Monday 27 August 2018

For sale : Ferrari 412 with only 7000 kms - Japan

Almost a brand new 412 Automatic with only 7000 km on it. Newly delivered in Japan.

https://www.classicdriver.com/en/car/ferrari/412/1989/554180

http://www.kmauto.jp/vcsMember/stockdetail/544-1_554.html

Makes me wonder who was the first owner and did not bother to drive it. Clearly this car will end up in some kind of private collection.



Sunday 26 August 2018

Saturday 25 August 2018

#110459: Tube connecting filters base to vacuum pump

After the last maintenance job as per blog:

http://erwin400.blogspot.com/2018/08/mot-10k-maintenance-interval.html

I made a very short test drive myself. All felt nice and good but occassionly the gas appeared to be hanging and not moving back to low idle or at least very slowly. I left it and would look into it the next weekend. Once I had lubricated the gas cable all was working smoothly again. The weather did not look great so I made only a very small testdrive. When I parked back inside the garage and opened up the bonnet I was in shock as there was a severe oil leakage visible


 When checking underneath the car there was more spill:


And at the front end of the engine there was a clear sign as well but I couldn't find the culprit:


I immediately checked the oil dipstick and to my relieve it was still almost full. Phew! So likely the oil leakage must have started when I parked it. I checked everything over again but still couldn't find the source and the oil was everywhere making it difficult to trace it back. So the only solution was to start the engine and quickly check. And it became evident very quickly:


When I touched the hose it felt off completely. I was stunned and did not understand how this could have happened.





The oil hose is going to the oil filter and is part of the lubrication system. Since the oil spill hit the alternator belt it was scattered all over the place. Nice.

Question remains, how could this have happened? Although I spotted the new "copper" spacers used on the banjo bolt of this hose connector I only figured he had taken it off for the maintenance and put new spacers on it. I'm sure the engineer would have spotted if the oil hose was poor.

Guess what? When the engineer was doing the maintenance the Original (40 year old) oil hose did snapped off! He had it replaced with a new one (something I was unaware off). So basicly that means a brand new hose did snap off this time. It really looks like it's cut off, definately not torn or bursted (there is hardly any pressure on this hose). My theory was they "clamped" the iron sleeve faulty resulting in a damage of my new hose:


The engineer did had the old hose with the other (replaced) parts put back in the trunk:


At first I figured to order a new complete hose but this part (110459) is not available. I called Kroymans in the Netherlands and they confirmed it's not available and advised to make a new one. I then called Italauto (hoping they might have some old stock) but they also confirmed it's not available. Furthermore they informed me it's not unusual for these hoses to fail. At least they do replace them at a "regular" interval. What!? Excuse me? The Original hose survived almost 40 years in my case. So they also advised me to make a new one.

The engineer offered to make a new one again. I wanted the Original banjo bolts and fitting (instead of shiny new ones) to be used again and supplied him the Original and new (failed) hoses. I also liked the Original hose with the breaded clothing cover. So a new one was made (using breaded clothing) but he also looked into what might have caused the fault. Apparently the thread of the banjo bolt fitting was actually quite sharp and more or less had made the cut in the new soft hose resulting into this specific failure.

In any case, a new one was made:


The old Original hose still had the label of the manufacturer: Pfister - Milano Turin Bologna. I suspect these days they are called: www.angst-pfister.com When checking the website I see their red logo AP, which is also visible on the label. So yes, it's them ...


So the new oil hose was connected (remove the oil filter and brake booster):




Started the engine again and presto; no more oil leaking. Driving the car backwards and the spill is still there.


I didn't make any further testdrive since the weather was poor again. But I expect all is fine now.

Sunday 19 August 2018

Flashback: 1st of May, 1979 - Auto Becker Ferrari meeting at the Nürburgring.

