Guy
Member
- Messages
- 2,158
'It is better to have loved and lost than never to have never loved at all'
I have bid farewell to my beautiful 612. I know there was some interest in it on here but a good friend from school days really wanted it so I will continue to have the pleasure (and remorse!) of seeing it quite regularly (he is bringing it on our trip to Le Mans Classic in a couple of weeks but I can blame the tears in my eyes to the supercharged hay fever I will inevitably suffer as a passenger in another good friend's Morgan).
So how did two years Ferrari V12 ownership workout? Well, having learned from painful experience in the past, and having a great mentor in Richard Grace who sourced the car for me, I bought the very best I could afford and was rewarded with little pain and my money back at the end of my tenure. There really are some horror stories out there, with plenty of huge service bills putting things right that have been put off by previous owners. The car came on the P Zeros that were fitted in the factory and still had tread on them but at 13 years old were rock hard. The good thing though was it underlined the mileage at just 13k, serviced every year at the same Ferrari MD, sometimes having only covered two hundred miles! The two previous owners had swallowed around 135k in depreciation for very little annual use. Great for me!
I immediately fitted a new set of genuine Challenge wheels and Michelin Pilot Sports and the car was good to go. Although it is supposed to seat four, nobody could really sit behind me (6'2"), making it an occasional three seater, which is what I needed.
In two years and 7k miles the 612 needed two hubs (same ABS sensor issue common to our Maserati), a starter motor that was a little intermittent, a new battery and Ashley at SportsItalia tracked down a secondary air system leak to an aged cracked pipe using a smoke machine. It had two services at Carrs of Exeter (to maintain the MD history) for a total of 2250 GBP so apart from 13-17mpg (latter only available on long motorway cruise at 130 kph) it was not as expensive as I had feared.
How will I remember it? Much more beautiful in the flesh than in magazines, especially in a dark exterior and light interior (Nero/Crema). I was fortunate that the original owner ticked a lot of option boxes including Carbon Ceramics and the Sports suspension. Great engine, turbine like and deceptively powerful, easy to be travelling a lot faster than anticipated if pushed through any gear but enough torque to pull strongly in top gear from low speed. Sounds great at high revs but mostly for the benefit of those outside the car! Fabulous interior, that still smelt as though the leather had just arrived from the tannery. Mine had Crema soft leather extended throughout and remains as new 15 years and 20k miles later. The robotised manual is the best I have experienced (vs BMW M6 SMG, GranSport, MC Shift on GTS and Stradale Maserati), which does raise again the question of whether Ferrari saved some of its tech for their own cars. Must keep F1-S selected for the faster changes. It is much better than the early 612 I drove as is the suspension and sports exhaust. It rode very well, especially out of Sport mode. We took it for a weekend in Reims using a combination of autoroutes and B roads together with friends in their FF, which used 10% more fuel at every fill up (four of them at 2.50 euros a litre was a bit of a shock over a thousand miles!). We could easily have pushed on to Provence; such a comfortable GT. Mounting the engine midship certainly helps the handling and the car rotates in a way that disguises its footprint. Perhaps as new cars get ever larger, it never felt as big as it did when I first saw one at the UK launch in London in December 2003.
Would I have another? Yes, but only one of the late cars as I believe they are significantly better to drive. The trouble is, Ferrari only imported about 60 in 08/09 and not all will have been perfectly maintained and garage stored so finding another really good one could be difficult. At the last service in December, the sales guy at Carrs saw me looking at the one they were selling and commented; 'not many good ones like that with a genuine 30k miles on the clock'. I suggested he took a look in their workshop where mine was being serviced!! Carrs were very good and never appeared to be fishing for unnecessary work to escalate their bills. It left each time with a clean bill of health. Ash at SportsItalia was super helpful as always and dealt quickly with the minor issues that arose.
The good news for me now is that I am thoroughly enjoying my GranSport (sports car vs GT - my wife hates it!), but I will still miss the occasion of firing up the V12 to go for a long drive!
