Satan's barge - 1983 Ferrari 400i
Discussion
Rumdoodle said:
Good point, thanks. I shall report back. It's due an MOT - its last ever! - and I think it'll have to be rectified before then.
The next job was discs and pads all round. Straightforward stuff, although the cost of front discs, which are unique to this model - is now £1k each. Meantime, whittling the fleet down to one meant putting the remaining car up for sale, my Mercedes, which featured on a thread on here long ago. Now sold.
The number plate on the 400 is held on with sellotape there (classy!) but I've had some new ones made up since and fixed them properly.
When I came back in December, I was staying at a hotel in Old Windsor and realised that what used to be Maranello Sales was just down the road, so I pootled down and took a photo
My car was a Maranello demonstrator for the first year of its life, so it was familiar ground. You can see in that shot the colour difference of the front indicators.
With new brakes to complement the new tyres, she was gliding along beautifully. The only snag was the offside electric window motor packing up mid-afternoon on Christmas Eve, necessitating the removal of the doorcard and the manual adjustment of the glass just in time for the darkness and rain. This was all done outside and was easy enough. Everything came out intact except a few plastic clips that probably weren't designed to withstand removal. The last time the doorcard had been off, the doorframe had been sealed with a bin bag and tank tape, which had done a good job. It was a useful opportunity to inspect the state of the door and it was a bit grubby but completely intact with no corrosion around the drainholes and base. As of today, it's still not fixed as the parts are unobtainable new. I'm hoping my friendly local specialist can improvise a repair. The older cars were supplied with a handle that could be inserted into a hole in the doorcard as a manual crank back-up, but I don't have one and I wonder if they had dispensed with that by the time of the 400i. Anyway, the glass is intact and we'll get it sorted.
Went out to a New Year's Day meet at Stony Stratford
and evoked the music video of Pizza Guy by Touch Sensitive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uXrXTSASK0
and then had a nice morning at the January Bicester Scramble.
Welcome back chum..The next job was discs and pads all round. Straightforward stuff, although the cost of front discs, which are unique to this model - is now £1k each. Meantime, whittling the fleet down to one meant putting the remaining car up for sale, my Mercedes, which featured on a thread on here long ago. Now sold.
The number plate on the 400 is held on with sellotape there (classy!) but I've had some new ones made up since and fixed them properly.
When I came back in December, I was staying at a hotel in Old Windsor and realised that what used to be Maranello Sales was just down the road, so I pootled down and took a photo
My car was a Maranello demonstrator for the first year of its life, so it was familiar ground. You can see in that shot the colour difference of the front indicators.
With new brakes to complement the new tyres, she was gliding along beautifully. The only snag was the offside electric window motor packing up mid-afternoon on Christmas Eve, necessitating the removal of the doorcard and the manual adjustment of the glass just in time for the darkness and rain. This was all done outside and was easy enough. Everything came out intact except a few plastic clips that probably weren't designed to withstand removal. The last time the doorcard had been off, the doorframe had been sealed with a bin bag and tank tape, which had done a good job. It was a useful opportunity to inspect the state of the door and it was a bit grubby but completely intact with no corrosion around the drainholes and base. As of today, it's still not fixed as the parts are unobtainable new. I'm hoping my friendly local specialist can improvise a repair. The older cars were supplied with a handle that could be inserted into a hole in the doorcard as a manual crank back-up, but I don't have one and I wonder if they had dispensed with that by the time of the 400i. Anyway, the glass is intact and we'll get it sorted.
Went out to a New Year's Day meet at Stony Stratford
and evoked the music video of Pizza Guy by Touch Sensitive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uXrXTSASK0
and then had a nice morning at the January Bicester Scramble.
I will be interested to read the next instalment, in the late eighties, I had a 400i into my garage to cure a water leak, blocked radiator, downpipes to change both sides and poor hot starting. I never did cure the poor hot start, the client wanted it back before I had diagnosed why it did this.
Loved the car to drive, and often had a hankering to buy one.
Loved the car to drive, and often had a hankering to buy one.
