2013 Ferrari FF

[Fonzey]

Thanks all for the suggestions, links, recommendations etc.

I'm not sure I buy the 'balanced assembly' theory purely on the basis that there's no machined balancing marks or telltales. At least not that I can find. So if the disc and bell are both perfectly balanced in isolation, then providing identical hardware is used... it shouldn't really matter, right?

I do strongly agree though that any old material can't just be lobbed in because it sounds strong or exotic. Definitely some research needed, and research takes time.

Luckily though I've had a bit of rampant progress today and I'm chuffed to bits with the outcome.

As part of my Monday morning activities, I rang around a couple of specialists. One of which was pretty local, and gave me some advice on removing the disc from the car without detaching calipers etc. So in 5mins between calls, I had both front discs off.



The specialist was the same one that explained to me that this was very common, but usually went unnoticed and wrote off a disc as per the various links that have been posted in this thread already.

He was however interested in finding solutions for a proactive repair kit, so was more than happy to help me out. He invited me down with the discs and said he'd give them the once over for me, and try to come up with a plan.

Later in the day I headed over, nestled in a private spot around the back of a farm was a haven for car geeks. Plenty of exotica dotted around and some meticulously organised workshops belonging to https://ensoautomotive.com/

I met Michael, thanked him for his time so far and we took the discs out for a look. They passed the visual inspection, and so we got onto ideas for the fixings. Michael has some ideas, but they will take time and research. After a long chat about all things Ferrari, Lotus, etc - Michael scurried off and came back with some used CCS discs from various applications and got to work stripping them of their valuable fixings!

After a bit of messing about we found that not only are these fixings annoying to source, but they also come in different sizes! Luckily though we were able to salvage enough to complete my disc and get me back on the road. The fixings we scrounged were in far better nick than mine too.

Even when rebuilding the disc, another one of my fixings started to snap as Michael was applying the barely noticeable 10nm of torque as per spec - so that was yet another to go in the bin.

Needless to say, I'm over the moon with what we achieved in an hour or so. The plan is absolutely to source/make some replacements and do the whole lot properly - but we now have the luxury of time to figure it out and do things properly.

Big thumbs up to Michael @ Enso, great to know I have access to such a great specialist and look forward to leaning on his services in the near future.

Got home and took this for a bit of fun.



I'm tied up for a couple of days now, but hoping that by the time I can come back to the car I will have some wheels and tyres ready to go on. Salivating at the thought of driving this car again.

[Fonzey]

Thanks again for all the comments, particularly those offering help on identifying the materials for the fixings. I'll be in touch once the investigation properly kicks off. Frankly we're still at the stage of hoping that a mole within Brembo just steps up and helps us out with direct swaps

With regards to the 'balanced assembly' thing. It's not that I deny the fact that these are indeed balanced assemblies from the factory, but more that I'm sceptical that this is a reason for the fixings to be unavailable on the market. There's clearly evidence of the friction material being balanced, but providing it's orientated on the bell the same way, I can't see the swapping of identical fasteners being an issue - and even if it did throw balance out, we're talking minute amounts at the centre of rotation - so will be far less influential than even a pebble being picked up by the tyre tread... for instance. Swapping friction material independently of the hub I can see being a problem in this context, but swapping out fixings that are on the path towards falling apart anyway... less so.

Each brake is actually individually stamped with the exact weight and therefor tolerance for disk wear (it has another measurement for thickness too) which is pretty convenient.



I weighed my fronts, both are 6.7kg according to my uber accurate bathroom scales. I always suspected they overread when I'm weighing myself on them, but suddenly I've felt myself agreeing with them.

After the drama of inspecting the fixings on the passenger side, I decided to leave the driver side the hell alone for now... but couldn't live with rusty nuts, so I masked off and blobbed a bit of Bilt Hamber Deox on them.



24hrs later that brought them up a treat.



I've got some ceramic coating left over from my Lotus calipers from when they went on. It's heat resistance to a decent level so I'll probably blob some of that on these nuts in a vain attempt to stop them re-rusting in the future.

Looking much better, and ready to go back on the car.



In terms of figuring out what the fixings are made out of, one of the spare discs that Enso had used some bolts that were slightly shorter than what we needed - but had some markings on their heads. The ones in "my size" had no markings, but the markings on the smaller ones read "SD-58" and "FS". No idea if that helps or not, but it's info for the investigation.

[Fonzey]

SimonBlades said:

What diameter are the discs Kyle? I thought the 370mm on my diesel barge looked big!

400mm ish!

[Fonzey]

GCCP said:

1) very interested to follow the progress
2) What is the procedure for taking the discs off without removing the calipers

thanks!

1) I'll do what I can
2) Calipers need to come off, but there's enough play in the brake line to just sort of angle the disc out. Taking the pads out would make it even easier.

[Fonzey]

Julian Thompson said:

I think this is what Audi are referring to in my post above, but I suspect if you mark the centre hub and the disc when you strip it so that it goes back together the same it’s very likely to be ok.

That's my take. Keep the bell and disc orientated as they came out of the factory and anything else you touch is going to easily be within tolerance of a bit of dirt sticking to the inside of the bell...

[Fonzey]

Thanks again for all the input. It's not falling on deaf ears, and I'm taking all on board. That said, I am trying not to overthink this too much for a couple of reasons:

1. I've heard from unofficial channels that even under Ferrari inspection/warranty, they weren't that bothered until more than three(!) individual fixings failed on a car. So there's clearly plenty of redundancy engineered in, and I'll get plenty of warning if my fixings are not up to a second rodeo.

2. The Bobbins are doing most of the heavy lifting anyway, right? The shear forces from the caliper resisting the rotation are all going into the aluminium bobbins - the bolts are "just" pinning everything together. All of the failures I've seen examples of seem to be corrosion related, and the 10 bolts that I now have in the disc are visually clear of any/all corrosion.

Ultimately though Brembo are the experts, and I'd love their thoughts on it. Second to that I do have a dialogue open with a few specialists who put together brake kits for a living, and nobody is particularly scared about reusing hardware providing it can hold the torque.

danwebster said:

Epic car!

Have you looked at NAS bolts for the bells? Definitely up to the job if you can get the right size to suit your application. Generally they're imperial sizes but a 1/4 bolt will be very close to your M6's. My carbon brakes use them.

Cheers Dan, you were actually on my list of people to ping a phonecall to! I figured you'd have an opinion on it. NAS has come up in my Googling but ultimately I'm limited by clearance on the head sizes.

One of the companies I've talked to make their own hardware for their CCB assemblies and they're very similar - their heads are 3.3mm thick up from 2.0mm on these brembos, so bigger but still will give clearance (I think), but they have an allen hex in them for tightening rather than the flats. They're 10.9 grade steel I believe and could be an option for me if I can validate the clearances.

AP in their off the shelf kits use 12.9 with some anti-corrosion coating - so nothing exotic there, but they use big torx heads that I just don't have clearance for.

For now, based on no engineering expertise at all I'm comfortable with the rebuilt disc, I'll keep an eye on it and will continue the hunt for an appropriate new set of hardware to get this all bolted back together again in the future.

In other news, I got a CTEK Ferrari adapter.



Not sure the actual name of it, or if it's Ferrari specific - but it does send a signal to the car to let it know it's plugged in.



This also prevents you from firing up the engine I believe.

This was then connected to a space MXS 5.0 I had lying around. I believe it came in a bag of freebies/spares when I bought the 2-Eleven and it's sat dormant since I already have a trickle charger mounted to the wall near where the Lotus gets parked up.





Brakes are bolted back to the car now, calipers torqued to spec and all the bolts looking nice and shiny, for now. Really hoping to get wheels back before the weekend and figure out if the car now drives OK. If it doesn't, the elasticity of my brake bolts will be the least of my concerns...

[Fonzey]

skwdenyer said:

Bolt Stuff

What an incredible reply, thank you - PH delivering this morning

As for the '58', in hindsight I wonder if this is the length of the threaded section. I previously claimed it to be 60mm but I'll be honest I didn't take particular care in measuring it.

200Plus Club said:

https://www.tachart.com/

Thank you, I will be in touch. Perhaps after an email to Switzerland.

[Fonzey]

BOR said:

Yeah, having looked more closely I can see that the disc does actually sit on bushes, so the screws aren't as critical as I first thought.

I couldn't understand why they didn't use bushes like every single other two-piece disc. It made no sense to me but I thought it was some characteristic of ceramics. My mistake, but at least I can stop racking my brains now!

Your input has been invaluable and I'm definitely in the paranoid camp of car ownership, so caution is always the way I'd lean.

I've had floating discs on a couple of cars before, in fact my Lotus recently got 'upgraded' with a full set, albeit in steel - but I'd never really taken the time to deconstruct them in my head and figure out how they worked. After doing that, checking some diagrams out - I realised that the bobbins are really the heavy lifters here and will be taking all of the shear forces - but I'd still rather the bobbins stayed where they are

Between now and getting some suitable replacements made, I will be checking the fixings every single journey, and saying a little prayer every time I stomp on the brakes. I absolutely want these sorted though before the car sees any significant use or a track day

[Fonzey]

NRG1976 said:

Great thread and very honest too. The whole theme is in line with my experience many, many years ago when I purchased my first ever dream 911 Porsche!

What should have been a dream come true was actually a terrifying nightmare as loads of things appeared “wrong” upon arriving at home. I had expected euphoria at buying it and instead I had instant buyers remorse as the cost was more than I was used to and I thought it would be an absolute money pit.

However slowly got the issues sorted and ended up with a stunning car that gave me so much pleasure and reliability.

The lesson I took away is that there is no such thing as a cheap Ferrari, Lamborghini etc. - you either pay a higher purchase price and get a sorted example, or pay less and then sort through the issues. I actually now think the latter is a safer way of doing things, the worst case would be to pay top dollar assuming a well maintained example and find it is not!


Love this thread, and will keep an eye on the updates

It seems we are very closely aligned on this. Though my ownership with this Ferrari hasn't been perfect, I have sort of doubled down on the "woe is me, my Ferrari is a bit scruffy" narrative in this thread but really I'm loving the experience so far, and really I'd be bored if I just bought a car that was "right" out of the box!

Fully agree that I'd rather get a do'er upper for cheap, than to buy a "minter" for a big premium. The Price swing with FFs is nigh on 50% of what I paid. I could have spent 40k more on a car, and if that would have had issues - I would have been distraught. As it happens, I've got cash in the kitty to put minor things right and providing the fundamentals are right and remain covered by Fezza Warranty - I'm in a pretty good spot.

shalmaneser said:

Desperate for op to take his car out for a spin to find out if the handling issues have been resolved! When I first bought my 996 it was on some ancient rubber and handled appalling. Absolutely terrifying at speed, so vague. First time I've driven a car that was sensitive to tyres.

Ok ok, I'll put you out of your misery!

I finally got the call that the wheels and tyres were ready for collection, so off I went.

One of the fronts if you recall was brought up in a previous MOT as being 'distorted'. Not many people that I've spoken to have heard of a bent wheel appearing on an MOT before, so I was braced for bad news after they stripped the paint off. As it happens, it needed some "minor fettling", but really was as round as it needed to be and balanced up fine with minimal weight. They did a bit of work on it though, and it's now perfect. Remains a mystery how this flagged up on an MOT.



As for the colour, we had the code for Ferrari's "Grigio Ferro" which is one of the options for the painted finish on the car from new. However when we had sample cards in front of us, I couldn't help thinking it was a bit flat - and I much preferred a similar AMG colour which had a bit more fleck in it... so purists be damned, I went for the AMG colour.

If I'm honest I expected them to be a bit more on the silver side of grey, but I love them. Very close to the original colour, really good finish (one of the better powdercoat finishes I've had over the years) and shod in the all important and much anticipated Michelins - we were ready to go.

I resisted the urge to stick them on in the raining dark, and instead just sat and looked at them in the garage all night.



Popping these in was rather satisfying:





I would normally ceramic coat these myself, but car is booked in for detailing soon and we had this on the list - so I've resisted the urge and left them alone. CCBs don't seem to dust, so they probably don't need anything serious anyway.

The following day I put my new gadget to good use and got the wheels back on.



I usually put studs on my track cars, but this is a great inexpensive solution to achieve the same benefit. Good shout whoever suggested this.

Finally the axle stands could be kicked away, and we had a car again.



After dealing with a few work calls, it was finally time to see if the handling issues were fixed, or improved.

I set off gingerly at first, on hyper alert to every sensation. I didn't have to wait long, right outside my village is a railway bridge which the HGVs have battered over the years and there are really deep tramlines going across it. Previously this had the FF swinging from side to side, and even doing 30-40mph over it require concentration. This time though? Smooth as you like, the car just glided over.

I gradually built up confidence and tried some heavy braking, sudden direction changes and acceleration - and the car/tyres just lapped it all up. Over a mixed 6 miles of driving, it felt brilliant - just a "normal" car again.

The steering is still mega, mega quick. This added to the problems before because any corrections at speed had to be really careful - but with the car now feeling more normal, I could enjoy it a bit more.



In conclusion, I'm very very happy. I can now say with almost certainty that the tyres were the issue previously - and the new ones have resolved everything.

One small concern I had is that I set tyre pressures to 30psi on the driveway and they were up to 35ish after what was a fairly steady drive. I'm not sure what's expected with this car, but it makes me want to get the alignment checked just one more time to make sure I don't have some aggressive toe generating the heat/pressure and eating my precious new rubber.

I celebrated with a quick trip to the Butcher. Not quite a tip run, or a weekly shop - but it's the best I have for now.



Back home I fitted the new modification, again thanks to advice in this thread:




And for the first time I sat in the back. Bloody hell it's comfortable, I'd quite happily be driven across Europe back here.



A final update on the brake bolt issue. Thanks to posters in this thread I have a firm ready and willing to make some up for me... but they are expensive, and unlikely to be an attractive "proactive" kit for anybody to consider if I'm honest.

I need to work out the details, but I'll likely replace the 10 that I've messed with on my NSF brake and leave the others alone. I'd love to have bought a full set to proactively swap on the whole car but that would be an expensive ordeal. I'll consider my options a few more days, then will make a move on it.

[Fonzey]

d_a_n1979 said:

That looks a fantastic colour; which specific colour is it? Just flicked through the last few ages but can't see it mentioned, just it's an AMG colour

Cheers

Apologies I can't remember the exact code, but I can speak to them next week and find out.

Polarbert said:

That is a bloody stunning car and a terrific read so far. I've tried to do things myself when I can but I'm very much at the amateur stage of things compared to all of this. I'm just about up to changing over the front discs and pads on my E63 when the time comes later in the year. I'm just always afraid of things snapping off and then being up st creek without the paddle. lol

That fear never really goes away, tbh. I remember when I started spannering in anger on my Subaru. First job was swapping rear shocks out, the 19mm pinch bolts were to tight I had to learn quickly about how leverage beats brute force, burned out a cheap rattle gun and then finally when the shock did come out, the driveshaft popped out with it as the CV joint fell apart inside the boot! A few weeks later I was having to take a brake caliper off to a machine shop to get a fixing drilled out of it, etc etc.

Stuff still goes wrong, but I've seen most ways for stuff to go wrong now and nothing surprises me. Just don't take anything apart just before you need to use it...

Don1 said:

I am surprised that an Autofficina or the like asnt been in touch about a share of the cost to offer a service to prospective clients...

That's still a backup plan. Find out who (if anyone) has appetite to stockpile a load and look at getting a bigger batch done. I'm happy to invest in it if it helps people out - but still trying to find out just how much demand there would be. Seems most people only notice this after it's too late for their disc, and the Ferrari crowd (no offense) don't seem to be particularly into DIY driveway proactive mechanicking.


Took the car out for breakfast today so have a few more driving thoughts. Wet roads, family in the back so was hardly hoofing it everywhere but got to lean on it a bit in a few areas and give it some welly. Novelty is still enough that my Wife enjoys it, and isn't in the "punching me in the thigh" phase yet.

Steering is very quick and quite light for what must be a huge amount of weight over the front axle. Still has a decent degree of feel in it though, did two laps of a wet roundabout and slowly built up speed and could feel the very start of some front end scrubbing, but it seems very much on its nose and is difficult to make it understeer, even in the wet.

I didn't try to provoke the rear with the girls in it, but I'm expecting it to be quite a pointy car with a slippery back end once leaning on it properly.

In Wet or Comfort mode it has loads of grip in all conditions, it really dulls the gear changes down in these modes. Not sure if it reduces power at all, but it certainly gives you a lot of modulation low down in the pedal.

In Sport it still grips fine in a straight line, but the gearchanges are a bit more violent and there's the hint of slip at the back on a full chat 2-3 gear change in the wet. Feels ace though.

Seems like a very easy car to drive quickly. Even when using part throttle and only up to 5 or 6k RPM you make progress startlingly quick. Gearing is quite long despite having a 7 speed box, so by the time you're at the top of third you're well into license losing territory so I get a fair bit of enjoyment short shifting up and down the box when hitting some twisties. Rather different way to drive compared to a 2ZZ...

Been playing with the seating position CONSTANTLY. It's not that it's an uncomfy seat, there's just too much to faff around with. Have the same problem in the Volvo. Give me a fixed position Tillett any day! I feel like the wheel doesn't come far enough towards the driver, and my knees are a bit close to the dash when I get myself close enough to the wheel. If I slouch a bit though it feels much better, even if it's not great for my back. Needs some more work. The adjustable bolsters and lower back grabby bits are cool though and I'm pretty sure with some fiddling I can get it perfect. The bloody wheel is off centre though, not by much - but it's very slightly offset towards the middle of the car and once you notice it, you can't stop thinking about it. Had a Merc rental recently that was similar.

Starting to fall for it I think...

[Fonzey]

Broke Rule #1 of project thread authoring yesterday. Wall of text with no pics.

So this morning have some pics with no text. Drive needs weeding, job for today I promise.

[Fonzey]

hermes said:

Great opening post and interesting thread.

I've always bought cars from dealers, and even in my 50's still get disappointed when I discover they weren't entirely honest in their descriptions.

Just recently for the first time I bought privately, via ebay, and boy did it add some extra stress!

Yep private sales always add a bit of fun and excitement - but there's some cracking cars to be had out with the enthusiast marques. I find when you're buying proper enthusiast cars via a forum or whatever, that owners tend to be "over-honest".

With Ferraris, dealer cars understandably command a massive premium because of the comprehensive 2 year warranty you get. I'm not sure what their age cut off is for buying cars (outside of the super exotic classics/hypercars obviously which I'm sure they'd buy at any ages!) but I think I heard 15 years or 50k miles somewhere for more cooking stuff. That brings the earlier FFs into the territory where dealer cars may not be available for much longer.

Bollah said:

I've been following from afar and so glad to hear the new tyres have resolved your issue Just picking up on this comment and would say you don't have anything to worry about, as this is why car manufacturers tell you to do your tyre pressures from cold, or within 1 mile of driving from cold, as driving the car the tyre pressure will go up when being driven due to the heat within the tyre.

Yep good point, and I do monitor tyre pressures on my Lotus religiously which barely generates any pressure on the road (but can be as much as 10-15psi on track). But that's a car that weighs 1/3 of this FF so perhaps a little silly to compare.

smithyithy said:

Loving this thread, it's refreshing to see the ownership experience of a car like this from a 'normal' perspective, if that makes sense?

OP you mentioned the infotainment previously, I know there's a company in / near London called Sexton's that are well regarded for upgrading / retrofitting high end cars, they may be able to do the Apple Carplay / Android Auto upgrade if that's something you're looking to do.

Thank you, yes I'm very much a normal idiot and I'm owning/maintaining this car no different to how I would look after anything else. Obviously everything will be more expensive, and I'm not going to cut corners - but then I don't cut corners on my Lotus either!

As for infotainment, it is comically old fashioned and having Android Auto would be a great benefit, particularly when touring. There are a couple of aftermarket options out there which can even take the canbus messaging from the steering wheel switches, reverse, parking sensor, etc. There's also the factory fitted head unit that came in the later FFs which I believe was the first ever Apple Carplay unit fitted to a production car(?) which would retain some OEM points, but in all likelihood is a bit crap nowadays anyway.
The only real daunting thing is taking the dash apart to fit it, it's an awful lot of expensive leather to start attacking - but it's very much a DIY'able task and something I may do in the near future.

For now, I'll be finding an inoffensive place to stick my phone like the good old days. The sound quality once you do get an audio source hooked up is pretty damn good.

I've very much enjoyed the car this weekend, just pottering around but starting to get to grips with it feeling more and more at home in it. Popped back to the Motorist for a coffee on Sunday afternoon, as it's conveniently located next door to the Aeroclub that my wife is a member of - so we get plenty of family days wandering around looking at the cars and planes.



