is good.
• The infotainment system leaves much to be desired. When I get into the car, the phone pairs via Bluetooth and is connected, but takes FOREVER to access any music files; NBD, if I plug in, it works fine. The HD is hard to figure out too.
• Trying to get used to the shifting. Seems that in auto, it is nowhere nearly as aggressive, even when I get on it. Seems like it does much better when you use the paddles, and is more fun.
• Lastly, I am scared of this car. Wondering if I should run a few laps at the track first in Rain or Comfort modes so I know where the computers come in earlier. My prior track car is a 1990 Porsche 911 - 964, with only ABS, no other driver aids, and a rear engine, with only 256 hp. This is a whole different animal and I’m intimidated.

I really love this car and glad to be part of this community. Thanks.
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This annoys me almost every time I go for a drive. How is the passenger window NOT auto up?

 

Yea, wtf. I honestly thought i got it to work once. Seriously. I’m 99% sure it did. I was shocked, but couldn’t repeat it.

 

PS: why not skip to next song button on steering wheel???

 

Just leased a new Mercedes EQS and not even that car has a skip song button on the steering wheel...

 

Hello Scott and welcome to the forum and Ferrari ownership. That’s a beautiful car and dog you have there. It’s also great to see you using the Lusso ‘properly’

I have an FF rather than a Lusso so forgive me if some of my answers turn out to be incorrect because Ferrari changed things from FF to Lusso.

1) Capristo valve remotes are great. We’ve had them on a couple of cars and they’ve been flawless. You can’t set the valves to always closed as that will damage the engine. However, you can set them to always open as all that does is lose you some torque at lower revs.

2) The car will more actively hold 4th in snow than in wet. Ferrari’s view is that by the time you’re doing 5th gear speeds and above, no amount of 4wd is going to save you and that active stability from differential braking and traction control is your safety net. However, if you are pressing on hard in wet mode with manual shifting, I’d hold 4th to give the car every chance to kick in the 4wd when needed.

3. No one touch pax window on any of the Ferraris I’ve owned or driven. It’s an annoyance.

4. Sorry - can’t help

5. Be glad you have the Lusso’s vastly superior infotainment system. Don’t forget that it dates from 2016 and is really rather good. The FF’s is prehistoric by modern standards.

6. Auto shifting is dependent on two factors. One, the manettino setting so if you want more aggression, you need to be in sport or higher. And two, the gearbox learns very quickly your recent driving style. So if you’re cruising and you want some aggression, the best thing is to manually shift in auto and let it revert to auto as it learns that you’re now demanding more and the next time you floor the throttle, the shifts will come faster, down more gears and the car will hold gears for longer as you accelerate. If you’ve been intimidated by the car and have treated it gently, then the gearshift will be gentle in return…. Which leads me on to …

7. If you can handle a 964 then you can handle a Lusso. By all means get some track/skid pan time to learn the car’s limits as it’s larger and heavier but beware that track time will kill your brakes and they are expensive to replace.

I hope that helps and you continue to enjoy and get the best out of your Lusso.

 

Thank you for your answers. I appreciate it. Someone told me that replacing the brake pads would be close to $40,000 or something like that. Is that true? They also said that typically the brake pads will last well over 100,000 miles or something like that. The brakes are amazing in this car.

 

Congrats on the car. Never had the window issue. To be honest I don’t use the infotainment in mine much. Maybe CarPlay a little. Windows down a little and the V12 is all I need. I do agree compared to a modern car it’s ancient. I’ve never been overly impressed with any of the infotainment on any of the Ferraris I’ve owned but that’s obviously not why we buy them.

Not sure where you heard that but pads are usually not a crazy expense. I’m gonna guess the OEM pads would cost a couple grand plus labor. Replacing the rotors also is when the $$ rack up.


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That makes much more sense. Usually, when I goto the track with my 964, I bring extra brake pads; I thought there might have been something about the carbon cermamic pads that was crazy expensive, but makes sense it is the rotors that are crazy expensive. Someone told me the rotors should last the life of the car. I’m not sure how much thickness my pads have, but I’ll have to check. About how thick is ok for 2 days of sessions on the track. Do I need to have only Ferrari dealer replace pads, or is this something any good shop could do?

 

Tracking the car will be expensive. Not because of the brakes, but because you will want a 458 or Speciale or Pista or 296 or Scud or CS or Challenge car.

 

I will cross that bridge when I get there, but look forward to it nonetheless

 

Congratulations!!

I think this is one of the great GT cars. Some thoughts:

* Switchtronic exhaust- I am in the minority, but every car Ive ever driven that has one of these systems feels wrong and underpowered at low RPM when the system is left open. I think these systems are really for the “show off to your friends” crowd. I would leave it at the factory settings. -OR- get Novitec engine tune which is designed for these modifications. To me, the Lusso is a very sporty GT car, so I would leave it. I just think the middle ground is not very good- so either get the software or leave it factory.

