Pismo Beach, then Ragged Point

Late check-out of Cliff Edge hotel by the sea (Mussel Shoals, CA) because I wanted to soak up all the surf I could before heading out on the road. That, and because I had a meeting planned with a very good long time friend, Theresa H. at around 2:30 for lunch. I haven't seen her in way too long. 

Phone maps were not working properly, no voice commands, and the connection was very poor, so I missed a few turns. Kind of a nuisance, but I really wanted to check out some new places anyway, and lots of time to kill.

Met up with Theresa H. at the Ventana Grill in Pismo Beach for a nice lunch and lots of catching up with the news about our mutual friends. Then, all too soon, it was big hugs and time to get back on the road. I wanted to arrive at the Ragged Point Inn before sunset to get some good photos. And I prefer to avoid high speed twisty road driving at night.

My first visit to Ragged Point was 40 years ago, on my first drive up the legendary Highway 1 to Big Sur and on to Carmel and Monterrey. The road car that year was my Ferrari 275 GTB.

This photo was taken in 1977 somewhere near Ragged Point, and it's one of my all-time favorite photos. Many good memories...

I can't remember the name of the photographer, but I'm sure she was very attractive, and I'm sure we liked each other a lot, but that's about it.  

We were heading south after a great weekend, and I had this sense of History, driving a great car on a great stretch of road, and with a great companion to share it with. I was struck with the importance of recording the moment for posterity and pulled over at a spot with a good view of the Pacific and asked her to run across the road and take a photo. What you see is what she got in one shot. She would be pleased to know that this photo won First Place in the Del Mar Times photo contest about 2-3 years ago.

One of my goals is to recreate this photo with the new car, less hair, but of course there's no way I could ever find bell-bottom pants, and I'm not sure I'd want to!

Here's a shot looking north along the coast from Ragged Point Inn, taken at sunset tonight:

A good first day of the road trip

Packed the car, with the gnawing feeling that I'm forgetting something. I'm over-packed because I have no idea how long I'll be gone...

Take off at 9:15, and fill the tank, and I'm on the Interstate by 9:30. North.

Quick stop at cousin Tim and Meghan's home about an hour north for some pizza and checking out their new home (awesome!) and then back on the road again. The stop was planned to give me a chance to rest my feet and see how long I can drive without problems.

Here's the challenge: I have peripheral neuropathy in my feet, a condition that is characterized by tingling, numbness, cramping, etc. The nerves are dying. It's hereditary, incurable, and progressive.  My father had it and finally got to the point where he had a very difficult time walking. 

One of the thoughts behind getting this car is that, since this condition only gets worse, there will never be a better time later. 

The big unknown going into this road trip is how long I can drive at a time before my feet go completely numb and it becomes not such a good idea to drive without resting.

I planned to split today's driving of about 4 hours into 3 stops, the first to have lunch, and then the long drive in the afternoon would be an experiment to see how long I can last.

The pizza for lunch started to get me sleepy and I was planning on stopping for some rest, but I caught a second wind and just kept going the whole distance of about 3 hours without much of a problem. Pleasant surprise!

I stayed in automatic mode the whole trip, and it really showed its value in the stop and go traffic through Los Angeles traffic. The drive was in mid day, so it was nowhere as bad as it could have been. 

Pulled into the hotel at 2:30, got the primo parking spot I visualized from looking at Google Maps satellite images. Remind me to tell you about my parking karma!

The room is excellent, about 50' from the Pacific, on Old Pacific Coast Highway. Dinner outside, 73 degrees, sunset, great food. Then a brisk walk around the neighborhood of beachfront homes.

Before calling it a day I do some stretches and massage the feet, then listen to the lullaby of surf sounds to put me into a deep sleep...

A good day!

Odometer 2271.

Two rides in one day!

1.  A quick drive to a local restaurant to celebrate the birthday of a very good friend, Kat. I got there first and arranged with the parking valet to leave it out front so Kat could check it out. Valets seem to always park the nice iron up front, and today was no exception.  Of course she loved it but we didn't have time for a ride. We both had appointments right after lunch. We'll ride another day...

