2013 Ferrari FF
Discussion
I've found myself in the fortunate circumstances recently to be able to justify an extra driveway slot filler.
Filling this final driveway slot would be a hindrance, in that it would make it harder to park, harder to load a 3 year old into the back of whichever car we wanted to use, make washing any of the cars very difficult without relocating something to the street temporarily... but it would fit a much needed requirement.
I've never owned a car with more than four cylinders, or with more than 2.0 litres of capacity.
I've been fantasising about what vehicle could help me fix this for years, always finding excuses to get something different. More sensible, cheaper to run or easier to maintain. I've had great fun along the way, with a series of Japanese and French hot hatchbacks, a WRC-wannabee Impreza and a small series of Lotuses' have allowed me to enjoy the four cylinder format tremendously... but with the demise of the internal combustion engine looming, and being in the fortunate position to be able to buy a car "because I want one"... now felt like the time.
I'd flirted with a few options. 911's featured heavily on the list, nothing with a GT badge on it because I wanted this car to be usable for fun family trips too, I'd still have the Lotus for selfish driving and trackdays.
The 'super saloon' also factored in. The Giulia QF being a personal favourite.
But something kept lurking amongst my classified searches. Not only would it slash the >4Cyl and >2.0litre requirement with room to spare, but it would tick off another petrolhead box... A pretty big one at that.
The Ferrari FF is not what I would call a dream car as such, but the thought of owning a Ferrari absolutely has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember being interested in cars. I always thought that if I could ever end up in one, it would be a V8 Mid/Rear engined car that I could do the odd trackday in, but use predominantly for polishing, cherishing and just looking at. I just couldn't justify a car like that at the moment, not whilst keeping the Lotus - and that absolutely wasn't going anywhere.
The FF had been on my radar for a while, as a car that I could potentially use as a daily driver replacement for my business lease Taycan when it ends. I barely do any mileage, and haven't since COVID - so running costs are less of a concern, but I couldn't (and still can't) get over the image of turning up places in something with a Ferrari badge on it.
With the Taycan lease not due for another 18 months, it would take a pretty silly snap decision to make a serious move on an FF right now.
Enter... the auction site.
I'd been dabbling on a certain 'enthusiast car' auction site for a few months, and had a few pretty scary close calls - including one other FF. The other FF was local, in a colour combo that I was less enthusiastic about but could live with and it went for just a tiny bit more than I was willing to stretch to - so after a sweaty few minutes I ultimately lost out by £500.
Since then there were a few near misses on 911s (one of which I'm sure I would have won had I had enough cash in my current account for the auction people to take a holding deposit) and more often than not, these bidding sprees came after a few hours in the pub.
Some time later, another FF came up. This one was in the colour I loved... with an interior I loved. It was high mileage for a Ferrari (40k) but I figured it would still go for a similar amount to the last one based on its huge spec. So I stuck a bid in, a 'safety bid' that I knew would never win. Almost £20k lower than the last one I bid on, but I could do my research and come back to it later.
Fast forward a few days, was bathing the young'un not hearing my phone going nuts in the other room. After a flurry of notifications, I'd won the auction.
Now it was time for a massive panic, what had I done?! I'd done practically no research on this car, it could have been a twice-over writeoff for all I knew, so I threw some cash at Car Vertical and after a nervy few minutes, got a clean report back. Phew.
The next day I was frantically ringing Ferrari dealers up and down the country to validate the service history this car claimed to have. I have to say my first interactions with Ferrari were excellent and they leaped into action to put my mind at rest.
Finally after unblocking my bank account I was able to pay the buyer fees to the auction site, and was handed the contact details for the owner. A chat with the owner really settled my nerves, a serial car collector with a rather impressive address and a rather impressive collection of cars.
It was a pretty terrible time for me to buy a car, with no spare time to do just about anything so ended up booking a Saturday night, very slow train down to London with the aim of staying over and driving it back first thing Sunday.
I won't go full travel-blog, but it was 30+ degrees, train AC sucked and I was sat on it for 4 hours. I finally got to my lastminute.com booking of what turned out to be a glorified hostel, with no AC... but finally the sun was up, and I had 3 miles of London to cover on a glorious Sunday morning. I decided to walk it, because I was up early anyway, and I thought it might settle the nerves (it didn't).
I did pack a shirt that matched the car/interior somewhat.
The walk through London took me past a dealership where the car has had much of its recent attention:
..and I even saw another FF in the same colour but different interior on the walk... along with many, many more exotica. I could feel I was approaching the right bit of town.
Finally I rounded a corner and saw the car for the first time. It looked fantastic with the early morning sun glinting off of it, massive rear tyres just gobbling up the marked out parking spot.
I came around the front, and after forcing myself to switch on some awareness I clocked a couple of things immediately that I wasn't thrilled about.
The front bumper was clearly a different colour to the bonnet and wings, not only that but it looked like it had some sinking filler on it too. It had a scruffy PPF job, and the wheels were fairly familiar with the side of a curbstone.
The body panels looked straight, but then round the back I clocked a bit of corrosion on the rear tailgate. Hmmmm.
At this point, I've already paid a considerable sum to the auction site so I couldn't just turn on my heel and run for the nearest tube station. Had this have been a "normal" private sale, I probably would have done.
The auction listing had hundreds of photos, all cleverly taken to not show any of my main concerns. In hindsight the colour match of the front bumper is a bit obvious, but it's hard to tell whether it's just a lighting thing. The wording of the listing is similar to almost every car listed, which basically means you cannot make any conclusions about the aesthetic condition of a car - you HAVE to go view it. The wording is loose, vague and technically not lying so it's hard to argue against. The only thing that I could categorically argue against is that the listing says the car has 'full PPF'. What it actually had was 2/3 of the front bumper PPFd and the wing mirrors, nothing else.
Anyway, still a bit excited that I was here to collect my first ever Ferrari, I knocked on the door and after a quick chat, look around the car and drive round the block - I transferred the cash and was on my way.
Should I have tried to haggle there and then for what I felt was a slightly misrepresented car? Probably... but the occasion got the better of me, I had poor understanding of the auction etiquette and to a certain extent felt held hostage by the sum of money I'd already committed to the auction site.
Anyway, on to the good bits.
The engine sounds incredible. It's very toned down and mature when you're wrapped up in the double glazed, leather clad cabin but crack a window and it sounds like a warmachine rumbling through the 20mph residential zones of London.
The front mounted 2 speed gearbox or PTU is a known failure point on this car, but this particular car had a warranty replacement done just 3 months ago - and had powertrain warranty still running till November so I felt somewhat happy that the mechanicals of this car were all good.
The interior was as far as I could tell, mint. Interiors are often the first place to show mileage but this one really doesn't, whether it's been well looked after or just quality of the materials I'm not sure - but I've been in <5k mile cars that have worn worse than this.
The option list was impressive. From what I can tell almost everything non-carbon fibre has been specced. I guess the original buyer really didn't like the weave aesthetic because he didn't cut costs anywhere else! The interior alone I think I worked out was best part of £11k extra, for the upgraded leather, daytona style vented seats etc.
Other notable options are:
Front and Rear axle lift
Sport Exhaust Pipes
20" Forged wheels
Various Trim/Badge options
Passenger display screen
Upgraded stereo
Shift lights
The first few miles were nervy, after giggling at the startup growl I was then creeping through London on what appeared to be bin day.
The owner had told me that it was on fumes and that I should stop ASAP, but the dash was telling me 3 bars and 100+ miles left. With a few years' of Lotus ownership behind me I knew not to trust fuel gauges in general, but the not knowing meant for a sketchy few miles to find fuel, during which I'm pretty sure I was in a bus lane for a while, got turned around by a closed road, ended up in the freight entrance to a John Lewis and had to undertake a bus to not end up doing a massive loop and repeating all of my mistakes again.
Finally, the welcoming forecourt appeared.
Oh, it has a MASSIVE fuel tank! Easily the biggest fill I've ever done.
Pockets feeling a bit lighter, it was finally time to find some dual carriageway and head back North.
Whilst driving through London I had it in comfort mode and automatic gears and it was like driving any other car. Comfortable, quiet, smooth. The early impressions of the V12 engine were that it was just ready to go at any speed, and would surge forward without a moments hesitation. Incredible thing.
