Mondial t purchase!

Mondial t red/tan 1989. The decision has been made. The car has passed the PPI with flying colors. Purchase agreement will be signed tomorrow and she should be on her way within a week.

Excitement, joy etc!!!!

I will post pics when she arrives.

Got to think about a good solid name Italian name----
How about Giada. Sounds good (I love her cooking show) and it's close to my youngest daughter's name (Gianna).

 

Burrino-72

My Mondial will not likely be here by the 18th, but I live in Dearborn and frequent Ciao's often (and Grappa cigar bar), so I will try to be there to meet everyone.

Ciao,
Frank

 

Purchase details are completed, paperwork is in transit, car is being detailed (in California), so while I wait for delivery details to be finalized (car will be transported by Western transportation, which I believe is out of Utah) I can move on to other fun thoughts.

New tires and floor mats. I realize stock is f-205/55/16 and r-225/55/16. I am thinking of going to f-225/50/16 and r-245/50/16 in Goodyear F1 GS-D3, for a little wider footprint, as long handling is not upset nor any rubbing issues with the larger size. The tire calculator shows the sidewall height and overall diameter to be nearly the same between stock and the larger size with only the section width increasing about 8/10th of an inch front and rear. If anyone has any feedback on this type of change and impact on handling/rubbing, chime in reply to this post. I did a search and it seems like this is an acceptable change.

Also, going to go with the GCalo mats--probably tan with tan binding with the 7" red ferrari logo, even though the black mats with red ferrari logo also look good.

Did I mention that this is fun!!!!

 

cabriolet

 

The car was loaded on the transport today (Wed. 7/18/07). The company doing the transport is Western Distributing Transportation out of Colorado--www.wdtc.net--neat looking website and transportation equipment. The dealer, Exotic Motor Cars, out of Palm Springs, CA., negotiated their rate for the transport. Car should arrive between Monday and Wednesday of next week to Dearborn, Michigan (home town of Ford Motor Co world hdqtrs.)

This is very exciting.

Because I know the manager at Discount Tire in Dearborn, he is giving me an excellent deal on Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 tires in 225/50/16 and 245/50/16 sizes for front and rear. I will have them mounted as soon as the car arrives.

Pics will be added as soon as "Giada" arrives.

 

Hi Hank,

Thanks for the info. I did speak at length with my tire guy about Goodyear specs versus other tires, especially the Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS which is my second choice if my all-season concern outweighs going with a summer only tire (not an issue most of you lucky Calif guys have--not that I will drive in the winter--but just knowing I could without tire issues would be nice).

Here is what the specs show:


The Goodyear tires (F1 GS-D3) clearly look and are wider due to the tread width even though the section width is only marginally different. For example,
on the stock front 205/55/16 the Goodyear tire has a tread width of 7.1 inches compared to 6.8 inches with the Bridgestone (measured on a 6.5 inch rim) yet the actual section width is 8.4 inches to 8.3 inches, respectively.

The Goodyear tires simply look much wider due to the tread width pattern, even though the section width difference is only 1/10th of an inch wider with the Goodyear over the comparable Bridgestone.

The spec differences for the rear stock sizes between the Goodyear and Bridgestone is actually the same in section width, both at 9.1 inches with the tread width being 5/10 in difference (again making the Goodyear look wider)

When we bump to the 225/50/16 and 245/50/16 size the section width difference between the two brands is 2/10th wider in front and the same section width in the rear. Again, the tread width is different with the Goodyear being 3/10 wider front and rear.

Bottom line appears to be that the section width is not that much wider with the Goodyear tires compared to the Bridgestone, with the change from stock being about an 8/10 section width increase front and rear on the Goodyear which should not cause any rubbing issues--at least based on what people have said on fchat and the tire dealer.

Crossing my fingers. If my info is incorrect, somebody let me know. Thanks

Frank

 

Yes, I agree Hank. (those tires look great on your car). The Goodyear tire is squarer in appearance than the Bridgestone tires, for example. That really is my concern about rubbing with the larger section width tire, due to the squarer edge of the Goodyear tires. If so, I will go with the Bridgestone tires since I do like a bit more front/rear section width than stock.

 

Less than 9 hours to go for my Mondial t making her grand entrance. Pics to follow.