Volume 2, Issue 7 - August 1995

Rosso Rodeo III

by: ed niles

the weather gods smiled on the hills of beverly, on june 24, l995; it was definitely a sun-screen kind of day for rodeo drive iii!

for the third iteration of this famous event, ferrari of north america, the southwest region of the ferrari club of america, and the merchants of rodeo drive cooperated in turning glitter gulch into a giant ferrari parking lot.

the president of ferrari north america, dott. gian luigi buitoni, announced the unveiling of the new car, shown here as it sat covered on the showroom floor of ferrari of beverly hills before its unveiling friday night and afterwards.

with rodeo blocked off to traffic from wilshire to santa monica blvd., about 150 beautiful ferraris were on display for the entire day. with no admission charge, the spectators were free to come and go as they chose, so of course it is difficult to say how many people enjoyed the display. estimates range as high as several hundred thousand citizens, ranging from jewelry shoppers to hard-core ferrari enthusiasts.

this year, the emphasis was on pre-1973 ferraris, although there was a sprinkling of 308's, various types of boxers, etc. cars on display ranged from car no. 002c, the spyder corsa, to a very new f355 spyder.

in addition to 002c, david sydorick displayed his 500 mondial spyder and his 250 mm spyder. lyle tanner brought his beautiful 750 monza down from northern california, and bruce and carolyn trenery brought the ex- schanbacher 308gt4/lm and their 275 gts from northern california as well.

competition ferraris were also in abundance. here the spyder corsa is is shown in front of a 348 challenge car and an f333 sp.

a number of ferraris which had won major awards at pebble beach and the fca national at monterey were on display, including roger karlson's 410 superamerica, ron hein's 250 gt cabriolet, the beautiful red and black 2l2 vignale berlinetta once owned by tony anthony and the 2l2 vignale coupe which ran in the l951 carrera panamericana. tillack & co., also brought a number of other interesting cars, including the 340 mexico spyder and the 1956 zagato tour de france 250. 250 gt california spyders were almost so numerous as to become common place!

ferrari spyders, old and new in glitter gulch. shown here are a new f355 sypder, a 1959 250 gt swb california spyder and a 1962 250 gt lwb california sypder.

modena sport cars displayed a beautiful 250 gt cabriolet in an unusual dark metallic green color, while european auto sales brought its 1953 625 formula i ferrari. and parked nearby was the 1953 factory transporter on which the 625 might once have travelled, displayed by richard freshman of fossil motorsports. symbolic motors and chuck betz and fred peters each brought three or four cars from their extensive collections, and collector bob lee brought the partially restored 166 barchetta no. 0002 which he had acquired just one week before at the willet brown auction. later cars of interest included a 333 sp, a matching pair of 512bb/lm "boxers", and a 288 gt0 as well as several f-40's.

celebrities were in evidence everywhere, both as exhibitors, judges and spectators. broadcaster paul moyer had his beautiful 275 gtb/4 on display, and the celebrity judges included jay leno, carroll shelby, bruce jenner, and zz-top.

picture yourself here (behind the sheel of a new f355 spyder).

judging was very low key; not at all what one might<

Oldtimer's Corner - Norm Blank's 166 Corsa

by: ed niles

when i experienced my ferrari epiphany, in 1959, it was considered quite normal to drive old ferraris on the street. mind you, owning a ferrari was not that common. in fact, it was quite extraordinary. that was part of why it was such a high, sweet adventure.

if one were lucky enough to own a ferrari, one certainly drove it. everywhere. it didn't matter that the car might have been designed for racing (we didn't distinguish). it didn't matter that the car was cranky or fussy or difficult to drive (well, in those days, weren't they all?).

it was like that old army admonition: "smoke if you got'em". only with us was only: "drive'em if you got'em". they had their 4-cylinder mg's and triumphs, or their 6-cylinder jags. we had the sweet soprano song of the v-12! we were somebody!

one such guy was bob peake, who had a neat little roadster that he used to drive down from his home in santa barbara to ferrari meets around the west side of ellay. it looked sorta like a 750 monza, but we knew it wasn't, 'cause it had a v-12 engine. beyond that, we didn't spend a lot of time puzzling over the car's exact heritage, serial number, or anything else. we were just getting together to have a good time. we used to see bob driving the car in the early 60's. then it disappeared for a year or two. in 1964, the car showed up in the hands of chuck betz, of orange county. chuck was "taking bids" on the car. i think maybe chuck may have had it on consignment from bob, but that part is a little unclear.

