Ferrari Mondial . Net

I had been looking forward to this event as it was the first one of the year. The weather was warm and this seemed to bring out lots of traffic on the M25. Finding the historic Brooklands circuit was also a little challenging, I was a first time user of a (borrowed) satnav system, and had to turn it off when we arrived at our so called destination…. a row of small shops in a village?! Anyway we somehow found the venue in the end after asking the gatekeeper at Mercedes-Benz world for directions. You would have thought the Auto Italia event organisers would have put up some temporary signs along the routes off the main motorways and A roads.

My other gripe was the parking stewards at the event were awful, on entering we were given a badly photocopied, ultra confusing map: it would have helped if it had some kind of “you are here” marker, or the steward point out where we were, then given us some instructions on how to get to the Ferrari parking (ie a simple “take the first left, parking on right”), and also some signs would have helped (eg at each junction car makers’ names with arrows pointing which way to go, or even a steward intelligently directing marques). I rolled into the event, went right (as did numerous other Ferraris) and ended up being told by a steward to park in a line of neatly arranged Fiat Coupes…. not very good for me or the Fiat Coupe owners club. After parking and having a wander round the event I finally found Ferrari parking with ample spaces left and was able to move, but the whole thing could have been organised a lot better to save hassle, and in total I had to move my car three times!

The event itself was not bad, if I hadn’t been moving my car around so much I’d probably have enjoyed it more, but there was a big plus point: it was the first event I’ve been to which had the modern ‘big three’ (in my opinion) Ferraris… yes there was an F40, F50 and Enzo all present (if only they had parked them side by side!), accompanied by a great collection of other Ferraris and Italian cars.

Photos from the day can be found here.

Overall this is actually a fairly simple process, and a sports exhaust really gets a mean sound out of the V8 engine (see before and after YouTube video below). Also it has to be said the the original, factory silencer box is pretty big and ugly, it’s also very prominent with there being no rear grill (something Ferrari introduced from the 3.2 Mondial and 328 onwards). The exhaust I bought was a generic stainless steel one from Eurospares, it’s at least half the price of a Tubi or X-Ost. The fitting should be pretty much the same for a Ferrari Mondial as a Ferrari 308/328.

Bear in mind that you may be changing your car from it’s factory state, so if you are worried about future re-sale value you might want to keep the original exhaust to put back on at a later date (pretty simple to do as you will see).

All parts ordered from Eurospares (unless otherwise stated).

Parts needed:

• Part No. 118353 Stainless Steel Sports Exhaust Ferrari Mondial QV 1985, Total: £450
• Part No. 118338 Gasket (O rings), Quantity: 2, Price: £6.80, Total: £13.60
• Exhaust/tailpipe compound/sealer 80-100ml, Price about £5 (eBay)
• Metal clips, Quantity 2, Price: not a lot

Optional parts that would be useful to have in case needed (due to corrosion on the existing parts):

• Part No. 10519601 Washer, Quantity: 20, Price: £0.02, Total: £0.40
• Part No. 114748 Nut, Quantity: 10, Price: £0.31, Total: £3.10
• Part No. 119632 Screw, Quantity: 6, Price: £1.50, Total: £9.00 (I couldn’t get these as they were out of stock)

Easy access to under the car is also preferable, though I could just about imagine it would be possible to fit the new exhaust without the car on a ramp, as everything is really near the back. Warning: If you do use jacks or anything like that please be very careful and ensure nothing can slip, 1.5 metrc tons of Ferrari on your head can be bad for your health. An extra pair of strong hands will come in handy too, for catching the old exhaust as it comes off and holding the new one in place while it’s bolted on.

Luckily for me a nice guy called Dean let me use his hydraulic ramps (yes handy to have your own ramps in your garage!). So a big thanks to Dean and especially Paul for their ramps, tools, help, and expertise.

The procedure is as follows, assuming, like me, you have a replacement exhaust which does not need the 90 degree mounting brackets. Instead the box has long bars coming out each side which should align with where the brackets would have been. If you are re-fitting your original exhaust obviously make sure you have these brackets (either from the current exhaust or kept from the original removal). Make sure you don’t scratch your shiny new exhaust (or the shiny tips of the old one) so have an old blanket at the ready to put them on:

