So I got the new Excellence magazine yesterday ...
 

.... and then I thought "why do the put the picture of a Carrera GT on the cover?" ....
.... and then I figured out it's a picture of the new 981 :cool:

MAN, that's a good looking car :cheers:

Interesting that both sides are intakes. Top is fully automatic and has more noise reducing features (the forward section is magnesium) making the cabin 50% quieter. They don't ship to the US until June.

It looks like a nice car, no doubt, I'm happy with a little less weight, more hp and old school steering. I agree with what they said about the Boxster interest being huge do to the new 911 price point.

Nice vehicle, but the starting price for an "S" starts to climb into the range of a low mileage, pristine 360 Modena .

Maintenance costs to own a 360 Modena??

After spending considerable time speaking with F-car owners and lurking around forums like F-chat, I've been able to dismiss a lot of the myths and rumors surrounding the ownership and maintenance of these vehicles. Factors like how much the vehicle is driven annually, and where you have it serviced are key in terms of maintenance costs. Moreover, higher production figures over the years has resulted in the increase of available pre-owned Ferraris considerably. As result, there's been a significant increase in the number of independent Ferrari specialist as well. So, gone are the days where a person was held captive by dealerships who could essentially charge whatever they wanted . For someone such as myself who drives on average 3k to 4k per season, I could probably keep my annual costs down to around $1000 or so a year . As far as major service is concerned, the cam belts, along with a few other adjustments, have to be changed every 3 years or 15k miles. And, even that can be kept under 2k if it's done by the right facility .

F-cars are FIATS!

yeah, that's what he's talking about... $2k a year to maintain a fiat that essentially goes un-driven sounds about right

I'm with Johnny... my next big car move after owning a 911 is going to be to own a Ferrari not a new Boxster. Even $5K in maintenance per year is way less than I spend on track days with the Box now.

Is that any better than P cars beng VW's ??

Who said anything about spending 2k a year on maintenance ?

How many Fiats have you owned that have required a motor replacement because of failure ? Let alone two . LoL !

Fiat owns Ferrari so technically...

FIAT. I remember them when they imported cars here in the 70's. Hopefully they've improved the quality. Maybe Ferrari will re badge the Fiat 500 :D


Fixing It Again Tony? :p

Dare to dream Johnny. We have a lot of Ferraris around here... and a lot of independent Ferrari techs. The Ferrari techs live very well... and drive Porsches. $1K per year might just cover your tire expense. ;) They are very finicky, high maintenance birds those F-cars but I do love to look at them.

About the "cheap" Ferrari maintenance:
A friend of mine has a Maserati Grantourismo, which basically is a Ferrari and which gets serviced at a Ferrari/Maserati dealership down the road from me.
He can tell you a story or two about "cheap" maintenance (I usually give him a ride for pickup and dropoff and then get the story fresh from the horse's mouth). To add insult to injury, you can get many of the exact same parts with either a Ferrari or Maserati badge, but the "Ferrari" part carries an extra premium (I guess we're used to it as many P-parts also exist from Audi)
But last not least: Don't forget that Ferraris are not meant to be driven daily, P-cars are.

BTW: Mr. Topless: Will I see you in Buttonwillow end of May?

Sadly I will miss this one. Family obligations that weekend. Dan and I will be running the prior weekend on the new SoCal track "Chuckwalla" CCW out in the Mojave desert. It should be cool and breezy there in late May... NOT!

I was sniffing round a 360 Spider the other day while waiting on a new rear window.

It's a bit of a chintzy lash up compared to a Boxster, has an almost kit car air to it. I also suspect a 981 is a much better drive. Haven't driven one, but would guess the only advantage is bragging rights and badge. it's not like the 360 is beautiful like Ferraris used to be.

If you were' talking 308 GTB, I'd be with you. But the 360? Meh.

I can't imagine needing to replace tires every year; especially if one only drives his or her vehicle 3k to 4k seasonally . And, annual maintenance such as oil and fluid changes are not that disproportionate for another high end vehicles. Keep in mind, I'm referring to street/pleasure driving, not tracking the vehicle .

Cars like the 308 almost put Ferrari out of business . LoL ! You've been watching too much Magmun P.I. . :)

I experienced the same thing when I owned an Alfa. If you bought Agip oil at the Alfa parts window it was $$ . If you bought the same oil at the adjacent Ferrari window, it was $$$. :) In any event, for the type of driving that I would do with a 360, the costs factors could be greatly mitigated .

I bet the 981 S model would spank the crap out of a 360 modena . I did see a black 360 today and it did looked real bad ass .

Maybe if it had another 100hp .

Enough with the 360 comments already ! I regret ever having brought it up !!! Now I'm going to get an Enzo just to shut everyone up ! Yeah, that's right an Enzo !

Do they make them in FAST yellow?

How can I rename the subject line of this thread to "are we all secret Ferrari lovers?"

Maintenance costs to own an Enzo?

Approximately 700 lire per mile .

I knew a prominent Cardiologist who had a Ferrari, one day when I went to call he had a brand new 911 where his red super-car once sat. He loved the F car but the repairs were fierce, mind you this is a man conservatively making 600K annual in 1993. It's a shorter life than it feels like sometimes, you want a F car on the bucket list go for it Jonny. To me, the spyder is not only fast enough, it requires concentration to keep out of triple digits. I got pulled over as a younger man doing 92, not fun, officers tend to take that as a personal affront. In a Ferrari 92 probably arrives so soon it's ridiculous, you better be a real agent because you are going to need that brass pass. After all you may need to stay away from hookers till things cool off but speeding hasn't been wrecked for the boys yet.

No doubt the 308 looks a little dated these days, but I have to agree with Pothole on this one. The 360 isn't a striking design, it's almost nondescript. Personally, it's much too Corvette-looking.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...te_Compare.jpg

You mean a "rhodium pass" . :)

Whatever, Jonn O, if you were truly doing that job you wouldn't be posting pics of your ride, have the posting frequency you do or be keeping such a high presence on the net.

Instead of being in covert operations, I'm in overt these days . Speaking of Jonn O, do you remember Harry O ?

Sure, but what's that got to do with beauty? Anyway, Magnum's was the GTS, big no-no! ;)

Modern Ferrari's are designed to please sports stars and the super wealthy from oil--rich and BRIC nations. They're intolerably tacky.

That assessment seems a little stern pothole, after all there are many people who judge Porsche drivers too, fact is no matter what we drive or don't drive someone will always have an opinion about it one way or the other.

It's just my honestly held view regards the design of modern Ferraris and also the markets I think they're aimed at.

As you say, driving a Porsche carries its own baggage, but I'm more than happy to live with that. And to be perfectly frank, a lot of modern Porsche are very tacky, too.

I just wish Ferrari even vaguely attempted to make beautiful cars these days. To be fair, the 458 is quite pretty from some angles. But the FF and F12 may as well be upscale Hyundais from a styling perspective. They're beyond ghastly.

I stopped by the local auto outlet this afternoon. Unfortunately, they didn't have any Enzo's. But, I did find this chestnut. And after a thorough PPI, I bought it. According to the sale man, Enzo means bobcat in the english !

Here's Johnny



http://www.buyautoshere.info/130685682656.html

No more garage space with the new Bobcat coming . But, if I did, this 360 would be more like it .

Ferrari : 360 Modena Ferrari : 360 Modena | eBay

Sound cheesy. Boxster and Carrera are different categories. One is a roadster'ish two seater revised to cater to 997 Cab types, and the other is essentially a GT revised to cater to rich Chinese and Russians considering a high end, plush, bloated but powerful. Merc, BMW or Jaguar. If you can't afford the latter you should just buy a CPO 997 Cab -- you get your warranty and the big, auto-pilot driving experience.

But I suspect that Porsche revised the Boxster knowing that it needed to be more appealing to a yuppy'ish buyer that couldn't swing what they knew would a monster price tag Carrera. There is something inherently cheesy and poseurish about this.