2.  Another top down late afternoon ride back to the medical clinic to get the stitches removed. Everything looks good, says the doc. He wants me to come back in 10 days, but that's not going to happen because Epic Road Trip #2 starts tomorrow morning!

This time of year in SoCal the weather is absolutely perfect. Today was hot, in the upper 80s, but the humidity was very low

The evening was busy with packing for the road trip starting tomorrow.

Odometer 2068.

Sunset ride up The Hill, at speed, top down.

Show and tell followed by hot ride up The Hill with Mark K. but first a drive-by chat 'n dash with Steve and Dianne B.

Top down, windows down, the sound is awesome, but lots of wind at 100 mph. It seems that most of the top down travels will be best at a maximum of 60-70 for long rides. I'll do more experiments with windows up, and wind deflector installed. Maybe with all that going, it could be good for long distance, high speed, top down driving.

Serious brake tests on the way back down the hill, all to good effect.

Big respect for this car. Strong, capable, yet civilized when required.

Ready for Epic Road Trip #2.

Reliving the good old days

Another perfect weather day, with very ordinary excuse to go for a ride: haircut. Top up this time because I knew I was going to park the car unattended and out of sight in a remote corner of the mall lot, even if only for half an hour.

J. is outside catching a smoke as I pull up in front of the clip joint. His jaw drops on seeing the car, and drops some more when he recognizes that it's me driving. I drop the window and he sticks his head inside, strokes the leather and initially has trouble finding the words.

He's usually on a tight schedule so I slip the car around the corner and off to my usual ding-free parking zone, and head inside to get my ears lowered. I always get my hair cut around the New Moon, but I don't know why I mention that. :)

After the quick clip, it's back on the road, and instead of heading home, I decide to head up the coast road; it's just too nice a day, to celebrate the fact that both biopsies are benign, and to relive those good old days, 40 years ago, when I would drive my Ferrari 275 GTB on that road several times a day, just for the sheer pleasure of it.  Of course that was 40 years ago, and there was a lot less traffic. 

Today, going north, the traffic was awful, a lot of stop and go, so I kept to automatic mode and it was almost pleasurable, but the late afternoon sun was burning the left side of my face, even with the top up. But that was good information: the sun visor is stationary, only flips down and doesn't swing to cover the side window. I need to get something to block the sun because I'll be doing a lot of afternoon driving north on my road trip. Pep Boys might have something for that. I also need some screws to mount the license plate. Maybe tomorrow.

This was my longest drive to date, just over an hour in the car, and it was good practice for the long drives ahead. I was tired when I got back home, and spent an hour on the yoga mat un-kinking, then went to bed early.



Odometer 2009.

It was just a friendly pat on the back...

A short ride of about 10 miles to the south, top down on a beautiful day, in a beautiful car, for an ugly reason: surgery to get a couple of suspicious "lesions" removed and inspected for cancer, one on my back and another on my right thumb.

 The outcome of this procedure will determine if I need more surgery, which could delay my planned road trip, and I won't know for a couple more days.

 So I might as well enjoy the ride, right?

 There's no hurry getting there, so I keep to automatic shifting mode just to see how it behaves in traffic. Remarkably smooth! Just the slightest pressure on the accelerator and it moves gracefully through the gears keeping revs in the 1500 rpm range.

The personality of the car is completely changed from the enthusiastic way I have been driving it since delivery. This is very laid back, low profile, and quiet.

The clinic parking lot is full, but 10 feet away is another clinic where I have a couple of physician friends, and they have several open spots, so I slip in there and chat up the valet, tipping him nicely and giving him a card to download my free app. I mention I'd like to visit, un-announced, a couple of friends there, and then go to the other clinic for some surgery. No problem, he says.

The surgery goes surprisingly well, with only local numbing injections and I'm out of there in about 90 minutes, but the most incredible thing happens...

