Mondial - Replacement Radio from Recent F-Cars

Well, not really answering your question, but I've heard and my experience is that there is no stock radio for the older cars. They were strictly dealer install in the States. My car has a Kenwood pull out (remember those) that was installed at the dealer and I have all the paperwork that goes with it. Sadly the car came with no cassettes. Any stereo of the correct vintage would probably be appropriate, some more common than others. Upgrading to a Ferrari logo stereo would be an upgrade in many aspects I expect.

 

This is correct. At least up until the late 1980s radios were installed at the dealers.

FWIW, My radio stinks. I am thinking of replacing the whole thing with a period correct cassette deck, amplifier and speakers, just for the hell of it.

I actually found a refurbished version of the exact nakamichi radio that came with my car on Ebay but the damn thing sold before I could bid.

If I were you, I would keep it old school. If you want to listen to your ipod, get a cassette adapter.

The new "Tokyo Lights" radios that Alpine and others are putting out too cheesy for our cars and a newer Ferrari radio seems more hassle than it is worth.

 

I had Bradan in Ny replace my stereo with an Alpine with built in XM radio. The one feature it does not have that would be nice is a remote for volume/tuning.

The ergonomics are such that its near impossible to safely adjust it while driving without.

With the Xm i'll just leave it on my fav. station and be done!

 

Our 1992 t has a factory installed cassette storage bin in the center console. I trashed it and now store my wallet there (can't sit on the darn thing...not because it's fat but because the seat bolsters are designed for Italian Supermodels.) Anyhoo, only a dealer hack could have punched out the hole that houses our antenna. No Idea what radio was original but I say go modern Tokyo lights. I can put 100 driving tunes on a single mp3 disk. And yes, that includes the theme songs to Miami Vice, Magnum P.I. and Hawaii 5O

dave

 

Original Alpine AM/FM/cassette. Works well. Added Sirius/XM which I had to directly run the antenna lead into the back of the Alpine unit because the FM transmitter couldn't overcome the spark interferences from a Ferrari V8. Now I have tons of music/news/sportsradio/comedy options and still the unit is late 80's correct.

 

out of curiosity, how do you find the sound quality?

Mine is all original too. It sounds REALLY tinny. I can't figure out if it is the fact that the entire stock system consists of two 4 inch woofers and the tiny tweeters

As I said earlier, I was thinking for giggles it might be fun to source the best equipment from the 1980's that could have been put in our cars without any modifications and seeing what that sounds like.

Incidentally, locally, we are lucky to have Goodman radio, they were the guys installing our systems for Algar in the 1980's. It was Gary, the proprietor, who confirmed my system was all original. They do top notch modern stuff these days but have a great institutional knowledge of our cars. I'm thinking of working with him to source all the stuff to properly kick it OLD SCHOOL in the Mondial

 

Remote is an excellent feature. I keep mine in the old cassette holder. I would get one of the new Alpine Ipod only decks (also has radio/XM), run the plug into the glovebox. Otherwise you can't even see the radio display due to the position of the radio..

I pulled out some of my old records and my son asked "Daddy, are those giant CDs?"

 

I haven't decided; the 1988 Owner's Manual gives you three choices. However, at a minimum, I plan on upgrading the speakers plus add a small amp (hidden) with an ipod/smartphone interface. I mostly listen to TuneIn Radio using their app on my phone awyway. It's free and there's an almost endless amount of stations to choose from.

My phone fits nicely in the cassette holder as well.

http://tunein.com/
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Damn - I got the exact same unit. Daniel didn't know if it had a remote or not - I guess I know the answer now.

Erik

 

I have a 2006 612 radio with the nav and all the trimmings. Great for Mondials. Install and go.

 

Sounds a little better than just OK. Drove to Poconos on Sunday with top down, wind in my hair, earplugs in and the engine revving at 3700 for an hour and the radio cranked all the way up, singing to classic rock and Dead songs the entire time. Heard the radio just fine.

 

I installed a radio from a 360 in my Mondial. I like it; for no other reason than the screen displays the text, "F E R R A R I", when I turn the radio on. I bought the radio from eBay for less than $200. I bought the antenna adapter from Wal-Mart of all places...