My California Has Arrived!

Thanks again all for the kind remarks.

On shields, to me the lines and curves of the panel flow better if the yellow and graphics aren't there to distract my (untrained) eye, esp. with the side vents underneath. Also, I approached spec'ing my car with a 60s GT theme in mind, and so not having the shields was appropriate for my non-competition GT.

By way of background, my 1962 XKE is British Racing Green/Biscuit (tan), and my first Porsche was Silver/Metropole Blue (almost Black). A Silver/Carrera Red combination would have been my first choice for the 911 had a used one been available when I was looking. Since my California is my first Italian car, I wanted the national color, and since I wanted a 60s GT theme I decided a color closer to Rosso Rubino would be better for me than Corsa or Scuderia. Rubino would have been a custom color ($$$), but I like Mugello better anyway.

Obviously very subjective opinions & desires, and if you'll bear with me I'll also share some of my other thoughts that went into buying the car that caused me to end up without shields.

I decided to order the car rather than buy a used one because there was hardly any price differential at the time I was looking, and knowing how some people fantasize about racing Ferraris and would probably be hard on the car if they intended to flip it after a few thousand miles, I wanted to know the provenance of such an expensive item. Plus, the car is a reward to myself for some business success, so the notion of the factory building something bespoke to me gave me even further satisfaction. It also helped that I lucked into my dealer having available an allocation that was about to be frozen for production just a couple weeks after ordering, so the gratification wasn't deferred too long. I am probably the ideal case study for Ferrari's target marketing demographic for the California.

Once I made the decision to buy new, I decided I would order the car for my personal tastes rather than focusing on resale value since after all I was paying a premium, however small it was, and would have to wait several months. I did take comfort, though, that my sales guy told me that he would have no trouble reselling my car. We discussed shields and he was supportive of going without them, and has remarked the couple times I have seen him since taking delivery that he has suggested to other clients they consider going without them for certain configurations.

Jason, good luck with achieving your goal. I think you are wise to make sure your financial house is in order first.

Cavalier, with the Mugello people do seem to notice the car plenty enough. I actually would prefer to be more discreet, but the desire for Italian red overrules on this one. Even without the shields or resale red though, there are plenty of design cues and branding on the car that reminds one that it is a Ferrari. The egg crate grill, hood scoop, engine and rear rocker side air vents/scoops, silver cavallinos fore and aft, badge on hood and script on trunk and the yellow/black cavallino wheel caps. Not to mention all the script & cavallinos inside the car. I think one of the guys on the Vintage board made a derogatory comment about all the branding on the car to appeal to people new to the marque, and while I think Ferrari SPA can't be stuck solely in the ways of the past if it is to continue to grow as a business, I think he makes a fair point. With that said, however, I think Grigio Silverstone with the shields will be stunning.

not4one, thanks for the supportive remark. I had a chuckle when I read it - the remark about being "brave" almost made me feel like I didn't know I was marching into battle, and maybe I didn't realize the risk I was taking!

 

^^
Thanks again. Looks like you've enjoyed some sweet rides the last few years and you're still early in your career. Good for you. At 32, my daily driver was a 1972 BMW 2002 of which I was the 3d owner in its 25 years and had put on the majority of the miles. Best wishes.

 

I've now got close to 700 miles on the car, so the 1000 km break-in period is done. After ensuring the car was properly warmed up, while in sport & manual mode, on a uphill on-ramp to my local highway, from a complete stop I buried the throttle and let the engine wail almost all the way to redline. My goodness what a sound! And by the time I reached the highway I was already way past merging speed and quickly backed off! I can only imagine what the mid-engine cars are like!!

Which triggered a question in my mind. Are you guys doing a break-in oil change after 2.5K or 5K miles, or do you just follow the factory maintenance interval?

Thanks,
Balsamina