Category: Uncategorized

Ferrari Apps

Although many love their cars they unfortunately can’t always be behind the wheel. As such, there are now a range of apps that you can download and install on your mobile device to allow you to continue your love of the Prancing Horse no matter where you are.

The one that is probably the best is Ferrari Mania for $1.99. This app allows you to browse through the stats and enjoy pictures of many current and classic models. However, somewhat disappointingly it doesn’t include all models. For example there is no listing for the F355. Now come on. Really? No F355. You are kidding right?
Biases aside, you also get some history about Ferrari, photos and wallpapers and the obligatory link to the Ferrari store. However, I don’t feel you get a great lot for your money, especially if your interest is about the cars.

If you are looking for that sort of automotive detail then the Road Inc app is probably more along the lines of what you are after. This too is $1.99 but is of greater content and quality. It focuses on a number of classic cars, of which many are Ferraris. For example in there you’ll find the 250 GTO, Enzo, Testarossa, and 275 GTB4. Selecting a car from the list allows you to view in depth information and images about it. Road Inc also includes many other supercars so if you interest is more about the cars then this app is for you. Just beware that you need to download the information for each car separately which can take a while due to the resolution of the pictures.

The FF for the iPad app is focused on the Ferrari FF and provides detailed information about that model. It has some very nice graphics and video and is somewhat reminiscent of the traditional glossy brochure one finds in the show room. The app is free to download but perhaps of somewhat limited interest to FF enthusiasts but worth a look if you like a nicely designed app.

A more interesting app that Ferrari has recently released is the Telemetry app. It is designed to interface to modern cars and provide a wealth of information about the performance of that car (great for post track day events). You’ll probably get a better idea of what it is all about if your watch this video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6awCshnWnI.

Very impressive stuff but really only available on the most modern cars.

There is of course the Official Ferrari Magazine app that gives you access to the electronic version of the magazine. Although the app is free you still need to purchase the magazines individually or purchase an annual subscription. There is some limited information that is available for free, however, the app is really just a direct portal into the Ferrari magazine web site.

A final ‘app’ (more of a book than an app actually) is the Official Ferrari Opus which tells this history of Ferrari. It is basically an electronic version of a coffee table book that has already been sold out.
So there you have it. Not a huge array of ‘official’ or ‘decent’ Ferrari apps but there are some out there to have a look at. A few are free but most are aimed at the more modern cars which is understandable but a little disappointing.
Ferrari Mania

Road Inc apps

FF for iPad

Official Ferrari magazine

Ferrari Sound

The Official Ferrari Opus

Ferrari Telemetry

The search for shoes

One of the major differences you find when driving a car like a F355 is that the pedals are so close together. This of course makes sense since it is a high performance car, however this arrangement makes the pedal area less accommodating to normal footwear.
My normal daily footwear was most unsuitable for driving the F355 so I had resorted to an old, and somewhat tatty, pair of runners. Although they were old they were snug and comfortable and because they were somewhat worn down they provided good ‘feel’ with the pedals.
The only real downside with these tatty runners was they were perhaps not ‘formal’ enough for some establishments one finds oneself at when attending drive days with the Ferrari Club. It has not previously been a major issue, but certainly something I had become conscious of.
So I started my search for a suitable set of driving shoes. The prime requirement was they that worked well while driving and secondly that would be suitable and appropriate to wear casually at places that the Club attends.

Now if you do a search for driving shoes you typically end up with shoes like those above. Unfortunately for me these are a bit ostentatious and don’t meet my second criteria of being suitable for wearing to functions (to me anyway). They are probably great shoes and I know many people have ones like them but I really don’t think I could handle people gawking at my shoes! constantly! They do they enough with the F355.
The other issue is I typically have ‘non-standard’ feet which means the chances of getting the ‘right’ fit by ordering something online would be very rare. In that situation I’d either be stuck with an imperfect choice or having to battle to have the shoes returned. This therefore meant that I needed to find a location I could go and actually see whether my hobbit feet would fit in the shoes.
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Surprisingly, finding such a location proved to be quite difficult, however after a recommendation from a friend I came across Revolution Racegear. So I headed down there a few weekends ago to check their range.
In the end I settled for the pair that you see above which are Puma Future Cat Mid P Pro. They fit me feet really snuggly without being too tight and lace all the way up to the ankle. I was considering more normal looking shoes like these:

but the boot also turned out to be fully racing compliant and designed to be used on the track. This, combined with the fact that the boots also fitted my feet much better in the end swung the credit card in their favour and was my ultimate choice.
So today I got to take the new driving shoes out for a spin and they certainly are very different from my normal driving ‘sneakers’. They feel a little funny to walk in as you foot hangs over the side of the sole of the shoe. As I backed the car out I was a little concerned that I didn’t have a good feel for the pedals but these were new shoes and I knew they would take some time to ‘break’ in. Besides, I wasn’t going to race back and change them now!
It wasn’t long before I began to find the ‘feel’ I was missing and once I had that things changed completely. I now fully appreciate the benefits that proper driving shoes make in cars like these. It really made the whole experience more pleasurable that it already normally. With these shoes I felt far more connected to the pedals and less encumbered down there. I short, I’m won over and am very happy with the investment I have made.
I would certainly recommend these shoes to anyone and reckon they tick all the boxes I was after. Personally, I would recommend you always go and try on a pair to make sure they fit you exactly which I am so glad that I did because this pair is a great fit and are really, really comfortable.
Best of all, these driving shoes from Revolution Racegear were no more expensive than normal brand running shoes. The guys at Revolution Racegear were also really helpful in letting me know the options with the different types of shoes so I’d also recommend them highly as well if you want somewhere to go and try on a pair. The only sad thing is that I now need to put away my magic driving shoes until the next F355 outing. However, this gives me something more to look forward to when I do.

