Tuesday 28 June 2022

Schedoni Modena factory visit

Since my return of my last trip with the 400 to Italy via https://www.italyherewe.com/#Welkom
I had not much time to write up a little blog on how it went. By now everyone send their photo's to the organizers, so I expect soon they will come up with a nice Youtube compilation video. I see they have already updated the website with some new photo's.

In any case, one part of the trip was a visit to the Schedoni factory. Since it became such a great visit I want to dedicate a special blog about it. I will write up a small summary about the rest, more specifically about the 400, when the compilation video comes out. 

I was already approached by the organizers beforehand so I knew this visit was organized as I provided them the contact details. This was already months ago. So by the time we got closer I was almost to late to reach out to the author of the book: "Ferrari by Schedoni". This would be a great opportunity to meet up with him and get a signed copy in person. I had been in contact with him in the past regarding the 400 and the suitcases. 

So I left him a message via messenger just a few days beforehand. He informed me he was quite occupied that week and could not guarantuee his availability. Unfortunately my messenger somehow stopped working on my smartphone (despite removing/installling again). So I told him to reach me via whatsapp (somehow I made a typo in the telephone number, so he never could update me on the situation - sigh). 

When we arrived later that week at Schedoni we were very enthusiastic welcomed by Simone Schedoni, the current owner and 4th generation. Unfortunately his father passed away last year. Fortunately all his fathers stories were captured in the book. The author of the book, Alberto Mantovani was however not present when we arrived. Bummer.

We could nicely park in front of the building, my 400 was next to the entrance. Hereby a photo in combination with Simone Schedoni himself. 

He closely inspected the car and since the window was open I saw him touching the leather seats. 
When everyone was present we got a tour in the factory:





When the tour was nearly finished to my great surprise Alberto showed up. Not did he brought the books with him, he also had a complete set of suitcases for the 400 with him. How's that! 

What a pleasant surprise. He provided us with a small lecture about these suitcases. Someone told me afterwards it was incredible to hear a 20 min story about this specific set only. hehe. 

And some supporting photo's:





It's unknown how many of these suitcases for the 400i were build (yes, this set started in 1980, so these were not made for the 400 carburettor). It is estimated in the range of  min 2 to max 15 sets. So they are quite rare to say the least, let alone if you can find one set complete. Schedoni is not allowed to reproduce them either as it's propriety of Ferrari. 

I joked we should try to see if they really fit my 400 boot -  and then drive away as fast as I can.

Clearly I asked him for a signed copy of the book and a joined photo together, which he kindly agreed to. And he was so kind to get the suitcases in the boot as well. I thought this was quite a unique setting:



Of course we took the opportunity to make a small shoot out of it. Sig. Schedoni was quite pleased too and kindly posed with the suitcases. 





As for the book, I have read it by now and can testify it's a great book. It's available in English and full of anecdotes and interesting stories about very important people who were close with Enzo Ferrari.
One more thing I learned in the book is about Nino Todaro who was a famous Sicilian race driver (ie Targa Florio) and he owned a 400i and had this specific luggage set. 





After the visit we were also gifted a cardholder by Schedoni. I will treasure it. Grazie Mille Alberto and Simone for having us and providing this excellent tour.


  

And of course I had to post this group photo in the Ferrari 400 Facebook group. And another surprise, it appeared Simone Schedoni was in this group too as he responded to it. I had no idea he was a member of our group.


As said, this book is available in English. I guess the best way to order one is via this website:

https://www.gilena.it/en/book/ferrari-by-schedoni-a-long-ride-on-the-prancing-horse

Or if you want to contact the author directly,  you can do so via his Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/ferraribyschedoni/


Update 7-7-2022: Now available as Ebook (English) as well:

https://www.artestampaedizioni.it/prodotto/ferrari-by-schedoni-a-long-ride-on-the-prancing-horse-ebook/



Monday 27 June 2022

Top tech tip - Oil return house replacement

And another top tech tip:

The oil return hose, the one that runs from the oil pressure valve/oil pump to the oil sump, literally crumbled when it was being moved.

They are exposed to the elements as well as very high temp engine oil. I strongly recommend everyone replace theirs as a preventive meausure.



Wednesday 22 June 2022

Youtube - Nr 27 : Driving a V12 Ferrari 400i - Could it Replace My Ferrari 308 GTS?

This is one of the few channels I follow on Youtube and just before I went on my roadtrip this was published. Clearly a 400 is not a subtitute for a 308, especially if you demand similar handling. Even if you obtain a manual gearbox it will not suffice. It's only a nice to have on the open roads which are quite rare these days as I discovered again at my European roadtrip. In any case, enjoy the review:

https://youtu.be/PJL_HTm6aYw

Sunday 12 June 2022

Italy here we .com 2022

Yes, after 2 years of absence due to Covid we are going back to our roots. And I will be participating along with the 400. Looking forward to it.

https://www.italyherewe.com/#Welkom

Sorry, the website is in Dutch but I see they have implemented a translate button

And the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100054673080096

Sunday 5 June 2022

Ferrari 365GT4 2+2 pininfarina press photo

Of course when I was abroad some Ebay auctions ended. And I missed out on each of them, meaning I got outbid, sigh. This one got sold for 32 GBP. It's alway surprising to see the unliked models fetch the highest prices

Wednesday 1 June 2022

Tech top tip of the week : Ferrari 412 - replacement of the water pump jointer hose

This might be an item that is overlooked or neglected. Clearly this item is pending when and if the waterpump needs to be replaced/overhauled. This is much pending on the usage obviously so it might be the hose is pretty old and potentially has become fragile over time. The good news is, this item can be replaced without removing the engine. So definitely an item to have checked.