It was without 100 per cent confidence that I drove
the 512 TR
to France the other week. It wasn't as if I felt sure the car would fail to complete the journey, but that I hadn't really managed to spend enough time with it before leaving to learn what its foibles were. You always need to know an old car before you use it hard.
TR's big hips a squeeze on Eurotunnel
In this case, I hadn't let it idle in hot weather to see if the thermostat worked properly, I hadn't cruised at high speed for hours at a time and there was the lurking worry that the blue smoke incident might be evidence of major engine troubles. Somewhat recklessly, I jumped in and went anyway.
It turns out that a 21-year-old, 55,000-mile, flat-12 Ferrari actually ignores all of the generic assumptions made about it. In over 2,200 miles - Autoroute, N-roads, D-roads and even a slow trundle all the way down the Gorge du Verdon - it didn't miss a beat. We also shot a film for DRIVE, which meant two days of stop-start thrashing, and again the car ran faultlessly. The first few times the water temperature needle swung beyond the vertical my spine stiffened, but then the vast fans cut in and the car was quite happy sitting and idling.
Chris remains ambivalent about his new toy
There's a massive difference between fuel consumption at a cruise and when you're letting that motor zing beyond 6,000rpm. On the Autoroute I saw around 18mpg at a 90mph cruise, which seems about right to me, but that figure dropped to 9.5mpg when we were filming. The tank is a genuine 100 litres, but you need to play roulette with the dial because the needle flat-lines with 20 litres remaining and the fuel light just stays on. Running out of fuel in a car that looks like this wouldn't be a good idea.
I managed to whack the splitter on a low kerb before even leaving the UK, then graunched it badly in some weeny medieval French streets. The third time I bashed it, a whole chunk came away, forcing a trip to the local Casino and an Araldite purchase. The fix isn't pretty, but it held together for the remainder of the trip. I've ordered a replacement: £383, plus VAT. Ouch.
As a driving experience, I'm not quite sure what more I could want from a car than this. Admittedly, I spend so much lucky time in modern supercars that in my own car I want something much more basic and interactive. This thing is perfect: no traction control, no ABS (in 1992? Were they mad?) and a gearchange that always makes you concentrate and plan your actions. The clutch bite point is a little high at the moment, but we'll try and sort that over the winter.
512 does stand out somewhat among 'normal' cars
At a fast cruise it's a calm machine. The ride is pretty supple, being mid-engined you don't have any mechanical noise seeping in through the scuttle and I have managed to find a seating position that makes best use of the generous side bolsters. On the way back we ran for 980 miles only stopping for fluids to be added or ejected as needed, and I felt no more jaded than if I'd been in a 458. In fact, the 512's much more supple ride is probably more useful for this type of driving than the modern car's reduced wind noise.
Slowly does it
One of the great tests of a car of this type is how special it feels being driven slowly - the 512 passes it with flying colours. The gearshift and long gearing means there's plenty to keep the driver busy trundling through villages, light blips of throttle bring a lovely, natural flat-12 sound which makes all these modern valved exhausts sound quite false. And people seem to warm to the absurdity of the looks more readily than they do to modern Ferrari shapes. I have no idea why, but they do.
Wait, no, something did break on the trip...
The 512's brakes were significantly upgraded over the Testarossa's and there are dedicated cooling ducts at the front, but it really doesn't take long to get the pedal wobbling slightly. The pedal never gets too long, but we really don't know how lucky we are with modern supercar brakes. I love the challenge of not having ABS, but when a Citroen van turns in front of you and you need to stop and turn, you wonder if it isn't actually quite a good idea.
Other random feedback? My driving position means the sun visor is practically useless. I cannot fathom the heater controls, but the air-con is very powerful. The pop-up lights were surprisingly effective and the Bridgestone S-02s must be quite old because the car decided to oversteer a few times when I didn't expect it to.
But perhaps the most telling thing of all is that I can now hardly remember owning a 599. This is what it's all about: not caring about the mileage, enjoying a car as it should be driven and reminding ourselves that the incessant pursuit of ever faster and more technically gifted machinery has forced engineers to forgot quite where the driver should fit into the equation.
Oh, and there was one mechanical failure in those 2,000 miles. My youngest child was using the cabin as a playground on the Eurotunnel, and now one of the cassette tape holders won't relocate. Damn.
FACT SHEET
Car: Ferrari 512 TR
Run by: Chris Harris
Bought: June 2013
Mileage: 56,000
Purchase price: Next question...
Last month at a glance: Harris skips the traditional getting to know you chit-chat and cracks straight on to the honeymoon in the south of France - is it still love though?
