First day with BaT ‘87 Testarossa - 700 miles

After being unhinged enough to buy a Testarossa sight unseen at auction on what was admittedly impulse bidding, my wife and I flew up to Oakland yesterday morning to drive it back to Vegas. The seller, an FOC member was very gracious to pick us up and then spent an hour going over the car with me. It was well loved and exactly as described. All electrical components operable.
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He backed the car out for me and then we were off. Piedmont is steep and narrow like Hollywood Hills, so it was a little scary trying to figure out the heavy steering, clutch pickup and brakes while going down bumpy 8-10% grade. A few undercarriage scrapes later we got to the highway toward Carmel. We may have missed car week but we had never been and wanted to see it.

By Los Gatos I was feeling more comfortable, although we hit over an hour of stop and go congestion. The car kept temperature and ran smoothly although the heavy clutch was a bit of a chore.
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We had lunch in a resort town called Seaside and then on to Carmel for a few hours of sightseeing and browsing the shops.
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Finally on PCH to see the famous cliffs… and it was closed for a landslide. Got 20 mins’ worth of beautiful sunny driving and then turned back, took the 101 towards Bakersfield.
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After 14+ hr day and two energy drinks, as we approached Bakersfield it was getting close to 9 and my eyes were feeling like they were rolling backwards. Ended up having a gut bomb of Mac and cheese with brisket at Dennys (Darth would approve) and instead of driving through as planned, we got a room at the fanciest three star Hilton that Bakersfield had to offer.

After four hours of sleep I was up at 3:30am and we were on the road again by 4am. Again the car kept temperature through the desert with the A/C running. Got home by 8:30am and immediately washed the car with my kids to get the bugs off.

700 miles in those first 24 hours, and after church and a nap I was out taking friends around for another 50+ miles of rides last night until about 10pm.

 

More pics

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first gas in Gonzales. Young guys wanted photos at the gas station. That is one wild thing even after multiple Ferraris people want pictures of this one non-stop. Freeways, stop lights, getting gas. A mom even followed me into my parking lot today so her teen son could see the car. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Dennys
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holding temperature driving through hot desert Image Unavailable, Please Login

a few hours in on the freeway still steady and holding temperature
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first wash at home with the kids. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Other thoughts so far:

• Nostalgia value turned up to 11. So many swirling thoughts of childhood. I was sharing thoughts with my wife that while listening to the late 80s CDs we brought for the ride (MJ's Bad, U2 Joshua Tree, Depeche Mode live, Duran Duran "Decade" compilation, etc) and driving the car, with the sounds and the smells and the tactile sensations, for a moment it is like a time machine. It also represents conquering a part of childhood fantasy.

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• I am getting used to the lack of power steering but it is still a bizarre engineering choice given the weight of the car. Once at speed it is nice and light, but I need the rack tightened to sharpen up the center. I was telling @Natkingcolebasket69 that I understand the value in the 512TR now, if only for power steering and the suspension tweaks.
  
• Needs tint. Second day driving it in Vegas and the greenhouse effect is intense. Even though the A/C is much better than expected, as the 355 had what Clarkson joked was "a hamster wheezing through a straw."
  
• Brakes bite ok but there's too much spongy play at the top of the pedal, going to bleed now but will likely get an upgraded system.

 

Thanks y'all. My salesman came over and drove it a bit on Sunday and [having brokered a few of these recently] confirmed that it was a steal at that price.

Dropping it off today at my friend's shop for 18" wheels/tires, tint and light paint correction to deal with some mild swirling. As it happens he has his own wheel company "Iconisus" and makes an 18" version of the single lug wheel:
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Other plans are

• replacing the Eclipse CD player with something with Bluetooth
• upgrade the wheel well speakers
• bleed the brakes and
  
• tighten the steering rack.

 

It has those goofy Italian proportions where the wheel wells are shallow and offset but the seats lean back and don’t have a lot of adjustment. But, it’s comfortable once you’re in with lots of upper body room. I’m 6ft and you can see my knees are splayed a bit but I didn’t have too much knee discomfort even driving a 500+ mile day without using cruise control.

 

My Dad is from The Peg, Grandma still there on Grant Ave., with Aunt and cousins on the South side. Last visited in 2018.

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