Upon finally getting to a sliproad, I gave it half a bootful and had my eyes opened a bit. It kicked down a couple of gears, and there was a massive squirm from the rear. It didn't feel like a loss of traction, but it didn't feel very good.. at all.
At motorway speeds, steady at 70mph the car was quite busy. It shuffled around in its lane and every now and then I had to tweak the very fast steering to get it back in line. Hmmmm
After an hour or so, I'd fiddled around with the controls enough to get my TPMS display up and find that my tyres were really, really overinflated. To the tune of 9psi or so. This put my mind at ease, surely these handling foibles could be attributed to that.
Some friends had agreed to come meet me part of my way home, so they brought a tyre pressure gauge with them and this allowed me to drop everything back into spec for the remainder of the drive.
We had a spot of lunch, amused/annoyed everybody with the V12 soundtrack and then I was on my way again.
At some point I had another stop, splash of fuel and a toilet break and decided to check whether the lift worked or not. It did.
I found some very "Ferrari" features on my drive home. A button right next to my left knee would switch the reversing camera off, completely useless feature in a completely stupid place on the dash.
I let a bit too much air out of the tyres which triggered a TPMS warning. With the warning displaced, it then disabled the TPMS screen so you couldn't see the values at each corner...
The lap belt of the seatbelt runs over the top of the ventilation control for the seats, so lean forward a bit and it catches on the knob and changes the setting.
Etc, etc.
Generally though, the cabin oozed quality and it was a fantastic place to spend a fair few hours.
Through my various stops, I'd built up my snagging list and had come up with the following:
Front bumper paint was awful, possibly hiding a nasty front end smash based on what appeared to be sinking filler?
Wheels a bit rashed up
Paint peeling from the inner arches revealing the aluminium underneath, which was then starting to corrode
Spot of corrosion on aluminium tailgate
Various scuffs or marks that would almost certainly polish out
And the big one was the handling issue. When applying power, the car would squat and squirm... too much to be normal, but also any sort of rut or groove in the road would have me fighting to keep it straight. Even cruising at 70mph needed a lot of concentration, and there was no hope of driving this car quickly.
Finally I got it home, sort of excited, sort of underwhelmed but very nervous that I'd gone a bit wrong on this one. I'd bought a Ferrari which to me was a massive, massive deal... but I didn't want to look at it, and didn't want to drive it. A plan was needed.
The Youngun' loved it though.
Filling this final driveway slot would be a hindrance, in that it would make it harder to park, harder to load a 3 year old into the back of whichever car we wanted to use, make washing any of the cars very difficult without relocating something to the street temporarily... but it would fit a much needed requirement.
I've never owned a car with more than four cylinders, or with more than 2.0 litres of capacity.
I've been fantasising about what vehicle could help me fix this for years, always finding excuses to get something different. More sensible, cheaper to run or easier to maintain. I've had great fun along the way, with a series of Japanese and French hot hatchbacks, a WRC-wannabee Impreza and a small series of Lotuses' have allowed me to enjoy the four cylinder format tremendously... but with the demise of the internal combustion engine looming, and being in the fortunate position to be able to buy a car "because I want one"... now felt like the time.
I'd flirted with a few options. 911's featured heavily on the list, nothing with a GT badge on it because I wanted this car to be usable for fun family trips too, I'd still have the Lotus for selfish driving and trackdays.
The 'super saloon' also factored in. The Giulia QF being a personal favourite.
But something kept lurking amongst my classified searches. Not only would it slash the >4Cyl and >2.0litre requirement with room to spare, but it would tick off another petrolhead box... A pretty big one at that.
The Ferrari FF is not what I would call a dream car as such, but the thought of owning a Ferrari absolutely has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember being interested in cars. I always thought that if I could ever end up in one, it would be a V8 Mid/Rear engined car that I could do the odd trackday in, but use predominantly for polishing, cherishing and just looking at. I just couldn't justify a car like that at the moment, not whilst keeping the Lotus - and that absolutely wasn't going anywhere.
The FF had been on my radar for a while, as a car that I could potentially use as a daily driver replacement for my business lease Taycan when it ends. I barely do any mileage, and haven't since COVID - so running costs are less of a concern, but I couldn't (and still can't) get over the image of turning up places in something with a Ferrari badge on it.
With the Taycan lease not due for another 18 months, it would take a pretty silly snap decision to make a serious move on an FF right now.
Enter... the auction site.
I'd been dabbling on a certain 'enthusiast car' auction site for a few months, and had a few pretty scary close calls - including one other FF. The other FF was local, in a colour combo that I was less enthusiastic about but could live with and it went for just a tiny bit more than I was willing to stretch to - so after a sweaty few minutes I ultimately lost out by £500.
Since then there were a few near misses on 911s (one of which I'm sure I would have won had I had enough cash in my current account for the auction people to take a holding deposit) and more often than not, these bidding sprees came after a few hours in the pub.
Some time later, another FF came up. This one was in the colour I loved... with an interior I loved. It was high mileage for a Ferrari (40k) but I figured it would still go for a similar amount to the last one based on its huge spec. So I stuck a bid in, a 'safety bid' that I knew would never win. Almost £20k lower than the last one I bid on, but I could do my research and come back to it later.
Fast forward a few days, was bathing the young'un not hearing my phone going nuts in the other room. After a flurry of notifications, I'd won the auction.
Now it was time for a massive panic, what had I done?! I'd done practically no research on this car, it could have been a twice-over writeoff for all I knew, so I threw some cash at Car Vertical and after a nervy few minutes, got a clean report back. Phew.
The next day I was frantically ringing Ferrari dealers up and down the country to validate the service history this car claimed to have. I have to say my first interactions with Ferrari were excellent and they leaped into action to put my mind at rest.
Finally after unblocking my bank account I was able to pay the buyer fees to the auction site, and was handed the contact details for the owner. A chat with the owner really settled my nerves, a serial car collector with a rather impressive address and a rather impressive collection of cars.
It was a pretty terrible time for me to buy a car, with no spare time to do just about anything so ended up booking a Saturday night, very slow train down to London with the aim of staying over and driving it back first thing Sunday.
I won't go full travel-blog, but it was 30+ degrees, train AC sucked and I was sat on it for 4 hours. I finally got to my lastminute.com booking of what turned out to be a glorified hostel, with no AC... but finally the sun was up, and I had 3 miles of London to cover on a glorious Sunday morning. I decided to walk it, because I was up early anyway, and I thought it might settle the nerves (it didn't).
I did pack a shirt that matched the car/interior somewhat.
The walk through London took me past a dealership where the car has had much of its recent attention:
..and I even saw another FF in the same colour but different interior on the walk... along with many, many more exotica. I could feel I was approaching the right bit of town.
Finally I rounded a corner and saw the car for the first time. It looked fantastic with the early morning sun glinting off of it, massive rear tyres just gobbling up the marked out parking spot.
I came around the front, and after forcing myself to switch on some awareness I clocked a couple of things immediately that I wasn't thrilled about.
The front bumper was clearly a different colour to the bonnet and wings, not only that but it looked like it had some sinking filler on it too. It had a scruffy PPF job, and the wheels were fairly familiar with the side of a curbstone.
The body panels looked straight, but then round the back I clocked a bit of corrosion on the rear tailgate. Hmmmm.
At this point, I've already paid a considerable sum to the auction site so I couldn't just turn on my heel and run for the nearest tube station. Had this have been a "normal" private sale, I probably would have done.
The auction listing had hundreds of photos, all cleverly taken to not show any of my main concerns. In hindsight the colour match of the front bumper is a bit obvious, but it's hard to tell whether it's just a lighting thing. The wording of the listing is similar to almost every car listed, which basically means you cannot make any conclusions about the aesthetic condition of a car - you HAVE to go view it. The wording is loose, vague and technically not lying so it's hard to argue against. The only thing that I could categorically argue against is that the listing says the car has 'full PPF'. What it actually had was 2/3 of the front bumper PPFd and the wing mirrors, nothing else.
Anyway, still a bit excited that I was here to collect my first ever Ferrari, I knocked on the door and after a quick chat, look around the car and drive round the block - I transferred the cash and was on my way.
Should I have tried to haggle there and then for what I felt was a slightly misrepresented car? Probably... but the occasion got the better of me, I had poor understanding of the auction etiquette and to a certain extent felt held hostage by the sum of money I'd already committed to the auction site.
