My F355 has recently just passed the 60,000 kms mark. Now many people believe that lots of kilometres are not good for a supercar. All my research indicates that it is not in fact the amount of kilometres the car has done, it’s more down to it being serviced regularly.

Cars that are ‘garage queens’ (i.e. never driven) always experience more issues than cars that are driven regularly. You also know what? Car are designed to be driven, not tucked away unseen under a cover. They are deigned to be enjoyed in their native environment, the road!

Sure, cars that are used more experience wear and tear but they have far less issues than cars that deteriorate away unseen and then massively fail when they are finally driven somewhere.

That’s why I have no hesitation in taking my car out regularly, not only for enjoyment but also for its own health!

A while back I started getting the same spluttering I was getting previously. Not quite as bad as before but it was still noticeable. Once again, the issue was more prevalent when the car was warm.

Normally, I take the the car out early in the morning and in the cool at this time the problem really didn’t surface. However, a while back I went on a club run during the day and I got the stuttering plus the 1-4 Slow Down light. This now meant the car needed to go in for a check up.

I packed it up onto the flat bed and sent it off to Racing Red for some tender loving care.

The diagnosis was that one of the leads not changed last time, which tested ok still, was failing under heat. This was failing to operate the spark plug causing it to become all charred. This explained why everything had started out ok and was gradually getting worse over time. It also explained why, under speed, the car was fine while at low speeds it was stuttery.

Anyway, I now have a full set of replacement high tension leads in place and new spark plug on the cylinder that was a problem. Fingers crossed that this solves the remainder of the issues and I can get back to putting another 60,000 kms on the car!