Hello, I bought the FastCars Rosso Barchetta/Tan 1999 550:...
Hello, I bought the FastCars Rosso Barchetta/Tan 1999 550: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/fastcars-ltd-tillack-inc/441802-1999-ferrari-550-maranello.html Sticky, 575 mounts, recent belt service, silicone hoses (not SRI), books and tools, In good well maintained condition per FastCars--only one key fob though, maybe ImmoFixer? Like to have a full set of fobs. One major reason for pulling the trigger is the level of support for 550s on this website and the other--Pete, MS John, Carl/FBB, MS Dave, Taz, and everybody else--it's like getting to know a whole new family. Didn't want to buy until I sold the C/4, but it appears that a good condition (to be confirmed after check-over) $78k 550 required buying it right now. I got ahold of a recent PPI on the car, am relying on FastCars' reputation, so bought it sight unseen 8-}. Of course the imho overriding reason to purchase a 550 is the quiet, elegant look of the car hiding awesome performance--Bruce Lee in Armani. A recent buyers review of 550s: Ferrari 550 Maranello Review | Classic Cars For Sale UK. Relative reliability once fully sorted is nice too. Just wish there were some places around here to run it hard for a prolonged period, tough to find outside of a track. I don't have the car yet, Craig is overseeing the seat re-dye, then shipped north. I will post a picture of it being off-loaded when it arrives. Have to get the rest of my (accumulated over decades) cars sold, too many to take care of, want to concentrate on just the 550. There are so many really great fixes & upgrades for Maranellosthat was yet another strong reason to purchase a 550. SRI & MS, thank you for your wonderful work. Thank you for the great help to be found on this Forum, it gave me the courage to dive in .!
Indeed. Being an old guy, I like burgundy/tan. The question was why it sat for a year without selling. Just waiting for me I guess....!
Will- Very pretty Maranello. Enjoy her and watch out for the torque monster in the wet unless you are on the east side of mountains.
Wil- It helps a bunch and can save your bacon. Inputs are kind of abrupt, especially the throttle, but still a nice safety valve for the wet. Not that it rains much where you live.
Thanks for the ASR description. INdeed. We had a small snow-pack this year, probably going to be water restrictions this summer. Been a pretty dry spring here north of Seattle too.
Çongrats, very attractive colour combo����! Sounds like a nice car, enjoy... Kind regards, Jürgen
Congrats and welcome to the V-12 club. Drive her in good health and be sure to post pictures of your adventures.
Hey bob, We had the main computer on the ML 350(2012) need replacing recently, Had any issues with yours? Marce
Wil, congratulations, this is a beautiful example of a fantastic Ferrari. Tillack also had this car for sale, with a Tubi, 12 years ago. For your sake, I hope it still has that Tubi exhaust; I love the sound of a 550 through a Tubi exhaust. Do you still have your C/4? Can you tell me the serial number?
If its the car I think it is I almost bought it from the original owner before Tillack got it the first time. One of the reasons I passed was the Tubi (horrible drone) and a noise which sounded just like a belt squeal. Ferrari of San Francisco and factory techs could not solve the belt noise which ultimately turned out to be failed motor mounts. I think this was the first instance of failed motor mounts in Ferrari's experience. They finally figured it out but for awhile they were talking about replacing the engine after replacing almost everything connected to the accessory belts. The owner, a very good friend of mine, lent it to me for a week and I put about 500 miles on it before deciding to keep the 355.
Johnny, I'm hopeful about the color too, haven't seen it in person yet. Funny you mention about driving it in the rain--just been reading, and even washing it can be harmful per FBB: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/456-550-575-sponsored-bradan/414415-watch-550-washing-guys.html. That's one of the first things I'm going to check when the car gets here.
Indeed according to Craig it still has the Tubi. It'd be nice to add a set of Fabio's manifolds to it too. Don't want it to be too loud or drone-y though. Gonna take a fair bit of research to find the sound I like, what with all the choices out there. Sure. I was fortunate in that six years ago Mr. Massini gave me a brief history of my car as follows: "Sold new by the Official Dealer in Italy 'Motor S.a.s. di Carla Allegretti e C. in Rome' ". My damn hard-drive crashed a few weeks ago and I lost his email, but fortunately wrote it down in my notebook for the car. Chassis: 16251 (Euro car) Engine: F101 AC 000 *00477* Pininfarina Body No.: 477/GTC Assembly Sequence No.: 426 Original Exterior Color: Blu Ortis Original Interior Color: VM 3218 Beige (Connolly) Finishing up some electrical work on the car, then it goes up for sale. They've accelerated in the market lately (maybe following on the Daytona coupe's coattails once again), so having a time establishing value for a #2 car. Then trying to figure out whether to put it up with an auction house or broker or what. Don't like selling cars... Sorry, Carbon, got carried away--btw, love your glass of oil!
Dave, if the Tubis do drone, then they gotta go. I run straight-thru from WA to CA at times--17hrs. of almost constant droning would leave me in a straightjacket. Thanks muchly for the mounts info. Did you or Craig figure out the mechanism that allowed loose engine mounts to squeal like a loose belt? I don't get that one... This's great info too. I asked Craig for the records of work FastCars has done on the car, he kindly said he will provide them. But I sure would like to obtain any records the PO has for the car. Would he be willing to do this? And keys/fobs too if he has them? I'm not even sure what color fob (the only one, fingers crossed it's the red one) is being provided with the car. Thanks, Wil
550 weirdness... I have had 2 550s. Dave says he can't drive his without the steering ecu plugged in. One of my 550s had better steering with no ecu connected. One 550 is more like dave describes. Not sure why the variation on these cars. One of my 550s had stock center muffler and gen 1 tubi (the droners) but I get no irritating drone. But I bet I would if the center muffler was gone. My car is pretty loud. On my other 550 no center muffler and stock exhaust wired open it is too quiet like a toyota. My diesel truck makes better noises than that. Right or wrong I think of noise related to restriction. Louder exhaust make more power. So in tubi world the 575 or gen 2 exhaust people like better because less drone. Did tubi do that at the expense of power which is also what you are paying for? No free lunch. Does it matter since so close to 500hp...probably not. I like the gen 1 tubi sound. It is loud in a mature way unlike the look at me v8 sound. On a similar note I was at my local F dealer today. I took a long look at the F12. It is a grown up man's car. I'm putting that one on my radar for the future.
As I recall the squeal noise started at about 25,000 miles. Ferrari of SF tried everything, replaced a lot of stuff and finally had someone from the factory come look at it. It was several months before they figured out it was the mounts. Once the mounts were replaced the squeal was gone. I remember listening to it and it sounded exactly like a loose alternator belt. This would have been before the 575 so the mounts Ferrari of SF used were 550. Tillack probably replace those with 575 mounts The Tubi drone is well documented, it was a first generation Tubi. It was only objectionable at around 3500 rpm as I recall, other than that it was a bit loud for my tastes. I prefer not to attract attention if possible. I'm sure the original owner does not have anything relating to the car anymore. It went to Tillack on a trade deal then to others over the years and I guess back to Tillack. I'm not positive its the same car but there aren't that many 550s that color that were sold by Tillack. The original owner's initials are D.O. Tillack would remember him I'm sure
