Ferrari Race Days Sydney Tickets now available

Tickets are now available for the Ferrari Race Day Sydney April 12-13 2014 at Sydney Motorsport Park Eastern Creek.

Street legal

In a previous post I covered how the car had gone in for registration and required the CV boots changed amongst a few other things. One of the things that needed looking at was the tyre valve on the passenger’s rear, which was proving hard to use. When the car was retuned after having the valve changed to a genuine F355 one it was ‘discovered’ that both rear wheels had gashes on them.

The one in the in the second picture above was on the same rim that has the faulty valve. Now the tyre people were positive it wasn’t them but I am pretty sure I would have notice something like that on the rim before hand but unfortunately couldn’t be 100% sure. So was I was now also up for 2 rim repairs. (Note to self – next time photograph all rims before going to tyre place).

So off came the old CV boots as you can see above.

and on went a shiny set of new boots.

As mentioned previously, this was something that had been noted when I first purchased the car so it was not a surprise that they needed changing after all these years. Now with them done it should be right for quite a while.

You can see the heat shields that the boots sit under to protect them from the heat of the engine.

The other thing apart from the CV boots and the tyre rims I had done was to get the drivers seat ‘refurbished’ somewhat because it had become worn on the outer side where you slide in and out of the car. It is something that is always getting rubbed as I enter and exit the car (which I still can’t do gracefully in the confines of where it lives). This means that this outer part gets worn more than the rest of the seat so I also had that ‘repaired’ and ‘protected’. It will need doing again over time but it certainly looks much better. At the same time they also fixed the cushion on the seat at the front just under my legs as that was also (not unexpectedly) also wearing.

With that all complete (including an oil change after my oil incident) I rolled out of Racing Red and headed home. It is always amazing how heavy mid day traffic is when I am returning from a service. This time wasn’t as stressful as last time but it still wasn’t as free flowing as I reckon it should be at that time of the day. Must be just me!

With the car all tucked away I paid for my third party insurance (green slip) and registration online. Car registered for another year, done! Also, since there are no longer any registration stickers the car needs no further work, just get in and drive from here on in. Yeah.

All the repairs, including the unexpected ones to the rims, did make the bill more that I wanted but the majority was for repairs that I knew were coming and needed to be done. In the long run they all add to or maintain the value of the car so I have no hesitation in paying what is required here. Speaking of ‘known’ repairs, next year’s annual service will require the engine to be dropped out of the car and the belts changed. This should be completed every three years and dropping the engine out of the F355 is a ‘unique’ part of the maintenance of the car. Another ‘known’ issue that I’ll probably get taken care of at the same time is to get the shock absorbers re-conditioned as they were showing signs of leaking when I purchased the car. They are no worse to day but hey, while the whole engine is out why not refurbish the rear shocks as well eh? Next year’s annual service will make this years look cheap I feel.

All part of the joy of owning a F355.

I’m EXCITED!

The rumours are finally true! Yeah! Ferrari Race Days are coming to Sydney. This weeks as the official announcement:

http://smh.drive.com.au/motor-news/ferrari-challenge-festival-confirmed-for-sydney-20131205-2ytfp.html

after much rumour:

http://news.drive.com.au/drive/motor-news/ferrari-racing-day-coming-to-australia-20130906-2t9uu.html

If it anything like the events overseas:

It will be HUGE!

I’m also sure that the Ferrari Club will be heavily involved and hopefully get some special ‘deals’ and ‘access’. At least that’s what I’m hoping. Finger crossed.

Make sure you book Friday the 11th to Sunday the 13th of April to be at Eastern Creek. I know I will!