I'm still checking that I have 10x brake disc bolts literally every time I get out or walk past the car. I've not really leaned on the brakes at all yet since putting them back on, and they are constantly at the back of my mind. Things are progressing steadily on that front, I'm sort of stalling for time for some of the established brake refurb companies coming back to me before pulling the trigger on some fabrication. For the sleepless nights these bolts have given me, £15k on a new set of discs suddenly doesn't feel so bad

[Fonzey]

MDL111 said:

yup - being lazy and not dealing with an issue I was very aware of cost me dearly on this one. discs were only c 50% used (car at c 85k km at the time)

Did your friction material actually crack? I assume when you spotted it the disc was still just about held on by the bobbins, but in theory nothing other than corrosion was holding them in?

It's scary stuff! The sort of thing you really wish you didn't know about...

[Fonzey]

200Plus Club said:

Are you in the Sheffield area by any chance as a pal spotted a blue one at the tip recently doing a tip run, very impressive if its you!

Nope not me, a bit further North than Sheffield but I have done a tip run or two!

Wills2 said:

I must admit the brake bolts would be bothering me, I'd prefer to have lived in ignorance, need to be sorted can't have a car with that performance without being able to smash the brake pedal with confidence, I'd be stumping up for a new set.

Yep that's the way I'm leaning.

I've had a response today from rebrake.de. This is a German company that resurface CCBs for various marques. They can, and do supply the fixings and their price is 450Euros per ten needed for each disc.

It's an insane amount of money for 10x bolts, but honestly it's sounding like a way to just buy my way out of some stress and just get it sorted.

[Fonzey]

skwdenyer said:

More Bolt stuff

Incredible, fascinating stuff (no really, I mean it ) and makes me think back to every single bolt that I've reused over the years wondering how I haven't died a horrible death a thousand times over

I've had a few more chats about these today. Found one specialist who has their own "uprated" replacement, made from inconel apparently and reeeeeeeeeeeeally expensive, but it's good to know there's an option I suppose?

I'll see if Rebrake will share any more details on the fixings they can provide. For instance if they're made by the original manufacturer of the Brembo ones, or if it's their own take on the design. If it's the former then I may find comfort in the fact they're exactly as-original, but if it's the latter then I may still pursue getting my own made up and rely on the (hopefully) good bolt making practise of whoever I find to make them.

I'm still trying to convince myself that although this bolt chat is all very useful and informative, that we're probably overthinking it and that re-using the old stuff will be 'fine'.

[Fonzey]

skwdenyer said:

Most bolts aren't designed to the limit of clamping, etc. - because, as my post might suggest, there's an awful lot of work in doing that design! Better to use a bigger bolt, a decent lock washer and a healthy dab of Loctite So most bolts can be re-used.

But when a mfr says "don't re-use this bolt" it may not (especially on modern-ish cars) because they're trying to sell you spares. That's the point - if a bolt is designed not to be re-used, it really is designed not to be re-used!

And that's my slight concern here - the "new" ones you've been given are re-used, presumably, from other vehicles?

If you do replace any of your "good" ones, I'd be fascinated to see a section cut through one of them lengthways to see if they are a single piece or not. We obviously know what a heavily-corroded one looks like

Yep the donated ones were used, but showed zero corrosion compared to mine.

If/when I source some replacements, as reward for your incredible efforts here I'll send you one of the originals for you to chop up in as many ways as you like!

[Fonzey]

RS6Wheels said:

LOVE blue over tan (my RS6 is a similar colour but with white seats - so not quite nailed it). Useable Ferrari's like the FF, 612 and 456 are all aspirational dream cars for me much more than the racier models.

Really enjoying the detail you've provided, keep the updates coming!

Yeah I'm so happy with the colour combo. Makes me grin a bit every time I walk past it! I think long term I can't consider my "Ferrari box" ticked until I've owned a V8 Mid/Rear car, but it's so hard for me to justify something like that alongside the Lotus - as I fear I'd always be reaching for the Lotus key for a trackday, and going for road/weekend blasts without the family close by is becoming increasingly difficult.

The FF is bloody ideal though, we can go off for a nice B&B getaway or whatever and I'll always have the option to get up at the crack of dawn and go... "buy milk". Even just using it for mundane duties is a barrel of fun, I'm starting to really gel with the steering on the car now after first being taken aback at how light and fast the rack is, I'm now appreciating its accuracy. It's a properly quick car for most road conditions, but still very satisfying to drive 'normally'.

