Satan's barge - 1983 Ferrari 400i

[Rumdoodle]

Having drifted in and out of PH for a few years, and particularly enjoyed perusing Readers' Cars threads - 1275GT's Rover SD1, theadman's Facel Vega, and AndrewCrown's Silver Shadow being particular highlights - I thought I'd pop this in as a bit of a curio.




I had seen this at an auction a couple of years ago but only got round to buying it last summer. It is, perhaps slightly eccentrically, my only car. I did have other cars, although I've never had anything made after 1995, but I don't need a daily driver and I found running even a small "fleet" too much of a faff to be enjoyable. So, I have jettisoned the others and am now a one-car household. The reason for starting a thread, and why it may be of interest, is that I do actually use it to the mileage limit of my insurance policy and, being a classic, there are always things to attend to and adventures to be had. Big, classic GT cars are my thing, so I was always going to end up with a 928, a V12 XJS, an Interceptor or (stretching the notion of GT somewhat) a Camargue. But this was always top of the list.

Anyway, I'll start in chronological order with my everyday tale of running a forty year old Italian V12.

More to follow...

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stevemiller said:

I may be one of the few who think this one of the best looking/balanced Ferrari's ever. Would love a manual but could never run one as I would wish.

Those who think any Ferrari that's not a red two-seater is somehow heretical now have a new target for their outrage in the Purosangue. For me, this is a simply wonderful looking car. It had a production run of about sixteen years and was phenomenally expensive, so they must have been on to something.

I will go into running costs later. It's commonly held that parts prices are as expensive as a Daytona, which is not strictly true - for some items, if you can find them, it's more

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S100HP said:

Did I read that right, that's your only car? Amazing. How many miles per year?

Yup. I think it's insured for five or six thousand. Two thousand of the next year's allowance is already allocated to a French trip in the autumn. That will be a novelty - I've driven in all kinds of places further afield, but never on the road in continental Europe. The only time I've driven anything in France was some Porsches at Le Mans more than twenty years ago.

I don't do much pottering about, so most of my trips are at least half an hour, and I try to plan journeys around long, open roads, which would be dull in most cars but can be magnificent in this. I had it out for a couple of days just before the snow came down earlier this month. I don't mind using it in the rain, but I try to avoid the worst of British weather.

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sixor8 said:

Fair play to you but I presume your insurer's know about having no other car? Your policy may allow it but all the classic insurance policies I've had on Porsche, TVR, Honda, even my old Triumph Toledo stipulate that you need a normal 'daily' car as well, often without a mileage restriction.

Good point. No, there are other drivers on the policy with other cars.

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ClaphamGT3 said:

Prince Bernhard taking delivery of one of his directly from Enzo;



He and his wife the former Queen Julianna arriving somewhere (Paleis Huis Ten Bosch I think) in one;



The aftermath of the Prince's notoriously exuberant driving;

I hadn't seen those. Yes, interesting chap.

Other notable owners included Niki Lauda (this car, repainted, sold recently in the US, I think)

The ex-Keith Richards car sold a couple of years ago for probably a world record price of about £300k, while Bill Wyman's was auctioned last month for about a tenth of that.

[Rumdoodle]

About twenty years ago, Ferrari sold off all (or most? – I'm happy to be corrected) of its spares for obsolete models, and the whole lot was snapped up by Ferrari UK. So, it was a good time to be restoring a classic Ferrari in the UK. Parts were as plentiful and comparatively cheap as they ever would be. When I started looking at these cars a few years ago, I saw one that had been completely restored at that time. The owner had seen the opportunity, bought everything he needed, and undertook a superb restoration in his garage at home. When I drove it, more than ten years later, it was still a terrific car.

As it happens, the silver one I eventually bought had also been restored at the same time by a chap who then kept it for over a decade. Besides a lot of general fettling, it had had a complete engine rebuild with absolutely everything replaced. I’m away from the car and its history file at the moment, but will fill in some of those details later. Subsequently, it had seen some light use and, crucially, had been meticulously stored, so it is a smart, solid car.

It surfaced in late 2020/early 2021 and went unsold at a few auctions. I saw it and was still managing to resist the urge to buy one. Besides, it was a non-runner due to a transmission fault. Here are some shots from one of the auction catalogues



I had driven a very early 365GT4 2+2, in fact the one featured in the Classic and Sportscar magazine article last month. The 365 version was manual transmission only and on carburettors, which is good fun, but I felt that an auto with fuel injection would be better for all-round driving in the UK, and it suits me fine. If I wanted something for charging around on B-roads, I'd have got a 308GT4.

