wilkogsi

truth about ferrari, well worth a read.

http://ca.jalopnik.com/5760248/how-ferrari-spins

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

posh fiats.

Eigdoog

SOOOOOOOOO much to read. Can you tell me in 10 words what its about?

MadMac

Basically its a article from a jurno who is ranting about Ferrari and how they give car reviewers tuned cars and not the ones they sell to customers.

Quite shocking really. Looks like they cheat as much in their road cars as they do in F1..

Rax

iTrader: (1)

If thats the top and bottom of it,saved me reading it lets see how they get on in 24 days time.

Pete frst

well after reading it i have no problem with Ferrari setting up a car for a particular track,after all if their cars come with adjustable suspension then so be it.......
But if they are deliberately tuning so called production cars to fool journalist into thinking its what you get from the show room then i would have the raving horrors if id just forked out xyz because the mags said so,plus those mags would be boycotted immediately too,now im wondering what conditions top gear has to follow before they can 'evaluate' them..........you live and learn.......

EIL132

One mans words is another mans toilet paper.

Chip

iTrader: (3)

What an angry fella.

Ferrari are good are marketing, so are lots of other successful companies, I really am amazed that surprises him so much.

Chris Honeywell

Yeah he seems very VERY angry . He is lucky to of had the chance to drive so many models over the years.

wibbler

It's Chris Harris, not a surprise he's in rant mode. There's reasons why he's a freelance these days...

Anyway press fleet is very rarely 'standard', just isn't worth the risk. I think if you check out the build/options history on most of the Fords you see in the magazines you'll see special options relating to stuff like Marketing. And things like RS models where the press cars were a separate build run obviously give something to think about.

It's Czech Mate

He's a great Journo, enjoyed his stuff for years, I dont think its the tweaked cars he minds as much as the control Ferarri wish to exert on the press

He's just bought a GT3 anyway

dojj

iTrader: (3)

Neil@FastFord

I like Chris Harris and found that a good read

Fiddy

+1, Agreed

the mk1 kid

+2, it was nice to read the other side of it.

As for not 'allowing' members of the press to drive a rari as and when one gets the opportunity...!?

Tom

Porkie

iTrader: (1)

Chris Harris is my fav journo!!!

awesome rant. Its been building up for ages... if anyone has been follwoing the 'story' building in EVO and Autocar.

I think Ferrari ARE kinda shooting themselves in the foot.... The cars are AMAZING now. Just amazing. They don't need to control the media and should just let the cars do the talking.

Chris says so himself in his rant
Of course their attempts to stop me makes it an even better sport and merely hardens my resolve, but the sad thing is its cars are so good it doesn't need all this shite. I'll repeat that for the benefit of any vestige of a chance I might have of ever driving a Ferrari press car ever again (which is virtually none). "Its cars are so good it doesn't need this shite."

Most manufacturers do this.... anyone remember the Skoda Octavia press car that Autocar tested back in the day? clearly had around 300bhp from the times it was doing!!!

Rod-Tarry

Or the E type jag that did 150mph in journo testing. They suggest it had Lemans D type heads. It worked & started the 150mph car myth.

Porkie

iTrader: (1)

yep, been going on for years. Wasnt journos testing was it??

Was Jaguar. cheating gits!

It need racing Aero body, racing tyres, special engine, special fuel etc etc!

Fil

They all do it tho, as others have said, one that sticks in my mind was the rover montego turbo, that they wound the boost up on 6 press cars, that didnt last too long

Neil@FastFord

It does happen, it shouldn't, but it does.

I don't think the main issue is with car makers being a bit sneaky and underhand here, more their relentless and overbearing control of everything.

MikeR

I thought it was a very good read and also like his articles.

Mike

MAD Ade

iTrader: (1)

Similar to what Lotus did many years ago. The press cars were 'specially' set up cars for this purpose. The Elan Sprint was claimed to produce circa 128 brake, was nowhere near this figure.

Cheers,

Ade.

XRT_si

iTrader: (2)

Interesting read. I recall reading before motoring journos saying they drove Fiesta RS turbos and MG Maestro turbos with insane amount of torque steer. Clearly modded but I guess that's the name of the game.

I, like others read Harris' feature as a rant about the control they are trying to impose as much as anything else. Upping the boost on a press car is one thing, taking 2 cars down to a track the day before a test drive is something else IMO!