Antique & Classic Cars Blog
A Four-Place Horse
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008We all have friends whose hard work pays off. Some of these guys, the car fans, line up something with a prancing horse on it.
My friend Mark detailed Ferraris in high school and house-sat for the dealership’s owner. He got to wash some amazing cars and get behind the wheel of a few too. But his plans were a little bigger. Someday he was going to own his own Italian sports car–one with Enzo’s last name on it.
When the time came, he had a wife and son, so a two-seater had one bucket too few. The answer was a Mondial. Here it is. As you might expect of a seasoned detailer, he has it looking like it was built last week.
The Mondial is an interesting car. A little off radar with the four-place seating, but that exposed-gate shifter and 180 mph speedometer remind you you’re in a Ferrari. If he throws me the keys, I’ll catch ‘em. (Course, he’s on the other side of the world, so it’ll have to be a pretty big throw.)
Here’s some interesting links on the Mondial. In this piece, MSN calls it one of the top 50 cars of the 1980s, while here, Time Magazine had a different impression. IMHO, whoever wrote the Time piece isn’t much fun at a party.
2 Responses to "A Four-Place Horse"
some here might pay your air in exchange for video of your first attempt to shift with your left hand…
It’s too late to shoot that video. :^) I drove Mark’s E-type on the Haynes Motor Museum test track five years ago. Granted that was a four-speed, and had the calming familiarity of a British car, but it wasn’t all that hard.
I’d say pulling out into the correct lane is the bigger–and more dangerous–risk when first driving in a right-hand-drive world.
A curious car I drove here–and broke (though I don’t think it was my fault)–is a left-hand-drive Ferrari 250 GT with a reverse gearbox, like this:
3 1
4 2
The ‘57 car has an oil pump in the gearbox. We were trying to get a blur shot with me at the wheel and the owner said I was probably driving too slow–the car likes to be run hard so the oii pumps strongly. It stuck in gear, but loosened up again once it cooled down. Phew.
Please leave a comment
MotorMouth Kris Palmer, freelance auto writer and editor, blogs about vintage cars, the collectible auto scene and just about anything else that goes vroom.
Your favorite: classic car blog, antique car blog, muscle car blog, vintage car blog. Antique and classic cars for sale by owner.
Have a collectible car to sell?
Try an enhanced classified listing for "Antiques, Classic & Customized" where you can upload photos of your vehicle, provide contact information, and filter through inquiries with ease. Sell your collectible classic online.
Subscribe to MotorMouth
Learn more about RSS
Blogroll
Categories
- Back to the 50s (15)
- Car parts (129)
- Car stories (168)
- Events (47)
- Motorcycle tales (23)
- Uncategorized (40)
Archives
Search Yellow Pages: