New V12 Daily Driver (Ferrari 550 Maranello)

The 1UZFE EGR Delete Kit is available for sale here.
Thanks guys. Scott, you just need to be patient M8. When your kids are grown & gone and there's no mortgage, you'll be amazed how much more you can do.

Andy, after the big red toy in the garage, which was actually acquired in October, my Christmas was a tad lean as well :) Wifey did very well, however. Santa must have thought she'd been a very good girl for giving the Ferrari her blessing.

Ryan, unfortunately the Ferrari will be losing her stable mate shortly. Wifey wants her parking place back, so the Supra will be going into storage until I can get the UZ ready for the transplant. Then I'll move engine & car to a shop with good facilities where I can work on the swap.
 
That's only fair that she get half the garage. You got your super car so I would sacrifice most anything else to make her happy. What an incredible car. I remember I heard one going through the local outdoor shopping mall and the thing had a full race exhaust which sounded almost like no muffler at all. The guy was really letting it rev in 1st gear all the way up the rpms and back down again without pressing in the clutch. We're all waiting for more videos too!
 
Love your work John, what you really need is a 2 hoists in the garage so you can start car stacking. That would give you room for 1 more car maybe a BMW V12 powered something or other. The Mrs gets her parking spot back and you have 3 awesome cars to pick from. Seems logical and fair to me.
 

Attachments

  • DSC01803.jpg
    DSC01803.jpg
    74.9 KB · Views: 13
  • DSC02204.jpg
    DSC02204.jpg
    55.8 KB · Views: 13
Now there's a well stacked garage! Is that yours Andy? Can't quite make out the tags, but they look to be US size.

Another internet friend up in Canada has one of those lifts in his garage and has a GT40 replica, a DeTomaso Mangusta, and a Pantera in his. Choices, choices......
 
No not my garage unfortunately, a 65 Mustang cabrio is on the shopping wish list though.

I have room in my shed for 4 cars without stacking, two more in the garage and two more under the carport. Plenty of room to start collecting when funds allow. Now where did I put the shotgun and balaclava. The way the Aussie $ is going there are some good buys to be had.

Due to our temperature extremes I have fully insulated and reverse cycle air conditioned the shed (all freebies). Here is a pic of the car set up for a trade show day.

Next month she gets a coat of Dodge viper blue with silver stripes.
 

Attachments

  • 28082010931.jpg
    28082010931.jpg
    102.6 KB · Views: 17
Finally took an audio/video clip. I must get an base or something for this camera, or a willing passenger. This was a real PITA trying to hold the camera, drive, shift and avoid all the other vehicles that came zooming in for a closer look. In the end, it's the soundtrack that counts, isn't it ;)

th_MVI_0310.jpg
 
Would I be right if I said it does around 5,000rpm @ 60 miles an hour in 3rd gear?

The benefit of a 6 speed is it allows the lower gears to be quite short giving great accelaration whilst using the top 3 gears to give it top speed.

Plenty of US based muscle cars would do 60 @ 5,000rpm in first gear! Certainly sounds mean.
 
Spot on Rod.

Also, when I was bouncing off the rev limiter in 3rd, I was doing right at 100 mph. Astounding to think I had 3 gears left at that point.....

Top speed is 199 MPH @ 7600 RPM.
 
Couple of pics of the Italian's new COP's. I used Hayabusa coils with the HKS DLI booster, and it made a real clean installation, and the best thing is that I no longer have to disassemble half the intake to get to the plugs, not that plugs need changing frequently anymore anyway. But it's still nice to know they're 10x easier to change now! Plus the mod is easily reversible. I can have the old coilpacks and HT wires back on the car in half a day if/when I ever need to restore it back to stock.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2479 (Custom).JPG
    IMG_2479 (Custom).JPG
    144.3 KB · Views: 20
  • IMG_2582 (Custom).JPG
    IMG_2582 (Custom).JPG
    126.8 KB · Views: 17
Last edited:
The 550 Maranello has a tuned intake manifold arrangement, similar to the later Lexus where there's a 2nd set of butterflies and intake ports for each cylinder so the intake path at high RPM is shorter and straighter into the heads, but longer (and smaller) at low RPM's for better low end torque.

Ferrari are also big believers in bellmouths as you can see. Six on each side, angled toward the main incoming air at the center of the plenums, plus two more in the air filter boxes. These are definitely not just for show, in fact you can't even see them and wouldn't know they're there when the intake is all together.

Here's a pic showing the 12 auxiliary butterflies (and the stock ignition leads). As I mentioned before, each bank of the engine is in reality a separate six cylinder engine, with its own fuel supply/return, ignition, ECU, etc. The only systems that are shared are cooling & lubrication.

So Ferrari bundles all six ignition leads together, on each bank, into that flat black manifold with the 4 screws that sits outboard on the valve cover, then those six bundled leads go back to a six tower coilpack (1 per bank again) that fires the cylinders in a waste spark setup, very similar to a Ford EDIS6 arrangement.

This is a nice design for aesthetics, but terrible from an engineering point of view because it encourages crossfiring and lead failures. And since the leads are bundled together in that header and can't be separated, it's impossible to replace just one; all six have to be replaced, at a cost of over $900!

So, I like my setup better, both from an aesthetic point of view, as well as maintainability.
 

Attachments

  • Maranello Engine (Custom).JPG
    Maranello Engine (Custom).JPG
    137.1 KB · Views: 18
Last edited:
Hey John, yesterday I spotted a very clean yellow 550 maranello on my way home from Denver. Very impressive car. The roof is 4" lower than mine evern though im lowered and his was stock. I gave him a thumbs up and he did the same. I want one! haha
 
The Maranello's are just awesome cars, Sean. A stock one was already 4" lower than your Lexus? Wow. Mine has been lowered about 1 1/4", so I wonder if I could drive it under your Lexus!

What I've found about other Ferrari owners is that they're generally a friendly bunch, and most know a thing or two about their cars. Also, most of them are eager to share the Ferrari experience with others, and enjoy giving kids (small and big ones too) rides.

So for me, it's generally been a very positive experience so far, getting to know other Ferrari owners and swapping tall tales with them at various outings.

The car and marque definitely have a special aura. Whether you open the hood to look at the engine, or sit inside, or admire its exterior, the thing just looks like it's going 200 MPH, even sitting still. It's purposeful, while also being a piece of artwork.

Ferrari dressed their engines to be functional AND beautiful. All the little touches like the SS allen head screws, flange nuts, acorn nuts, plus the Rosso Corsa emblems and stripes really set off the motor. And on the rest of the car, nothing is fake - all scoops, vents, and louvers have a purpose. How they made the thing so incredibly fast, while still being drop dead gorgeous is just part of the mystique.

I guess it's pretty obvious how much I admire the car. It's really a joy to drive as well as work on, and frankly I can't decide which I enjoy more. i just wish I'd taken the plunge years ago.
 


Top