166 spyder corsa/barchetta s/n 014i as it appears today.

now, norm blank enters the picture. norm is a really neat guy, and one of the most stable you'll ever meet. during the entire time that i have known norm (over 30 years now), he has lived in the same house, and has the same ferraris (yes, he has more than one).

o.k., let's pull the story together. yes, norm bought bob peake's roadster. (in those days, we were all a bunch of overgrown hot-rodders, so we called them roadsters, not the current terminology of "spyder", which after all is not even an italian word.)

norm drove the car to a few meets, but he had another ferrari, (a short wheel base berlinetta) that was really more driveable. so, with the passage of time, we saw less and less of the roadster. of course, it helps to remember that, as cars got more modern and more pleasant, these old ferraris became less and less fun to drive. so the old roadster fell into disuse.

you know what happens when a car isn't driven regularly: the brakes sieze up. the carburetors get plugged up with that red stuff. the rubber starts to go to rubber heaven. in short, the car becomes unsafe, if not downright undriveable. during the great ferrari madness of the 80's, i used to ring norm on the tele every once in a while, to see if i could pry the car loose from him. but i think we both knew he was not going to sell. ever. that car was a lot more than just a piece of merchandise that was escalating in value to norm. he loved that little car.

the engine compartment in all its unrestored spendor.

and norm used to list himself in the roster as "investor", which i guess means that he has a little money and doesn't have to work for a living. so money was not any particular inducement to norm. he hung on.

but we never got to see the car anymore.

that's why i was jumping up and down with joy when i spotted it at monterey last year. yes, god bless his soul, norm had cleaned out all the fluid-carrying passages, got the car running, and hauled it up to monterey for all to see. and the beautiful part, for me, was that he had not restored it! the car was exactly the way it was when he bought i

Tech Tip - Carburetion

by: allen bishop

in the late 40's and early 50's, ferraris were thin on the ground, particularly in the usa, and little technical information was forthcoming on them from the factory or anywhere else for that matter. many of our mechanics were certainly familiar with a set of three deuces (stromberg 97s) on a hopped-up ford or merc flathead v-8, but those were almost always set up to operated progressively, i.e., the engine ran off the center carb at low revs, the two end carbs "coming in" only when the "loud pedal" was floored. hey, i grew up in street rod territory, and i remember how in awe i was when i realized that a "street" ferrari's carburetors all opened at the same time! unlike the guys with the gold-plated screwdrivers, i was scared stiff of the thought of messing with webers. in fact, the first set of webers i ever rebuilt was for a 250 mille miglia - the fabulous but problematical 36 if4c four-barrels.

i would like to outline some of the checks and procedures necessary to tune and maintain the carburetors on ferraris built prior to the bosch fuel injection era. for a few moments, put down your gold-plated tools. no, i'm not going into the theory of carburetion, but there are some very critical functional checks that often are ignored, but are basic to correct operation.

first, the engine's ignition system must be in completely correct order. this is another topic altogether which i won't discuss in any further detail here, but it is primary to correct carburetor setting.

next, all the linkage and cables from the pedal to the carburetors themselves must be correctly adjusted. primary to this are the levers that push and pull the throttles open and shut. they must be exactly the same length or strange things will happen. the throttle return spring must have its tension set via the adjustable bellcrank to a reasonable level. these springs are an excellent example of ferrari overkill; excessive tension can and will lead to needless and disruptive wear on the carburetors. these springs will pull a barn door shut!

regarding the throttle pedal itself, there are two questions to be answered. first, when floored are the throttle plates wide open? second, is the pedal's position essentially comfortable for your driving style? if you participate in track events, can you safely engage in heel-toe braking maneuvers? the pedal position is variable within certain limits and should be considered if your right ankle bothers you after a drive. also, if your car is equipped with a throttle cable make sure it is in good working order, not ready to snap at 100 mph.

air filters have to come off for any but the most minor work and their condition should be verified. dirty filters restrict air flow and will disrupt the air/fuel ratio at all rpm ranges.

