Ferrari 599XX Awesome!!

[yngwie308]

I am a huge Ferrari fan, both of the road going cars and the racing cars, since I was 9 years old and I'm 56 now so a long time. My favorites have been the 330 P4 sports prototype which I actually saw at Brands Hatch in 1967 in the BOAC 500, the #6 car coming in second piloted by Sir Jackie Stewart and the great Chris Amon, this was the last Worlds Manufacturers Championship won by Ferrari. The Chaparral 2F of the late Phil Hill and Hap Sharp wining the overall race. Then it was the roadgoing Ferrari 365GTB/4 or Daytona the front enginged V-12 that I loved. Then the fabulous 288 GTO and then the ultimate for me the most mass produced Ferrari the twin-turbo F-40, the last car built prior to the death of Enzo Ferrari.
Sure the various Ferrari's of the last few years have been exciting, even the Enzo held up as the ultimate Ferrari didn't do it for me even the competition version of the Enzo, not exciting..but the 599XX the basically racing car that can be street driven just is absolutely amazing and is up to 4 seconds quicker than the Enzo and lighter, ect. This is an absolute perfect Ferrari, a combination of brute power, incredible sounding engine, and this one has awesome road holding and is just exciting.
Sure the Corvette ZO6 and the supercharged ZR-1 are awesome machines and excellent value for the money/performance wise, but at one of my favorite tracks the Nordschlife, the North course at the Nurburgring where they raced Formula 1 cars up until the 1976 season, when a fiery crash nearly killed Niki Lauda, F1 was banned from this track.
Sports prototypes raced there in 1982/3 with the late Stefan Bellof setting a practice time in the six minute range or so that was absolutely incredible, he ended up crashing heavily at the end of the long straight.
The old circuit is used as a benchmark to test road going cars and is the ultimate test of driver and machine. When I had my Playstation going I actually learned most of the corners, but those who have driven it and played the video game say the elevation changes and bumpiness is not transmitted in the game as in real life.
Here are some clips of the amazing Ferrari 599XX, breaking the production based vehicle record:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation ... feature=iv" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJj8atDGBzk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The speedo is in kilometers per hour. I am amazed at how efficiently it puts down the power.
Here is a video game version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwyTd7GjZvY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH2XumTliSQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
yngwie308 Forza Ferrari!!

[fillmore nyc]

Awesome vids as always, D.
I've never heard you say one way or the other, but with your intense interest in motorsports and wheeled perfomance in general, do you own any sort of high performance vehicles? I would think even on the lower end of the "bang for the buck" scale, maybe a sportbike would be up your alley?? Mine gives me that F-1 jones on the cheap every time.

[NY Chief]

Dave had a killer track Trans Am a while back, fill,

[fillmore nyc]

Dave had a killer track Trans Am a while back, fill,

When Dave chimes back in here, maybe we could see some pics??

[yngwie308]