The surgeon asks how I'm enjoying my new car, so I invite him outside to check it out. I didn't expect him to take me up on it; he's a very busy guy, but he lights up and says sure. Now we're no long physician/patient, just two car guys checking out a Ferrari, and of course he loves it.

When he's seen enough and moves to get back to his office, he wishes me well on my road trip, and give me a friendly slap on the back, scoring a direct hit where he just cut me open. 

My reaction was immediate and incredulous and he picks up on his mistake immediately, but of course his slap was more of a friendly pat, and it didn't cause any damage. We both had a good laugh about that.

In a couple of days I might be told I have cancer, but not today. The ride home was still in automatic mode, late afternoon, 70 SoCal degrees, top down, in a Ferrari, driving north on the coast road.

The brake lights are Where?

My son sent me this video clip of a test drive on the Ferrari California T and it taught me a couple of things that probably would have taken me a while to learn, including the fact that the brake lights are not where I thought they were:

One of those perfect rides

No ride yesterday, the car sat idle.

After a meeting at the office from 2-3, there was another meeting about 10 miles inland at 4pm with new potential client Joyce T.

Refueled the car for the first time and checked out the filler tube with NO gas cap, which, if I hadn't learned about it from BB I would have been totally freaked about it. Never heard of such a thing!

Top down on nice twisty roads, 70 degrees, sun at my back, and a perfect parking spot right in front of the restaurant. Left the car with the top down and felt completely safe about that because of the quality of the neighborhood.

Great meeting.

Back on the road at 6:15, just before sunset, great sky colors, open roads, high speeds.

I'm getting used to the car, feeling comfortable with it.
Except for the HOLD feature, and lack of automatic hold on hills. That's just wrong.

Did some reading in the operator's manual re: turn signal operation which seems counterintuitive in that you press the switch longer for the signal to stay on for shorter duration (lane change), and press quickly to keep the signal on longer (until steering resets it or reset by operator by pressing again).

Weekend One

Saturday morning Beauty gets a wash. It's an opportunity for me to go over every square inch of the car, noticing every tiny mark, most already there from the first owner, not many at all, and maybe a couple I've picked up in the 5 days I've owned it. None of them noticeable to the average viewer. Lots of heads turn, everyone smiles, some stop to talk, one asks "Is that a Mustang?  I saw the horse logo...".

A friend I haven't seen in a year or so (Dave C.) calls in the morning. He says he'll be passing by my little village on his way home and maybe he can buy me lunch? Why not, right. So I drop the top and we head east to find a restaurant with some shade nearby for parking. He admits that his big agenda item was to prod me into buying the Ferrari that I was going to buy 3 years ago, but didn't (see last post from 2014), and he was amazed that I did it just this week. Mid-lunch I take a chance and call a friend (BB) who lives nearby, another Ferrari owner (488, F12, plus Lamborghini Aventador spider, Porsche, Rolls, etc) who has followed my twisted tale of owning this car since the beginning when he drove me north in his 458 Spider so I could test drive the California when it first became available. He drives over in his 488 to join us for lunch. In one of those interesting coincidences, Dave has previously talked with BB on business matters but never met.

Lunch winds down and BB invites me to dinner with some of his friends that evening at some very fancy place I have not experienced before, and to meet his newest squeeze-to-be, and her friend, etc. This is a no brainer because BB is a great host and is always surrounded by an interesting entourage. We meet at his mansion for a few hours of champagne and talk before dinner. Lots of Ferrari talk and photos of the cars. He has a white F12, and the red 488, along with my blue Beauty, would make a great red/white/blue tribute to his French heritage, and also very American, but we don't get around to making that photo happen. Too many details to make it happen, and we have pretty girls to entertain.


BB's new friend Alexandra is magnificent, very lively and open, and her good friend Mary is quite the same, and wearing over-the-knee boots, a feature that fascinates the living bejeezus out of me. (For some reason I'm particularly attracted to women's exotic footwear. On them, of course.)