relative to the above; it was sort of chic to run road cars sans air filter a number of years ago, the carbs being fitted with weber aftermarket "velocity stacks." these have to rate as one of the most useless decorations ever put on a v-12. not only do they flow air poorly, but also they require a change in jetting which, of course, was never done. furthermore, in the event of a blowback, they can allow a nice fire to start as well as under the best of circumstances allow all the dried paint and debris on the underside of the hood to drop right in for a friendly clogging. with the emphasis on originality over the past years, these little pieces of junk have largely vanished. the above remarks do not apply to those engines which were factory fitted with sta

Great Roads - Los Angeles to Las Vegas - In About 14 Hours

by: drew kelley

my plan was: up 395 to bridgeport on the backside of the sierra nevadas, a right turn into nevada, and a little meander through some of the small ranching and mining areas until i could pick up highway 95. once on 95, it would be south to las vegas through hawthorne, tonapaah, and goldfield.

leaving los angeles at 6:30 am friday, i had the usual slog through the east la congestion to pick up the 5 north to the 14 through the antelope valley - just your usual drive to willow springs. continuing north past rosamond on 14 finds 395 at the north edge of the mojave desert. i continued through the owen's valley to bishop, a perfect place to stop since the 300 miles from la had left me with just 2 gallons in the tank of the 330. not to mention, it was 11:00 and a quick lunch sounded good.

climbing north on 395 out of the owen's valley to the first of several 7,000 and 8,000 foot summits was beautiful. the valley was green, the mountains were capped with brilliant-white snow and small clouds clung to the mountain peaks like wisps of cotton in a clear, blue and windless sky.

on the outskirts of bridgeport you can take the right fork towards nevada on california highway 182. this road (two lanes with no shoulders) follows one of california's better trout streams through the foothills into nevada. for most of the route, you'll find the east walker river just a few feet beyond the edge of the pavement and just a couple feet below grade. every wide spot and bend finds motor homes and campers pulled off into clearings and their owners along the banks of the river, rod and reel in hand. leaving east walker, the road (now nevada highway 338) climbs over sweetwater summit and descends into the smith valley at the town of wellington, and the west walker river. turning right onto nevada highway 208, i eventually got to yerington, the county seat of lyon county (which just happens to be where we have to go to get permission to block off the bottom portion of the highway for the virginia city hillclimb each year). yerington has most of its historic downtown still intact and its a great place to browse and shop. they also monage to have a gambling establishment or two on most any block. it's sort of like virginia city on flat land and with parking.

going east on alt 95 brought me to schurz, highway 95 and the headquarters for the walker river indian reservation. if you're a railroad buff as i am, schurz is where you pick up the route of the carson and colorado railroad. unfortunately, it is also where you lose virtually any trace of this old narrow-gauge line that was built over 100 years ago from carson city nevada to keeler, california, at the south end of the owen's valley. the tracks are there but, everywhere else along the route where the railroad was, there is now nothing.

my next place to drive through was the famous mining town of tonapah and the center of anti-government sentiment in central nevada. funny, i didn't see one militia-man in camos with an assault rifle. it was happy hour though, maybe that explains it.

leaving tonapah, the next place along the road was goldfield, which has some absolutely beautiful hundred year old cut-stone mansions and business buildings in the center of town. some of them were three and four stories high with the old-style spacing of fourteen foot high ceilings to provide coolness in the high summer heat - just gorgeous buildings.

well, i had made gas stops in bishop and hawthorne and was able to make one more in beatty. unfortunately, driving through the countryside calls for more than just fuel stops: it seems that you have to make about three windshield cleaning stops on every tank of gas. it sur

Le Cercle Concours

the big rodeo drive event was immediately followed by the le cercle concours d'elegance in brentwood. there was a good turnout of a variety of cars, including about a dozen ferraris. more importantly, thanks to marshall lieb, tom brockmiller, and sunni won the club is a little bit richer. they awoke at the crack of dawn to set up a ferrari regalia booth at the show to raise money for the club. thanks!

sunni won and tom brockmiller eat chinese food and sell ferrari regalia at the le cercle concours.

Mystery Photo

shown below is a wonderful black-and-white photograph provided by chris vandagrif. can you identify the place, the time, and the cars? fax your guesses to 310-984-8651.

can you identify the place, time and cars?

