Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Just Thinking...

[Charles Perry (charles]

The 2005 Aston Martin Vanquish S I used to have used the same actuator system 
as the Ferrari 360, albeit atop a Tremec transmission instead of the Graziano 
on the 360.

For a big GT car like the Aston, the F1 setup suited its character, similar to 
Clyde liking it on his 575. At low throttle it was slow to shift. At full 
throttle it was quite quick. I'm sure they wanted it that way for a 
luxury-leaning car. I really liked it for that car, but I also never needed to 
do any real maintenance on it (actuators or hydraulic pump). The Aston would 
occasionally "drift" on the clutch bite-point, which would make it a little 
reluctant or chattery starting from a stop. When that happened, there was a 
relatively easy procedure to go through (relating to starting and stopping the 
car multiple times with your foot on or off the brake) which would re-teach it 
the bite-point on the clutch. After that it would be fine for a few months 
usually. No idea if the 360 has anything like that. The Aston also had a Sport 
mode button on the dash which somewhat affected the shift speed of the 
transmission. In stop-and-go traffic the car wasn't ideal at modulating the 
clutch. There were a couple of times where I would smell the plates from 
slippage, but when I sold it the clutch life still read very high, so no real 
damage. Just a little disconcerting to smell your $300k car in traffic.

If I had kept it I was thinking about shipping it back to Aston for a manual 
conversion. At the time the conversion cost was about $30k plus shipping, but I 
felt it would make the car easier and cheaper to maintain over the long-term. 
Plus Aston's also carry a high premium in the market for manual conversions, so 
it's money you'd get back if you sold it.

I might've been a little less happy with the setup in a true sports car like 
the 360 versus a GT car. But I also have no drive time experience in a 360, so 
I can't compare to the Aston except that knowing the hardware was the same. 
It's entirely possible Ferrari's implementation was more smooth or better 
calibrated than the Aston given that my Vanquish was done in one of the many 
times when Aston's financial security was questionable. But I would take that 
car back if I could, so I guess that probably tells you the important verdict.

-- charles





-----Original Message-----
From: Ferrari <ferrari-bounces+charles=carolinasound.com [at] ferrarilist.com> 
On Behalf Of georgedodson [at] comcast.net
Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2023 4:37 PM
To: Charles Perry <charles [at] carolinasound.com>
Cc: The FerrariList <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Subject: [Ferrari] Just Thinking...

I have been thinking recently about selling my 81' 308GTSi and picking up a
360 Spider. I would prefer the 6-speed (Red/Tan) to the F1 but they are at 
least 30% more. I have never owned an automatic transmission sports car of any 
kind (MG, TR, Jag, Lotus, Ferrari...). Is the 6-speed worth the extra price?  
What do you think? 

Best Regards,
 George



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