What is your embarrassing Ferrari story?

The carbs on my Maserati Quattroporte would percolate gasoline after shutting off the engine on a hot day. So one day I am parked out front at a clients in a small town were it seems nobody has seen a Maserati. I get in the car to leave, turn the key and BOOM the raw gas explodes in the exhaust! Everybody looks my way and I give a little wave and pull off. Fortunately no damage to the car but talk about embarrassing.
AJ

 

Invited myself to a sit down in a 308 @ Ferrari of Houston, back in the eighties. Of course, couldn't find door handle to let myself out, head salesman had to help me, will now buy a LAMBO as a result of trauma.
(Just kidding- really have a TVR

 

My most embarrassing moment in my 348 came the night I drove it home after purchasing it. The climate control system was totally dead (from the infamous "hidden fuse") so I had no heat and no defrost, no fan. It was raining hard and the windows were fogging over, it was dark, traffic was pretty heavy, I was in an unfamiliar car. I was on the freeway in an area where there was a "diamond lane" on the left for vehicles with passengers. I couldn't understand why the car in front of me was driving so slowly, so I decided to pass him using the diamond lane, even though I was by myself. Ooooops! The diamond lane ended about a mile back. I passed him on the shoulder. I hate to think what he was shouting at me.

 

Ha ha - I do that with our cars today, forgetting which side is which for fuel.

Early with my 348 arrived at an FCA dinner, 2-3 dozen cars, and my idle is at 5k+, almost didn't get there. Someone yells to check the floor-mat. whoops...

Arrived at a Vintage weekend at the local track, and was directed to join a line of Pcars. Ended up being some parade through town, with me and the 308 I was driving with now part of the entertainment. I thought we were going to the rsvd parking we had, and all I really wanted was lunch.

 

i clean this old mans cars, he is a collector and has a classic ferrari, ofcourse i back it out (i dont have a licensce yet) i did tell him that.

And i stalled it about 17 times just to back the thing out 20 feet.

That was embarrasing!

 

Good one. The less expensive your Ferrari, the less serious you take yourself. Lowly 348 owner here. It is like FA (Ferrariholics Anonymous).

BT

 

Ok, so it was 1978. I was a stupid punk ass 19-year-old kid that got a little cash in a settlement. I bought a red/tan glass bodied 1976 308 GTB with 13k miles from some guy in Manhattan Beach, CA for $26k. The car belonged to his wife and she was "bored with it". The car was only 2 years old but had spent it's entire young life outside at the beach with the windows open most of the time. There was corrosion everywhere that wasn't fiberglass! The engine bay was a grease ball and the leather was a mess. The first thing I did was motor on down to the local self service car wash and drop a few bucks in the steam cleaning machine to get the engine bay nice and shiny. After about 10 minutes of direct hot steam/water on the engine it looked pretty good! Of course, when I started the car it would only run on 3 cylinders! I remember pushing the car back to my apartment with the help of a buddy for 10 blocks being ridiculed all the way. I remember one guy in a ‘60’s VW bug yelling "If that was a VW, that never would have happened" and laughing with his girlfriends. I spent the rest of the day with sponges and a hair dryer getting the water out of the plug holes. The car never ran right again after that and I traded the car for a new black BMW 733i a few months later. DUMBASS!

 

About a month ago, a friend and I were finishing up the 30K service on my 308. I thought we had done a complete check of all the parts to begin pouring in the oil. I poured in the 5qt bottle and then started the 2nd 5qt bottle. After I filled the requisite 9qts of oil, about 45 seconds later I hear the sound of oil spilling on the garage floor. We had forgot to place the rear-most cam cover plate. 2qts of Mobile 1 on the garage floor and a nice mess to clean up at the end of the night.

 

while visiting england in 81 we were introduced by a freind to maranello spares in the UK, while talking to the manager about my 308gts, do not forget this is 1981 and there were not that many ferrari owners as today in the US. I thought myself to be a big deal in a way . this man came running in and more or less pushed us aside and was going on about somthing , I did not hear. at the end of the conversation I said to the manager. I had customers like him that thought they could push people aside and in a way be rude . well he said that that man was still having trouble with his ferrari and he was to start the next day at the lemans race my face got so red i forgot to ask who he was !