August was Ferrari month

Car	Ferrari 308 GTB
Miles this month	314
Latest costs	£86

I believe that every car deserves a long run each year and this August it was the turn of the 308. You learn more about the car on a long run and get a better feel for it. Also you notice problems before they become major fallings – like the lack of charging I noticed last year on the way back from Dunsfold. The Ferrari especially responds well to a long high speed run too.

This August the excuse was a visit to the Cranleigh Car Show in Surrey (incidentally where I grew
up) on Sunday after a visit to Oliver’s “soon to be” in-laws and extended family on Saturday afternoon. I’d detailed the car over the previous week – washed it and applied a full wax – using Dodo juice dark seems to be the best one I have found – and the car looked spotless. We had an easy run on the way down – A12, M25 etc. but I was a bit alarmed by the small backroads we used across the south Surrey countryside. 

Just for old time’s sake I parked the bright red Italian outside my parent’s old house in Brookside and took a snap for Instagram. The final leg was mistakenly over an unmade road as we missed a turning. However, through everything the car behaved itself as normal and shows what an un-temperamental beast the 308 is.

When we arrived I was given the safe slot on the drive and the car was admired on and off, with Oliver playing “find the door handle” and “where is the fuel cap?” with a younger cousin. Best of all was that the grandmother disappeared for a while and was found outside on the drive just admiring it. She also wanted to come out and hear it start up when we left – for a lifelong non-driver she has good taste. A Ferrari can divide opinion but I feel that the old ones like mine don’t offend too many people.

The hotel we chose was in the Surrey hills and the drive in the dark over roads I used to tear up as a teenager was only partially remembered, that’s what 30 years away will do for you. On arrival I deliberately parked ostentatiously outside the main reception of the hotel and was glad to hear an appreciative American voice. I’d forgotten the slightly poor turning circle the car has so had to do a five-point turn to get out - I passed it off coolly I thought. Our room was on the edge of the complex and I never did find the car park, but with a bit of manoeuvring and a slight clutch smell I parked it overnight outside the room safely tucked away. That’s one element of taking the car out and leaving it in an unfamiliar place that still worries me after these years – is it the value or just the apprehension of it getting damaged ?

The car show was packed and even though we got here early we had to queue for quite a while to get in. I parked on the end of a row of very red cars, a TR3 a MGB and a TVR. Overall there was a great selection of cars I had not seen before as well as the usual suspects. I was especially taken with a grey Lancia (a 1962 Flaminia Touring 218 GT) and white BMW Isetta 300, but I did find myself being drawn back to the 440 Dodge Charger.

Overall I’m finding less cars to photograph, although the weather was a bit dull towards the end of the day which always dampens my enthusiasm. However no other Ferrari’s on show – just one lone 360 on a trade stand. Where were they all?

During the day I opened the bonnet and went into the boot for some water to spot a small split in the top of the large “bellows” that attaches the air filter to the air intake on the right hand side. I mentally added it to the fix list.

Wondering round the show, with Oliver despairing at the costs of everything and how he’ll ever buy anything classic, we chatted to two opposite ends of the classic car spectrum. Firstly a young chap with a pristine white Volvo P1800S he had had for a few years. He lived in London and ran the car for six months a year then put it away when the weather turned bad. Proof you can run a classic in the city? His take was that the car was becoming too valuable, it was concourse and needed to be kept that way. Although he had invested emotionally in it and was desperate to keep it, he worried about using it more.

The second was an older chap at the side of the Aston Martin owner’s club group. He had a DB6, again concourse, but had owned the car for many years. He had paid for a superb renovation and was revelling in the astronomic values they commanded and saw nothing to worry about.

Early on Monday a look at the Eurospares website identified the part quickly (the same as on a Ferrari 288 GTO I was shocked to see) from their diagram, I phoned to confirm it was in stock and that I was right. It arrived the next day and I  set about to fit it. Having a great Ferrari spares supplier in Halstead only thirty miles away and coincidentally just around the corner from Grimaldi’s who service the car, is an added bonus.

The fixings were a strange affair – bands of metal like large diameter self-tightening jubilee clips.On taking the bellows off it was obvious that the split on the top was tiny compared to the shredded lower portion – not sure why I had missed that before. Thirty minutes of twisting got the new one back in position, although I am not sure it should be resting on the water pipe – that might explain the damage to the underside over the years.

I’d hoped that it would also fix the whistle that you can hear at 70 but it did not, although I thought the note changed a bit on the test drive. And yes the car did seem to go better after the long run.