This is epic!
(and you had the sense to buy a car that wasn't a pile of bits...note to self)
Looking forward to updates on a car that I had always hankered after. That was until I was shown round one on a ramp at my local Ferrari specialist. The number of complex things just waiting to go wrong in and under the car suddenly made the Facel Vega look like a sane choice!
As you say, Satan's barge (but I love it)!
(and you had the sense to buy a car that wasn't a pile of bits...note to self)
Looking forward to updates on a car that I had always hankered after. That was until I was shown round one on a ramp at my local Ferrari specialist. The number of complex things just waiting to go wrong in and under the car suddenly made the Facel Vega look like a sane choice!
As you say, Satan's barge (but I love it)!
Great car OP.
Reminded me I had a copy of LJK Setright’s 1984 Car piece on the 400i:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hgyhil42qatfvho/UK_1984_...
Reminded me I had a copy of LJK Setright’s 1984 Car piece on the 400i:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hgyhil42qatfvho/UK_1984_...
skwdenyer said:
Great car OP.
Reminded me I had a copy of LJK Setright’s 1984 Car piece on the 400i:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hgyhil42qatfvho/UK_1984_...
Thanks. Some truly individual writing in Car in those days, it was such a good mag. Enjoying the thread too.Reminded me I had a copy of LJK Setright’s 1984 Car piece on the 400i:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hgyhil42qatfvho/UK_1984_...
As the car is in storage at the moment awaiting a major service and fettling next month before intensive use in June when I am back, here's a bit of background.
I nearly bought a 400 a few years ago, but instead felt compelled to explore the mystique of something else from the early ‘80s Observer’s Book of Automobiles, a publication that had both captivated and frozen my imagination regarding cars I really wanted. Monstrously expensive to buy new, handmade and never glimpsed in the wild – either a turbocharged Bristol, an AM Lagonda wedge, or a Bitter. The Bristol and the Bitter were both hybrids, in the old sense of the term. Lazy, simple engines from volume manufacturers, powering cars intended to challenge the appeal and mitigate the agonies of exotic Italian throughbreds. They were usually a little more discreet externally and less well finished internally. None of the hybrid marques survived though, while most of the thoroughbreds did, although obviously absorbed into parent companies. Bristol, Bitter, De Tomaso, Jensen, ISO vs. Aston Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Jaguar, Maserati. For a useable classic, a hybrid might make a tolerable compromise, I thought.
The Bristols were a lot of fun to drive, obviously singularly appalling to look at.
As I’ve mentioned before, I can’t be bothered managing a fleet of cars – if I could I’d have a Bristol for some occasions, but would need something more soothing to look at the rest of the time. I did like the look of the owners' club, though, and thought it would be a really fun crowd to be part of.
The Bitter has value as a curio. It’s like a louche Matra. I have great respect for Erich Bitter, who I have spoken to and hoped to meet but could not because the pandemic derailed the European Bitter Club events that I intended to go to. But the car itself was really only interesting to look at. It had no intrinsic virtues over the Opel it was based on, and it totally failed as an alternative to the Italian GT cars it was intended to be an alternative to.
When it was going well, it sounded awesome and was quite amusing, but the coachbuilding was ropey and these days no garages can actually look after these simple, flawed and antiquated Opel engines, much less so the handful of stroked 3.9 units that Bitter commissioned. In the last couple of years, a workshop in Germany has monopolised the tiny amount of Bitter restoration work needed globally, and I was in touch with them about doing the bodywork on mine before I decided I couldn’t be bothered and moved it on. At the end of the day, I’d still just have a Bitter, and it just didn’t seem interesting enough.
Shortly after I bought the Bitter, I made the mistake of trying out Tipo 101 Ferraris (i.e. the 400 shape), and immediately realised that the hybrid compromise wasn’t for me. The looks, the performance, the heritage – it all made sense.