No real updates for this week yet. Been "piling the miles on", probably done 150 miles in it since getting the tyres back and loving every one of them.

Even took it to work int' City today.



At some point I need to get it booked in for a service. Need to study the terms of the Power15 warranty a bit, I know I need to take it to a main dealer at some point for a pre-warranty inspection if I do plan to extend it beyond November (I probably will), but I'm not sure if I need to have it serviced at a main dealer too. If not, I'll happily take it to the Indy that helped me with the brake bolts - but more research needed before I commit.

Next week it's going to my detailer. Unfortunately not for the full paint correction we originally planned, as it's going to go back to the bodyshop in the near future to correct a couple of snags first. They're being great to work with, and it's mutually convenient for me to keep the car for now, enjoy the good weather when we get it and then get it back to them later in the year for them to address a few more bits.

To give the detailer something to do in the meantime, he'll be ceramic coating the freshly done wheels and will give my interior a properly good sort out including treating all of the leather. Looking forward to that, as it's getting a bit dusty in there and there's a bit of shiny leather on the wheel which I reckon he can drastically improve.

[Fonzey]

Fettled a couple of jobs in the last week or so.

I mentioned in the OP that the interior had worn the age/miles very well, and I stand by that - but I have found a couple of bits of evidence of the sun-exposed leather shrinking back a bit. Luckily the lower down areas in the tan are all well sheltered and absolutely perfect.

One bit was the binnacle shroud:



You can see the leather has come unstuck underneath as it as shrunk back.

Shroud came off without any tools:



and a bit of superglue and tape allowed me to stick it back down. Ideally it needs recovering, I'm not sure if leather can be taken off, conditioned and restretched(?) but there are two bits of the dash which would benefit from such treatment if it's possible so it might be a job for winter to get it all out and looked at.



Second thing to address was some wind noise from the passenger window. The glass is all double glazed in this car and it's eerily silent inside when driving, all with the exception of the odd bark from the V12 to remind you it's still there.

When driving into wind though, or above certain speeds I got the rush of wind as if the passenger window was cracked a bit. Luckily I found the issue quickly, the seal wasn't sat flush into the corner:



Was dead easy to peel it back, clean it out and then push it back in properly.



This fixed the 'window is a bit open' soundtrack, but I've swapped it with a much worse high pitched whistle at high speed now I guess the seal has deformed to the shape of the window in the 'wrong' position for so long that now it's opened up a gap somewhere else. I've yet to track that gap down, so for now I've reached into the Lotus-owners toolkit and got my stick of this out:



Not really sure what I'm trying to achieve with it yet, at worst it will treat the rubber a bit and not really help with anything. At best it might soften the rubber up a bit and assist it in reforming to the relative glass position and add a bit of sealing properties to the interface. Failing that, I have the workshop manual and there are window adjustment steps in there to try.

Aside from that:

Missus took me to the pub:


Took photo of missus at the pub:


I took missus to another pub:


Took daughter to a playground:


Gave it a wash:


...and spent a small fortune at Shell as a result.

Loving the car now, we're grabbing the keys for it for just about every journey but I'll start ramping that down a bit soon, both for financial reasons and for preserving the special occasion nature of it

[Fonzey]

Mark-ri571 said:

Will be interesting to see what this FF goes for:

Aye, keeping a close eye on it (not because I want another!). The big advantage it has over mine is mileage, the spec is missing a couple of bits but to be honest - I don't think I've seen a badly specced FF yet, they're all fantastic. We'll see how valuable the extra 20k miles are, or whether this thread has put everyone off an FF for now

[Fonzey]

Leithen said:

There a question about the disc wear on the CC car - unusual?

I saw that and I'm not sure what it's based on? I skimmed through all the photos (which is more research than I did for the one I bought ) and couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

In theory the visual signs of wear on a CCB is that the surface stops being glassy and smooth, but I've never had a worn one in my hands to really see the difference. It's hard to tell from photos.

At 20k miles, worn CCBs would be very unusual. In fact, it would be unusual right up until 80-100k AFAIK. What tends to get them much sooner than that is trackday use, damage (mishandling, smacking with tools, etc), chemical damage (aggressive wheel cleaners) or of course... the bolts breaking/seizing/expanding.