Yes I had a pretty 'extreme' 1980 Ford Capri 3.0 litre "S" while living in London. I had it modified by a company run by the Lotus Grand Prix driver John Miles, with Bilstein dampers, sport springs, polyurethane bushings (quite new back then) plus 7" Ford RS magnesium alloy wheels with 205/60-VR13 Goodyear NCT tires, the first VR rated low profile tires available.
This had the Ford Essex V6 with was produced in England and was factory rated conservatively by the British bhp at approx 138-140, top speed with the 4 speed was approx 130+, I used to street race 930 Turbo Porsche's, they always got me under braking of course as I had drum rears and a solid rear end, but still it was light as hell, had Recaro seats stock, I custom ordered it Apollo Green metallic with brown interior and sun roof. I have some pics I need to scan, it weighed nothing and was fast... We would test the 1.5 degrees of negative camber on the fronts by going down the double parked cobblestone streets, the garage was in what they call a mews type alley.
I would swerve the car from side to side at around 60 mph on these tiny streets with the cars on both sides, and used to go through these '6 "6 concrete barriers designed to slow cars down at around 50-60 mph with about 8 inches on each side.
I was a complete lunatic in those days. I'll tell the whole story when I am feeling better.
My Trans Am was a Herb Adams parts modified Fire-Am as they were called it was a 1979 WS-6 400 Pontiac V8, 4-speed, 4 wheel disc, this was no Smokey and The Bandit trans-Am.
Herb Adams was the suspension engineer that developed the original Trans Am suspensions for John DeLorean and knew all the tricks, he was/is a brilliant guy.
The original owner ordered it with out the screaming chicken on the hood, it was black with T-Tops and charcoal graphics and the of course stock the WS6 handling package had higher rate springs and bigger front and rear sway bars.
The Fire Am kit which was already fitted when I got the car had the body lowered to the frame, the shaker hood scoop would just clear the hood, the car was lowered just through this alone. I bought Gulstrand springs, some thing crazy like 750 lbs front springs which we cut one and a half coils, so who knows what the rate was. The Fire-Am came with a much stronger thicker anti roll bar on the front with Heim joint mounts, I put poly bushings in the front A arms, I was running 2 and a half degrees negative camber on the front. The rear multi-leaf springs were changed for single leaf race springs which were mounted metal to metal, with no bushings. I wanted specially valved Bilsteins but had to go with a compression/rebound that was stock and was not up to the lack of suspension travel of the rest of the suspension, so I got Koni's but not adjustable unfortunately. I bought from the long defunct HO racing in California, tri-Y headers, which were a bitch to fit, i had to cut a wrench in half, mini-wrench to tighten most of the bolts, running so much negative camber, it was no room. I had a MSD ignition mounted under the dash against the firewall, had a high performance HEI coil and the car came with an Edlelbrock Performer aluminum manifold, with the heater and A/C taken out and the heat risers blocked, I stripped out the back seat and the rest of the interior, the battery was already mounted in the trunk on the passenger side, I had the Quadrajet, with big jet kit, upgraded, ect. I tried a Holley 700cfm double pumper, but could never have access to a chassis dyno to 'tune' the car the way I wanted it.
I worked briefly for the distributor/assembler of Revolution Wheels from England. I had him build me 3-piece rims, with Cadillac silver centers and highly polished offset wheels, "10.5 on the fronts and "11.0 on the rear. I had these frame strengthening bars that bolted from the firewall to the front of the frame by the suspension, needless to say this car was already radical when I bought it and I went extremely further, I was working for NTW tires at the time and secured limited sponsorship from the owner, I had it deducted from my wages as tire salesman. I had B.F. Goodrich R spec shaved tires, down to like 5/32nd or something, I cant remember but virtually a slick with some tread I could only get 60 series profile at the time, I wanted 50, but way back then, early to mid eighties tires were limited in size I think I had 255/60-VR 16 front and rear. This was serious rubber. The stock Trans Am wheels were "15X8 and I once tried Hoosier bias plys with them, I went through Valley Forge Park on the back roads and nearly ended up in the trees. Bias ply though sticky as the Hoosiers were. pebbles would stick to them! That experiment went awry. I also had a Konig full race seat that I bought from Al Holbert's race shop and a six point harness. I raced SCCA Autocross Solo II, and have the distinction of 2nd place in one series and I was always competing again impossible cars like a '70 Z-28 302/390 or something like that, totally lowered it was awesomely fast and geared just right. My wheel height was too high for my gearing, but I worked on my car myself in my mom's house garage with hand tools and changed clutches, replaced an axle, by myself, did all the work with no power tools on axle stands and on the cold concrete floors, that's why my hands are especially F4%& up these days!! Besides my arthritis. I was racing trailed cars , raced by service center owners and one guy with a '84 Z28 was found out to be illegal when he went to nationals.
I did beat a 911 Porsche in one of my two overall victories, I had too borrow a helmet that was too small, ect.
I did have fun but she under steered like a pig, maybe at 100 mph the car was perfect, but for the parking lot trials, not the best, pics soon. Yes I have been interested in cars since I worked on my HO racing cars when I was 9 years old changing gears and tires, ect.
Music, guitars and cars wine women and song were/are my life's passions, mostly now I tend to relive my life through my writing.
I have always driven practically flat out in almost any car I owned, but after getting older I have slowed down mostly, it's not safe any more on the street, not that it ever was. I still cut every green light like I'm on the F1 grid though.
http://www.pontiacsonline.com/Herb%20Adams.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&s ... =&gs_rfai=" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://thepontiactransampage.com/galler ... /Fire_Am_1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Here is the full race Fire Am competing at the 24 hours of Daytona, I think they used a Chevy motor though, a big block


yngwie308

[NY Chief]

"Yes I have been interested in cars since I worked on my HO racing cars when I was 9 years old changing gears and tires, ect."

+1, Dave!

Yeah, and those cold concrete floors. Why did my clutch always seem to go in f'n Februray (in NY)????? brrrrrrr....