Anyway, on to the good bits.
The engine sounds incredible. It's very toned down and mature when you're wrapped up in the double glazed, leather clad cabin but crack a window and it sounds like a warmachine rumbling through the 20mph residential zones of London.
The front mounted 2 speed gearbox or PTU is a known failure point on this car, but this particular car had a warranty replacement done just 3 months ago - and had powertrain warranty still running till November so I felt somewhat happy that the mechanicals of this car were all good.
The interior was as far as I could tell, mint. Interiors are often the first place to show mileage but this one really doesn't, whether it's been well looked after or just quality of the materials I'm not sure - but I've been in <5k mile cars that have worn worse than this.
The option list was impressive. From what I can tell almost everything non-carbon fibre has been specced. I guess the original buyer really didn't like the weave aesthetic because he didn't cut costs anywhere else! The interior alone I think I worked out was best part of £11k extra, for the upgraded leather, daytona style vented seats etc.
Other notable options are:
Front and Rear axle lift
Sport Exhaust Pipes
20" Forged wheels
Various Trim/Badge options
Passenger display screen
Upgraded stereo
Shift lights
The first few miles were nervy, after giggling at the startup growl I was then creeping through London on what appeared to be bin day.
The owner had told me that it was on fumes and that I should stop ASAP, but the dash was telling me 3 bars and 100+ miles left. With a few years' of Lotus ownership behind me I knew not to trust fuel gauges in general, but the not knowing meant for a sketchy few miles to find fuel, during which I'm pretty sure I was in a bus lane for a while, got turned around by a closed road, ended up in the freight entrance to a John Lewis and had to undertake a bus to not end up doing a massive loop and repeating all of my mistakes again.
Finally, the welcoming forecourt appeared.
Oh, it has a MASSIVE fuel tank! Easily the biggest fill I've ever done.
Pockets feeling a bit lighter, it was finally time to find some dual carriageway and head back North.
Whilst driving through London I had it in comfort mode and automatic gears and it was like driving any other car. Comfortable, quiet, smooth. The early impressions of the V12 engine were that it was just ready to go at any speed, and would surge forward without a moments hesitation. Incredible thing.
Upon finally getting to a sliproad, I gave it half a bootful and had my eyes opened a bit. It kicked down a couple of gears, and there was a massive squirm from the rear. It didn't feel like a loss of traction, but it didn't feel very good.. at all.
At motorway speeds, steady at 70mph the car was quite busy. It shuffled around in its lane and every now and then I had to tweak the very fast steering to get it back in line. Hmmmm
After an hour or so, I'd fiddled around with the controls enough to get my TPMS display up and find that my tyres were really, really overinflated. To the tune of 9psi or so. This put my mind at ease, surely these handling foibles could be attributed to that.
Some friends had agreed to come meet me part of my way home, so they brought a tyre pressure gauge with them and this allowed me to drop everything back into spec for the remainder of the drive.
We had a spot of lunch, amused/annoyed everybody with the V12 soundtrack and then I was on my way again.
At some point I had another stop, splash of fuel and a toilet break and decided to check whether the lift worked or not. It did.
I found some very "Ferrari" features on my drive home. A button right next to my left knee would switch the reversing camera off, completely useless feature in a completely stupid place on the dash.
I let a bit too much air out of the tyres which triggered a TPMS warning. With the warning displaced, it then disabled the TPMS screen so you couldn't see the values at each corner...
The lap belt of the seatbelt runs over the top of the ventilation control for the seats, so lean forward a bit and it catches on the knob and changes the setting.
Etc, etc.
Generally though, the cabin oozed quality and it was a fantastic place to spend a fair few hours.
Through my various stops, I'd built up my snagging list and had come up with the following:
Front bumper paint was awful, possibly hiding a nasty front end smash based on what appeared to be sinking filler?
Wheels a bit rashed up
Paint peeling from the inner arches revealing the aluminium underneath, which was then starting to corrode
Spot of corrosion on aluminium tailgate
Various scuffs or marks that would almost certainly polish out
And the big one was the handling issue. When applying power, the car would squat and squirm... too much to be normal, but also any sort of rut or groove in the road would have me fighting to keep it straight. Even cruising at 70mph needed a lot of concentration, and there was no hope of driving this car quickly.
Finally I got it home, sort of excited, sort of underwhelmed but very nervous that I'd gone a bit wrong on this one. I'd bought a Ferrari which to me was a massive, massive deal... but I didn't want to look at it, and didn't want to drive it. A plan was needed.
The Youngun' loved it though.
Thanks for the initial comments. I'm a month into ownership now so the story has moved on, a little bit - so I'll get caught up the best I can. This car was never intended to get a thread, it was never supposed to be a project!
After a couple of days to get over the initial excitement/nerves or the purchase I had calmed myself down and come up with a battle plan.
I'd got myself into a positive frame of mind in that hopefully, none of the issues were particularly exotic and wouldn't even need specialist Ferrari input which is normally where the $$$ start piling up.
I made a list of all of my gripes, but really it came down to sorting two things:
- Tidy up paint
- Sort out the handling
The paint should be easy, find a bodyshop - get them to sort it over Winter, then that's 6 months of 'free' motoring not giving a hoot about stonechips or parking dings or whatever.
The handling I'd been out and done various drives to try and pinpoint what exactly was wrong. It feels like extreme tramlining, moreso than anything I've experienced before. When sticking semi slicks on a Lotus, or piling camber onto a Subaru you experience tramlining so I know what it feels like... but this was different, worse and scarier.
Undulations in the road definitely provoked it, as did applying power or brakes. Even rumbling over a catseye could cause the steering to snatch a little bit.
I put a few posts on forums, FB groups, etc to try and get a feel for where to go with the investigation first. After the initial useless responses of "take it to Ferrari", the next most popular recommendation was to throw the Pirelli tyres away and go for some Michelins.
I'm not opposed to using Ferrari dealers, and I didn't buy this car to save costs and cut corners - but I'm also a tinkerer. Even if I don't fix the issue myself, I at least want to do some basic triage so I can point the experts in the right direction.
As for the tyres, though I appreciate the importance of quality tyres I could not believe that swapping from one brand to another could fix these issues. If Ferrari sold the car on these Pirellis, then there's no way the (very positive) journalist reports would have come out at the time. It was a horrible car to drive.
I was trying to forget about the possibility that the car had been in an accident and could be hiding some horrors.
I also had to try and figure out what the hell we were going to do to make room for this car. Our fleet to date was:
Taycan on business lease, so can't get rid easily.
Volvo V90 which the missus loves, and I use for trailering the Lotus
Lotus 2-Eleven which occupies the garage
Ferrari FF which... well, it existed.
The driveway could take three cars side by side, in theory. But between the Volvo. Taycan and FF I couldn't have picked three bigger bloody cars!
Tried a few things out, involving abandoning the Volvo with the trailer in a field somewhere.
Eventually with some well rehearsed parking, we found we could just about squeeze all three on. I would post a photo, but that will spoil something that comes later in the story.
I made time to give the car a wash. Nothing too aggressive, just lobbed a sponge at it for a bit.
It immediately made me feel a bit better. The colour had been robbed of its qualities before from being covered in dust in London, it just took any shine out of it and made the Tour de France blue look flat.
A quick clean made it look so much better:
Normally the first wash of a new(used) car is an awful experience, because you inevitably find a load of bodywork niggles that you missed when purchasing. This time it was the opposite as I was expecting more bad news, but generally was happy with the state of the paint outside of the areas previously identified.
The bodywork all looked straight, no dings in the aluminium and the one patch of odd corrosion on the corner of the bootlid. Shutlines looked decent enough, but apparently even from the factory they were a bit wonky so you can't be too harsh here anyway.
I also took the rear wheels off, just for a look. The handling foibles felt most obvious at the rear.
To my relief all the suspension components looked both "of appropriate age" (ie, no brand new wishbones lobbed in) and nothing looked bent or recently disturbed. The rear pads looked a little low, but the very expensive carbon discs looked fine on visual inspection. (I do plan to get them weighed to figure out what their life expectancy is like).
What did look a little odd though was the tyre. I took a photo but it really doesn't come across well, but the section of the tyre was extremely uneven, not so much tread depth and wear - but it was like the tyre was distorted. This give me a huge spike of hope that the tyres could indeed be the cause of my concern.