Mary's a great conversationalist, and it seems we have lots in common, so the dinner goes much more smoothly than I had thought at the outset because there was another guy there who I thought was the matchup for Mary, and I was the last minute 5th wheel. But as it turned out Mary and drove there and back in my car, and we spent most of the night talking. I felt bad for the other guy, but it happened all so naturally, without any contrivance on my part at all. During the two night drives, to and from dinner, I finally found the high beam switch!

Sunday was son day. I drove to his place with the top down, and glided quietly into his driveway to surprise him. It was the first time Mike saw the car, although he has known of this impending event since the beginning. We had a quick lunch of takeout Rubio's, then ventured outside to check out the car in detail. Without any suggestion on my part, he moved from his wheelchair to the driver's seat, and gave it the full inspection of all the buttons, dials, knobs, whatever, including startup, and revving and oooh-ing and aaah-ing. It was great to see him in the car! Maybe there's a way to fit it out with hand controls for him to drive it when I'm doing the long dirt nap...

As I was demonstrating the top up operation, it got hung up with the rear quarter windows partially open, but going through the down/up procedure again all things worked right. It seems that it's a touchy procedure. Maybe I took my finger off the button for a millisecond and that caused the glitch. Not confidence inspiring.

Back home before sunset, top up.


Odometer 1942 (the year I was born).

Day Three: Night Ride

The morning started with a quick trip to the Ferrari service shop where they confirmed that the top operation problem was Operator Error. Duh. While I was there, they tried to sell me a heavy plastic chin guard for a thousand bucks, but since I get in/out of my driveway without scraping, I passed on that expensive option. The thickness of the piece may even cause scraping!

Well after sunset I took my first NIGHT drive up The Hill, cautiously (only 100mph) due to the limited visibility, traffic, and unfamiliarity with the controls for high beams, etc. Jake, a coaching client, came along for the ride. I kept the top up.

This was also an experiment with shoe-less driving. It seems my sneakers are a bit big and get hung up moving from gas to brakes. I've ordered some driving shoes and fingerless driving gloves. Is this the beginning of the long slow slide into the Diderot Effect or just normal continuous improvement?

Day Two: top operating troubles

Another ride up The Hill, this time reaching 117mph (only 60% of the 196mph top speed) without any trouble whatsoever. Stephanie was enjoying the ride this time!

Before we set out, I wanted to lower the top, and everything seemed to go fully through the process, but when I tried to lower the windows, they refused to budge. Then I noticed that the dash warning said that the system was overheated, but that didn't make sense because I hadn't even turned the engine on! Maybe the top system was overheated?

I fired up the engine and drove to the street to get a better look, and noticed a small flap was slightly sticking up. Maybe that's the bug?

So I put the top back up. That worked just fine. But it wouldn't allow another lowering of the top, again giving the message.

Later that evening I tried it again, and it worked flawlessly 4 times in a row. So that's the good news, but there must be a bug in there somewhere. Or operator error?

Back to the shop in the morning!

Follow-up:
At the shop on 10/4/17, they ran diagnostics and found nothing wrong, but after discussion with the service manager, we learned that it was operator error: the engine needs to be running when operating the top. Duh. I must have missed that when reading the manual. RTFM, dude.

Day One

At 8am on October 2, Beauty was lowered to the ground from the Reliable Transport big rig in front of Ferrari San Diego maintenance facility after the long, dark trip from Long Island, NY.

This was the first time I saw the car, and it's everything I thought it would be.
Stunning.

It passed the safety check with flying colors. Cost $165; surprisingly inexpensive.

After a brief introduction to the operating controls by the Ferrari service manager Larry Suarez, it was finally time for me to strap in and get on the road.

I was as nervous as a long tailed cat 
in a room full of rocking chairs!

Don't break the car, don't break the car, don't break the car... That's all I could think about as I slipped slowly away and threaded through the industrial park and eventually on to the Interstate, driving like a little old lady... Don't break the car, don't break the car...