[*]should I run in 4th gear on wet or track to ensure i have 4 wheel drive working even when going at some speed, vs. 5th gear which is just 2 wheel drive

[*]Lastly, I am scared of this car. Wondering if I should run a few laps at the track first in Rain or Comfort modes so I know where the computers come in earlier. My prior track car is a 1990 Porsche 911 - 964, with only ABS, no other driver aids, and a rear engine, with only 256 hp. This is a whole different animal and I’m intimidated.


I put these 2 together. The danger of running it only in the first 4 gears is you could have a whole lot of torque in the system- lots of RPM if your speed is high enough. My advice is use the right mode for the right conditions. For learning the car on dry streets or even the track, try comfort mode, as this will feature a lot of help. If its wet, use wet mode. I understand your point about the power- the V12 just pulls and pulls and pulls. So, the answer to this is to short shift and keep the amount of power under your foot to a manageable level. Soon enough you will be comfortable to use it. The AWD is nice, but not essential to your safety. Your instincts are right on the money. Sport mode will allow you more freedom, but its not like race mode which is not featured on the Lusso and I kind of wish it had it, though I understand the rationale behind no race mode. Stay away from everything off until you are really ready- I dont use it. I dont drive this car like that.



[*]I thought I saw my passenger window go up on it’s own, but can’t replicate. can passenger window auto up?
[*]I thought I saw full screen for the camera function, but can’t seem to replicate. Not a big deal, but just curious. I am finding the camera and sensor warning to be very inaccurate as is. When I think I’m on top of something, I have a full foot, which I guess is good.

Unsure about the window, the camera, all cars have a margin of error built in, once you learn it, you will know how to judge it, its just a little annoying to learn. Spend 30 minutes in your driveway and you’ll have it figured.

[*]The infotainment system leaves much to be desired. When I get into the car, the phone pairs via Bluetooth and is connected, but takes FOREVER to access any music files; NBD, if I plug in, it works fine. The HD is hard to figure out too.

Do you have CarPlay? That solves a lot of issues, otherwise going wired does help. If you use CarPlay don’t use the Bluetooth. Disable it. Not sure on the hard drive, never bothered.

[*]Trying to get used to the shifting. Seems that in auto, it is nowhere nearly as aggressive, even when I get on it. Seems like it does much better when you use the paddles, and is more fun.
I almost never use auto- I use it only if I am stuck in really bad traffic for a long time or if I am on the highway and want to take a sip of water and think I might be better off with the car being able to do some shifting. Otherwise I do it myself, its part of the fun for me.

Love the pix and the pooch. SO cute. The google link didnt work for me, would have enjoyed seeing more.

Welcome to the club, your instincts are spot on, take your time to learn the car. Their modes work very well, and work your way up the rev range, the power is very linear, and while the whole car is fabulous, the engine is the star. As it should be [emoji4]


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You’re welcome. To clarify a few things on the brakes;

The discs will last c.80k miles if the car is not tracked and cost c.$5k per axle to replace.

Pads last anywhere from 20-40k if not tracked and cost c.$1.5k per axle to replace. Ironically, rear pads go first and it’s important to inspect the inside pad as it wears faster than the outside pad. The reason for this is that the stability control is active through the rear brakes.

Track use will kill both your pads and your discs to the extent that you can probably reduce the mileage life numbers above by a factor of 10.

 

Here is a link of just one day of the edited photos from our road trip. Sorry wrong link initially provided.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/neKvYqEXctSzntQ68

 

Congratulations! Enjoy your car in good health

 

Thanks so much for all the helpful advice. One more question. I saw in one of the many videos I watched on this car, that if you hold the left paddle shifter, it will auto downshift to the lowest gear possible, but when I tried this it didn't work for me. Is that true, or is there some trick to it?

 

If you are braking and hold the left paddle, it’ll down shift in order to hold revs.

 

Where do I find out all these little secrets?

 

Keep reading on FChat!

Congrats on the new car and I wish you good luck with it!

 

Hangin’ around here.
Oh, and the music change buttons should be on the back of the steering wheel…(at least they are on the FF).

 

Unfortunately, the music change button does not work with Apple CarPlay. I am trying to load up a whole bunch of songs on the hard disk that I have installed in the car to use instead of Apple CarPlay at times but it is not intuitive. There is no button That I can see otherwise to change the song but suspect in the right screen there will be one once I get some songs loaded into the hard drive. Unfortunately, Bluetooth takes way too long to access my very large music library on my iPhone. Thanks so much for all your feedback. It is really appreciated

 

use the CarPlay- skip the bluetooth. Way better. But now you will have to use the touch screen for forward backward skip.

 

It's works like you need to Raise the button harder and remove your finger

 

https://we.tl/t-rMOzexK5of here is PDF manual for GTC4LUSSO

 

I read the manual already, but didn’t see anything re passenger window. Are you saying that it should go up automatically? How?
I just learned that I need new rear tires very soon. I was told when I bought the car 1 month ago, the tires were 90% new, but apparently not and/or the 3k miles I put on it so far, wore them down. The front tires are fine I’m told.
Is it ok to replace just the rear, not the front, or do I need to replace all. If so, what tires do you recommend for summer tires, and winter, which will be done in November as I plan to run in the snow. I live in a ski town.
Would you trust the Les Schwab dealer to swap tires?