I later took the fronts off, and found more of the same. In fact the fronts were so bad, the wheel wouldn't sit up on its own - it wanted to tip forwards as if it was heavily positive cambered. The tread section was just angled down towards the front really quite bad. Again, photo doesn't do it justice.
Front of the wheel is towards left of shot.
So things were looking up a bit, bodywork wasn't *THAT* bad and my poking around hadn't revealed any evidence of impact damage, and the tyres were becoming increasingly more believable as the source of the handling issues.
I treated the car to its first modification to celebrate.
After a couple of days to get over the initial excitement/nerves or the purchase I had calmed myself down and come up with a battle plan.
I'd got myself into a positive frame of mind in that hopefully, none of the issues were particularly exotic and wouldn't even need specialist Ferrari input which is normally where the $$$ start piling up.
I made a list of all of my gripes, but really it came down to sorting two things:
- Tidy up paint
- Sort out the handling
The paint should be easy, find a bodyshop - get them to sort it over Winter, then that's 6 months of 'free' motoring not giving a hoot about stonechips or parking dings or whatever.
The handling I'd been out and done various drives to try and pinpoint what exactly was wrong. It feels like extreme tramlining, moreso than anything I've experienced before. When sticking semi slicks on a Lotus, or piling camber onto a Subaru you experience tramlining so I know what it feels like... but this was different, worse and scarier.
Undulations in the road definitely provoked it, as did applying power or brakes. Even rumbling over a catseye could cause the steering to snatch a little bit.
I put a few posts on forums, FB groups, etc to try and get a feel for where to go with the investigation first. After the initial useless responses of "take it to Ferrari", the next most popular recommendation was to throw the Pirelli tyres away and go for some Michelins.
I'm not opposed to using Ferrari dealers, and I didn't buy this car to save costs and cut corners - but I'm also a tinkerer. Even if I don't fix the issue myself, I at least want to do some basic triage so I can point the experts in the right direction.
As for the tyres, though I appreciate the importance of quality tyres I could not believe that swapping from one brand to another could fix these issues. If Ferrari sold the car on these Pirellis, then there's no way the (very positive) journalist reports would have come out at the time. It was a horrible car to drive.
I was trying to forget about the possibility that the car had been in an accident and could be hiding some horrors.
I also had to try and figure out what the hell we were going to do to make room for this car. Our fleet to date was:
Taycan on business lease, so can't get rid easily.
Volvo V90 which the missus loves, and I use for trailering the Lotus
Lotus 2-Eleven which occupies the garage
Ferrari FF which... well, it existed.
The driveway could take three cars side by side, in theory. But between the Volvo. Taycan and FF I couldn't have picked three bigger bloody cars!
Tried a few things out, involving abandoning the Volvo with the trailer in a field somewhere.
Eventually with some well rehearsed parking, we found we could just about squeeze all three on. I would post a photo, but that will spoil something that comes later in the story.
I made time to give the car a wash. Nothing too aggressive, just lobbed a sponge at it for a bit.
It immediately made me feel a bit better. The colour had been robbed of its qualities before from being covered in dust in London, it just took any shine out of it and made the Tour de France blue look flat.
A quick clean made it look so much better:
Normally the first wash of a new(used) car is an awful experience, because you inevitably find a load of bodywork niggles that you missed when purchasing. This time it was the opposite as I was expecting more bad news, but generally was happy with the state of the paint outside of the areas previously identified.
The bodywork all looked straight, no dings in the aluminium and the one patch of odd corrosion on the corner of the bootlid. Shutlines looked decent enough, but apparently even from the factory they were a bit wonky so you can't be too harsh here anyway.
I also took the rear wheels off, just for a look. The handling foibles felt most obvious at the rear.
To my relief all the suspension components looked both "of appropriate age" (ie, no brand new wishbones lobbed in) and nothing looked bent or recently disturbed. The rear pads looked a little low, but the very expensive carbon discs looked fine on visual inspection. (I do plan to get them weighed to figure out what their life expectancy is like).
What did look a little odd though was the tyre. I took a photo but it really doesn't come across well, but the section of the tyre was extremely uneven, not so much tread depth and wear - but it was like the tyre was distorted. This give me a huge spike of hope that the tyres could indeed be the cause of my concern.
I later took the fronts off, and found more of the same. In fact the fronts were so bad, the wheel wouldn't sit up on its own - it wanted to tip forwards as if it was heavily positive cambered. The tread section was just angled down towards the front really quite bad. Again, photo doesn't do it justice.
Front of the wheel is towards left of shot.
So things were looking up a bit, bodywork wasn't *THAT* bad and my poking around hadn't revealed any evidence of impact damage, and the tyres were becoming increasingly more believable as the source of the handling issues.
I treated the car to its first modification to celebrate.
Austin_Metro said:
Fonzey, do you have anything under that car seat? I didn’t and have left nasty marks on the leather. I’ve got a towel under them now …
No I do not, it only went in for a test fit and has been out again since so I'll definitely make sure to get some towels in behind/under it for when it goes back in properly.Thanks for the heads up!
Thanks all, kind comments.
I did find these though.
The test driver said:
Do you have some thread bars in the tool kit, small piece of advice if you do then when taking the wheels off take one/two bolts out then screw the bars in before removing the rest of the wheel bolts and removing the wheel.
If you drop the wheel on to the edge of the carbon brake disc when removing then you risk fracturing/ chipping the disc.
Yep another good shout. I did not have one, or at least I've not found it yet in the various cubbyholes so I did go out and buy one for this very reason.If you drop the wheel on to the edge of the carbon brake disc when removing then you risk fracturing/ chipping the disc.
I did find these though.
With a plan forming for the handling, I did a bit of research and Michelin Pilot Sport 4S became the overwhelming recommendation. I was quite giddy about trying these, as a serial S2 Lotus owner I don't really get access to much 'modern' stuff in terms of tyre sizes, and typically have to go down the route of noisy track tyres which are terrible in the rain.
I often look at the more modern Lotus stuff, or Porsche stuff on trackdays with their "do-it-all" road tyres and get jealous. Particularly when it's wet.
I was pleasantly surprised at the cost too in Ferrari fitment. Getting the "K1" designation added a few more quid, but thought I might as well do it properly.
They're BIG! 295 section rears not quite as extreme as some super-GT/supercar tyres but when you're handling them off the car, they really are ridiculous!
Before getting them fitted, I set out to find a bodyshop to start talking to. I'd had lots of work done previously at a local bodyshop that had recently retired and been knocked down for housing, so I was really starting from the beginning.
I was also on the hunt for a detailer who could give me their opinion on the paint, with the aim to use them to tidy up the car after paint to get the non-painted bits up to scratch too. After some local recommendations I went to see https://www.sharpeyedetail.com/ who gave the car a quick wash for me, and inspected it under the lights.
The assessment was good. Front definitely needed painting along with the tailgate, but pretty much any marks elsewhere could be addressed with a good polish and maybe a bit of light wet-sanding.
I'm quite local to The Motorist, which has become massively popular over the last few years as a Northern "Caffeine and Machine" type venue, and has also been building up an array of facilities including a workshop and a bodyshop. I pottered over with the aim of having a chat, seeing if I liked the look of the place and then booking something in for Winter.
After a fairly lengthy chat, I was starting to get good vibes. They're not an "insurance place", the bodyshop was full of enthusiast and classic cars, and they quoted a price that was "reassuringly not cheap", but still felt reasonable for the amount of work required. Next up came a big surprise, due to a cancellation they could fit me in within the next two weeks! If I didn't take that, it would be well into Winter, which was my Plan A - but when suddenly presented with a chance to get it all done, quickly - I jumped at it. So that was that, booked in for paint!
This would put the wheels/tyres on the back burner for a few weeks - so the handling foible would remain a nerve wracking mystery. The plan for the tyres was to take them along with the wheels to a wheel refurb place, get the wheels tidied up and tyres fitted all at once to save on fitting/balancing costs.
I often look at the more modern Lotus stuff, or Porsche stuff on trackdays with their "do-it-all" road tyres and get jealous. Particularly when it's wet.
I was pleasantly surprised at the cost too in Ferrari fitment. Getting the "K1" designation added a few more quid, but thought I might as well do it properly.