First stop was to good buddy David's home. I met him 40 years ago, when his then-girlfriend and my then-divorce lawyer introduced us. I parked my then-Ferrari 275 GTB long nose (burgundy/black) in his Porsche driveway while the 3 of use went inside for a chat. After an hour or so, as I pulled out of his drive, it was a bit of an embarrassment to notice that my Italian ride left its mark with more than a few drops of oil on his otherwise spotless German parking spot. David has never owned a Ferrari, and I have never owned a Porsche, but somehow we became great friends.

I didn't call first, so it was a surprise visit, and as I quietly slipped into his driveway, his bride Carol came out to check things out. She loved the car, of course. Then David came out and we went through all of the knobs and buttons and switches and flaps and scoops. When it came to opening up the engine compartment, it was Carol who figured it out. Big respect, Carol. She also provided the screwdriver to perform the first modification: the removal of the Ferrari San Diego license plate bracket and plate. Those things are a pet peeve of mine. 

Finally I dropped the top to more oohs, and aahs, and it was time to get back on the road.

Over the years, it became a tradition that whenever I got a hot new car, the first thing on the agenda was to take it for a fast ride up The Hill.  I hit 104 before I checked the speed, then quickly backed off in amazement. Damn, that car gets going faaaast!

Then, with David still passenger, it was time for the ultimate test: will it make it into my driveway without scraping the front end? This was a big worry for me because of the gutter dip the has always been a challenge with previous low-slung cars, especially my Viper GTS.  It was a big relief when it caused no problem whatsoever! 

I returned David to his home and bride, and then took Beauty back to her home (my home), and started to read the manual in detail. Soon I fell asleep in my chair, then decided to get real about a serious nap in the hammock. All that excitement was draining!

Overall, a successful first day with my sixth Ferrari.

Notes:

1.  Today was the 25th anniversary of the day I sold my software company, and that traded previous 7 years of stress for the resources to retire and live a comfortable life. And so it is an auspicious day to celebrate that great occasion with my first Ferrari in 17 years. Why no Ferrari in 17 years? That's a story for another time. Stay tuned.

2.  The transport driver for Reliable, Ervilio (sp?), was a very professional dude who has been delivering exotics for 27 years. We got to chatting for a while and he surprised me with his question: "You're a pilot aren't you?"  WTF! How could he have known that? He mentioned that a good number of people he meets when he delivers exotics are pilots, and over time he has noticed the similarities in the personalities: they never talk down to others, and have a quiet, confident persona that distinguishes them. How about that for a student of human nature! So I gave him a signed copy of my book of flying adventures before he got back on the road to delivering dream cars to other patiently waiting dreamers.

3. End of day: 1814 miles on the odometer.

4. No photos taken!

The Journey Begins...

Getting on the truck. Top shelf, of course. I could not bear for Beauty to travel cross country behind that yellow beast. Instead Beauty will ride above and leak oil on the Porsche.

Bon voyage, Beauty...

Almost immediately after the car was loaded on the truck, I wanted to know where it was as it traveled across the country for the next couple of weeks.

With Uber, you can watch on your smartphone app as the car comes down your street. But I can't see that with my Ferrari? That's just wrong! It seems that the dealer could easily have sold me an extra service that would give me real-time updates just like Uber. Seems like a business opportunity for some enterprising techie!

Road Trip

Justification:
I need a vacation. Eleven years since last road trip.
A new road car demands a Road Trip.
A new Epic Road Car demands an Epic Road Trip.
It is a rite of passage, a milestone.

This not an option.
I am driven to do this.
It is not however, something to be achieved,
rather it is needed, at a cellular level.
Essential for survival,
an essential phase of evolution.

It is a missing puzzle piece
that falls effortlessly into place.

What a man can be, he must be.  

(Maslow)

Adventure One - autumn, 2017
      Map - choice 1, north
      Map - choice 2, east
      
      Sequoia - meditate among the giants
      Muir Beach - Play frisbee on the beach with Katie for a couple of days
      Computer History Museum - check on documents, exhibit, materials, story
      Tahoe - drive around the lake
      
      Denver
      Albuquerque
      Grand Canyon, Kingman, Crater, Four Corners
      Phoenix
      San Diego

What to pack - see post on Cargo checklist

Interior

Sterling blue leather everywhere, white stitching.
Low profile.
Calm.
Appropriate for a man of my age.