1. Undo the three nuts mating the exhaust to the manifold, and repeat on the other side (fig 1), remove the screws, nuts and washers. Use plenty of WD40 as things will probably need some loosening up.
2. The main securing of the exhaust comes from the pins seen in fig 1, these attach to the right angle brackets. Get your helper ready to catch the old exhaust and remove the pins on each side, when you remove the pins the exhaust should come free. On one side of mine everything undid easily and the pin could be gently tapped out, however on the other side the bracket and pin had seized up, repeated application of WD40, heat, G clamp pressure, and moderate violence all failed. In the end Paul had to delicately cut through part of the bracket until the pin would finally budge. The cut bracket won’t be usable again, but Paul did a good job to avoid ruining the pin, as this was needed immediatly for fitting the new exhaust. Ferrari spares shops should have replacement brackets as this kind were used on a number of models (308 GT4, 308/328, Mondial).
3. Your old exhaust should be off now, wrap it up and keep it somewhere safe in case you decide to go back to it or you want to put the car back into it’s original state. It’s a good time to clean out the ends of the bare pipes, the old O ring gaskets are likely to be corroded and in bits. Tap them out gently, don’t hit the manifold hard as the vibrations could could crack it further up, if some force is needed have a helper hold the end of the pipe still as you tap it. Clean up any fouling and corrosion, leaving the two pipe ends ready for re-fitting.
4. Coat some muffler/tailpipe sealer around one side of your new O ring gaskets, place in the end of the bare pipe, and coat the exposed gasket side with some sealer. Tricky bit next: get your new exhaust in position, obviously you need to mate together the pipes, then secure the exhaust by putting the pins back in (securing depends on the fitments but basically will involve pushing back in the locking pins into either brackets or the support bars of the new exhaust to hold it in place), and finally replacing the screws/nuts/washers x3 (using new ones if you have them) on each side, making sure they are done up tight.
5. Secure the retaining pins in place by passing the wire your wire clips through the holes in the pins and folding the clips round the pin. This will make sure the pins don’t slip out.
6. Check the alignment of the pipe ends with the cut away sections of the rear of the car (next to the fog lights). Make sure there is a little space around the exhaust pipes so that it won’t be rattling against the bodywork, you might need to bend the pipe coming from the box a little to achieve this, but be gentle and take care not to scratch your shiny tips.
7. Start her up, have a listen and check the seals for any leaks (apply tailpipe sealer as needed). That’s it, you’re done, go and find a tunnel!

Once again a big thanks to Paul and Dean as none of this would have been possible without them.

b_FOBiLkas4

#44: Glue a body kit on and nail a big spoiler to the back

I know I probably go on a bit too much about making modifications vs keeping your Ferrari Mondial original, but at least alloy wheels and exhausts are easy to change either way…. but this…..?! Or am I completely wrong and does this bring the Mondial upto date, what do you think?

Imagine walking into your local bookstore, you see a compiliation magazine of the best Ferrari articles from Evo and Octane magazine to celebrate 60 years of Ferrari. “Great!” you think, and as you have a few minutes to spare you have a quick flick through. Loads of cool stuff in there, comparisons of an F40 to an Enzo, reviews of 275 GTBs, Testarossas, etc, then you notice at the back there is an index of every Ferrari road car ever made. Naturally you would probably look up your own Ferrari in the index to see what they say about it. Then imagine that as you are reading the brief summary for your Ferrari you notice something quite familiar about the photograph, you can’t quite place it, as you look closer you recognise the driver… it’s YOU! And it’s your car!

That’s the strangely surreal situation I found myself in after spotting the above publication at the shops. There I am on page 255 proudly representing Ferrari Mondial QV / Cabriolet QVs from 1984 – 1986 (oh and earlier Mondial 8s too). I can see myself driving in the original picture, and also clearly recognise my passenger. It took me a while, but I worked out the photo must have been taken as I was leaving the Silverstone Classic 2007.

So fame at last! More importantly, does anyone know if I’m entitled to royalties? I’m guessing the Silverstone Classic ticket probably has terms and conditions that you may be filmed or photographed on their land and the copyright remains with them, or some legal get out clause along those lines…

ps It’s not the most factually accurate index of Ferraris, check out the top speed of the Mondial 3.2 / Cabriolet, 188mph?! Faster than the Testarossa, umm I don’t think so (it’s more like 155mph)! Plus the top left photo of a “308″ is surely a 288 GTO? Hmm good to see they proof read these mags before going to print!

I don’t know about you but very occasionally I see a car that just makes me drool and jibber like a crazy fool. The Buntingford classic car rally September 2007 in Hertfordshire was one of those rare moments. Behold Geoff Lock’s (or is it Jeff Lock?) gorgeous, racing specification Ferrari 308 (1979/1980). What more can I say, except that the curvy Ferrari 308 has to be one of the the sexiest car ever designed, if not *the* sexiest ever! Well done to Geoff for keeping it looking good, and still racing it at his very respectable age!

Given that most Ferrari’s leak a little bit of oil (depending on usage and condition of the seals) keeping the oil level topped up is important, and changing it every year, or approximately 3000 miles, is also a good thing to do. However a lot of Mondials and 308s are 20+ year old cars now and the manual recommends Agip 10W-50, which a) is not really available any more and b) oil technology has changed a lot over the years, now fully synthetic oils are more commonplace. After doing some research, and canvassing opinion I think the one to go for is… Shell Helix Ultra 5W-40, though if anyone has a differing opinion please let me know.