Annual service

So another year has rolled around and it’s time to get the car serviced and rego’ed again.
When I received the third party insurance (green slip) renewal for the the coming year the price was over $250 more than it was last year. That’s strange I thought, I wonder why that is? The attached covering letter from the insurance company suggested that I contact them to ask about multi-policy discounts. I might just do that, given my daily drive is also insured by the same company.
Lucky I did, as it turns out that because the F355 is comprehensively insured by a broker it isn’t listed via a ‘known’ insurance company on the other company’s list. This means at green slip renewal time they remove it from their system and thus the car goes back to not having comprehensive insurance. This results in a higher green slip premium.
As soon as I told them that the car was comprehensively insured the green slip fee dropped back to what it was last year (around $540). I understand why the green slip insurance company did what they did but I also note what would have happened if I hadn’t called them up to check why the premium was so much higher. Moral of that story is to always check things out when the price jumps like that. I made a note for renewal time next year.
So with the rego paper received it was time to get the car over to Racing Red for the annual service and registration. Aside from the service and rego there were a few things that I need checking out or more information on.
– The passenger rear tyre that had issues with a faulty valve previously that resulted in constant deflation, but had been replaced last time was proving hard to get the air pump on to insert air. Turns out that when they repaired the valve last time they had used a replacement valve that was not a Ferrari original. Not unsurprisingly given those valves aren’t too common. Luckily, Sal said that he had a spare and would get them to make a change.
– The suspension was still lower on one side when compared to the other. I’d had the car adjusted earlier in the year and the car was handling fine so I knew it wasn’t an issue but I was curious as to why this was? Investigations to be made.
– I quizzed Sal about the oil levels and temperatures after the recent ‘episode’ I had gone through. I was especially interested in why the oil level varied so much from cold to warm. Turns out the oil expands that much! Wow, didn’t know that. Also interesting to find out that the car shouldn’t burn that much oil at all. The only way is over consumes oil is if it is blowing smoke. That means that it shouldn’t need any oil between annual services given the low kilometres I do. Ok, roger, got that.
– After having to recently replace the battery in my daily drive car I wondered whether I should be looking to change the battery in this car? There was no indication of issues so no real need it turns out. If the battery is weak then it will crank the engine slowly when starting. That’s the early warning sign to watch for. Although I could get the NRMA (road side assistance) to change the battery, the best bet is to get Sal to take of that. Ok, check.
– Signs of leaking shocker absorbers. An issue highlighted during initial inspection and checked last year. Need to see whether they have degraded to the point where it needs addressing. Investigations to be made.
– During the initial purchase inspection it was revealed that the inner driveshaft CV boots were swollen and deformed. The CV boots are basically rubber housing that fits over the axles at either end.

Now the inner CV boots are the ones that are closest to engine.

They become deformed because they are so close to the engine which gets mighty hot when it is running.

The above shots show you that the right hand inner CV boot is actually torn and starting to throw out grease, so time to get them changed.
This was something that was mentioned in the initial inspection and checked last year around this time so it is not a huge surprise that it needs doing, so the go ahead to replace both inner CV boots has been authorized but given that replacement parts are required this may delay the return of the car a little. That’s not a huge issue, and I’d rather get it done right.
I wonder whether the CV boots have ever been replaced? Probably not given the low distance the car has travelled prior to my ownership, so it is something that is known to deform over time with the heat of the engine although there is plenty of chat out there on the forums about the standard heat shields in the car not providing enough protection for the CV boots. That’s something I’ll get checked as well but given they have lasted this long I don’t think there should be a problem.
So that’s where we stand at the moment, repairs underway and further updates to come once I know more.

Wet and Dry

The saga I’m about to reveal all actually started with my other car. I had departed at around 5am for a trip to the Gold Coast (about 10 hours driving) and had just passed the last freeway service station. All of a sudden, while boring along the freeway, the check oil light came on.
In a mild panic I pulled off at the next exit to find a service station. When I did, I purchased whatever oil they had and poured about half a litre into the engine and proceeded on my way without further incident. The following week I put this car in for service and deduced that the issue had simply been a long time between services. My fault for failing to be diligent.
This incident then got me thinking about the fluid levels in the F355. The first thing was the water level. Here’s what the owner’s manual says:
Regularly check the level of the coolant in the tank, only when the engine is cold, the level must not fall below 2.8 to 3.1 (6 – 8 cm) below the filler cap.

So the expansion tank for the cooling system is located at the top, in the middle of the engine (item 6 above) and when I unscrewed the cap I did indeed find the water level to be a bit low. I therefore topped it up with about 1 litre of water, which was more that I expected it would take to get the level up.
Now checking the oil is a different matter. The owner’s manual says:
Check the oil every 500 miles (800 kms) by means of the dipstick under the oil tank filler cap.
The level must always be kept between the “Min” and “Max” marks on the dipstick.
Note: To check the oil level, leave the engine idle for a few minutes (oil temperature above 158 degree F), then stop the engine and check the oil immediately.
Unfortunately, what I took away from that was to check the oil when the car is warm, which is not completely correct. You MUST check the oil immediately after the car has stopped running as I will explain further.
So after taking the car out for a drive I left it for its customary cool down period (45 – 60 minutes) and then checked the oil.