So, last June, I recognised this when it cropped up at a little dealer near me. It had only gone up for sale a few days earlier. As it was twenty minutes' drive away, I thought I'd drop in and see if I really did still want one, having not driven one for a couple of years. It looked very sound, drove nicely, stopped and started fine, and had plenty of history with details of all previous owners and photos and correspondence from when it was restored. So, we did a deal, and I finally had the car I'd always thought I wanted but had never got round to.

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rallycross said:

Thats wild having a 400 as your only car! What will you do the 6m of the year when its broken?! (only kidding).

Could you share what its like to drive??


I tried to buy on of these in 95' from a chap in Fulham who had left it to decay for years but was not open to low offers, I fancied a V12 at the time ended up in a XJS.

In a nutshell, it's fairly ponderous until about 4000rpm, then the acceleration from about 70mph to well north of 100mph is absolutely seamless and just phenomenal for a car of its age. It's loud inside and out compared to the XJS, but at motorway cruising speed, where it's just starting to howl, you can ease on and off the power and enjoy the sound forever. That engine really is as good as it's made out to be. The ride is very refined, it just glides along. It's supremely comfortable, probably the most comfortable seats of anything I've driven. Visibility is superb. The switches and stalks are very light touch. Handling is fine, it's nicely balanced as you'd expect with front-engine rwd, although I can't say I've been hustling it through corners.

Last time I took it out, I did about 100 miles, stopped for a splash of fuel, it fired up again immediately and the next 100 miles felt even better. It really does devour long distances superbly.

When I got it, the tyres were dated 2006 (!!). Tread was ok, and they weren't obviously cracked, but the first thing on the to-do list was a new set. The 400 uses metric Michelin TRX tyres, which, I think, were only made for this model (possibly also the 512BBi). Incredibly, they are still available from heroes such as Longstone Tyres, at £500 apiece, so I now have a lovely new set dated 2022. But, before they were fitted, the to-do list got a bit longer due to some snags that appeared two weeks after I bought the car and took it on holiday - by mistake.....

[Rumdoodle]

Thanks for the comments. Glad you like it!

Getting it last June meant I could get to know it a bit in nice weather.

As well as the antique tyres, the brakes felt a bit juddery. Other than those things, easily remedied, the running and handling exceeded my expectations. Not only was I enjoying the 400 more than I expected, this particular 400 seemed to be a good one, which was quite a relief. After what appeared to have been a long period of non-use and only very recent "recommissioning", it wouldn't have surprised me to encounter a whole load of issues which might take a few attempts to fix, with long lead times for parts, a struggle to find a workshop that would take it on within a reasonable timeframe and consequently long periods where the car was unusable. And I didn't really know anyone in the Ferrari world, so I was starting from scratch, which can be a trial in itself.

In the first week or so, I did a couple of hundred miles near to home and got to know it a bit. Took it along to the Bicester Scramble where I’d arranged to meet some family who didn’t know I’d bought it. As we wandered through the car park, I stopped and said to my father, “That’s mine.” As a family, cars have always been a huge part of our work and pleasure, but I was a tad concerned that he might think I’d lost completely the plot. Turns out, although we’d never discussed the 400, he loves them. So, as I’m out of the country quite a bit, he takes it out for a run on sunny days and it’s nice that someone else can enjoy it.

With increasing confidence that the car was running ok, I decided to take it to Wales for a few days with a friend. All I’d noticed was a bit of a leak from the self-levelling unit mounted under the boot floor. It seemed minimal, and the back end was still rising and settling as it should, so I figured it would be manageable.

From Oxfordshire to the Welsh coast, it was all good. There was a heavy rainshower halfway along, but no leaks and the wipers were serviceable. We tried everything to get the ventilation system to work and resorted to finding the instruction manual online. It made zero sense in English so we tried reading the Italian version, which was no less useful but much more fun. I have never been bothered about A/C even on a hot day in England, it’s the ability to demist in the cold and rain that is my basic requirement. At least, that’s what I had thought – but the heat that comes up through the floor from those massive exhausts has made me realise that a bit of cabin cooling might be useful too.

