Hi all, A few days ago I drove my 412i back from Amsterdam, NL to Zurich, Switzerland, obviously over the partly unrestricted German autobahn. The route went from the Dutch east border to Oberhausen (which part is nicknamed "Oberhausen-straight", because it is, well, straight and there is usually hardly any traffic), Colonge, Frankfurt, Karlsruhe and down to Basel in Switzerland. I wanted to know how the 412i behaved at high speed cruising and during the trip I comfortable reached several times speeds over 230 kmh (a little under 145 mph) on the Oberhausen-straight on the GPS. The speedometer seems to be a little off, see pic at the bottom... After a 850 km (appr. 530 mile) trip in about 7.5 hours (including diner stop and some petrol stops) I was home, without any other problems than the windshield spray not really working above 150 kmh. I drove hours on end with speeds over 200 kmh, accelerating, braking and accelerating again, with ease and with good temperatures and oil pressure. The next day it turned out that the hydraulic rear suspension was not working any more which made the car sit like a low rider and the exhaust sounded a bit rough. Up I went to the local Ferrari guys close to me (ran by an ex Swiss Formula 1 driver and his family, Foitek). They concluded that only the hose of the hydraulic oil was broken after which the hydraulic oil was spilled over the underside of the car and that only a rubber between parts of the exhaust needed to be exchanged. Nothing serious apparantly. It looked a bot sad though in the garage. Hopefully I can pick it up in a few days and prepare for the appliction for a Swiss licence plate. We plan to go to the lake district in Lombardia, North Italy in the summer and I want to take the 412i along to drive it where it belongs! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
That is how a true GT has to be driven But what I found really remarkable is that I drove the 99% same route (Rotterdam to the KKL in Luzern and back) this weekend. No technical trouble what so ever. Did it with a Mercedes CDI though
Thats the way to drive our cars, I am so happy for you and a little bit jealuose not able to go with You. It really seems to been a nice ride. Love our cars ....... Many thanks for charing Ulf Rickard Sweden 412 - 75888
Great to hear about the journey and glad to learn that the 412 was driven hard and performed admirably. Thanks for sharing. Great speedo pic.
Your car thanks you for blowing out the cobwebs. Gee, an optimistic Ferrari speedometer. Who knew? What were your indicated revs? I had mine to 260kph(?), I recall it was near redline, extrapolating from your photo it looks that your revs were lower. Maybe my slushboxe's torque converter was why my revs were higher.
You should do this every now and then, blowing off steam on the German Autobahn. The engine, transmission and suspension will thank you for this. Ferraris are made for speed and not for sitting around in lonely garages Low Mileage is just a Cliche, have fun and enjoy your beautiful 412i Greetz, Joseph
Great stuff. Thats the real deal blasting accross Europe. Perfect for down to the Italian Lakes too. Enjoy. Regards Alastair
260 kph is the rated top speed at redline per factory spec. How is is possible that the OP was able to reach 290 kph at what appears to be around 6000 rpm???
You must have missed the part about the "optimistic speedometer". Top speed of a 412 is reported to be about 155 mph, or about 250 kph. That should be about 6,600 rpm.
He Ben, That is great to read. Judging from the pictures the car looks really nice now. A broken hose for such a shake down trip is a pretty good result. It is an easy fix indeed and besides a sad look nothing gets damaged. The speedo is hugely unreliable (at least mine is). I have realligned the speeds using a GPS as i got several tickets for speeding in a 50 km zone knowing i was not speeding. It turned out the 50 on the dial was 65 in the real and 30 on the dial is actually 50 in verified speeds. I hit brake even at about 130 and then it becomes optimistic like yours. The top speed is funny but be carefull at the low end specially in your country where the speed tickets can be so high. I ended up marking my speeds dial for 30/50/80/100 and 120 with some tape. Now the next trip must be those glorious mountain road. I think we all need some pictures of your 412 on one of those snaking roads baking in sunshine. Enjoy it.
Regardless of how rapidly these cars are moving when flat out or close the SOUND of the engine working hard at sustained high revs is glorious, even in my F.I. car.
I love it! Mr. Foitek is a very nice man. See if you can see his collection ... outstanding. I used to live in Switzerland - Montreux area, and there are some great roads ... Try the Bernese oberland route from Interlaken down to Villeneuve in the Vallais... also Spluggen pass over to Italy... spectacular scenery and the roads are un real! have fun!
Great suggestion: tomorrow we drive from Zurich to lake Como, via the Splugen pass. Will post some pics.