They're BIG! 295 section rears not quite as extreme as some super-GT/supercar tyres but when you're handling them off the car, they really are ridiculous!
Before getting them fitted, I set out to find a bodyshop to start talking to. I'd had lots of work done previously at a local bodyshop that had recently retired and been knocked down for housing, so I was really starting from the beginning.
I was also on the hunt for a detailer who could give me their opinion on the paint, with the aim to use them to tidy up the car after paint to get the non-painted bits up to scratch too. After some local recommendations I went to see https://www.sharpeyedetail.com/ who gave the car a quick wash for me, and inspected it under the lights.
The assessment was good. Front definitely needed painting along with the tailgate, but pretty much any marks elsewhere could be addressed with a good polish and maybe a bit of light wet-sanding.
I'm quite local to The Motorist, which has become massively popular over the last few years as a Northern "Caffeine and Machine" type venue, and has also been building up an array of facilities including a workshop and a bodyshop. I pottered over with the aim of having a chat, seeing if I liked the look of the place and then booking something in for Winter.
After a fairly lengthy chat, I was starting to get good vibes. They're not an "insurance place", the bodyshop was full of enthusiast and classic cars, and they quoted a price that was "reassuringly not cheap", but still felt reasonable for the amount of work required. Next up came a big surprise, due to a cancellation they could fit me in within the next two weeks! If I didn't take that, it would be well into Winter, which was my Plan A - but when suddenly presented with a chance to get it all done, quickly - I jumped at it. So that was that, booked in for paint!
This would put the wheels/tyres on the back burner for a few weeks - so the handling foible would remain a nerve wracking mystery. The plan for the tyres was to take them along with the wheels to a wheel refurb place, get the wheels tidied up and tyres fitted all at once to save on fitting/balancing costs.
wolfracesonic said:
This could be your moment OP; We often see on here GT3 owners organising road trips to the ‘ring or Muira owners making the pilgrimage to their cars spiritual home, Sant’Agata, via some stunning alpine scenery. Well, why not a PH FF/Lusso owners meet at some municipal dump it site in the Midlands, you all arrive with cars dragging on their arses due to weight of crap in the back, rear hatches sketchily held shut with bungee cords, as they won’t close because of the 12ft long dead Christmas sticking out. It could be a thing I tell you!
I think you may have found my calling! Unfortunately all the tips round here' expect you to show proof of address now to make sure you're not dumping on another council so this may take some work to organise. I'll see what I can do.tighnamara said:
Love it, well done OP, great purchase and book marked.
Regarding the handling, I had a “nosey” at the MOT history and saw an advisory in March MOT for a distorted wheel, you most likely picked up on that but could that also be affecting the handling along with tyre type.
Nearside Front Road wheel slightly distorted (5.2.2 (c) (i))
Probably not and pointless as you mention it seems the rear but thought I would just mention…..enjoy and all the best in your Ferrari ownership.
Aye good spot and it was/is on the radar. You're jumping ahead an episode or two by calling that out, but I'll come back to it soon!Regarding the handling, I had a “nosey” at the MOT history and saw an advisory in March MOT for a distorted wheel, you most likely picked up on that but could that also be affecting the handling along with tyre type.
Nearside Front Road wheel slightly distorted (5.2.2 (c) (i))
Probably not and pointless as you mention it seems the rear but thought I would just mention…..enjoy and all the best in your Ferrari ownership.
Pflanzgarten said:
Brilliant thread OP and don’t take this the wrong way but I’m interested into in your auction experience.
It sounds like you’d sussed a way to bid on something but cancel your card so even if you did win you might not get charged unless you actually wanted to go through with it-how does that work?
A few of us had suspected this sort of thing goes on.
No problem giving my thoughts on the auction format.It sounds like you’d sussed a way to bid on something but cancel your card so even if you did win you might not get charged unless you actually wanted to go through with it-how does that work?
A few of us had suspected this sort of thing goes on.
I found it was a brilliant way to get me excited about lots of different cars. The Ads are all presented very well, and gives some reassurance that you're buying through a system that's setup specifically for the type of car you're looking at.
Unfortunately though, after transacting it was all just a bit underwhelming from the buyers perspective.
There was no shenanigans with my card and the deposit from my side, my bank were just throwing account blocks around for fun. It seemed that around the budget I was bidding at for many cars there was a threshold in which the auction co would try to take a holding deposit (sort of like when a Hotel puts a charge on your card), and a couple of times my bank denied this meaning my bids would get rejected, and on at least one occasion it failed because I simply didn't have anything in my current account! I probably could have won two different 911's if not for this.
In both occasions the auction co were very quick to ring me to help me resolve, but it almost always happened in the pub and I just couldn't be bothered so I let it go.
As for winning the FF, they immediately tried to take the buyers fee after the auction ended and once again, my account was blocked - so it failed. They called me immediately, I explained and they agreed to send me an invoice the following day so I could BACS it, which I did.
Up to this point the auction co were very interested in me, what I was looking to buy, what my ambitions were for a 'car collection', etc etc. As soon as I paid my buyers fee, that was that - they just emailed me the seller details and cut me loose. I feel like for the ££ I spent with them, that they could do a lot more to help the buyers. Even a basic escrow service thrown into the fee for hammer prices over a certain threshold would make the whole process so much slicker, as sending these sums of money privately is always a concern to me... especially when you have a fraud squad as keen as mine!
I covered the auction description in my initial post, but I don't believe it to be particularly reflective of the car. Their terms are clearly written out to absolve them of any responsibility and that you should view a car, but with the amount of presentation effort that goes into the hundreds of photos for each listing - it's clear that they're working with the sellers to present the cars particularly generously.
Still, none of this is naughty, it's business and it seems to be working for them - but I feel short changed from the buyer side of the transaction. They didn't do anything wrong as such, but they didn't do anything right for me either. I personally won't buy a car in this format again, at least not with this company.
Austin_Metro said:
This is a fair point. I had rather assumed that this vehicle had isofix so that the seat was mechanically attached to the car’s anchor point and not relying on friction.
Yep it has isofix, but still a couple of people have sent me links to purpose made seat protectors and all of them seem cheaper than the fancy towels my missus keeps buying - so it won't hurt to buy something proper on this occasion 
Austin_Metro said:
Fair point.
You do need to let her eat McDonalds in the back. There’s nothing like finding a French fry wedged under the seat … or half eaten chupa lolly…
She's been in it once and I made her take her shoes off!You do need to let her eat McDonalds in the back. There’s nothing like finding a French fry wedged under the seat … or half eaten chupa lolly…
If I want to find a load of stale, sticky food I'll go in the Volvo!
One thing I probably should do in defence of the auction format is say that in many ways, it allowed the market to protect me from my own ignorance/naivety.
I was all geared up for spending a good £15-20k more on this particular car than I did. I didn't go view the car, but presumably other bidders did - and this stopped the hammer price from creeping too high.
Though I'd done some research on FFs, I was far from an expert on their values. The mileage particularly is something that I didn't expect to be so influential for what is essentially the "daily driver Ferrari".
As a result I've ended up with a car that was priced in such a way that I have head room to make improvements, enjoy the hell out of it and whenever it is time to return it back to the market, it will be categorically a better example than when I bought it for someone else to enjoy.
I was all geared up for spending a good £15-20k more on this particular car than I did. I didn't go view the car, but presumably other bidders did - and this stopped the hammer price from creeping too high.
Though I'd done some research on FFs, I was far from an expert on their values. The mileage particularly is something that I didn't expect to be so influential for what is essentially the "daily driver Ferrari".
As a result I've ended up with a car that was priced in such a way that I have head room to make improvements, enjoy the hell out of it and whenever it is time to return it back to the market, it will be categorically a better example than when I bought it for someone else to enjoy.
With a garage full of tyres and the paintshop booked, I vanished off to Spa in my Lotus for a long weekend so for the first time in a few weeks I could forget about the Ferrari and stop worrying about it!
Secretly I'd bought the FF as a backup car for Spa, all year I'd been panicking about the Lotus breaking at the most inopportune moment leaving me stranded for the headliner in my trackday calendar, so when I had all of my saved searches setup for FFs, 911s and Giulia QFs there was always one eye on getting something that could cruise around a GP circuit for a few hours too.