The coat hook embedded into the seat back is a nice touch, nicely done.
There's even a cupholder. Just one.

Each rear seat could hold one shopping bag, but definitely not a human.

It's a car, not a billboard (de-badging)

We don't need no stinking badges.

The car is extremely over-badged. It's a car, not a billboard. There is no need for excessive branding, The number of occurrences of the brand names or brand symbols is at least 20. Imagine a t-shirt that had 20 sewn-in labels sticking out all over it. Totally excessive, intrusive, irritating, and they are not paying me to do all that advertising for them. It is unnecessary to SHOUT the branding. Go low profile.

Some de-badging is easy, such as the front grille horse and the rear deck Ferrari name, and the horse on the rear. Maybe I can design some sort of terrycloth seat covers that will cover the horses on the headrests.

Other besmirchments will be dealt with in a more customized manner, and will take time to design.

When a man traveled by horse, he would brand his horse in one place, not all over the animal, and it would be his brand, not some horse manufacturing company. 

I am a quiet man.

A minimalist.

One yellow badge on the nose, in the traditional placement.

That's it.

Internal badging on the door sills, and once in the cabin on the steering wheel center, or on the center of the dashboard, under the display.

Period.

Add badging in the form of a Personalized (Vanity) License Plate with the website URL. Plain frame.

The Diderot Effect

The Diderot effect is a social phenomenon related to consumer goods that comprises two ideas. The first posits that goods purchased by consumers will be cohesive to their sense of identity, and as a result, will be complementary to one another. The second states that the introduction of a new possession that is deviant from the consumer's current complementary goods can result in a process of spiraling consumption. The term was coined by anthropologist and scholar of consumption patterns Grant McCracken in 1988, and is named after the French philosopher Denis Diderot (1713–1784), who first described the effect in an essay.

The term has become common in discussions of sustainable consumption and green consumerism, in regard to the process whereby a purchase or gift creates dissatisfaction with existing possessions and environment, provoking a potentially spiraling pattern of consumption with negative environmental, psychological and social impacts.

In this blog post we explore the spiraling consumption that follows Ferrari ownership.

Understanding the Diderot Effect (and How To Overcome It)

Cargo checklist

Not going to happen!

Some necessities for extended Road Trip

Travel
Binoculars
Compass, backup to smartphone compass
Fire: Matches - flint - starter
Solar - convert to charge phone, etc.
State and National park passes.

Sleeping bag
Tarp

Tent

Ground Pad / yoga

Hammock

Hiking boots

Towel

Clothes 

Kit, toothbrush

Laptop, charger

Drone kit

SPORTS 

Frisbee, 2
Pool cue, chalk, tool

Soccer ball, pump
Driving shoes and gloves

Hiking Shoes, socks, t-shirts, pants
Hoodie

BUSINESS

Business cards 

Books 

Posters 

Note cards 

Pens

GO-BAG
Personal necessities:
Watch, ID, keys, phone

Water

Devices, airpods, chargers, 

Hat

Swiss Army knife 

Pens

Note pad 

Hand sanitizer
Food
Winter jacket, scarf, gloves

The Hermit's Ferrari

That's a rather interesting cognitive disconnect: a hermit with a Ferrari. What would a hermit DO with a Ferrari? Driving the car would require leaving the cave, but he's a hermit. There would have to be a lot of tension going on there.

The ideal Ferrari-owning hermit would have a cave large enough for his car, and property enough for a high speed road course and test track.

I'll work on that last part, but what remains is that the hermit (me) will, in 2 weeks, be in possession of a 2017 Ferrari California T. We're talking full time 24/7, just turn the key and off you go wherever you want, and you get to do it in a Ferrari. Are there any negatives here?

And, by the way, it has a retractable hard top, so within seconds it can morph into an open air king of the road. With a hermit at the wheel. Seems unlikely, and yet, it is happening...