And another classic by Andreas Binner

Flashback: On 1st of May, 1979 the then sole German Ferrari importer, Auto Becker of Düsseldorf, held a big Ferrari meeting at the Nürburgring. Part of this meeting was a parade of all participating cars on the track. An American pickup truck which was the leading car in the parade was used as a mobile platform for photographers and - reportedly - a film crew. Unfortunately I haven't managed to find this film so far. This photo was taken by Dieter Berg who took part in the parade at the wheel of his silvergrey 308 GTB Vetroresina. The car in front is the burgundy 275 GTB/4 s/n 10263, owned at the time by Karl-Heinz Ophoff of Solingen, Germany, a dealer of crashed Ferrari automobiles and spare parts. He broke many Ferrari for scrap. Originally silvergrey metallic, 275 GTB/4 s/n 10263 had been sold new to Victor Rolff, a mining entrepreneur and the main sponsor of Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips in the latter's early days of racing. When owned by Ophoff, the car was fitted with a 365 GTB/4 Daytona engine, but the original engine had been kept aside and was later reunited with the car. #ferrari #ferrari70 #autobecker #helmutbecker #nürburgring #nurburgring #flashback #vintagephoto #vintagephotos #oldphotos #oldphoto #ferrari275 #ferrari275gtb4 #275gtb4 #ophoff #karlheinzophoff #epic #verdammtlangher #dieterberg
Een bericht gedeeld door Andreas Birner (@abi2612) op



Sunday 12 August 2018

Auction : Shannons - Ferrari 400i RHD manual.

And another upcoming auction. Yes, there are quite a few 400's for sale these days. And very nice ones as well. Price ranges vary a lot as well, pending the state of the car of course. This one is estimated to fetch around 90k - 100k Euro's or 120.000 - 130.000 Austr. Dollars. So I'm adding this one for the records again. To bad there's only 1 photo so far. And I like the supporting selling information, especially this part:

"For the first time on a regular production Ferrari, an automatic transmission option was made available that entirely suited the relaxed nature of the model"

And this happens to be a manual gearbox equipped car.

https://www.shannons.com.au/auctions/2018-shannons-melbourne-spring-classic-auction/Q362J5AY531D1YUE/


Saturday 11 August 2018

Ferrari Key Fob A.E. Lorioli Fratelli Milano

Somewhile ago I purchased an Original Ferrari Key Fob:

https://erwin400.blogspot.com/2016/03/ferrari-key-fob-ae-lorioli-fratelli.html

When I compared the horse with the advert - which was coming from the Auto Becker Magazine in 1979 I noticed the horse was more sleek and had a different tail. So it looks like I had bought and older version, meaning not time period correct. I suspect the one I have was more sixties or early seventies.

So by now I have bought another one and it arrived earlier this week. See hereby the supporting photo's. A while back I also bought a fairly new one in Modena is some Ferrari shop. So added that one as well for comparisson. So now I have also a keyfob for my spare keys and another spare.






Friday 10 August 2018

Magazine : Auto Motor Klassiek - Ferrari 400 serie

This Dutch magazine article has been added to the archive. It's now available in the download folder.


Thursday 9 August 2018

Auction : Ferrari 412 RHD Automatic

And another upcoming auction with a Ferrari 412 offered for sale. Just adding it here for the records as I'm curious regarding the outcome of this auction:

http://gaukmotors.co.uk/vehicle/1987-ferrari-412


Wednesday 8 August 2018

Tuesday 7 August 2018

Amazing discoveries : Ferrari 400 Automatic Shift handle - Compatibility

I was always under the impression the automatic shift handle was reused from the Fiat 130 Berlina and the Fiat 130 Coupe. The latter is a Pininfarina creation while the Berlina was designed inhouse by Fiat Centro Stile. Since the Berlina was the first (1969) I figured it was a Fiat design. The Fiat 130 berlina (and coupe - 1971) were both available with Borg Warner automatics.

To my surprise I just happened to have spotted the following picture:


And after a little investigation I found out it was originally used in a 4th generation Chevy Impala in the sixties (and the Chevelle and the El Camino) And yes, they are still available:



I shouldn't have been surprised it was an American shift handle. Still it's a vey nice design. So a true American design piece, what a nice discovery.