A March Update

I did not drive at the Alfa track day. One of the kids had the flu and I did not feel it was prudent to spend the day at the track while Barb spent the day tending for a sick kid. I did get the Ferrari out for a drive and could not think of a better place to go than PIR. There was a nice collection of older Alfa, both race cars and street cars, and a strong showing of Porsche GT3s. I believe there were five GT3s at the event. I watched for about an hour then drove home. The hour was enough time to make me really want to get back on the track. I will have to start planning my track day schedule for the summer.

The time in the car convinced me that I need to replace the last sticky bit, the AC module. Originally I had planned on replacing this part as one of my first maintenance tasks for the car. If you are unfamiliar with this piece of the 355 it sits just behind the shifter in the center column and houses the air conditioning and heater controls. The AC module is home to the infamous “STOP” button which in addition to causing me much concern when I was new to my Ferrari resulted in several very cold drives in the winter. The “STOP” button stops and starts the air conditioner.

As near as I can tell Ferrari did not cover the AC module with the same sticky stuff they used on the other interior parts. They used a decal over a translucent plastic box with which is lit from inside. Unfortunately the decal and the glue that holds it to the box are even less resilient than the finish applied to the other parts of the car. My AC module is in relatively good shape when compared to most other 355s I have seen. It reminds me of blacktop roads in Missouri. When I was a kid I would spend summers with my grandmother in rural Missouri. Roads which were not dirt were covered with blacktop which was very rich in tar. In the summer the tar would become smooth, shiny, and form bubbles. My friends and I would ride our bikes over the bubbles and pop them.

I have considered popping the bubbles on the AC module but figure it is best to replace the decal. Ferrari will sell the module but like many Ferrari things it is prohibitively expensive, around $1,400. Ricambi provides a replacement decal for $80. I ordered the decal today.

Rainy March Day

Not much new to report. It is March in Oregon. Great for plants, bad for Ferraris. It has been raining pretty consistently. Next weekend I may attend the Alfa Clubs track day. I had a chance to speak with one of the organizers and it sounds like a fun event. I don’t think I can get the 911 out of the shed so if I go I will be forced to take the Ferrari.

As the car has not gotten any exercise for the past few weeks I started it today and let it run in the garage until all the fluids came to operating temperature. I took a few pictures of Ferrari bits that you usually don’t see.

The first is of the pedals. Initially I felt the pedals were spaced too closely together. Now I think the setup is perfect.

Tucked Away in the Garage

It has been sometime since my last post. I have been narrowly focused on work and writing. The weather has not been conducive to Ferrari driving so the car sits in the garage. It is not posted for sale anywhere but on this blog. I am not in a hurry to sell it, yet. I say yet because I have an idea for a second book. It involves Ferraris, driving, conversation. Much like the book I am writing now but it has a twist. More on that later.

I am roughly 50 pages from finishing the first full book edit of my rough draft. Barb has been reading it and says she likes it but then she is contractually obligated to like it.