Run to Kiama

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A few weeks ago I joined other FCA club members in a trip down to Kiama. We meet at Kyeemagh in the south of Sydney and from there headed south through the Royal National Park, over the Sea Cliff bridge to our final destination, the Little Blowhole Cafe.

Here’s our route:

http://goo.gl/maps/YGwVY

Great thing about this location is great view of the ocean, it is away from the crowds and has plenty of off street parking, perfect for a fleet of Ferraris as you can see.

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Having all these Ferraris pitch up on a Sunday morning was certainly unexpected for many locals who came out to have a look at the machines and ask questions, which everyone was more than happy to answer.

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After a great brunch we headed off. I returned along the Princes Highway to Mt Ousely and then headed inland along the Picton road capturing the following video sequence.

Once again, an excellent day to be out for a drive.

Go fast, go north



Where I live (like most other places on the planet) there are speed limits that govern the maximum velocity that you can propel a car along at. The fastest legal limit we have here is 110 kph. Now in the Northern Territory, they used to have unrestricted speed limits but that was changed a while back to a maximum of 130 kph.
That seems to have upset a few locals as the Territory is ‘testing’ allowing certain road to return to their unrestricted limits as you will read in this story:
Lead-footers hit the highway in NT
Now why am I telling you this? Well, if you read a little into the story you find the following (my emphasis):
Fairfax Media spotted several high-performance machines on the stretch of road at the start of the trial, including a classic Ferrari F355, a supercharged Chrysler coupe and a 1000cc Yamaha superbike.
The Territory is a ‘little’ too far for this F355 and besides, I think I’ll restrict my 110+kph driving to a race track. Interesting though eh? ‘A classic Ferrari F355’. It sure is!

Ferrari F355 fuel consumption

One of things you never know with any car is how far you can get on a single tank of gas. The Ferrari F355 has a low fuel light like most cars but as yet I have not tempted that barrier, however I do want to understand what sort of range I can get on average.
Now I do notice that after the fuel level drops to half full it falls away much quicker from here than it does getting there. Thus, it seems to go from half full to empty quicker than full to half empty.
The Ferrari F355 tank is 82 litres in capacity with reserve point of about 20 litres. This doesn’t mean the tank is 102 litres, it instead means when you drop below the 20 litre mark the fuel warning light should come on.
I recently filled up the tank pretty much with 44.4 litres after having done about 380 kilometres since the last fill up. According to my maths, that should allow a total range of about 702 kilometres on a complete tank.
Now to be on the safe side if you instead take out the reserve fuel amount of 20 litres and redo the same calculation you end up with about 531 kilometres in range.
So, I would therefore expect the warning light to come on after about 530 kilometres and the tank to be dry around 700 kilometres. To get a safe range for the car (and allow some margin for error) I’d probably average these two numbers and get a range of about 615 kilometres.
Now of course that range is going to vary depending on how you drive. If you drive like a lunatic racing the car everywhere it will be much shorter. Also, if you spend more time in traffic and stopping and starting rather than on freeways or open road then your consumption will be greater. However, I think the above number represents a good rule of thumb for most driving.
I’ll continue to monitor my consumption and report back if the above figure changes much.

First outing for 2014

What do you do after you spend all that time cleaning the car? You go out and drive it and get it all dirty again of course. As I have said before, I bought this car to drive not to hide away all polished up in the garage.

The weather looked fine when I started out so I took the top off. Unfortunately, there was one cloud at the midway point of the trip that decided that it couldn’t hold its water. While travelling at speed the car didn’t get much rain from the sky inside but the water from the windscreen travels to the top of the windscreen and then has nowhere else to go but into the car and onto the driver. The heavier the rain the more the flow of water at the edge of the windscreen grew.

Knowing full well that as soon as I put the top up it would stop raining, I did so anyway in an underpass. Would be much easier and quicker with two people, but alas no one else wanted to come with me this early morning.

Withe roof back in place and returning back I turned off the freeway at Brooklyn and headed up the old Pacific Highway to Hornsby. In my continued experimentations with dual Go Pro cameras I produced the above video.

This time both cameras worked as expected in tandem capturing exactly the same shots. This was after ensuring both had the same configuration settings and were full charged before taking off.

The reason there are no engine sounds is that the only thing the Go Pros capture audio-wise is the wind rushing by. I’m looking into getting a microphone I can plug into them and attached to the exhaust pipes. Only problem with is that the exhaust pipes get pretty hot so I’ll have to see if there is a way to get the microphone close but not cooked. Some work to be done there. 

