Ferrari Testarossa?

[javadog]

Of course, that's not original leather, so they might have just used something close. It does remind me of something though, related to Ferraris. (Warning-testarossa content ahead...)

Both of mine (testarossa and 328Gtb) were built in 1986. Both had the same (tan) interior color. They were quite a bit different in appearance, both in color and in texture. The TR had a slightly more orangey color of tan and a smoother surface texture. I was told that they used different (higher) quality leather on the TR, than the 328 series.

My 328 was fairly rare, in that it had the full leather option. The dash, door pulls, headliner and the area behind the rear seats was covered in the same leather as the rest of the car. On a regular 328, those parts are all vinyl, or cloth. An ordinary 328 had a black dash, regardless of the interior color; mine was dark brown, like any testarossa that had a tan interior. Never saw or heard of another one like it.

[javadog]

What a tobacco leather should look like, in my experience:



Still, a poor choice for a grey car. Might have looked better with the original Bronzo metallic, who knows?

The body shop bill for that Islero illustrates one reason I don't want an old car of that vintage anymore. A bill of that size indicates that the car probably had a bunch of electolytic corrosion, between the steel framework of the chassis and the aluminum body panels. An Lp400 would have less of that, and a TR even less, but it's always a possibility in any car with an aluminum body that has steel underpinnings. Cars like the Audi A8 are all aluminum, for the most part, so suffer from it less. Of course, they are better built and better protected from corrosion than anything made in Italy, because they were designed and built by Germans...

[javadog]

Cleaned the garage yesterday and found a photo of my old TR. Probably the only one that I have of it. Judging from the age of rugrat number two in the passenger seat, looks like it was shot in the late '90's or early '00's. Coming out of turn nine at Hallet, giving the kid his first lap around that track during a lunch break at a CMRA motorcycle race weekend. No idea who shot the photo or how I acquired it...

[Adrian Thompson]

It's funny, even though I was 15 when the Testarossa was launched and so therefore predisposed to thinking it was the coolest thing in existence, I really didn't care for it that much at the time. Sure I liked it, but I thought the 288 GTO and Countach were so so much better looking. These days the looks have grown on me in a retro way, and having wasted more hours than I care to admit on Ferrari chat I'm convinced one would not be as bad to own as other similar exotics. They are also far more affordable, though still out of my price range, than the 288 GTO or Countach.

WRT the talk of modern owners. I have a theory I've been espousing to anyone who will listen. Ferrari is starting to suffer the same issue as Harley Davidson. Around here you see a lot of new Super cars. I see a lot of younger people (30/s - 50's) in Lamborghini's, McLaren's, R8's, even Astons and the like. But new Ferrari's tend to be driven by the 60+ Boomer crowd. I think the general attitude of the average new Ferrari owner has made them deeply uncool to younger generations. This was further brought home on my first visit to SEMA last year. Lambo's and McLAren's aplenty, like 20-30 of each, yet there were maybe a half dozen Ferrari's in the whole show. Unlike HD I think they will fair OK as they are still selling everything they can in China and the far east, but I honestly think Ferrari are going to have an issue in this country in a few years once their current crop of new owners ages out.

Back to Testarossa's, I'll take mine in Miami Vice white and hit up eBay for some 80';s Armani!

[911boost]

Great picture Java! I like it, especially since you are taking one of your kids on a ride on a track.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by 911boost

Great picture Java! I like it, especially since you are taking one of your kids on a ride on a track.

Back in 2004, I attended the French Quarter Classic, an infamous Ferrari gathering held in the French quarter over a three or four day weekend. It was always a wild weekend, with legalized speeding, naked women, lots of partying. Friday, they held a free track day at No Problem Raceway, which was located west of NO somewhere out in the cane fields. I was in my 328GtB that weekend and had planned to just watch the other idiots have at it on track. Some kid came up to me with a helmet in his hand, maybe 12 or 13 years old. He said he raced go karts at the track all the time but had never been on it in a car. Would I take him for some laps? I said, "sure, pile in" and off we went, at about a 9/10th's pace. It was fast enough for him to get an idea of the feeling but not fast enough to trash the brand new set of Pirellis I'd had put on the week before. They were scrubbed on from the trip down there but I still didn't want to take half the tread off.

What the hell, Shell had a tanker at the track, full of 95 octane no-ethanol gas, all you want for free.

Good times.

[Deschodt]

Originally Posted by 911boost

I

Anyone here had one? Thoughts? Impressions?

Thanks!

very small contribution:
2 decades ago my RE agent had one... After we sympathized as car guys, he let me drive it for 15 minutes while he was driving my (then) 911SC. I was not that impressed from the driver seat... The driving position was strange to me, the car felt very agricultural (heavy controls all around, clonky), visibility was **** - blindspot mostly, but.... it sounded absolutely fantastic when revved up. His was white as well!!! Ironically he had nothing but nice things to say about the 911 except for my second gear syncro (which was rebuilt later) and found it way more comfortable - but not the the point he'd trade ;-)

[911boost]

Great story, it amazes me the amount of naked women New Orleans attracts...

I bet the kid remembered that!

Back in 2007 a good friends of mine lost his father at a pretty young age to a heart attack. His son was about the same age 12 or 13 and at the viewing I could tell he was struggling. I had driven my modified 964T that day and took him out for a ride where I opened it up a few times.

The grown kid and his parents still bring it up all these years later.

[javadog]

Man, Saturday night we had half the women in NO naked under our balcony 'til 2:00 in the morning. You could talk just about anybody into going topless, at the least. I had so much fun I skipped the banquet inside entirely. Pirelli was a sponsor and they'd hired a couple naked chicks for the event, body-painted in Pirelli colors, to hang out in the room and distract us. But, the greater fun was outside, on the balcony.

I'm sure the kid enjoyed it. The track event had about every Ferrari you could think of, from the new stuff all the way back to the 50's and 60's. I remember the bread van was there, taking laps. Some guys brought entire transporters full of their cars, including some non Ferraris like a Lola T70. Somebody had one of Schumacher's old F1 cars there, I don't recall who... Jim, maybe...