550 brakes underdeliver ?

I am back from an otherwise wonderful week-end in southern France (Monaco/Cannes), getting there through northern Italy, as highways are really nice and there is no a hint of political will to enforce speed limits.
Was my first long trip in the Maranello (about 1000 miles in 3 days), a good opportunity to see how the beast lives up to real world Grand Turismo.

The drive involved a short stint on swiss highways, the Grand St Bernard pass to Italy (through the tunnel, the pass is still closed in this season), the A5 from Aosta and then the A26 down to Genova, probably one of the most insane cities in the world from an urbanistic point-of-view, and then the A10 coastal highway to France.

Desert 3 lane northern italian highways allow to drive at fairly high pace (125mph cruise) in relative security, I wandered shortly up to 290km/h (180) on an empty long straight. Above 120mph, the 550 piles up speed amazingly, it is certainly a lot more impressive from 120 to 160 than from 70 to 120, where lots of other cars can easily follow unless you downshift (a Maser' 4200 or a Merc E500 for instance).

What did not impress me at all is the brakes. Breaking reasonably hard from 125 makes a weeeeeewwwww howling sound which is not reassuring at all, and the relative firmness of the pedal at lower speeds becomes a rather mushy feeling, you just don't know if you're going to get more if you had to squeeze the pedal more. I am still amazed that my discs are not warped after this journey. Since my standard brakes squeak at walking pace anyway, I am wondering if moving to the Fiorano package would be worth it ? Anybody tried this ? Tracking the car on a fast track must be ... hum ... an intersting experience.

On the endless sweeps of the french-italian coastal highway, the handling of the Maranello is quite commendable, but I had again several instances where one of the rear wheels bottomed against something in the wing (have yet to figure out what), but that was under really severe compressions (an explanation, but not an excuse).

Overall, the journey was wonderful. I find the Maranello at lot more usable in travel conditions than the 355, with more space for stuff in the cabin and a real trunk. Aside from the ridiculous turning radius, the torquey engine and the manual box make you feel comfy in the worst bumper to bumper trafic jams, an experience which would have been simply dreadful with an F1 (don't want to spark another endless debate, I just like to be in control and feather the clutch on the idle torque).
Monaco was as out of touch with the real world as usual, Maybachs here and there, a Rolls Phantom, the 188m€ yacht of the brother of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia (Lady Moura, see http://community.webshots.com/photo/76939825/77372643OEjART, this thing is absolutely gigantic), a DB9 with two friendly AM test drivers (see http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12091&highlight=DB9), made two "laps" to show the F1 track to my girlfriend, one can't help being stunned by the speeds F1s reach in such a hostile and inadequate environment.

On the way back, I followed a Merc 270 CDI for a long while. The guy was driving flat out (as many locals do in Italy), 120 to 150. There is no way I could have reasonably gone faster than him, while he was getting twice the gas mileage, had probably 15db less road noise, and no second thoughts about warping his discs. Travelling in a supercar is a special experience, especially when conditions allow to tap in (some of) the potential, but it gets quite pointless when you try to rationalize it.

 

The car is barely 3 years old, can it be that the brake fluid is too old ?
Mounting different pads is a possibility, but do they make enough of a difference ? My hope was that, unlike an adequate exhaust note, proper brakes were not optional on a 550 ...
German Maranello owners who get a slice of autobahn every day must be either very brave or quite disappointed.

Am I the only one whose rear wheels bottom out ?

 

Thanks very much for all the good advice, looks like my todolist is growing ...

The "bottoming out" really sounds like a tire touching something. It's not a shock, it's a tzzzzzt, if you can hear what I mean. Tires/wheels are plain vanilla PZeros, 295 wide, nothing special, that could explain. Takes really hard compressions to get there, and it can happen on either side (obviously the exterior one relatively to the bend). Not done much homework to determine if there is anything visible on the tire. Does not seem like it on the outside.

Dr Tax, there are fortunately still a couple of countries in Europe where road conditions and law enforcement (or laws themselves) allow to give GT its full meaning, but I wonder how long this will still last before tracking our cars is the only way to enjoy our hobbies.