What is your embarrassing Ferrari story?

This didnt happen in a Ferrari, but it was still embarrassing.

I have a 1966 Ford Galaxie with a 390 cu.in. modified V8. Unfortunately, it still has to go through Washington D.C. inspection every two years and it always fails the emissions test. In order to pass, I have to have the engined tuned so that it barely runs, After the test, I just switch it back to its rich mixture.

Anyway, I was waiting in line at the DMV and the car was attracting a good deal of attention. Then, one of the DMV officials came up to me to tell me that my gas tank was leaking. That is automatic grounds for failure and so I got out to inspect. Gas was pouring out of the tank because the pressure in the tank had built up so high that it was literally forcing the gas out. In order to relieve the pressure, I decided to open the gas cap to try to vent some of the fumes. As I opened the tank, a wall of gas burst out all over me, my dad (in his suit from work) and one of the DMV officials. That was embarrassing!!

Luckily, I drove away, vented the gas fumes and came back an hour later to pass the test.

 

I have a similar story involving a '70 Dodge Dart, a clogged fuel tank vent, a hot day and more than just a bit of stupidity. "Hmm, gas is seeping out my fuel cap. Perhaps I should open it!"

 

I may, just MAY have the spare tire story beat.

I was leaving a club one night, and it had been raining. Shockingly I was actually wearing nice shoes for once with smooth leather soles.

Well, me and my friend get in my then 348 and I pull out... right as the light turns green I get a case of the stupids and decide to give it a bit too much gas and be a showoff.

Foot slips off of clutch pedal, I stall car while STILL chirping tires for a split second. Right in the middle of an interesction. In front of a cop. So not only did I look like a TOTAL imbecile, I had not one but TWO Police cars show up immediately to have a nice chat with me.

Now a small crowd is forming and the story gets better.

Apparently I had forgotten to put my renweal sticker on the tag. UhOh. The plates were renewed, but the stickers must have been sitting at home, next to my new Insurance card to replace the one that had expired.

So now the car is getting searched by Officer #1 and Officer #2 is writing tickets galore... and I must have 30+ people watching, largely laughing their asses off.

 

I spent a good two minutes searching for the door handle on the 355 the first time I tried to get in one. Whilst traffic was queuing behind the car...

 

LOL! Just for the humour, you'd get my vote.

Jamie

 

Some of these are truly awesome! I particularly like the "your mom blew your doors off!" story!!!

As for me, it had to be in the XK8. It's a rather pimpin' car around here, so it gets a few looks.
Last spring, the water pump went bad, and I was 10miles from home. Couldn't be bothered with a towing, and never considered driving with the coolant in the red. So I drove a mile or two at a time, stopping to let the car cool down a bit for 5-10 minutes each time. I had to find something to do during those 10 minutes so as not to look "stranded". Never used the cell phone so much. hahaha.

It's funny how no one has written "My Civic didn't start", or "My Tercel started smoking". Why is it that the more "exotic" (and expensive) the car, the less it runs? lmao

 

ugh, reminds me of my first Fiat. i learnt respect for an overheating engine in that thing, i pulled up with some steam coming from the back, popped the lid, grabbed a towel, undid the coolant reservoir and KABLAM! 200 gallons of scalding hot water went into a geiser like 3-feet straight up and it looked like it was a foot thick. i don't know how i escaped without getting lobstered.

 

I paid my school fees in a myriad of cars before my 328 and to date and for 10 years I have not been embarrassed therein.

My group 5 Pantera however was another kettle of fish entirely. The boot lid would pop open as i braked for stop lights all the while shooting cool blue flames out of the exhausts. The lid has the coutach like tail on it and people would pull next to me and point into the sky at my tail.

I was directed into a garage by an attendant showing me to come forward slowly, slowly, slowly, straight into the concrete footing around the base of the Pumps. That thing had a fibreglass spoiler like a scythe. Boom. Stuffed. I asked him what the hell his game was and he just looked at me like a dumb mute as did all the patrons at said filling station.

I took a girl to a farewell dance and the car failed to start for 10 minutes and when it did the lights failed to pop up on leaving for the after party. The entire hall had emptied out to see the growling Red Pantera leave...

