Today I have been in 2 Ferraris

[-alan-]

I did have a chance at getting a cheap 308 a few years back but was strongly advised not to by every car trade contact I have. I heeded the advice.

That reminds me of the old quip about the definition of an optimist being somebody who thinks he can just about afford to run a second hand Aston Martin

I do know of one of the local chaps here who used to run and fettle one of the later F360 cars. Some of the OEM parts costs were horrendous, but being a resourceful type, he used to find workarounds like instead of shelling out whatever ridiculous sum the official suppliers were looking for something like a replacement radiator cooling fan - he would dismantle the problem part to find out who made the individual bits, and in that case (I think) sourced the individual electrical and fan components directly from Fiat and Bosch.

As an aside btw - one of the other head-scratching things he had to resolve was why the testers could not get a satisfactory reading off the automated suspension test equipment at the local MOT/NCT centre, and twice issued it with a fail notice. Turns out the 360 was one of the earliest road cars fitted with active suspension, and the car was varying the damping rates doing its level best to fight back against the unusual inputs it was seeing at the wheels. Simple solution was to tell them to switch the engine off before they ran the test. All good

 

[Yank]

TR6 is reputed to be less fun to drive than a triumph Spitfire. I had one of those (didn't you too, I think you said?) and they are great for country lanes at 55 but no sports car. They look pretty.

Spitfire is a Herald. TR6 drives like a truck.

I had to put a clutch in a TR6 once. Step 1: remove interior. Granted, it is nice to be able to do most of the job with the car on the ground and not crawling under a car on jackstands, but there's a lot of stuff to disassemble first.

 

[stevec67]

Spitfire is a Herald. TR6 drives like a truck.

I had to put a clutch in a TR6 once. Step 1: remove interior. Granted, it is nice to be able to do most of the job with the car on the ground and not crawling under a car on jackstands, but there's a lot of stuff to disassemble first.

Spitfire is the same! Easy though. Lift carpet edges, unbolt transmission tunnel cover. Remove, Look at the bellhousing. Prop off, starter off, housing and box into the car. Clutch off, on. Box back in. You do 80% of it sitting in the driver's seat.

 

[Whaleblue]

I’ve had a Herald (13/60 convertible) - my first car, a TR5 (the best TR!) and a 1500 Spit. On the first two I did all the work required, including two clutches on the Herald - yes, trying to spin the wheels with 60 horses to impress your friends does that…

Hardest part was lining up the spline to get the gearbox back in on your own while standing in the footwells with a rope around it. Yes, being a convertible at least made that possible.

In between the Herald and the TR5 I had a 1300 Mk1 Escort. The handling compared to the 13/60 was a revelation. I miss all three.

So, yes, handling on the TR was indeed appalling, but driving the TR was hugely enjoyable. Of course I developed a strange gait due to the muscle development in my left leg. Boy that clutch was heavy. My girlfriend, now wife, couldn’t actually drive it as standing on the clutch just lifted her up the seat.

 

[RJohan]

I think I’d still prefer a Countach or 308 over a “hot hatch” that looks pretty much the same as my (hypothetical) neighbour’s “bottom of the range hatch”, but with the addition of a couple extra bits of plastic trim and an after-market loud exhaust.

If you want an Italian supercar my tip is:

Get a Countach replica, park it in the garage, open the door sometimes to impress the neighbors. Deed done.

 

[RJohan]

Spitfire is the same! Easy though. Lift carpet edges, unbolt transmission tunnel cover. Remove, Look at the bellhousing. Prop off, starter off, housing and box into the car. Clutch off, on. Box back in. You do 80% of it sitting in the driver's seat.

Rather like my Boxzscter then. Lots of things must be done before reaching the engine bay. It also leaks water into the interior when it rains and the electrical ragtop doesn't work. Must be an old British sports car in German drag

 

[MVV]

A mate of mine gave me a lift in his Ferrari about 20 years ago. Even then I thought it was a bit rubbish; several warning lights on, rattled along, felt cheap inside and it cost £2000 for a service then!

 

[SteveG]

A few years back I had a meeting in London and in the office block directly across there was a white Countach in one of the offices, several floors up. Probably the best place for it.

One of my neighbours has an Aston Martin (and a reasonably new one) and that does appear to need a lot of attention to keep it on the road. He has a 911 as well and uses that as his daily driver.

 

[Tony Lockhart]

Countach had a few plus points for teenage boys

 

[RJohan]

Countach had a few plus points for teenage boys

From one of the Canonball movies?

