Mondial Feature

Thought you guys might appreciate this writeup on a modified Mondial I did. If nothing else, it has some nice photos!

Improving the Breed ? RETROMOD
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I am sitting here in Albuquerque today, nice car! I spent the first 42 years of my life here and do miss it. Hopefully I get some time to read through your write up but I loved the photos.

 

That's great! People talk a lot of crap about New Mexico, but I love it here. Glad you liked the photos.

 

Thank You Zachary,

Beautiful photos and an excellent write-up.

Huge thanks for this. I will post a link to this article on my site now.

Cheers

 

I see the 358 badge on the back, interesting.

Haven't clicked the link yet...

 

Hi, Zachary

I own a 1986 3.2 Mondial Cabriolet, and I live in Rio Rancho. I would very much like to meet you. Perhaps we could get together sometime soon.

I saw your 358 Mondial at Carobu Engineering last year. Bert takes care of my Mondial. In fact, he has just finished an engine-out service on my car.

If my offer to meet is of interest to you, please feel free to contact me at 505-620-2239. I frequently can be found at Cars&Coffee on Jefferson on Saturday mornings.

I have often wondered what happened to your 358 Mondial, and I am glad it is here locally. I look forward to hearing from you!

Philippe

 

Thanks for sharing the story!

 

Hi Philippe, yes I saw your Mondial at Carobu when I was there doing some photography work for them. Beautiful, love the Prugna color. I will definitely contact you.

I wish I could say the Mondial was mine. It was actually Carobu's development car and I was able to do a writeup on it. I believe the car was sold to someone in Silver City, NM.

 

Quick question, is there more HP to be expected if one was to use the 4-valve (speak QV or 3.2) head or did they get the maximum flow there is by going oversize on 2-valves?
cheers
braq

 

I suppose one of the things that has worried me the most about my QV is that when I had the propelling unit out for an engine change I sent a picture of the transmission input shaft with my thumb next to it to a friend. I don't have a big thumb and they are about the same. Anytime additional power is added something becomes the weak link and I don't know what that is. When added power is applied what is the first to fail?

 

The gearbox is robust! I've put over 500 lb/ft of TQ thru them with no issues. The clutch is the first to slip at high tq, once that's fixed the next is actually the tires. The 308/328 is not a heavy vehicle and can only put down so much traction, that's its real limiting factor. Avoid clutch dumps and it's be hard to break anything. Besides the engines even heavily modified do not produce tons of tq down low to break things.

 

Zach, I greatly enjoyed this and the two other articles of yours that I read while on the site. The fact that your evaluations of the Turbo Esprit and 328 so closely parallel my own made your feedback on the hot-rod Mondial all the more insightful for me. And it was nice to read a piece that treated the Mondial with respect without sounding like you were making excuses for the car. I'm not a Mondial owner and I doubt I ever will be, but even so it still bothers me to read the unkind comments the model receives all too often. I'm of the mind that there's no such thing as a "bad" Ferrari model so AFAIC dissing on the Mondial is like saying that one supermodel isn't as hot as another supermodel.

Thanks for posting the link. I enjoy your writing. BTW, I hope you won't mind a suggestion from an occasional pedant, but watch your its and it's.

 

Mike, I'm always open to suggestions. I will look it over again. I'm a one-man show at the moment!