I took a trip to my company Christmas Party at a casino some 150 Km away at night. The car had me on my nerves because of its propensity for overheating in slow traffic. Boom !! traffic jam. Fortunately it cleared before i had a nervous break- down and i got up to some good speed to make up time. Blue lights in my rear view mirror. Shoot!!

Good evening officer what seems to be the matter ? You were doing 170 KM and the limit is 120KM/H...

Now if you know a Pantera you will know that you can fry eggs on the transmission tunnel between the seats.. so hot does it get there from the radiator pipes there within. I quickly clawed out a loose fitting rocker switch that controls the windows and the bakelite switch was predictably very hot. I pressed the hot innocent part into his hand and said.. "its overheating !! I have to keep my speed up"..
My date smiled coyly at him, the stunner that she was, and next thing i was being escorted the balance of the way at speeds in excess of 200 KM/H.

It rained later and on the way home the windscreen misted up like only a Pantera's can, and the fan / aircon and lights went south. No street lighting and 100 km from home.

Another time i was coming home and was doing battle with a 745i BMW on about 100 km of long straight roads. When i got home i discovered that the right side muffler and its big bore twin tailpipes had snapped off and fallen on the road. I then remembered his swerving wildly at one point and me wondering what the idiot was trying to do...

Another time the rear A arm bolt ( through the chassis ) simply snapped off in a mild slow corner rendering the fat rear tyre spinning against the rear of the wheel arch and the A arm trailing sparks on the tar. Everyone and his dog stopped to " Help"

I hated that car. POS !! But it looked awesome and sounded like a nascar and went like the blazes ..when it did.

Sold it for a LHD 928 Porsche, sold that for a Landcruiser and now my garage is happy.
I heard the guy i sold the Porsche to, wiped it out the very next week not being used to a left hand drive car he wiped it down the side of all the parked cars on the side of the street before losing the plot completely and rear ending a milk truck. ( he said he was not used to an automatic and became foot fuddled.)
His wife filled the radiator the day before.. through the oil filler. She told him it took 5 litres of water.

Oh Yes and one more for the Pantera. Pulling out of a parking lot at a club, Hot babes in the queue at one in the morning, all craning to see the king and i reverse gently over a traffic hump and said hump scrapes under the car gently, gripping the handbrake lever where it goes through the floor and jamming it firmly on... locking the rear wheels and stalling the car. I could not release the handbrake and nearly smoked the clutch in my frenzy to force my way the hell out of there. I hated that friggin car.

And on a 2.2 km speed run i could not go over 240km/h or over 4000 RPM because as i discovered later , the vaccum advance pipe had come off. Everyone smirked when the car was whupped by a stock UNO turbo. And yes of couse there were fields of hot babes walking around and i had told half of them my car was good for 300 KM/H
POS
Skin.

 

Elvis Presley shot his Pantera once. Now I know why

 

had a fire once, lottsa fun.

 

If I were in the group I probably would have said, "Must be his beater Ferrari"

 

Same mate took a girl out in his 348 in the hope of impressing her, all was going well until she pulled the door handle and opened the door only for the entire door panel to fall off! This happened in front of a group of people...

 

LMAO

 

When I still had the Mondial, the alternator died, then the engine too, at an intersection. Luckily, it was a very busy street. It was raining and I had to get out to direct the traffic away from my car, as the hazard lights weren't obvious for some drivers. One guy driving by told me that he couldn't see that the hazards were on. Had to sit there for like 45 minutes before the tow truck would arrive.

Last summer, when my cousin was visiting from the states, I wanted to take him out for a spin in the 512TR. It was raining cats and dogs that day, so the drive was cancelled, but I had the 512TR out anyway, so I can show him. As I was going uphill during evening rush hour to the Peak to have dinner with him and his sister, I dragged the clutch too long and boiled the gearbox oil. Smoke was coming out from the back and the car refused to move. I was stuck in the middle of the road, while hundreds of people around me were trying to get home. Many cars behind me tried to change lanes, but the road was completely full. People were honking at each other and it was total chaos. I called my mechanic and he told me to wait until the gearbox oil cools down and try again. So, I sat there for 5-10 minutes, with the traffic behind me stretching all the way downhill. After the brief cooling period, the gears engaged and the car was finally able to move. I felt so embarrassed.

 

Not a Ferrari story... but its still funny.