The oil tank is the back right hand side of the engine bay (if looking at the engine from the rear). It is item 1 in the above diagram.

The oil filler cap (item 5 in diagram) has a dipstick connected as shown above with the requisite “Min” and “Max” lines.
After removing the cap, wiping the dipstick and checking the oil level I discovered, much to my horror, that no oil level was registered! Now in a mid state of panic I checked the level again and failed to find any trace of oil. The ‘red mist’ descended.
Oh no, I thought. The engine has no oil. What will I do? Then I remembered the oil I had purchased for my other car previously and only partially used. I retrieved that and poured about half of what remained into the F355 oil tank. Checking the oil level again, I still found no trace of oil on the dipstick. The panic level increased as I poured the remaining oil into the F355 oil tank. A final check after this still failed to reveal any traces of oil in the F355 tank.
With no more oil available I started making plans to immediately rush out and pick some up. As the ‘red mist’ of panic began to subside, the more logical side of my brain kicked in. Surely, the oil level couldn’t ‘disappear’, I must be missing something.
I was. After some research the important part of the owners manual I had dutifully neglected was:
Note: To check the oil level, leave the engine idle for a few minutes (oil temperature above 158 degree F), then stop the engine and check the oil immediately.
The reason you need to check the oil level immediately after stopping the car is that the F355 has a dry sump configuration. Now I had no idea what the difference between a wet and dry sump was. I don’t feel too bad now because nearly everyone else I asked didn’t either. So here, in a nutshell is the difference between a wet and dry sump.

The above video details how oil works as a lubrication system for an engine. It resides at the bottom of the engine in a ‘sump’ where it is pumped around the engine for lubrication and cooling.

Most cars have what is know as a wet sump, that is all the oil resides in the sump at the bottom of the car. You use a dipstick to check the oil level when the car is cool as all the oil has pooled in the sump at the bottom and you can measure the level.
Typically, the F355 is not a ‘normal’ car, it uses a dry sump system (as detailed in the above video). Why? A dry sump basically stores the oil in a separate reservoir. This means the sump can be smaller, therefore the engine can be mounted lower in the car for better balance. A dry sump system also ensure a more even supply of oil to the engine when accelerating, braking or cornering at high speeds. In a normal wet sump system the oil can ‘slosh’ to one side when cornering preventing adequate oil supply.
Having established that the F355 has a dry sump system I understand the reason why the oil level needs to be checked just after stopping the engine (so there is oil in the tank!). So I now need to check the oil the ‘correct’ way, up to temperature and just after stopping the engine.

When I now tested the level I discovered it to way above the ‘Max’ level like so:

Having the oil at such high levels is not good for the engine as it can screw up the sensors as well as cause the engine to blow smoke.
Now the challenge was getting the oil level down. After some internet searching I came across this thread (where I also took the oil level pictures from):
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/348-355/335635-checking-355-oil-level.html
and it recommended the best option was to use a turkey baster to remove the excess oil from the tank.

Silly me considered a turkey baster an easy item to procure. Alas, there were none in my local shopping centre, so off to the Internet search engines I went.
I eventually found one that I could order form the Internet, which I did but figured, surely, I could buy one somewhere. After some more searching I located a suitable shop in a bigger shopping complex and headed off to secure it. Problem is that when I arrived, turned out there must have been a run on turkey basters as there were none to be found. “REALLY?”, I groaned. None? Hang on sec, what’s this. Hmmm, not exactly what I was after but it will do the job.

