Testarossa-early or late?

The TR over it's lifetime had many small improvements. There are 2 items that usually make someone pick one or the other. One is the wheel issue. The early knockoff type were discontinued over liability issues. The Fed Gov required Ferrari to go from a female nut to a male bolt for those wheels and due to the design change those wheels had a bad habit of falling off. Doesn't happen if the correct procedure is used for installation, but it still has happened many times. The other problem with those wheels is that they can be extremely difficult to remove if you have a flat.

The later cars have a poorly designed passive restraint system. It's been the subject of many service bulletins and a recall, and they still don't work well.

All things considered I would still get a later car.

 

I have a good friend who has an early Spline-Hub TR....he once threw a wheel at 60MPH when a defective spline hub worked the lug nut loose during normal driving......he had $24,000 in damages to the rear quarter panel, wheel, and suspension. Early TRs SUCK unless you install safety wire on those Spline hub lug nuts - the torque rating for that nut is somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 Ft/Lbs....how strong are you???

 

I love the knock-off wheels, although I do not necessarily like the TRX tires. I recommend getting the early TR with the knock-offs, save them for concours and then buy some 17 each knock-off wheels with Kumho tires from www.GaRedCars.com for every day use. The knock-offs are easy to properly torque especially if you buy the special tool from Stainless Steel Brakes that has a built in torque wrench with the correct size nut which even has an adapter for earlier winged knock-offs. I've has three Ferraris with knock-offs, a 330GTC, a TR and my current Boxer and have never had a lose wheel problem. Plus, the knock-offs are much less hassle to deal with than the five lug nut wheels....after all, that's why race cars use them .

 

You will find a better tire selection available if you stay away from the TRX.
And the 5 lug cars are less hassle to deal with than the single.

 

I own and prefer the early model. Reasons include 1) asymmetry of single mirror - I find this aesthetically compelling 2) no problem with single knockoff - no one is going to steel your wheels 3) essentially the same car as a later version, but one will pay far less for an early model 4) No passive restraint headaches.

Mine is a 1986, and I will not sell it because I cannot get enough to justify losing a 12 cylinder. Approaching it from the other side, for a reasonable investment one could own a 12 cylinder Ferrari.

Good luck.

Jim S.

 

Looked for, purchased and owned for 3 trouble free years a 1986 Euro TR, black/ tan. IMHO the purist design. Loved the knock-offs, no problems. I do own a large 3/4" torque wrench that allowed me to correctly tighten the wheels with little effort. Keep the tapers and splines clean, follow factory SOP's and no issues. Bargain of the Ferrari line.

 

Agreed !!, Sometime things happen but most of these stories were of past. The cars are over 10 yrs old now, and any issue as far as defect have been viewed by a previous owner by now. If it hasnt, easy to chip away at the price. My 86TR has been a blast, never ran into those issues others refer to about electrical, weak tranny, bolts.....but of course, service is also done religiously !! Good luck in your find.

 

There are not as many matching pairs of good tires for the stock 16" wheels that you might think. This is due to the 10" width of the rear wheel. This has been covered in other threads. Do a search for more info. Personally I prefer the knockoffs. With a good 3 or 4 lb hammer the wheel nuts are very easy to remove/install. To me 5 wheels bolts are more of a PITA than 1 wheel nut. Also as far as the TRX goes, it's a decent tire for probably 98% percent of the type of driving that can be done in this country.

And I also very much agree with Jim S's reason 1 above and there's not that many left around like that.

Kenny K.

 

Kenny - thanks for the support on item #1. Most car designers strive for symmetry. There is something about an asymmetric design that grabs ones attention.

Jim S.

 

Was curious if you might have a weblink or contact info handy for S.S.B. as I'd be interested in purchasing one of those wrenches...thanks!

 

Eric308

The site is www.ssbrakes.com

Your best to phone them and order it because it isn't listed on their site.
I just got mine about a month ago - works well
Approx 385 after shipping etc
Basically a octagonal nut, torque wrench and extender. COmplete in a rossa corsa canvas bag.
Pics avail if wanted

Good guys, they'll know what you're talking about if you just say, "wrench, testarossa, wheel no come off"

They guy I talked to said the company owner has a TR and you know "necessity - mother of invention and all"

Myhorse

 

The 5 bolt wheels occurred in 1988.5 - Just so you are aware, you may come across a 1988 with the single lug or the 5 bolts.

 

Ditto
Mine is an 88 with the single knock off. I more or les call it an 87 though.

Fazzaz, realistically, Ferrari doesn't have models years per se. i.e 86 hyundai pony vs 87 hyundai pony. They talk in their production / serial / VIN
ie ZFFSA.......12345 versus ZFFSA......12346

I may be wrong though

 

Big Thanks, MyHorse!

I'll give them a call today

 

"There are not as many matching pairs of good tires for the stock 16" wheels that you might think"


You need to have a visit to tirerack.com!

 

Knock-offs are the clear choice IMHO. You will note that Ferrari put knock-offs on it's then top-of-the-line F40 even though all of it's down-line models had already been changed to 5 lug wheels. Does the F50 and/or Enzo have knock-offs as well?

 

I did and that's exactly why I wrote what I did. The rear calls for 255/50's, do some digging and see how many good tires will fit a 10" wide wheel. Especially with a matching frt/rr pair.

K.

 

They list 11 different matching pairs... Whats wrong with that?

 

Since January 1, 1980, and the advent of the 17-digit VIN, Ferrari has been required by U.S. regulations to state a model year for all Ferraris manufactured to meet U.S. standards.

The model year designation is the 10th digit in the 17-digit VIN. This started with "A" for 1980 and proceeds through the alphabet, with certain letters being skipped because they could be easily confused with numbers (i.e. "O" [oh] for "0" [zero]; "Z" for 2; etc.). Once through the alphabet they system started using numbers . . . 1 for 2001, 2 for 2002, etc. I don't know what they will do once they run out of single-digit numbers.

FWIW this system was designated by federal regulations and applies to ALL automobiles manufactured to meet U.S. specifications. So you can determine the model year of a Hyundai Pony as easily as a Ferrari.

 

Dude, do your homework. First, of those 11 which would you put on a Tr ? Are you trying to tell us you'd put an H rated all season or whatever type tire on ? Second, once you've determined which tires offer the performance needed for a Tr then determine which of those will fit a 10" wide rim per manufacturer specs. Or you can save yourself the work that has already been done and search Fchat for this topic which has been, as stated, discussed in other threads.

Kenny K.

 

"Dude, do your homework"

Your absolutly right, what was I thinking...
I'd better run out to the garage and take my tires off their wheels right now!

I see F-Chat is still such a nice place to visit.

 

"Dude", what are you 14 ?