A few weeks back my Accord was having trouble starting. So I figured it was the battery, tested the battery and it was ok. Then went hmph maybe its the alternator or starter, tested the starter and it was fine. Decided well its gotta be the alternator and went up to Sears to get it tested.

A half hour later the mechanic comes out and goes... "Sir your battery cables were loose." I think I probably broke a few land speed records leaving the place and looked a very bright shade of red.

Or coming back to school in fall a few years back with my Accord. I was still a little shaky on driving a manual because I had just got the car over summer and living in a hilly town meant I had a bit of fast learning. So I decide to tackle a hill next to the freshman dorms. I stalled every few feet right next to all the very pretty freshmen girls.

Back when I had an 89 Olds Cutlass I decided to test the adhesion limits of my no brand tires in a very hilly part of WV during the heart of winter. Needless to say spinning and coming to a stop next to a very sharp cliff isn't fun.

 

I have a couple embarrassing Ferrari stories, but the one that makes me cringe every time I think about it involved an Enzo.

I was helping a truck driver back out two cars out of a two car carrier. The driver was manning the winch while I was sitting in the 360C manning the steering wheel. We got the 360C out except the right side mirror got caught on the guy wire that connects the truck to the ramp, and was ripped off.

The driver was not happy, but it looked like it was taped on with duct tape. Regardless, the mirror was already damaged before "we" ripped it off. The driver said he would fix it and let the owner know.

Then it was time to back out the Enzo. This time the driver asked me to control the winch while he reached in through the window to steer the Enzo off the truck. I figured after my performance with the 360C, he wanted to "drive" the Enzo.

We started to back out of the truck and the winch stopped turning. The motor was going but the wire was not coming out. The darn wire got all tangled when the truck driver reeled it back in after the 360C was out.

The driver worked hard to get the braided metal wire free. Mean while the sun starts cooking the interior of the truck. I thought the driver was going to pass out for sure. I think he must of have worked on his hands and knees for at least an hour before giving up.

So now we had to back the Enzo out without help from the winch. It was a tight fit in the truck and impossible to steer the Enzo through the window and also hold it so it did not go back and down the ramp too fast.

I (being the smaller of the two fat people) had to get into the Enzo (through the window) and steer while using the brake. Mean while the driver used his muscles to slowly back it out.

But first we checked that the mirrors were folded in! (We are no fools

Inch by inch we backed the Enzo out making sure the wheels did not scrape. We were drenched with sweat from being inside that truck.

Slowly, carefully we went.

Once we got to the ramp, we enjoyed a sigh of relief. So I thought “cool, now just go straight down and I will be able to hear my first Enzo and maybe drive it into the hanger.”

Once on the ramp, I was getting commands like " a little to the right, a little to the left, slowly, slowly" etc....

Mean while, I guess a few people had gathered to look at the Enzo.

Inch by inch we went down the ramp. The rear end was almost off of the ramp and I knew we were almost home free when suddenly I hear a tearing noise and screams of STOP!!!!!!!!

I stomp on the brake, having no idea what could possibly have made that noise.

It was the passenger (right) side mirror!

It got caught by the guy wire, unfolded and scraped the guy wire across the front of the mirror housing.

Oh Boy, I was really sweating it! We were at a point where I could open the Enzo door, so while the driver was holding the Enzo from going down futher, I was able to get out and help push it back up the ramp enough so that some of the people gathered could help pull the wire away from the mirror and get the mirror folded and across the wire.

I was then able to safely steer the Enzo through the window the rest of the way down.

Once the Enzo was safely down on the tarmac, I ran over to look at the mirror and at first glance it looked bad. I saw all sorts of tearing and pealing. Then upon further inspection, the Enzo mirror had a thick 3M type of tape around it.

The tape saved the paint!!!

Considering what could have happened we were all relieved. The Enzo and the 360C made it to the hanger to await their lucky owner. Below is a photo of the truck interior. Hope you all had a laugh at my embarrassing story.
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I had my first embarrassing experience in a Ferrari about a month ago. While on a poker run through the Texas Hill Country where I was a passenger in a 1990 348ts, we stopped along side a country road with about 13 other Ferraris and dealt another hand. We all got back into the cars and as a few start to pull away we try to start the 348 but nothing happens, no sounds at all. The owner's personal mechanic jumps out of his 246 Dino and an owner of a F430 jumps out of his car and they both start to push us. They aren't able to move us much at all, so we are both just laughing, thinking that this is hopeless and then they yell "pop the clutch" and we do and the sweet sound of the Tubis roar to life. It was just the battery cable...