As it happens, it's a bloody good job the Lotus didn't break - because sending this V12 deathtrap down the Kemmel straight at 200mph would have been the stuff of nightmares!
On my return, it was back to Daddy duties and the Saturday morning swimming lesson - so threw the baby seat in one more time for a quick blast through the countryside to see if I'd learned to love the handling yet. (I hadn't).
I did win at Dad though in the swimming carpark.
45mins later, the winningest Dad was suddenly the panickiest Dad.
The car was stuck in the "wet" driving mode, fortunate as it was now bouncing it down to compound my misery. But it did drive, with no nasty noises or sensations.
We were about 30mins from home, and had a lunch date at a local tearoom so we limped it there where I could get onto the phone with Ferrari at Leeds.
I was already building up a good relationship with Rachel on the Service Desk after she was helping me confirm the various bits of service history on the car etc. She calmly explained that the car was fine to drive, BUT I should not expect any driver aids whilst that error was displayed.
The FF people on the Facebook group quickly stepped in and said it was almost certainly a false alarm caused by a bit of battery drain whilst I was away for the long weekend. I'd heard about this before on the FF, that they can throw all sorts of weird errors after a few days of down time - and generally they just go away.
We had lunch, and I tried to forget about it. I decided that if the error was still on after lunch, that I'd ring Ferrari Assistance, cancel/postpone the bodyshop and just get it looked at. It had a new PTU earlier in the year at a Ferrari dealer, had Powertrain warranty till November - so I wasn't really worried. In fact, I was actually quite positive because maybe if there was a PTU issue this could explain the handling flaws.
As it happened, the error cleared - and it drove home fine in all modes, and has done since. Not a bing or a bong, no error codes. So I think the battery theory is sound.
Plan is to still get it checked out at Ferrari very soon, but it's been a few weeks since then - and no sign of problem. Will add a trickle charger to the shopping list.
Aside from that little drama, I took the car out for a coffee evening at the Motorist where it was due to be painted very soon.
Secretly I'd bought the FF as a backup car for Spa, all year I'd been panicking about the Lotus breaking at the most inopportune moment leaving me stranded for the headliner in my trackday calendar, so when I had all of my saved searches setup for FFs, 911s and Giulia QFs there was always one eye on getting something that could cruise around a GP circuit for a few hours too.
As it happens, it's a bloody good job the Lotus didn't break - because sending this V12 deathtrap down the Kemmel straight at 200mph would have been the stuff of nightmares!
On my return, it was back to Daddy duties and the Saturday morning swimming lesson - so threw the baby seat in one more time for a quick blast through the countryside to see if I'd learned to love the handling yet. (I hadn't).
I did win at Dad though in the swimming carpark.
45mins later, the winningest Dad was suddenly the panickiest Dad.
The car was stuck in the "wet" driving mode, fortunate as it was now bouncing it down to compound my misery. But it did drive, with no nasty noises or sensations.
We were about 30mins from home, and had a lunch date at a local tearoom so we limped it there where I could get onto the phone with Ferrari at Leeds.
I was already building up a good relationship with Rachel on the Service Desk after she was helping me confirm the various bits of service history on the car etc. She calmly explained that the car was fine to drive, BUT I should not expect any driver aids whilst that error was displayed.
The FF people on the Facebook group quickly stepped in and said it was almost certainly a false alarm caused by a bit of battery drain whilst I was away for the long weekend. I'd heard about this before on the FF, that they can throw all sorts of weird errors after a few days of down time - and generally they just go away.
We had lunch, and I tried to forget about it. I decided that if the error was still on after lunch, that I'd ring Ferrari Assistance, cancel/postpone the bodyshop and just get it looked at. It had a new PTU earlier in the year at a Ferrari dealer, had Powertrain warranty till November - so I wasn't really worried. In fact, I was actually quite positive because maybe if there was a PTU issue this could explain the handling flaws.
As it happened, the error cleared - and it drove home fine in all modes, and has done since. Not a bing or a bong, no error codes. So I think the battery theory is sound.
Plan is to still get it checked out at Ferrari very soon, but it's been a few weeks since then - and no sign of problem. Will add a trickle charger to the shopping list.
Aside from that little drama, I took the car out for a coffee evening at the Motorist where it was due to be painted very soon.
MDL111 said:
trickle charger is a must have - it drains the battery within c 6-7 days below the level it needs to start (even if the battery is basically new)
error messages usually clear by disconnecting and then reconnecting the battery
Michelins are indeed the tyre to have
do not run it below c 2-3 bars fuel, that can also lead to issues
if you decide to drive it in winter, try to protect the screws on the CCB discs with something as they rust like crazy and then you have to replace the entire disc as taking them apart once rusted is a nightmare
same goes for all the mesh grills, although that is luckily purely an aesthetic item
rear hatch indeed corrodes at the edges - seems to be a usual occurence
good luck, they are great cars
Thanks for that, great info. The mesh grills are certainly on my agenda, particularly the two above the exhaust backboxes.error messages usually clear by disconnecting and then reconnecting the battery
Michelins are indeed the tyre to have
do not run it below c 2-3 bars fuel, that can also lead to issues
if you decide to drive it in winter, try to protect the screws on the CCB discs with something as they rust like crazy and then you have to replace the entire disc as taking them apart once rusted is a nightmare
same goes for all the mesh grills, although that is luckily purely an aesthetic item
rear hatch indeed corrodes at the edges - seems to be a usual occurence
good luck, they are great cars
CB 987 said:
Thank you for sharing the journey so far, I can relate to your frustrations regarding the online auction experience. Thankfully I managed to enjoy the car I purchased for a year and covered nearly all my costs, despite spending approx. 50% of the purchase price in a year on it!
Can you renew the Ferrari warranty and extend it past November 2023?
Cheers.
Yep warranty can be renewed each year until it's 15 years old. I see both sides of the self-warranty vs Ferrari-warranty approach. The PTU is the big risk with these cars, and there are now aftermarket fixes (which fix is properly) at approx. £10k drive in-out. That makes the warranty a hard thing to justify, tbh.Can you renew the Ferrari warranty and extend it past November 2023?
Cheers.
That said, the car is 10 years old. So at best I can only buy four more years' of extension and maybe it's worthwhile just to see it through. I've got a few months to think it over.
resolve10 said:
What a stunning colour combination, always loved the FF shape. Much prefer one of these to a Urus or Purusegue or whatever it's called.
I have a CTEK charger sat in the garage doing nothing if you're interested OP? Not sure around the rules on selling on here. I needed it for my Megane RS as it has a notoriously iffy battery but I no longer have the car and can't see me using it again.
Thank you! I actually have a CTEK lying around already. The Ferrari has a plug for a trickle charger mounted in the boot already, and I think it may be proprietary(?) so need to research that and see if it's worth me plumping for a Ferrari charger or not. I should probably take some more trim panels off the boot first, as there might be one hiding somewhere!I have a CTEK charger sat in the garage doing nothing if you're interested OP? Not sure around the rules on selling on here. I needed it for my Megane RS as it has a notoriously iffy battery but I no longer have the car and can't see me using it again.
Thanks All, some very kind comments. Wasn't expecting/planning on this being a project so if a handful of people on PH enjoy the journey then it helps cushion the blow a bit
djgritt said:
You’ve progressed a long way in car ownership since the excellent project Impreza I was following over on the CS Forums!
<3 I miss that Subaru AND I miss CS. Good times.Paintshop update.
I dropped off at the Motorist as planned and other than popping in once midweek on the 'way to work' I just left them to it.
Prior to starting bodywork on it, the workshop stuck the car on the alignment rack and reported back that everything was in spec. I absolutely intend to get it re-checked after the new tyres go on, because the distortion I'd seen with the tyres would surely negatively influence an alignment reading.
When I did pop in, they were more than happy to show me round the car and the progress so far.
They did take a few photos though, which I'll share here:
The extent of the paintwork would be:
Full front bumper
Full Bonnet
Front wings but blending back towards the door, allowing them to fix the chipped paint on the inner arches
Rear tailgate with a small corrosion repair
Obviously colour match is always a concern when getting a partial respray, but they absolutely smashed it IMO. Always subjective, and a paint-pro would probably be able to spot something but to my eye, even under the harsh light of a detailing garage it was excellent.
