Why Ferrari? Ferrari. What's the first thing that pops into your head when you hear that word? Ferrari as a brand is among the most recognized in the world. Everyone has heard of Ferrari, right? My first encounter with the Ferrari brand goes back to college. The owner of the apartment building I lived in when I attended the University of Miami had a Dino of some sort. I don't know exactly what model. I recall a sloped nose and shark like gills in the hood. It sounded way cooler than the noise that came out of my '71 Opel Manta. He also had a Donzi or maybe two. It seemed like he used the apartment building to house his numerous beautiful women "friends". Fast forward forty years and now I'm buying a Ferrari. At first, I didn't really know I wanted a Ferrari. I wanted a really nice, prestigious, fast, exciting car that I'd keep until they pried the keys out of my cold, dead hands. I really like the Mercedes cars, have two, and thought a good choic
I'm coming up on the one year anniversary of owning my gated Ferrari 360 Spider. In that time, I've learned a tremendous amount about the car and especially, the systems. At this writing, the car is working 100%. I wish I could say that about the entire year. Unfortunately, with any twenty year old exotic, it's going to have good days and bad days. I've racked up about 1,200 miles in the year without being stranded. The car has had a few close calls but the car always carried me home. Thank you, sweet car, for that! Maintenance Issues I had an issue with the throttle bodies (TB) on the day I picked up the car. I just didn't know it. The TB issue would come and go as time passed, masquerading as other issues and finally, causing the engine to go into "pedal limp" (20% throttle). Eventually, the problem was properly diagnosed and cured. Problems with the TB's can be cured very easily by simply replacing both affected units with new parts at a (parts al