So rather than just a turkey baster I ended up with a
MasterChef Roasting & Basting Set

I figured that I could use the brush from the set to at least clean the vents in the car. You use that kind of justification when you pay more for something than you wanted don’t you now?
Armed with my baster and an assistant I ran the car for 60 seconds to get oil into the tank and started to suck out the excess. Problem is, how much do I take out? I wasn’t a hundred percent sure of how much I had actually put in. I kind of figured just over half a litre. I therefore removed about this amount.
With that complete I needed to check the oil at temperature, so I fired the car up and let it idle. As the engine heated up I started to get lots of smoke from the engine. ‘Oh no, what have I done wrong’, my brain screamed as the ‘red mist’ of panic descended again. Here’s where having someone to help you pays dividends. My helper pointed out that I had managed to spill a small amount of oil on the exhaust manifold. When this heated up the oil burnt off. Thus, the smoke.
I could see the oil on the manifold but there was nothing I could do as the engine was now hot. I no other option but to let it burn off, which I did (while still holding my breath). What had in fact had happened, even though I had been extremely careful transferring the oil out of the tank and into a container, was oil had travelled down the underside of the container, to the bottom, and dripped on the manifold.
With engine at temperature I discovered the oil level still above the maximum level. “That’s strange”, I thought. We decided to let the car cool down before attempting to remove any more oil. Getting hot engine oil on one’s skin is not fun at all, so safety first!
About an hour later we returned and drained another 0.3 litres and even then the oil level was still at the maximum. Now I’m sure I didn’t put about 0.8 litres in there. Strange. Maybe it was high to start?
With that complete, I cleaned up, thanked my assistant and put the car to bed, still concerned as to whether I had in fact now removed too much oil.
The big test was going to be the weekend run down the south coast. To be safe I decided it was best to take some oil along with me, just in case I had in fact removed too much. Turns out that even buying oil is fraught with complications.
The oil specified in the owner’s manual is 10W40, whereas the oil I had added to the engine was 20W50. Hmmmm, ok what’s the difference? Turns out that these numbers refer to the viscosity of the oil. The first number is a ‘winter’ or cold viscosity, while the second number is a ‘normal’ operating temperature viscosity. The lower the number the less viscous (or more easily flowing the oil will be). Thus, a 10W oil will move through the engine faster when cold than a 20W. For more details on all this stuff see:
http://www.upmpg.com/tech_articles/motoroil_viscosity/
So basically I had not only added too much oil, but I had also added the wrong type. No much I could do about that now.
The other question about oil for the F355 was whether it needed to have ‘magnesium’ or not? At this point I wanted to put the whole saga behind me so I went out and bought some Shell Helix 10W40 as my oil security blanket for upcoming journeys.
So the epilogue of this story is that the car completed the Cavallino run without incident, even with the oil getting up to temperature sitting in traffic. It has also been out on additional runs, again without incident, but I am not yet confident enough to go out without my oil security bottle.
Big learning experience here is to do EXACTLY what the owners manual says when it comes to checking the car and at least now I know the difference between a wet and dry sump. I’m still a little fuzzy on some of the details that go along with this in the F355 but I’m sure I’ll work those out in good time. If you have gotten through this whole post, then hopefully you will as well know what a dry sump is in case you ever come across one! Thanks for reading.

Cavallino run

After warming up the F355 I headed off to Ferrari Maserati Sydney in Waterloo as the meeting point for the planned Cavallino run to the Southern Highlands as a tribute to Enzo Ferrari.

After some coffee and pastries we where marshalled in convoy onto the streets of Sydney. It was quite a sight to see over 20 Ferrari’s travelling on convoy. You couldn’t miss knowing when the lights changed from the roar of the exhausts.

We headed south along Southern Cross Drive and then onto the Princess Highway. We turned left Loftus and headed through the Royal National Park to our first stop around Stanwell Tops.

After a short break we headed onto the road again towards Wollongong. Unfortunately, we turned left instead of right which meant we missed taking Bulli Pass back up the mountain, but no fear we kept heading south towards Wollongong meeting up with the Princes Highway again.

At Albion Park we turned right and headed along the Illawarra Highway through Macquarie Pass National Park, which was a great stretch of road. At Robertson we turned right and headed through Kangaloon and then Bowral to our final destination Bendooley Estate Berrima.

We lined all the cars up and headed off to an exquisite lunch.

The cars where then arranged in a fan shape to permit the great shots you see above.

After filling up in Mittagong we headed back to Sydney along the Hume Highway.

A really fantastic day and a huge round of thank to Ferrari Maserati Sydney for all their hard work organizing the day, mapping the route, proving printed direction and keep all the ‘strays’ together. I think everyone had a great time and it was a fitting tribute to old man Ferrari.