Physics of Racing - Part 1: Weight Transfer

by: brian beckman

while the skills for balancing a car are commonly taught in drivers' schools, the rationale behind them is not usually adequately explained. that rationale comes from simple physics. understanding the physics of driving not only helps one be a better driver, but increases one's enjoyment of driving as well. if you know the deep reasons why you ought to do certain things you will remember the things better and move faster toward complete internalization of the skills.

balancing a car is controlling weight transfer using throttle, brakes, and steering. this article explains the physics of weight transfer. you will often hear instructors and drivers say that applying the brakes shifts weight to the front of a car and can induce oversteer. likewise, accelerating shifts weight to the rear, inducing understeer, and cornering shifts weight to the opposite side, unloading the inside tires. but why does weight shift during these maneuvers? how can weight shift when everything is in the car bolted in and strapped down? briefly, the reason is that inertia acts through the center of gravity (cg) of the car, which is above the ground, but adhesive forces act at ground level through the tire contact patches. the effects of weight transfer are proportional to the height of the cg off the ground. a flatter car, one with a lower cg, handles better and quicker because weight transfer is not so drastic as it is in a high car.

the rest of this article explains how inertia and adhesive forces give rise to weight transfer through newton's laws. the article begins with the elements and works up to some simple equations that you can use to calculate weight transfer in any car knowing only the wheelbase, the height of the cg, the static weight distribution, and the track, or distance between the tires across the car. these numbers are reported in shop manuals and most journalistic reviews of cars.

most people remember newton's laws from school physics. these are fundamental laws that apply to all large things in the universe, such as cars. in the context of our racing application, they are: the first law: a car in straight-line motion at a constant speed will keep such motion until acted on by an external force. the only reason a car in neutral will not coast forever is that friction, an external force, gradually slows the car down. friction comes from the tires on the ground and the air flowing over the car. the tendency of a car to keep moving the way it is moving is the inertia of the car, and this tendency is concentrated at the cg point.

the second law: when a force is applied to a car, the change in motion is proportional to the force divided by the mass of the car. this law is expressed by the famous equation f=ma, where f is a force, m is the mass of the car, and a is the acceleration, or change in motion, of the car. a larger force causes quicker changes in motion, and a heavier car reacts more slowly to forces. newton's second law explains why quick cars are powerful and lightweight. the more f and the less m you have, the more a you can get.

the third law: every force on a car by another object, such as the ground, is matched by an equal and opposite force on the object by the car. when you apply the brakes, you cause the tires to push forward against the ground, and the ground pushes back. as long as the tires stay on the car, the ground pushing on them slows the car down.

let us continue analyzing braking. weight transfer during accelerating and cornering are mere variations on the theme. we won't consider subtleties such as suspension and tire deflection yet. these effects are very important, but secondary

Formula One Update

french grand prix at magny cours

the lackluster performance can be attributed to a car that never really got set up properly. of course, berger wasn't helped any by a faulty fuel nozzle that refused to come loose from his car, causing a frustrating 53 second pit stop.

alesi has hoped for more on his home turf, especially after winning the last race in canada but the car was not well balanced and the engine wasn't pulling strong out of the slow corners. still, alesi showed himself to be the most aggressive driver on the track on lap 55 when he tried to take brundle. coming up to a right handed hairpin alesi locked his tires and tried to skate around the inside of brundle, but to no avail. brundle started a late charge on coulthard towards the end of the race, just missing out by a couple of tenths of a second at the end. the finishing order was: schumacher, hill, coulthard, brundle, alesi, barrichello. berger finished 12th.

in the points battle schumacher is running away with the driver's championship but can still be caught by either hill or alesi (given a miracle) and ferrari has been knocked back to second place in the constructor's race but certainly isn't out of contention. look at it this way: you can't win if you don't finish and at least both ferraris finished.

formula one update - british grand prix at silverstone

from the grid damon hill got away well but berger made a bad start, lighting up the rear wheels. alesi made a super start coming up from 6th on the grid to 2nd, just ahead of schumacher. the german immediately dived to the left of alesi only to be blocked, forcing schumacher to slow down and giving coulthard a chance to go by. the young scot however couldn't pull it off and wisely didn't fully commit himself.

by the end of the first lap damon hill was already pulling away and the field was bunching up behind alesi who was slowing schumacher down and giving hill time to sprint away. hill sprinted away until one third distance when the ferrari pitted coming out in 7th place, behind barrichello. hill dived into the pits shortly after, giving schumacher the lead. schumacher instantly started lapping at the same speed as hill. however, using a one stop strategy, it wasn't until half distance that schumacher pitted. after the half distance marker the running order was: hill (one more pit to go), schumacher (all pits finished), herbert, coulthard, alesi, barrichello. berger had retired with mechanical problems and hill had retaken schumacher when the german pitted. having regained the lead, hill could see that his only chance was to pull away, pit and keep the lead. he started lapping at phenomenal speeds, pulling out a gap of 30 seconds before he pitted.