Prior to collection it probably got its first ever real clean too in my ownership! I'm convinced they whizzed around it with some sort of polish/glaze as the swirling on the other body panels was well hidden too. For the first time, I looked at the car got that warm fuzzy tingling you get when you have an awesome looking car.
In addition to doing what I asked, they 'stretched' the paintwork a bit to cover a couple other blemishes that would be borderline of whether a detail could polish them out - so I was very happy and appreciative of that.
I'd been out of the car for a week at this point, so was giddy to drive it home and see if the handling was magically better. It wasn't.
Car still liked a drink though.
I had a couple of days just walking around the car and looking at it. FINALLY I had a car that I couldn't take my eyes off, used every opportunity to just peek out of the window and see how it looked. Wiping bird muck off within 30 seconds of it landing and the other weird stuff you do on a new car. I have to be honest, I did spot a couple of niggles related to the rebuild of the car after paint, but already been in touch and once the wheels are back on the car I'll pop it down. I'm sure we can sort it, Motorist have been excellent so far and have no reason to think their aftercare won't also be brilliant.
I dropped off at the Motorist as planned and other than popping in once midweek on the 'way to work' I just left them to it.
Prior to starting bodywork on it, the workshop stuck the car on the alignment rack and reported back that everything was in spec. I absolutely intend to get it re-checked after the new tyres go on, because the distortion I'd seen with the tyres would surely negatively influence an alignment reading.
When I did pop in, they were more than happy to show me round the car and the progress so far.
They did take a few photos though, which I'll share here:
The extent of the paintwork would be:
Full front bumper
Full Bonnet
Front wings but blending back towards the door, allowing them to fix the chipped paint on the inner arches
Rear tailgate with a small corrosion repair
Obviously colour match is always a concern when getting a partial respray, but they absolutely smashed it IMO. Always subjective, and a paint-pro would probably be able to spot something but to my eye, even under the harsh light of a detailing garage it was excellent.
Prior to collection it probably got its first ever real clean too in my ownership! I'm convinced they whizzed around it with some sort of polish/glaze as the swirling on the other body panels was well hidden too. For the first time, I looked at the car got that warm fuzzy tingling you get when you have an awesome looking car.
In addition to doing what I asked, they 'stretched' the paintwork a bit to cover a couple other blemishes that would be borderline of whether a detail could polish them out - so I was very happy and appreciative of that.
I'd been out of the car for a week at this point, so was giddy to drive it home and see if the handling was magically better. It wasn't.
Car still liked a drink though.
I had a couple of days just walking around the car and looking at it. FINALLY I had a car that I couldn't take my eyes off, used every opportunity to just peek out of the window and see how it looked. Wiping bird muck off within 30 seconds of it landing and the other weird stuff you do on a new car. I have to be honest, I did spot a couple of niggles related to the rebuild of the car after paint, but already been in touch and once the wheels are back on the car I'll pop it down. I'm sure we can sort it, Motorist have been excellent so far and have no reason to think their aftercare won't also be brilliant.
Court_S said:
With regards to alignment might be worth trying to get it booked in with someone like Centre Gravity who will realky go to town in it. It’s nothing that local to you, but I have a friend who lives in Knaresborough and he’d travel to them.
Thank you, yes a good alignment place is definitely on the cards. I have some people that I trust very much in the Lotus world, so I have some options locally. I'm also a bit of a dabbler of it myself, I've been slowly building up a garage full of kit to do DIY alignments, it's just a shame the FF won't fit in the garage yet 
irfan1712 said:
Fantastic purchase OP.
And also a fantastic colour combo - which proves to be quite rare. I'm a long time lurker on the FF owners thread - i've been looking for an FF to replace my E63s as nothing else tickles my fancy after the AMG but im holding out for a later car with a pano roof. I've missed out on two cars in 12 months, one i 'really' wanted and the other was in Rosso Corsa which i'm not sure this car suits - you've defo demonstrated it suits a darker colour.
the pool of cars for sale at any one time is literally tiny - which although i assume is down to low numbers that were purchased when new, its also i assume a testament to how much owners value these by keeping hold of them.
With regards to the PTU being changed by Ferrari before you bought it- would it be a fair assumption to think that at some point the same PTU issues will arise, or have Ferrari upgraded or changed anything when fitting the new PTU?
How are you getting on with the infotainment too - is it as cumbersome to use as other owners have made out? I understand upgrades are simple enough, albeit not as OEM looking.
Anyway.. watching with great interest - Enjoy ownership!
Thank you! There are rumours that more recent PTU replacements take learnings from the GTC4Lusso etc, and that it might be more robust - but I've heard nothing factual. I think I'd always plan on spending the ~£10k on getting an independent rebuild and future proofing of the PTU, but I consider the 'clock reset' on a 10 year old car by having a recent replacement.And also a fantastic colour combo - which proves to be quite rare. I'm a long time lurker on the FF owners thread - i've been looking for an FF to replace my E63s as nothing else tickles my fancy after the AMG but im holding out for a later car with a pano roof. I've missed out on two cars in 12 months, one i 'really' wanted and the other was in Rosso Corsa which i'm not sure this car suits - you've defo demonstrated it suits a darker colour.
the pool of cars for sale at any one time is literally tiny - which although i assume is down to low numbers that were purchased when new, its also i assume a testament to how much owners value these by keeping hold of them.
With regards to the PTU being changed by Ferrari before you bought it- would it be a fair assumption to think that at some point the same PTU issues will arise, or have Ferrari upgraded or changed anything when fitting the new PTU?
How are you getting on with the infotainment too - is it as cumbersome to use as other owners have made out? I understand upgrades are simple enough, albeit not as OEM looking.
Anyway.. watching with great interest - Enjoy ownership!
The Infotainment is.... comical. It's both amazing in its simplicity and terrible in its era. Sat Nav is laughable, but it integrates nicely into the dials/clocks and I'm actually feeling a little reluctant to swap it. A Good quality phone holder that doesn't block the vents or offend my eyes too much would pretty much eliminate my desire to swap the head unit, but failing that - I do have my eyes on a few Android Auto capable modern head units.
This final retrospective update will bring the thread up to speed!
With the car back from paint, I took it back to my detailer to let him inspect it under the lights and he was as impressed as I was. Some bits to 'correct' when he gets his hands on it in a few weeks' time, but impressed.
Getting the car off the ground was daunting, but actually the jacking positions are well thought out and big enough to take a jack and axle stand.
I loaded the Volvo up with 4x tyres and 4x tyred rims. Beast of a car.
I dropped the wheels off at a place I've not used before, but came highly recommended as somewhere that 'repairs wheels first, and powdercoats second' rather than what is usually the other way around. I wanted an expert in wheel repairs to investigate the NSF wheel which had been called out in a previous MOT as being 'distorted'.
To my eye, the wheel looks fine, balances is up nicely with minimal weight and other than a bit of curb rash it looked great - but once they get the paint off of it, they may be able to see more. If it's had a repair previously, I want to be sure it's a good one - otherwise it's off to eBay to replace the wheel.
They'll dispose of the old Pirelli's and give me them back with the nice new PS4S on them. Can't wait, but to date - I still don't have them back.
In the meantime I bought some Ferrari parts, my first purchase and it was surprisingly cheap!
My old Lotus had a habit of spitting its centre caps out on a trackday, and I spent a fortune over the years @ £30 a pop. Was pleasantly surprised to find the official Ferrari ones at almost half that price!
With a bit of time to burn, I turned my attention to something that a few thread posters have called out already. Rusty brake disc bolts.
My rears are fine:
Fronts looked like the nuts were very rusty, but the bolts underneath seemed fine:
The danger is that the nut/bolt corrodes, swells, seizes in the disc and in extreme cases actually cracks the friction material.
I made the call to undo one corner, and make sure they weren't seized in. Measure all the hardware up, clean up, and research some replacements whilst hopefully rebuilding with the cleaned up and rust protected originals.
To my relief, all ten came out absolutely fine. I left two opposites in place whilst cleaning up the other 8, then rotated... or that was the plan.
With the two refitted, I got on with cleaning up the other 8. Bilt Hamber Deox Gel to strip the rust off, followed by a good soaking in XCP. Ideally in the long run I source new hardware and maybe get it cerakoted(?).
The BH stuff is genius, 24 after dunking you get something like this:
Wipe/rinse off and you're left with:
I was all set to rebuild the corner, I had a load of measurements for sourcing new stuff.
