Mark hasn't made anything clear, he's stated an opinion, but Ferrari SpA obviously disagrees with the notion that 'nothing will happen', witness the SF90 and the 488 GTB and many many more Ferraris besides have screens today. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I do not think it is entirely fair to dismiss the pedestrian safety story as ridiculous. TÜV has a long history of caring about it, forcing appendages on sharp exposed edges on a wide range of cars, notably also on the Lamborghini Miura's eyelashes (as I'm sure you are well aware of). It absolutely does not seem like a stretch that the mesh was added to comply to those regulations, rather than correcting a manufacturer's design oversight as you seem to contend.
In Switzerland there is a similar authority to the German TüV (Technischer Ueberwachungs Verein). It is ALL about pedestrian safety. In Switzerland new F40's could not be registered when new, the homologation was not accepted by the Swiss bureaucrats. Swiss MOT Authorities complained about the (height of the) rear wing. The distance between the rear deck lid and the rear wing (between the chromed Ferrari lettering at the rear and the underside of the rear wing) was declared too much/too high and authorities said that pedestrians could easily be sucked in, killed, decapitated or at least badly hurt when there was too much distance. Then official Swiss Ferrari dealer Symbol Automobiles of Walo Schibler in Matran was hired to find a solution. He developed an additional horizontal middle rear wing, to reduce the gap. Pix below. Only with this modification the F40 was accepted for registration in Switzerland. This proves again that it is usually the authorities/MOT/DMV that ask for modifications, including mesh grills and other stuff. Years ago I have posted these same pix already in the F40 thread. This F40 is #89875 and I took these pix on the 14th of January 1992 at Symbol Automobiles SA in Matran (Fribourg), Switzerland. Marcel Massini Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
That ducktail has to hurt the aerodynamics, surely? I wonder why they couldn't just use the horizontal part in the middle (like a triplane wing), and leave the ducktails to the ponds?
No I don’t contend that at all, I simply say screens are obviously very useful, and in fact I agree with you about the TUV which is why I say once in a while they come up with something useful. The ‘story’ I am referring to is that of people’s limbs getting “sucked” into the vents, as if a pedestrian walking by would suddenly be subject to a 288 GTO trying to eat them alive! Vent screens serve a good purpose and are useful, period.
Sure, it's well-understood that transportation authorities mandate these items, and then manufacturers such as Ferrari SpA comply in order to meet the requirements of different jurisdictions. Mesh screens are common-sense useful applications that have been affixed to Ferraris forever. Image Unavailable, Please Login
A bit of British humour from Top Gear script writer, Richard Porter, aka sniff_petrol on Instagram etc Image Unavailable, Please Login
Thanks for reminding me of Sniff Petrol. I used to love the site (Crazy Dave Coulthard and Jacques effing Villeneuve were my favorites), thought he'd stopped.
Another outtake from that scene when he was at Ferrari to collect his GTO, this one shows the EE plate, does anyone know definitively whether he still owns this car? Image Unavailable, Please Login
Then you also know it is nonsense to say Mick Jagger was not the original owner just because someone else did the paperwork on his behalf.
I recall reading some time back that Jagger had sold the car, I think it was a newspaper article at least 15 years ago. Didn't his Manager actually buy it on his behalf for tax reasons at the time?
Richard Porter is still very active on you tube and in collaboration with Jonny Smith under the title Smith and Sniff.
Ok, so you're saying Mr J never owned the car only Mr D? Or are you saying that at some point Mr D sold the car to Mr J? In any case, I don't see the point of posting something that makes it look like the car was originally sold to someone else entirely, nothing to do with Mr J. If you had said that the paperwork was actually in the name of Mr D, who is Mr J's manager that would be nice and clear.
This was clearly Mick Jagger's GTO and what's cool is that like an ultimate petrolhead he collected it in person at Maranello on EE plates, as photos show. It's better for historians and subsequent owners when the warranty book bears the actual name of the owner as opposed to his manager or the owner's company, but back then nobody cared about provenance and it was all a matter of convenience, the owner was the guy who took the car home. In this case Jagger's manager's name is on the warranty book simply because he made all the arrangements for Jagger to get the car. This want particularly unusual and another example of this situation is one of Rod Stewart's Miuras which was also purchased in his manager's name.
My hazy memory recalls mention that he was a tax domicile in Switzerland at the time? so it went in his managers name to get it into the UK for him to use on the handful of days he could stay in the UK at the time.