The Bitter is very smart in isolation
but next to the Ferrari
You can buy a good Aston V8 for the price of a mint Interceptor, and a 400 Ferrari for less than pretty much any De Tomaso. Obviously, aesthetics can trump other factors disproportionately and that is subjective, but, me, there is a chasm between the hybrid and the real thing.
I nearly bought a 400 a few years ago, but instead felt compelled to explore the mystique of something else from the early ‘80s Observer’s Book of Automobiles, a publication that had both captivated and frozen my imagination regarding cars I really wanted. Monstrously expensive to buy new, handmade and never glimpsed in the wild – either a turbocharged Bristol, an AM Lagonda wedge, or a Bitter. The Bristol and the Bitter were both hybrids, in the old sense of the term. Lazy, simple engines from volume manufacturers, powering cars intended to challenge the appeal and mitigate the agonies of exotic Italian throughbreds. They were usually a little more discreet externally and less well finished internally. None of the hybrid marques survived though, while most of the thoroughbreds did, although obviously absorbed into parent companies. Bristol, Bitter, De Tomaso, Jensen, ISO vs. Aston Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Jaguar, Maserati. For a useable classic, a hybrid might make a tolerable compromise, I thought.
The Bristols were a lot of fun to drive, obviously singularly appalling to look at.
As I’ve mentioned before, I can’t be bothered managing a fleet of cars – if I could I’d have a Bristol for some occasions, but would need something more soothing to look at the rest of the time. I did like the look of the owners' club, though, and thought it would be a really fun crowd to be part of.
The Bitter has value as a curio. It’s like a louche Matra. I have great respect for Erich Bitter, who I have spoken to and hoped to meet but could not because the pandemic derailed the European Bitter Club events that I intended to go to. But the car itself was really only interesting to look at. It had no intrinsic virtues over the Opel it was based on, and it totally failed as an alternative to the Italian GT cars it was intended to be an alternative to.
When it was going well, it sounded awesome and was quite amusing, but the coachbuilding was ropey and these days no garages can actually look after these simple, flawed and antiquated Opel engines, much less so the handful of stroked 3.9 units that Bitter commissioned. In the last couple of years, a workshop in Germany has monopolised the tiny amount of Bitter restoration work needed globally, and I was in touch with them about doing the bodywork on mine before I decided I couldn’t be bothered and moved it on. At the end of the day, I’d still just have a Bitter, and it just didn’t seem interesting enough.
Shortly after I bought the Bitter, I made the mistake of trying out Tipo 101 Ferraris (i.e. the 400 shape), and immediately realised that the hybrid compromise wasn’t for me. The looks, the performance, the heritage – it all made sense.
The Bitter is very smart in isolation
but next to the Ferrari
You can buy a good Aston V8 for the price of a mint Interceptor, and a 400 Ferrari for less than pretty much any De Tomaso. Obviously, aesthetics can trump other factors disproportionately and that is subjective, but, me, there is a chasm between the hybrid and the real thing.
I remember seeing a Bitter at auction, owned by a fella from Earth Wind and Fire, Erol Brown, maybe. Came with a a stroked/bored Vauxhall /Opel six cylinder, certainly a exotic looking car. As you say, I'll take the 400.
edit : Errol Brown, Hot Chocolate.
edit : Errol Brown, Hot Chocolate.
Edited by sean ie3 on Saturday 22 April 22:42
sean ie3 said:
I remember seeing a Bitter at auction, owned by a fella from Earth Wind and Fire, Erol Brown, maybe. Came with a a stroked/bored Vauxhall /Opel six cylinder, certainly a exotic looking car. As you say, I'll take the 400.
edit : Errol Brown, Hot Chocolate.
There was a very successful singer who owned one. I'll have to dig out my notes about the RHD cars. I didn't think it was someone quite as prominent as Errol Brown, but you may well be right.edit : Errol Brown, Hot Chocolate.
Edited by sean ie3 on Saturday 22 April 22:42
The other major influence, apart from the Observer's Book of Cars, was of course the film Rain Man. Tom Cruise's character imported Lamborghinis, but drove a 400. Because he's a boss...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a4f3qxRezU
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