I was just embarrassed for a second and I don't think the owner was embarrassed at all since he bought the car just for a few events until he gets his new toy.

 

Not my story & not a Ferrari but an older Porsche 911.

As many of you will know, the Porsche ignition is on the left. And older cars have no clutch-in or ignition-defeat relay. So . . . you can reach in the window & turn it on from outside the car. Get where this is going?

In a nutshell, he was at a DE, reached in & started the car. He had not set the parking brake because the brakes were really hot from a DE run & he was concerned about rotor warping. And, it was in 1st gear. It launched across the parking lot & smacked not one, but two big GM trucks – tow vehicles - of other DE participants . . . see http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=250300&highlight=first+time+start+car+outside He called the post Drivers Ed Idiot

Ian

 

It's not a Ferrari story, but it's a good embarassing car moment nonetheless...

So my family goes to Nantucket during the summer. In Nantucket you can drive on some beaches. My dad just picked up a '99 Range Rover before going up about 5 years ago, considering you can drive on the beaches. We get up there, all excited to drive on the sand (the pervious beach car was a Jeep Grand Cherokee-- the Range Rover would surely obliterate it in capabilities, right?). Before getting on the beach, my mom asked, "Should we let some air out of the tires?" My dad, having to prove the car (for good reason!) said "nope, it's a Range Rover." Famous last words. We get out on the beach, start driving, everything going like clockwork. Until we slowed down. It's hard to modulate the pedal because it's like a truck-- finesse is a thing of past in that car, "muscle" was needed to handle it. Trying to get going again, my dad hit's the throttle, and to everyone's surprise, the tires spin. Stuck. Trying to get out, we dig ourselves in even more. Now, here we are, with our Range Rover, stuck on the beack. Wranglers, Jeeps, even some cars, were trucking along quite nicely past our hole. Embarassing right? It gets better...

So now, we are trying to dig out the car, because displaced sand had accumulated under the car from the spinning tires. As my dad and I are working on this (mom obviously on the phone talking with a friend... thanks for the help ) we notice the tide is starting to come in. Now my dad and I start diggin in hyper-speed, trying to beat the water. Here comes the worst part-- People start to gather around the car, watching. I mean, who doesn't want to see a Range Rover floating away in Nantucket sound? Even better, the one beach tour happened to be driving by at the time as well. So now, in addition to the fellow beachers, tourists were taking pictures of our misfortune. By the time we realized that our digging efforts were not yielding and return, my dad asked my mom to call a tow truck (for the un-beatable Range Rover). Another problem, being Sunday afternoon, it wasn't easy to get one. After about and hour, the tow truck finally came and yanked the beached whale from it's hole, with about 20 minutes to spare before becoming water-logged.

My dad has stuck with sports cars ever since... unbeatable in them!
Joe

 

I have a Mondial 8

 

Went to Snetterton racetrack a few years ago to watch some racing and managed to park right close to the pits, the darn car wouldn't start and had to get a few spectators to ''bump start'' me in front of hundreds of laughing onlookers, I did see the funny side but it was seriously uncool

 

Better yet, spin out and finish off the road and while waiting for tow truck to pull you back on the road the only thing one can do is crawl under the car and hide!

 

That was tongue in cheek. Really love my (unfairly maligned) car.

 

i was driving my 355 after a few days of owner ship when this bicyclist was'nt looking at where she was going and plowed right into MY winshield, so the 355 has been out of commision for quite awhile now....lady was ok, but that would have to be the most embarrassing moment in the car, it did'nt help that everbody driving by was staring at a wrecked ferrari, taking pictures and everything....totally sucked....

 

When I first got my 355 Spider a few years back, I took it up to the gas station to fill up gas. There were quite a few people staring at it. I pulled it up, got out and went to take the gas cap off, then realized I pulled it up to the wrong side. I had to get back in & turn the car around. I'm sure they already thought it was daddy's car, so that dingbat move by me probably convinced them that it was daddy's.