just as hill exited the pit lane, the german came flying through into the lead. the two were in complete deadlock, within 5 feet of each other. the racing was great until hill tried an over-ambitious passing maneuver, taking them both out. a huge groan came from the c

Huntington Beach Concours - A Salute to Ferrari

on sunday, june 11th, we had a beautiful day and a turn out of about 40 ferraris for the 10th annual huntington beach concours d'elegance charity car show for the children's library. it was a great show with over 180 classic cars and motorcycles displayed on the grass in the central library park. the event was supported by ferrari of north america, the ferrari club of america southwest region, the ferrari owner's club, and beverly hills ferrari, who brought two new cars to put on display. among the classic ferraris were a new 456 gt and a f512 m.

food vendors were busy all day, and the crowd was entertained by the huntington beach concert band and a five piece jazz band.

the oldest ferrari displayed was a 1951 340 america coupe (ex-parravano), owned by gordon thomas. mike sheehan of european auto sales brought several cars, among which was the 1970 lemans 512m race car, beautifully restored in yellow, as it ran for the belgian team.

the ferrari class winners are as follows:

huntington beach concours

Ferrari Software Available Now

the ferrari multimedia cd-rom software la legende ferrari, volume 1 - the road cars reviewed in the june issue of sempre ferrari is now available! the club has purchased a limited number of these titles direct from the publisher in france.

even if you don't have a computer today, this software is a "must own" for any true ferrari enthusiast and probably won't be available in the u.s. again so buy yours now. it runs on both apple macintoshes and ibm multimedia-capable pcs so you can always buy the computer later!

the money to buy these cds was fronted interest-free by a cub member who is generously donating all profit (if any) to the club so please help us out by filling out the form below and sending in your check today. thanks.

 ferrari software  please spend me (   ) copy(ies) of the ferrari cd-rom software la legende ferrari - volume i - the road cars for both mac and windows at a cost of:	 	$50.00 ($45.00 plus $5.00 shipping)    i have enclosed a check for the total amount of: 		$ _____________ 	 send to:  name________________________________________ address______________________________________ city ___________________ state ___  zip __________  send together with your payment to: ferrari club of america, 333 so. ivy street, escondido, ca 92025 

Classified Ads

for sale: for daytona: transaxle, complete - price negotiable. ring and pinion gear set - nos ferrari, standard 10/33 ratio - $2950. borrani rw4075 7 1/2" x 15 wire wheels, set of 4 - $2800. set of 2 each 8" and 9" by 15" ferrari campagnolo racing wheels - $3600. set of 4 7 1/2" by 15" cromodora wheels - $1600. for 308: set of 4 ferrari qv cromodora 7" and 8" by 15" wheels - $2400. marshall (310) 559-3947, fax (310) 836-3763.

for sale: harness bar, $195. with grade 8 bolts to attach to 308, 328, brackets for submarine strap, instructions. have model for daytona and others available too. marshall buck (310) 559-3947, fax (310) 836-3763.

for sale: 1974 porsche rs carrera. one of the original 500 built. 61k original miles. white with full black leather interior. recaro factory seats, factory a/c, factory sunroof, special order black headliner. chromed polished wheels, new dunlop high performance tires. recent motor rebuild by andial 2,100 miles ago. $23,000 obo. original california car. contact michael at (310) 474-2693 or (310) 470-7096.

for sale: 1986 328 gtb, red/black, s/n 61181, 38,000 miles. arosso corsa beauty! always in california, second owner since 8,000 miles. excellent goodyear eagles, recent service, fresh agip oil, filter, brakes, a/c, throttle service. all records, tools, amd spare. ready for immediate enjoyment! $43,500. contact r/a/ moone (310) 377-9859.

for sale: 1994 348 challenge, yellow/new! race ready $89,000. 1991 348 ts black/tan, 16,000 miles, $69,000. 1990 348 ts red/tan, 12,000 miles, $68,000. contact william burton, newest auto, inc. (213) or (818) 224-1111.