The day the music died...

Anyone received their issue of Forza yet?

Check out (I think) page #17. Those poor buggers came from my personal 348.

All 32 of them were destroyed. But, thanks to the magic of my "weasel patrol" in the Midwest and the incredible care of Competizione in Gaithersburg Maryland, the car is back in one piece and runs like a champ.

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* Valves by Ferrari
* Photography by John Walsh
* Graphic Design and Production by Mike Charness
* Tears and Wallet Bleeding by Daniel

 

Nice ad! You must have some good graphic people working with you, the ads always stand out.
BT

 

That has got to be the best ad I've ever seen from a parts supplier. Good job.

 

LOL! Well, that's one way to make your Ferrari a legitimate business expense!


Anyway, I feel your pain, bro. I buggered 16 of those babies 2 years ago.

 

Cool Ad.

 

Really excellent, Daniel...very nice...

Mike in Kuwait

 

Love it, great photograph!
Top notch work as always.
I'm worried about what you may have sparked, now all the hair dressers are going to start saying we have valve problems as well.

 

Very nice---I just hope I never have to buy any of these new valves...

 

Awesome ad!!!

 

I think John Walsh (photographer) has some shots of all 32 valves lined up, and bent over... it's pretty cool. I'll try to dig it up & post.

 

That would be cool. I have some pictures of 32 and 40 new valves all lined up.......

 

Funny - though I'm sure you didn't think so at the time. I like the graphic layout of the ad; looks great.

 

I noticed the ad a couple of days ago when I got my copy of forza. Was wondering where you got the photo. Too bad it had to be from personal experience.

Great ad nonetheless.

Dom

 

Great ad Daniel, you always have great ads but this is one of the best. Classic!

 

What did you do to get THAT to happen?!?!?!?!

(And can I get a high res version of that to put in a frame? It's so cool!)

 

Yep!!

No doubt about it - - it's a monster ad !! And how many of your own heartbeats are connected with that image?? Wow !!

On the page in that magazine "FORZA", your ad is comprised of beautiful photography and layout. Nice work!!

Actually, Spider Top's ad is in the back there somewhere too

Cheers, Hank

 

Where did your engine builder get the parts to fix it all ?????

 

I think you meant to add one of these .... .... Or didn't you know Daniel is the main parts contact at Ricambi?

 

Nice ad, makes me feel a little sick looking at that valve though. How long ago did this happen to your engine Daniel? My condolences to you sir.

 

That's the funny thing (not really).

I had a major service completed in May 2007 in my local town. My transmission blew up in September 2007. Because of scheduling issues at my local shop, I had the car hauled up to Competzione (400 miles). I didn't want to screw around with one gear, two bearings, and pinch of salt... so I bought an entirely BRAND NEW transmission, still in the wooden crate. It was, quite likely, the last new one left on earth. It slid onto the car like butter in just a few hours. Don't ask the price.

The techs took the car for a test drive to ensure the linkage and cable adjustment was correct. 2 miles down the road, the unthinkable occurred. What really happened was that my lower belt pulley (on a 348 there is a single pulley at the bottom of the timing belt path) broke apart. The pieces of that gear were the size of a dinner fork, and lodged themselves against the waterpump, thus bringing everything to catastrophic halt at speed.

Gear #16 is this picture:
http://www.ricambiamerica.com/images/diagrams/full/348-93_006.jpg

Here is the shrapnel against the watepump:
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If you look at the lower gear, you can see the outer "fence" is missing entirely. That's what broke apart and caused the havoc. From what I have seen, this is not a one-time, bizarre failure -- it is a likely failure on early 348's. Ferrari issued an update to the lower gear midway through production where the fences were better welded to the body. Clearly they saw the problem and took action too. During my major service in early 2007, I was responsible for stupidly not replacing that gear. I think it was something like $500 at the time.

My advice? If you drive an early 348 (mine had 45k miles when this happened), don't bury your head in the sand and try saving money during a major service: inspect and replace the lower gear if there is a shadow of doubt. Inspect and replace the engine oil pump tensioners if there is a shadow of doubt. Crack open the transmission and beat the living crap out of those ring nuts, if there is a shadow of doubt.

[/soapbox ON]
And finally, just realize that sometimes sh^t happens and its nobody's fault. I read all these threads on Fchat about "blame the tech!", "blame the city road crew!", "sue Ferrari!", "blame the seller!", "lynch the Dealer!". It makes me sad. Life is WAY too short to blame other people for stuff. It seems so many Americans would rather spend $10,000 in legal fees suing for a $1000 rather than just "man up" and move on. In my case, the whole fiasco isn't really funny, but it's just the day-to-day crap that happens in our lives. Dwelling on it with negative energy doesn't advance the human condition.
[/soapbox OFF]

-d


p.s. Now, I'm going outside to enjoy a nice spring day and build Luca's playset with about 5,000 pieces of redwood and 10 million screws.

 

Wow, I had no ideal that happened, it must have happened right after I saw your car one day at competizione. Sorry to hear that. That must have sucked right after paying for the transmission, having to pull the heads and engine and fix. Ugh. Makes me sick just to think about it.

I guess I got super lucky, since my lower gear had the fence all warped and stuff, but it was caught on time.

 

Very cool ad Daniel...................very cool!!!!!

 

Great line Daniel and definitely reinforces the visual.

 

Very nice Ad Daniel and thanks for the Ricambi america cap

 

Finally... a quiet day and Luca wasn't busy playing with these. For everyone who thinks sh%t can't happen to a Ferrari, you're wrong.

* I think the missing ones are still at the photographer's studio.

* Even the ones that 'look' straight are off a few degrees.

* The bastard gear is also shown, shaven bare of it's outer fence.
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