The nuts look to be M6 K-Nuts, and turn out to be common fitment across most AP/Brembo floating kits so easy to replace.
The bolts were more difficult to track down, in fact - I still haven't. They're very odd headless bolts, almost more like threaded rivets. The 'heads' are flat, thin and round with two flats ground on to allow you to grip them with a 14mm spanner.
I wrote down all my measurements and went to the garage to prepare to rebuild the corner... then I noticed something.
The shoulder of one of the bolts had some pinprick holes in the metal.... weird. Picked another up, the same, another, the same. Picked one up and it had a gaping hole in the metalwork - and I could gently rock the head back and forth!
Uh-oh. I made the call to sacrifice that one for a look:
Not Good... The heads were ripe for popping off all of them, despite no heavy signs of external corrosion. I don't know how these rivet/bolt things are made - but they're pisspoor quality and at some point I fear would have failed on the car.
I did some research, and turned out this was very common. For most people, they only discover this after it's too late for the disc - the bolt gets seized in, expands, cracks the carbon. Game over. For me, I'm hoping I've caught this early... they all slid out easily, and from what I can see the disc is fine.
But it does leave me with a problem, Brembo don't list/sell these crappy things anywhere. Ferrari only list the complete disc/hub assembly (£3k+ per corner) and no other floating disc setup I can find uses this type of hardware... so this is half a thread update, and half an appeal for help.
I've spoken to a few firms this morning, a couple have offered to talk to Brembo for me and see what they can find - but expectations feel tamed. A local Ferrari Indy has explained to me that this is a very common issue on all 2009+ later Ferrari models, but he normally only ever sees it after it's too late and the disc just gets swapped. He has offered to take a look for me though, check my discs over and see if he can help with getting some new hardware made up.
That pretty much brings us up to speed. I've had a look at the workshop manual for disc removal, and the bloody caliper is connected to the upright with a solid pipe which means disconnecting that and losing some fluid - which is damn annoying, but at this point I'm already saturated on that front.
If anyone has anything to suggest, even if it comes down to material advise for getting new hardware made up. What's appropriate? These are non-magnetic, so I'm guessing a cheap grade of stainless. Would 12.9 and some external rust protection be more appropriate? Titanium?
With the car back from paint, I took it back to my detailer to let him inspect it under the lights and he was as impressed as I was. Some bits to 'correct' when he gets his hands on it in a few weeks' time, but impressed.
Getting the car off the ground was daunting, but actually the jacking positions are well thought out and big enough to take a jack and axle stand.
I loaded the Volvo up with 4x tyres and 4x tyred rims. Beast of a car.
I dropped the wheels off at a place I've not used before, but came highly recommended as somewhere that 'repairs wheels first, and powdercoats second' rather than what is usually the other way around. I wanted an expert in wheel repairs to investigate the NSF wheel which had been called out in a previous MOT as being 'distorted'.
To my eye, the wheel looks fine, balances is up nicely with minimal weight and other than a bit of curb rash it looked great - but once they get the paint off of it, they may be able to see more. If it's had a repair previously, I want to be sure it's a good one - otherwise it's off to eBay to replace the wheel.
They'll dispose of the old Pirelli's and give me them back with the nice new PS4S on them. Can't wait, but to date - I still don't have them back.
In the meantime I bought some Ferrari parts, my first purchase and it was surprisingly cheap!
My old Lotus had a habit of spitting its centre caps out on a trackday, and I spent a fortune over the years @ £30 a pop. Was pleasantly surprised to find the official Ferrari ones at almost half that price!
With a bit of time to burn, I turned my attention to something that a few thread posters have called out already. Rusty brake disc bolts.
My rears are fine:
Fronts looked like the nuts were very rusty, but the bolts underneath seemed fine:
The danger is that the nut/bolt corrodes, swells, seizes in the disc and in extreme cases actually cracks the friction material.
I made the call to undo one corner, and make sure they weren't seized in. Measure all the hardware up, clean up, and research some replacements whilst hopefully rebuilding with the cleaned up and rust protected originals.
To my relief, all ten came out absolutely fine. I left two opposites in place whilst cleaning up the other 8, then rotated... or that was the plan.
With the two refitted, I got on with cleaning up the other 8. Bilt Hamber Deox Gel to strip the rust off, followed by a good soaking in XCP. Ideally in the long run I source new hardware and maybe get it cerakoted(?).
The BH stuff is genius, 24 after dunking you get something like this:
Wipe/rinse off and you're left with:
I was all set to rebuild the corner, I had a load of measurements for sourcing new stuff.
The nuts look to be M6 K-Nuts, and turn out to be common fitment across most AP/Brembo floating kits so easy to replace.
The bolts were more difficult to track down, in fact - I still haven't. They're very odd headless bolts, almost more like threaded rivets. The 'heads' are flat, thin and round with two flats ground on to allow you to grip them with a 14mm spanner.
I wrote down all my measurements and went to the garage to prepare to rebuild the corner... then I noticed something.
The shoulder of one of the bolts had some pinprick holes in the metal.... weird. Picked another up, the same, another, the same. Picked one up and it had a gaping hole in the metalwork - and I could gently rock the head back and forth!
Uh-oh. I made the call to sacrifice that one for a look:
Not Good... The heads were ripe for popping off all of them, despite no heavy signs of external corrosion. I don't know how these rivet/bolt things are made - but they're pisspoor quality and at some point I fear would have failed on the car.
I did some research, and turned out this was very common. For most people, they only discover this after it's too late for the disc - the bolt gets seized in, expands, cracks the carbon. Game over. For me, I'm hoping I've caught this early... they all slid out easily, and from what I can see the disc is fine.
But it does leave me with a problem, Brembo don't list/sell these crappy things anywhere. Ferrari only list the complete disc/hub assembly (£3k+ per corner) and no other floating disc setup I can find uses this type of hardware... so this is half a thread update, and half an appeal for help.
I've spoken to a few firms this morning, a couple have offered to talk to Brembo for me and see what they can find - but expectations feel tamed. A local Ferrari Indy has explained to me that this is a very common issue on all 2009+ later Ferrari models, but he normally only ever sees it after it's too late and the disc just gets swapped. He has offered to take a look for me though, check my discs over and see if he can help with getting some new hardware made up.
That pretty much brings us up to speed. I've had a look at the workshop manual for disc removal, and the bloody caliper is connected to the upright with a solid pipe which means disconnecting that and losing some fluid - which is damn annoying, but at this point I'm already saturated on that front.
If anyone has anything to suggest, even if it comes down to material advise for getting new hardware made up. What's appropriate? These are non-magnetic, so I'm guessing a cheap grade of stainless. Would 12.9 and some external rust protection be more appropriate? Titanium?
PurpleTurtle said:
Would this kind of thing suit you, dimensions-wise OP? I realise these are more commonly found in flat pack furniture so highly unlikely to be to the temperature demands of carbon brakes but they they don't look a lot worse than what you have removed!
https://www.accu.co.uk/2272-joint-connector-bolts?...
Failing that, they do custom manufacture so could give you some advice regarding materials. Maybe go Titanium?
https://www.accu.co.uk/p/27-custom-manufacture
These appear to be the OEM things you need, but they are $18 USD each, so the 40 you would need would come in at about $755 incl shipping.
That's a tad steep, even with the Ferrari tax!
https://racingbrake.com/ccm-01/
Personally I'd get some made up, surely you can obtain them for less than that.
Thanks for that, much appreciate the research!https://www.accu.co.uk/2272-joint-connector-bolts?...
Failing that, they do custom manufacture so could give you some advice regarding materials. Maybe go Titanium?
https://www.accu.co.uk/p/27-custom-manufacture
These appear to be the OEM things you need, but they are $18 USD each, so the 40 you would need would come in at about $755 incl shipping.
That's a tad steep, even with the Ferrari tax!
https://racingbrake.com/ccm-01/
Personally I'd get some made up, surely you can obtain them for less than that.
Edited by PurpleTurtle on Monday 31st July 15:12
Edited by PurpleTurtle on Monday 31st July 15:51
The furniture style bolts came up in my search over the weekend and I came to the same conclusion as you... not quite automotive spec, but then I'd argue the same for the Brembo ones!!
The McLaren link is very interesting, shows that *somebody* out there is making them for sale.
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