Arrived in Wales and parked up for the night

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Next morning, the plan was to strike out along the coast and see whatever there was to see. I decided to top up with fuel first. The warning light works, but the gauge never reads more than half full, so I try to keep an eye on miles. Of course, when I bought this car, high octane fuel was well north of £2 a litre. A 26 gallon fill-up was costing about £230, and lasted under 400 miles. What I hadn’t anticipated was that it’s quite difficult to find super unleaded in rural Wales. Did about 25 more miles before settling on some regular fuel, then ended up on some very narrow roads and noticed that the steering was getting very heavy.

Then it started absolutely pouring with rain. Back on a main road, cruising along at about sixty, the engine suddenly died. No pops or bangs or smoke, just lost all power, the revs dropped and within about ten seconds it had cut out. I’d managed to pull into a layby, and thought that it was probably something electrical, maybe because of the rain. After a few seconds, I turned the key, it fired up, and we were on our way again.

After stopping for some lunch, we had just headed off again, when the fuel pressure light started flickering on. As we were dawdling in traffic, I hoped it might just be because it was at low idle, but then it kept flickering and the needle was heading in the wrong direction. I pulled over, appropriately next to a church. Popped the bonnet. There was nothing to suggest any seals had failed or anything catastrophic had happened. There was a big leak at the front of the engine bay, though, and without being able to get under the car, I assumed it had come from the oil cooler. After it had stood for a few minutes, I checked the level and it was empty. I looked back at the wet road and saw that it had been leaking all the way to where I stopped. So, when I had stopped it was still leaking, and after I had switched off, it must have dumped whatever was left of the 18.5 litres (!) that it holds.

I assumed a hose must have split, and was pretty sure I had switched it off before any damage could have been done. It was only running at very low revs when this all happened. But I didn’t want to risk a bodge with the wrong type of hose (and risk dumping another 18.5 litres of fresh oil on a wet road and potentially causing an accident), this was lunchtime on a Sunday, in rural Wales…..So, there was nothing for it but to get a tow back to England. Which took twelve hours

Edited by Rumdoodle on Monday 27th March 20:37

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Unreal said:

I know where there's one of these. The interior and part of the engine has been stripped and the car is full of parts and complex drawings that look like they came from a manufacturer's manual and someone has given up. I cannot imagine how anyone will get it going again, It's a shame because they are interesting cars. They remind me of the even rarer Bitter. Thanks for posting OP - a good read.

I'm always interested in acquiring bits and pieces, so if you have any contact details, please message me. Thanks!

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993kimbo said:

Rumdoodle said:

The ex-Keith Richards car sold a couple of years ago for probably a world record price of about £300k, while Bill Wyman's was auctioned last month for about a tenth of that.

Well obviously.
He was just the bass player.

Indeed! Keith's car was, if I recall correctly, coming straight from his ownership and appeared to be in beautiful condition. It was also a manual. While Bill's car had been through a few owners and was an auto.

As for my attempted holiday, it took four recovery trucks to get back to England. There was one long wait at a motorway services but overall, it was well coordinated and I got my money's worth out of my breakdown cover. As we were approaching the border, there was an impressive hailstorm, more remarkable for it being mid-June (!), but I assume this is just how it goes in Wales.

We'd booked a cottage for a few nights, and originally envisioned picking up something more reliable and going straight back to Wales. That plan was dismissed as we didn't unload the Ferrari until nearly midnight, by which time there was a general loss of sense of humour. Next morning, my fellow traveller tested positive for Covid, making this a truly comprehensive failure as holidays go. But, we still needed to go back and pick up our luggage, and that took up all of the next day.

I then had to go away for a couple of months, so I booked the car in with my friendly local independent specialist. As it happens, they had briefly owned the car earlier in the year and had sold it to the dealer whom I then bought it from. This was a real stroke of luck, as they already knew it and had done some small jobs on it recently. As I didn't need the car for a while, there was no rush to get it into the workshop. But that meant I had several weeks of trying to contain concerns that the engine had been trashed and I was going to be looking at a £30k rebuild. That was exceptionally unlikely, but until it had been inspected I couldn't rule it out.

The news was good, though! It hadn't been a split hose, but the oil cooler itself had failed. Quite unusual, but it may well have been the original item crying enough after forty years, and it was cheap and easy to replace. The leak from the self-levelling unit turned out to be linked to the heavy steering, as both run off the same system. Some 400 owners dispense with the self-levelling and run a standard set-up, due to the difficulty of getting refurbished or replacement parts. That might be necessary at some point, but, luckily, this was just a matter of replacing a seal and refilling. The cause of the engine cutting out was probably the ignition module, seen here bolted to the bonnet next to the strut.