Apart from the above shots I managed to get some great video with the Go Pro, although I did have some issues trying to ‘wake’ it up while driving through the scenic Macquarie Pass National Park. So no shots from there unfortunately! That’s ok because it would have captured me slamming the nose into the road after failing to see a major ‘bump’ along the way. Luckily, the car hasn’t shown an ill effects from this.

The video has some great shots of winding through the Royal National Park and long the coast road, including traversing the Sea Cliff Bridge in Wollongong. Unfortunately, it was pretty hazy due to all the bushfires lately but that certainly didn’t spoil the day.

Another angle

Slapped the Go Pro Hero 3 back on the car over the weekend and took it out for a run. This time I mounted it just behind the passengers head rest on the outside of the car.

This gives a different perspective from the other videos I’ve done which are generally all looking forward.

I think that it is getting a bit boring just having a single view of a camera during a run and I also think that it is getting a bit boring doing these sort of takes.

I can certainly start looking at creating a montage of all the footage I have collected so far but what about going forward? I can certainly keep sticking the camera in different places all over the car but does that have much point? I need to come up with something different I reckon to make things on the YouTube channel a bit fresher.

Any suggestions?

It’s been a big week

The car has been really busy this week and it’s not over yet!

To start out with, I picked it up from Prestige Auto Dent Removal early in the week after having them remove the dent I put in the door of the car as well as complete a full detail. It was a big job to fix the dent as they had to take the whole door off the car but the good news is they were able to fix it along with a few other dents I had accumulated over the time.

To retain as much of the value of the car as possible I also asked them to do a full detail, excluding the engine bay. This combined with the dent removal meant that the car was away for much longer than I expected but I really wanted it fixed so was prepared to wait the extended time.

So here’s the final results at my favourite petrol station and the location of many of the “antics” over time, including putting the dent in the car originally. I have to say that car looks fantastic thanks to Garry at Prestige Auto Dent Removal. No sign of any dents and the finish is immaculate. I can now sleep at night and no longer be haunted by the blemish I inflicted on my car.

I was at my favourite petrol station after taking the car for a run up to Brooklyn and back (as I missed out over the weekend) but I really needed to fill up the tank for the track event the following day.

I admit that I was very,very apprehensive participating in the track event for a number of reasons.

1. During a track event your insurance does not cover you. So have an ‘incident’ you are on your own.

2. Being a rookie and in an older car I am going to be taking it much slower than other more experience hands driving the latest rocket ship like a 458. Staying ‘out of trouble’ having never been on a racing tack before was what concerned me the most.

3. I had to navigate through peak hour traffic to Eastern Creek Motorsport park there and back. Luckily, it was school holidays so traffic should be much lighter but there have been a few major incidents on the roads of late that seemed to be occurring with far too much frequency for my liking.

Even as I sat in the car and turned it over first thing my emotions were screaming at me not to go. Stupid I know, but the fear of the unknown is a powerful thing.

I did however force myself to take the 30 minute or so drive to the track and parked my car in the garage on pit lane without incident. I then availed myself of a bracing caffeine fix and some sugary pastry. It is amazing how much energy your burn when you are petrified.

I then signed all my legal rights away indemnifying what seemed to be anyone even remotely connected with event from any and all liability. In understand why you need to do this but indemnifying people against my death certainly didn’t make me feel better.

Next was a drivers briefing where we all heard how the event worked, what the marshal’s flags meant and finally how the overtaking operated. Basically, when you approached a car from behind you had to wait for them to wave you past. The driver in front had to point out of the window to either the left or right hand side of the track to indicate where the following car should pass. Ok, easy enough I thought but must remember to leave the window down when I go out as I don’t want to be fiddling with that while attempting to break, turn and get out of the way.

I then needed to obtain a ‘loaner’ helmet, which also required wearing a very fetching (NOT) hairnet. I returned to my car to wait until my group was called. They basically divide all the drivers up into a number of groups and send these groups out for a 20 minute run.

It wasn’t long before my group was called to assemble at the end of pit lane. As I strapped myself into the car I discovered that the F355 is not really designed for wearing a helmet when you drive because the additional head protection now made me too tall for the car. I adjusted the seat back to allow some more headroom. I made enough room but only just enough to succeed in making my driving position just that little bit more uncomfortable and me just that little bit more apprehensive.