I have bid farewell to my beautiful 612. I know there was some interest in it on here but a good friend from school days really wanted it so I will continue to have the pleasure (and remorse!) of seeing it quite regularly (he is bringing it on our trip to Le Mans Classic in a couple of weeks but I can blame the tears in my eyes to the supercharged hay fever I will inevitably suffer as a passenger in another good friend's Morgan).
So how did two years Ferrari V12 ownership workout? Well, having learned from painful experience in the past, and having a great mentor in Richard Grace who sourced the car for me, I bought the very best I could afford and was rewarded with little pain and my money back at the end of my tenure. There really are some horror stories out there, with plenty of huge service bills putting things right that have been put off by previous owners. The car came on the P Zeros that were fitted in the factory and still had tread on them but at 13 years old were rock hard. The good thing though was it underlined the mileage at just 13k, serviced every year at the same Ferrari MD, sometimes having only covered two hundred miles! The two previous owners had swallowed around 135k in depreciation for very little annual use. Great for me!
I immediately fitted a new set of genuine Challenge wheels and Michelin Pilot Sports and the car was good to go. Although it is supposed to seat four, nobody could really sit behind me (6'2"), making it an occasional three seater, which is what I needed.
In two years and 7k miles the 612 needed two hubs (same ABS sensor issue common to our Maserati), a starter motor that was a little intermittent, a new battery and Ashley at SportsItalia tracked down a secondary air system leak to an aged cracked pipe using a smoke machine. It had two services at Carrs of Exeter (to maintain the MD history) for a total of 2250 GBP so apart from 13-17mpg (latter only available on long motorway cruise at 130 kph) it was not as expensive as I had feared.
How will I remember it? Much more beautiful in the flesh than in magazines, especially in a dark exterior and light interior (Nero/Crema). I was fortunate that the original owner ticked a lot of option boxes including Carbon Ceramics and the Sports suspension. Great engine, turbine like and deceptively powerful, easy to be travelling a lot faster than anticipated if pushed through any gear but enough torque to pull strongly in top gear from low speed. Sounds great at high revs but mostly for the benefit of those outside the car! Fabulous interior, that still smelt as though the leather had just arrived from the tannery. Mine had Crema soft leather extended throughout and remains as new 15 years and 20k miles later. The robotised manual is the best I have experienced (vs BMW M6 SMG, GranSport, MC Shift on GTS and Stradale Maserati), which does raise again the question of whether Ferrari saved some of its tech for their own cars. Must keep F1-S selected for the faster changes. It is much better than the early 612 I drove as is the suspension and sports exhaust. It rode very well, especially out of Sport mode. We took it for a weekend in Reims using a combination of autoroutes and B roads together with friends in their FF, which used 10% more fuel at every fill up (four of them at 2.50 euros a litre was a bit of a shock over a thousand miles!). We could easily have pushed on to Provence; such a comfortable GT. Mounting the engine midship certainly helps the handling and the car rotates in a way that disguises its footprint. Perhaps as new cars get ever larger, it never felt as big as it did when I first saw one at the UK launch in London in December 2003.
Would I have another? Yes, but only one of the late cars as I believe they are significantly better to drive. The trouble is, Ferrari only imported about 60 in 08/09 and not all will have been perfectly maintained and garage stored so finding another really good one could be difficult. At the last service in December, the sales guy at Carrs saw me looking at the one they were selling and commented; 'not many good ones like that with a genuine 30k miles on the clock'. I suggested he took a look in their workshop where mine was being serviced!! Carrs were very good and never appeared to be fishing for unnecessary work to escalate their bills. It left each time with a clean bill of health. Ash at SportsItalia was super helpful as always and dealt quickly with the minor issues that arose.
The good news for me now is that I am thoroughly enjoying my GranSport (sports car vs GT - my wife hates it!), but I will still miss the occasion of firing up the V12 to go for a long drive!