With the car all refuelled and back home I kinda have my eye on a longer trip next weekend. Not 100% sure given ‘returning from holidays traffic’ which is going to be a mess given what I saw heading out around Christmas.

Something to ponder this week.

Stereoscope

Here’s another video I have uploaded to YouTube. In this one I have 2 x Go Pro Hero Black Editions connected on either side of the car.

Interestingly, I was able to get a single camera remote controller to operate both cameras together but at some down towards the end of the drive the left hand side one stopped recording and I haven’t been able to work out why. That means that towards the end of the video you’ll only get the aspect from the drivers side. Still, I hope you enjoy that.

Piecing the two sequences together proved much more challenging than I figured. I think I am approaching the limit of using Windows Movie Maker for the video production. I’ll have to start doing some research to see what else is out there.

I also think that the swapping between the two sides is a little jarring and I could have perhaps extended the fade out between these. I’ll try that in the next video. I also noted that what I probably need to do during the cut overs is allow a bit of duplication from one side to the other. That will allow the viewer to appreciate that the location is the same only the camera angle is changing. I tended to, in this video, try and cut exactly at a single point from one side to the other. Doing so, to me anyway, make it lose some continuity. Thus, duplicating some of the leading footage just after the switch (so after the cut over you see some of what you have already seen travelling by) rather than trying to get the precise moment I think will work much better.

Anyway, see what you think and let me know how you think it could be improved. I’ve still got a lot to learn about this video editing stuff!

Eighteen

The car passed two important milestones over the weekend. The first was that it turned 18. Delivered in December 1995 it is still going strong and looking better than ever I reckon. Some may say that it is only now reaching its prime. Well I certainly would.
Given its new found maturity here is what it would vote for if it could:
1. Drivers MUST keep left. Overtaking is fine but once you have done that don’t sit in the right hand lane like a boob. It’s dangerous and it is actually illegal. Don’t believe me? Here you go, from:
http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/usingroads/downloads/top_10_misunderstood_road_rules.pdf
and I quote:
On multi-lane roads with a speed limit of more than 80km/h, motorists must not drive in the right-hand lane unless they are:
•     overtaking
•     turning right or making a U-turn
•     avoiding an obstacle
•     driving in congested traffic
•     driving in a special purpose lane or if there is a Left Lane Must Turn Left sign or a left traffic arrow and the driver is not turning left.
If a Keep Left Unless Overtaking sign is displayed, the requirement
applies regardless of the speed limit.
2. More of the collected road taxes need to be spent actually FIXING the roads! This means not simply slapping some bitumen in the chasms that appear after it rains. It means fixing the roads and more importantly building them correctly in the first place. The surfaces on some of roads should never qualify as being ‘main roads’ at all.
3. Compulsory advanced driver training courses for ALL drivers throughout the lifetime of their road use. What passes for driving ability on the roads today is a joke. It is not until you have taken an advanced driver training course do you realize what a piss poor driver you are. That changes the way you approach driving which is something that benefits all, reduces accidents, makes travel safer and therefore lowers insurance premiums to boot.
4. Cyclists have every right to use the road PROVIDED they:
a. Have compulsory third party insurance like all other vehicles that use the roads.
b. Are ridden by someone who has passed a road skills theory and practical exam like all other vehicles that use the roads.
c. Ride registered vehicles that pass annual safety inspections like all other vehicles that use the road.
d. Are driven by people who take appropriate safety precautions like wearing a helmet as motor cyclists are required to.
e. Are subject to the same road rules as all other vehicles on the road(which typically means actually stopping at red traffic lights).
5. More has to be done to get cars off the roads. They are simply choking with increased volumes of traffic every day. For three days around Christmas this year traffic heading north out of Sydney was at a stand still. How is that possible? I am also constantly amazed at how heavy Sydney traffic is when I occasionally venture out, even in the middle of the weekday. I would also suggest that 90% of the traffic I see in peak hour are vehicles with a single person in it. How inefficient. Better public transport to free up our roads and reduce frustration, road wear and save the environment. I certainly use the train whenever I can. It is far cheaper and much more efficient in a big city.
A good manifesto I reckon.
The other milestone reached this week was reaching the 40,000 kilometres travelled mark. One of things that you soon learn about older cars is that if you lock them away in a garage and never drive them then the changes of them failing is much greater than a car that is used regularly. A car is designed to be driven and the parts are designed to be worked. Not driving a car regularly fails to work many components which generally leads to their premature failure.
Yep, sure, you drive a car and it is going to get dirty, scratched, dented and so on. That is simply part of price on enjoying a car. If you are worried about that happening then you shouldn’t be driving something where that will be a concern. My advice? Downgrade and live without the stress but don;t forget you are forgoing the pleasure which to me is far outweighed by such minor (although at times very irritating) concerns.
So what did reward did the F355 receive for passing two major milestones this week? It got a nice drive in the country followed by a full wash and polish. I would have done more but it was getting to hot unfortunately so I scurried back home to the shade.
Time to start planning the twenty first birthday bash I reckon now.