It was the original Magneti Marelli unit, no longer obtainable new and considered unrepairable, so a common substitute is an MSD unit. Again, cheap enough, and I haven't had any problems at all since. And, finally, with a new set of tyres, the car's first attempt to disgrace itself had been dealt with relatively simply.

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ChocolateFrog said:

That said the under bonnet shot is glorious.

Yeah, it's a mountain of an engine. The 412, which was the final iteration of this model, was the last to have a version of the original Colombo V12. I haven't driven the next generation, which came in with the 456, and which I'm sure is superb. I do appreciate the historical aspect, though, as the Colombo V12 was also fitted to Ferrari's first ever road car when it was just 1.5 litres! By the time my car was made, it was tried and tested technology and, in the 400, not in a particularly high state of tune, with about 310bhp. As long as it's looked after properly, it's a durable engine.

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P5BNij said:

What a great read this thread is, looking forward to more plucky tales of ownership. This and the Dino 308GT4 of the same period are two of my favourite Ferraris, they're so understated in many ways and don't look dated at all.

We do what we can! Have you still got your Maserati?

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Cambs_Stuart said:

Let get to the point, you tease. We all want a headlight picture!

They do work, I promise! But, no photos yet.

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The other thing I wanted to sort was a minor issue but really bugging me. The offside front indicator lens had been damaged and repaired, so it was holding together but looked bad

The lens is still available new and in stock at Eurospares at........


.........£1200 apiece. Just the lens.

Of course, if you buy one, it might be a slightly different shade of orange to the other, so you're in for two and half grand just for a pair of matching front indicators.

I found a secondhand one for sale in Germany at a 50% saving against new. Inevitably, it doesn't match. It's noticeably darker than the nearside one, but nevertheless marginally less annoying than having a cracked one.

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Davey S2 said:

Also had an issue with the circuit board under the passenger footwell melting and nearly catching fire in Italy. Quite a known problem with these apparently.

I hadn't heard about that, but it doesn't surprise me given the heat that the bulkhead and floor absorbs. I got quite familiar with the fusebox in the footwell after the first round of fettling had been completed. I picked it up again in September and it was running supremely, just a dream. Then the driver's window fuse started blowing. I stocked up on fuses and it sufficed for a while to just slot a new one in every now and then, but I suspected I was on borrowed time before it packed up altogether. Sure enough it did, but more on that later.

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B'stard Child said:

Tinting spray

This has been suggested by other sources too!

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90sMasers said:

What a heroic choice.
Though I say that purely as I also have one! But more seriously, having it is an only car is a brave shout. I’ve only managed maybe 2k miles in mine in the last 8 years.
I’ll be collecting mine from Bicester shortly (it’s currently having a new brake master cylinder fitted), so if you are nearby, maybe we could meet up for a 400i show-and-tell?
Oh - I’ve had the MSD ignition module update. I’d recommend that if you have a problem again. (If you are a stickler for originality, you can have the workings of the MSD unit transposed into your original housing, so visually, no one would know. Sneaky.)

Excellent taste. Yes, let's do that. I'm actually away until early June, so perhaps I can send you a PM and we can see what's what closer to the time.

I'm more into functionality than originality. Although, as far as I know, the only non-original feature apart from the MSD module is the stereo, which is a Ferrari branded head unit from, I think, a 360. It also has a CD multichanger in the glovebox which was probably state-of-the-art when it was fitted, maybe in the late '90s. American owners with more familiarity with auto boxes talk of fitting shift kits to sharpen up the changes, but I don't think I can be bothered. I just like to get it into top on a long, straight road and barrel along with a grin no other car has given me. After I'd had my little Wales mishap attended to, I did stretch it a little more. The first time I was overtaking something with a bit of welly and it kicked down to second, it took off like a rocket. Quite hilarious. I wasn't expecting it to be that responsive. It really is a sublime cruiser, with thunderous performance when needed.

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90sMasers said:

Prugna? And the more classic interior with more levers and fewer buttons?

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90sMasers said:

I got a pair from a Ferrari parts supplier in Wales. Not at all cheap, but a bit less than Eurospares. Fitting wasn’t as easy as you might think, and the lovely deep orange colour soon faded...

After a couple of strange misunderstandings at roundabouts, I learnt that the real problem with my indicators is that they are barely discernible. The only way you can actually see them flashing is by standing really close when the car is stationary - not a position most other motorists are in at busy junctions. So, I have to get that sorted before I have a collision and have to buy more bloody indicator lenses.