However, I was now at the point of no return as I swung out of the garage and onto pit lane and joined the tail of the queue waiting to take to the track. Just before going out I was asked whether I want an instructor to ride along. “Yes, please” I replied. In a matter of moments I was hurdling away from the pits with some bloke I’d only just met, onto a racing track I’d never been round at speeds greater than what I have done before in the car. Piece of cake (NOT).

My driving instructor passenger pointed out that they had laid out cones at each corner to show you where to turn and where the apex is (that is the optimal point you want to get to close as possible to ‘straighten’ the corner out and reduce your time cornering. The only real thing that you need to work out is where to break and that depends on the driver, the entry speed and the car just to name a few variables involved.

With my co-pilot on board I found it tough to make the optimal point in most of the corners but importantly I understood what I needed to do. More importantly I was able to wind the car up and give it a good ‘squirt’. I even managed to wave a few cars by so I was a pretty ‘happy chappy’ as I pulled back into the pits after my first run in the car on a race track. Although my apprehension had not fully dissipated, I was happy that I came.

For the next session I was in the car all by my lonesome but I was a lot more comfortable with what I needed to do. I still mucked up most corners but I was certainly improving from earlier on. During this session I recorded the following video on my trusty Go Pro camera (this time placed inside the car to prevent stupid acts of denting).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I45hRYkt2Vk

It wasn’t long before I was out for my third session of the day, just before lunch. However, this time, towards the end of session it began to rain quite hard. So being no hero I made a bee line for the pits and parked the car. Luckily, this was the only rain we had all day even though it threatened much during the rest of the day.

After lunch I did two more sessions before finally heading home, most satisfied with having a track event under my belt. The car performed flawlessly and it was great to be able to wind it up down the straight and power through the corners. The sound alone (even though through a helmet) was well worth it.

So what major things did I learn?

1. I need to break much earlier into corners. Brake in and accelerate out.

2. The faster your travel the greater braking you need. If you overshoot the braking point the momentum of the car won’t allow you to take the right line through the corner.

3. The standard car seats really don’t provide you any support during high speed corners. That is why racing seats are a good idea!

4. The car has far more grip that I expect. I’m sure there was even more if I had the guts to push harder but its ability to turn in hard and stay on line was eye opening.

5. The concentration required is enormous if you want to get the best result. Turning points, apexes, gear shifts, throttling, traffic, etc, etc, there is simply so much to think about it that I was pretty exhausted towards the end of the day. A couple of times I got distracted and found myself somewhere I didn’t want to be (i.e. wrong line). Driving fast requires extended focus and concentration.

So would I go again? Yes, but I’m not necessarily busting to do it again tomorrow because at the end of the day you are just going round and round and there is limit to how much you can concentrate. I am please that I have done an event like this, that car performed marvellously, I captured some video and I can write about it here.

Ah serenity at last.

Concourse

The Ferrari Club held a concourse today in Hunter Hill in Sydney that was extremely well attended. Unfortunately, my car is still in the shop getting the dent taken out of it that I recently put in it.

Ferrari Maserati Sydney brought along an F12 and a 458 Spider you see in the above two shots.

Of course for me the main attraction was other F355s present and you can see from these shots that yellow was a pretty popular colour.

So they have two sections for judging, concourse and wax & wash. The concourse is the more fastidious section where you lose points for paint chips (yup, pain chips).

I gotta say that all the concourse entrants put mine to shame, they were immaculate. I can’t even imagine the amount of time it must have taken to get them into this condition. If you ever want to see what a Ferrari looked liked when it came out of the factory you should check out these cars.

The wax & wash competition is less rigours but even so the cars here looked pretty much in showroom condition to me, talk about clean cars! Even the engine bays were immaculate.

To win the concourse amongst all these outstanding examples for automobiles would really be something for the overall winner.

As you can see the event was well attended with the cars basically filling the complete oval. Quite a sight.

It was great to see so many well turned out cars, speak with some very passionate owners and enjoy the sunny weather on a great Sunday in Sydney. Maybe next concourse I’ll give the wax & wash competition a go? But still reckon I’d get put to shame if the quality I saw today is anything to go by.