And this on has a car phone. Coooool!

 

[Suffolk Tony]

Spitfire is the same! Easy though. Lift carpet edges, unbolt transmission tunnel cover. Remove, Look at the bellhousing. Prop off, starter off, housing and box into the car. Clutch off, on. Box back in. You do 80% of it sitting in the driver's seat.

Put a new clutch in my Herald 12/50 convertible. It was an absolute doddle, made even easier by the fact that one of the previous owners hadn't bothered to put the screws that held the internal gearbox cover in place back. I nicked some hanks of carbon fibre from work, which at the time was a very new material and frightfully expensive, to reinforce the rotten chassis outriggers. I explained this to the MoT tester, but the swine wasn't impressed & failed it. Nowt a bit of underseal & a different test station couldn't overcome though.

 

[narabdela]

Spitfire is a Herald.

...and all the better for it. I loved mine, and it was a bit of a fanny magnet back in the day.

Mind you, that was fifty years ago.

 

[Tony Lockhart]

What is really missing is a sense of occasion. That really should never be lost.

Perhaps the sense of occasion was there when these cars were new? Most cars on the pad back then were what, 80-110bhp? Most people we’re just happy to have a car that got them from A to B in reasonable comfort and did 30mpg+. Just seeing a Testarossa on the road was special.

But yeah, give me a twisty road and a Pug 205GTI and the ‘Rossa wouldn’t see which way I’d gone. A new, base model 911 would completely destroy any ‘supercar’ from the Miura up to, guessing, 2005/10?

 

[martin dawson]

I had a 1978 carburettor 308 GTS for 18 years lovely car to look at great sound but it burns holes in your pocket with the upkeep. Cam belt changes every 3 years which wasn’t so bad it keeping the body work up costs a fortune. I drove to Italy and back in 2000 reaching Marenello covered 2500 miles in total. Averaging 23 miles to the gallon.
Comfortable ride as others have said not fast compared to today’s hot hatches. Now I’ve owned a 2002 Porsche Boxster 3.2 S manual easier to maintain fun to drive. No body work to paint / repair a typical German made car.

Regards,

Martin

 

[Suffolk Tony]

Another plus point for the old Triumph Herald/Spitfires were their fantastically small turning circle. Good fun when you were doing your driving test in one & asked to do a three-point turn, actually IIRC it was "Turn the vehicle around in the road..."

The GT6 was a nice car, apart from the Herald-type swinging arm rear suspension.

 

[TheDecameron]

Another plus point for the old Triumph Herald/Spitfires were their fantastically small turning circle. Good fun when you were doing your driving test in one & asked to do a three-point turn, actually IIRC it was "Turn the vehicle around in the road..."

The GT6 was a nice car, apart from the Herald-type swinging arm rear suspension.

And when the rozzers have got you up a cul de sac Tony. Just sayin.

 

[Seeker_UK]

IIRC the Herald / Vitesse steering had brass trunnions so you'd end up replacing them every 20k miles or so.

 

[richardg]

Perhaps the sense of occasion was there when these cars were new? Most cars on the pad back then were what, 80-110bhp? Most people we’re just happy to have a car that got them from A to B in reasonable comfort and did 30mpg+. Just seeing a Testarossa on the road was special.

But yeah, give me a twisty road and a Pug 205GTI and the ‘Rossa wouldn’t see which way I’d gone. A new, base model 911 would completely destroy any ‘supercar’ from the Miura up to, guessing, 2005/10?

I need to get back in an old Triumph for some perspective. Of course the price of an old Ferrari now means for me at least that the car must still be good fun to drive and be in. I recently had an ELan +2. It offered so much more for so much less. I'm currently doing up a 2002 MR2. Much better car than the Ferrari, still old, but only 900 quid.

 

[richardg]

Another plus point for the old Triumph Herald/Spitfires were their fantastically small turning circle. Good fun when you were doing your driving test in one & asked to do a three-point turn, actually IIRC it was "Turn the vehicle around in the road..."

The GT6 was a nice car, apart from the Herald-type swinging arm rear suspension.

GT6 was what I really wanted when I bought my Spitfire. Limited numbers now mean they are near 20 grand. Bummer, I'd never pay that for one, mainly because the interiors are just shit.

 

[Tony Lockhart]

A workmate is restoring a Spitfire, MK3 I think. He said it’s quite an eye opener when you have the bare body shell in front of you and you realise that there’s zero impact protection.
He’s the only person I know who has worked on Supermarine and Triumph Spitfires!