I drive a dirty & happy 550.

Most owners of my beast never drive their car. Therefore, most Ferraris are clean. Many drivers only take it out on occasions. Me, I am too busy to wash my car and I refuse to take it to a car wash. What this means is my dream car gets very dusty and the wheels are almost always dirty.

Gee, I should take better care of my car. No, it sees a very qualified mechanic every 3,000 miles. He normally washes my car.

Darn, I am not the normal owner of a 12 cylinder front engine and rear drive Ferrari. I do think Mr. Ferrari treated his cars as I do.

Never drive less then 12 cylinders

 

Your damn right, these cars are meant to be driven every day. Im glad you drive the snot out of it. Plus, the 550 is the greatest Ferrari ever IMO. Im so glad for you and i only wish i could see your car.

Nothing less than 12 cylinders.

 

Bart, I'll wash your car for you!! No charge either.

 

Pouring a line of car soap on the front bumper and driving at 175 MPH in the rain does not qualify as a wash!

 

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24962

Good on you. though I seem to be missing a couple of cylinders, where are they?

 

D'oh!
I thought I had something going there for a minute.

 

Last time I had someone else wash my car, the dashboard leather was ruin. Few drive my thing and ever fewer clean my beast.

Sorry.

 

Bart: you have nothing on me for dirty 550. I went 6 months w/o washing! And it's black!

--Dan

 

Bart,
You need one of those feather brushes...that wipe the dust off...I have one in my trunk and its great...keeps my 550 nice and clean between washes...
Don't me run and get the name of it!

Bill

 

Me too!

I'm always wondering how it is possible that all these Ferraris are so clean? Recently I saw lots of pictures from Monaco. Mostly the cars were super clean and parked in front of a cafe. What the heck are they doing with their cars??
The front of my Maranello looks now like a common grave for all available types of insects!

Tom

PS: Never drive less then 12 cylinders

 

good for you. Ferrari's are awfully reliable beasts and are meant to be driven daily. I too believe that is how Enzo himself drove his cars. He wanted them to be like the race cars, dirty and fast as....

 

I agree with all the other posts here. I keep my 550 relatively clean...but you should see all the front end chips & pock marks from 20,000 miles of road & track in 4 years of ownership this very week!!

 

Yah I guess you can say that even if a car is my daily driver it always stays in prestine condition mechanically and clean inside out. So what if your car runs good when the interior is filthy and the exterior wheels hace caked on break dust and the seats are cracking from not being conditioned.

 

i drive my cars (only 8 cylinders...sorry) daily, and i manage to find five minutes to wipe them down daily. even the wheels are clean. spotless in fact. so if your priorities are right you can drive a clean ferrari everyday

 

Obviously this is coming from an amateur...so what do you use to wipe them down every day with?

I am always worried about scratching them with the dirt/road grime on the towel/rag so I rarely do this although I did today and I think it was okay, but just wondering if there is a better technique.

 

i use speed shine and 100 percent cotton polishing cloths (www.griotsgarage.com). works well. i use speed shine to clean the wheels also and all the carbon fiber parts. if the car is too dirty then i wash it with soap and water. but usually all that is necessary is a little speed shine. but i'm lucky in that my cars are garaged all the time unless they are being driven so they don't get much road grime and dirt.

 

The thought of using a mere spritz followed by a wipe to clean dust off of my Ferrari makes me cringe! Especially on the wheels where there is extremely abrasive brake dust (although, perhaps the brakes on the CS don't leave much dust ??).

I'd rather have the dust for a few days/weeks until I have time to wash it properly.

A coating of dust is not all that bad really -- if nothing else, it reduces the UV exposure of the paint!

The only thing I take immediate action on is gifts from the seagulls...

 

suit yourself.

 

Rick,

Jack helped me wash and was my CS for the first time last saturday after a month of ownership. i try to wash my cars every 3-4 weeks religiously, right Jack???

silver is great because it always looks clean!!!! yellow needs the attention you give it....

and aren't you worried about scratching the car with speed shine or driNwash? i dont see how it can take dust off w/o scratching the car??????

 

if the car gets rained on or a big splash of dirty water from water on the road, or even several days of LA smog and grime then i'll wash the car with soap and water. but if the car is clean and waxed and i drive it a while it only gets a light coating of brake dust (very little from the CS brakes) and a light film of rubber from the ultra-soft tires. it's very quick and easy to use speed shine (or similar product) and 100% cotton cloths to gently wipe down the car. it comes out very nice, and i've never scratched or otherwise damaged the paint. but if you let a few days (or more) of dust and road grime build up then i'd wash it with soap and water. but if you speed shine the car daily it really works quite well only takes five minutes a day. i also use speed shine on the wheels and all the carbon fiber parts.

 

720, you might also want to check out this website in case you ever get a paint chip. i have used it, and all I can say is "wow."

http://www.langka.com/

BTW killer cars all of you.

 

Not attacking you as a person Doug, but where did you get your Enzo information from? Listed in Forza a million times over and in numerous bio's about the man, he said the road cars were a waste of time and only a means to fund his race car team. Yet here on Fchat people start to believe they know how Enzo felt based on their love for the car...

Enzo used to have private meetings with Gilles in his office after almost every race. He would lay into him verbally the "abuse" GV would give his "beautiful machines." Does that sound like the behavior of a man who thinks you should drive them hard?

The Sharknose Ferraris, one can argue one of the most iconic figures in automotive history, met a fate because Enzo didn't want them collecting dust in the back of the factory. Once their parts became outdated, Enzo scrapped them. Despite the Prince of Monaco saying how beautiful they were, instead of collecting dust in some museum Enzo wanted them turned into cubes because he could care less for public perception.

In the cases of F50 ownership, making the new owner sign a contract asking it to be driven a particular way and a certain amount of miles each year definitely doesn't suggest a drive hard stance. (This is a non-quoted example, but I am sure a few Fchatters can remember the details about the F50 contract and how the car had to be maintained/leased the first few years of ownership. )

Today it is very much the same love for detail. When Ferrari launched the 575M for Evo mag a few years ago, Luca said they couldn't take any pictures of the car until they lifted it so that the wheel symbols would line up properly. Talk about attention to detail, imagine how he would have reacted if there had been a few water spots on the windshield.

MaranelloMan's comment on clean with front paint chips is very cool and I think reflective of the thoughts of many owners today. But as the past and today, a dirty, fuming, driven to explode Ferrari is definitely and has been stated in public not in the class of the company.

RocketBoy