Actually, a great road car is perfect for hermits. An escape capsule, but still a portable cave. Brief interactions with other humans for gas, food, lodging and in no time a hermit could explore a lot of territory. First stop Sequoia National Forest, and be a hermit sitting quietly among those wise old trees.

I mentioned this new Ferrari adventure to a couple of close friends. All positive reactions. They all want rides! But feedback like: "Are you crazy?" was completely absent. I guess it's the rides that cloud their judgement. Sure clouds mine...

Now we wait

Last night (September 8, 2017) I went to sleep for the first time in 17 years as a man who has a Ferrari on order, and I slept soundly until this morning when I woke refreshed and strong with the realization that I AM a man who must endure the next few weeks as a man who has a Ferrari on order.

It's the waiting game, a pastime that I would rather avoid at all costs Waiting a few minutes for the barber to finish with the guy in the chair... that's easy. But this is waiting a few weeks for my Ferrari. See the difference?

It has been shown that people who are Patient, who can Delay Gratification, are more likely to be successful than people who can not. See the marshmallow test on kids:

If I had my choice of Gratification Now or Gratification Later, of course I would take now, but in this case I have no choice. The wheels of Administrivia grind slowly. Contracts must be drafted, reviewed, signed, transmitted, funds must be arranged and wired, shipping arranged, and then the long trip across the country in a covered van before it gets here. I can only imagine how long that will take. I should expect two to three weeks, but expectations in complex transactions are seldom met, right?

Patience...

Two days evaporated just because the dealer sent the paperwork to the wrong address.
The sales rep was in training for 3 days and unable to even take some photos.


   Paperwork signed and Fedexed to dealer on 9/14
   Insurance binder emailed
   Funds wired on 9/15,
   I own the car.

   Wow.

Now... get it Here.
I want my shiny new car!
(he says in his 3 year old tantrum voice)

Update: September 15, 2017

   The transporter that the dealer was planning is based in Florida, and of course everything there is a disaster zone with the mother of all hurricanes having blown through there just a few days before. They didn't answer the phone when I called for information. It was time for me to get involved in the transaction or I could be looking at a long wait. I called good friend Mike Vietro, who is the Mike in Corvette Mike in Anaheim CA and Boston MA, who is the biggest vintage Corvette dealer in the planet. He gets cars moved around all the time. He answers in 2 rings, I tell him I need a car on Long Island delivered to me in San Diego, who would he use? He doesn't just tell me who, but he calls the chief scheduler/dispatcher immediately WHILE I AM ON THE PHONE... and Ka-Pow, the problem evaporates.

Thank you Corvette Mike! We go way back with Mike helping on several cars over the years. He sold me a brand new Monterrey Red Corvette roadster on the 4th of July in 2006, and on the 5th I took off up the coast road all the up into Canada for a buddy's wedding in Whistler. Then a leisurely tour of the western states and shooting pool at every stop along the unplanned way. I was practicing for a big tournament, but to the locals I was just some guy with a cue. There are many stories from that summer, and they are on the blog "FastMikie's Epic Road Trip". That was a great car, bucketloads of eye-appeal, and I drove it every day for several years before some other shiny object caught my eye.

The chronology of cars is chronicled at "Confessions of a Car Nut".

This is the waiting game. The funds have been irrevocably wired to a place across the continent, and now I have to wait for the product to be delivered. Time is of the essence in all transactions, as is Trust, and I must Trust that the dealer will do as they say. It's easy to second guess yourself, your decisions.

Waiting is way down the list of favorite things.

I can keep busy planning the next Epic Road Trip.
In a new Ferrari.
Wow.

And, we're back...

Here we are again after a delay of almost 3 years. No more Rational Mind. Surrendering to the Emotions. When you find The Car, all the common sense slips away. Love is a Madness, as I have always said.

And so, in the Fullness of Time, today I agreed to a deal on this 2017 California T and it is due to arrive here in about 2 weeks, in a covered van. This unit is used, 1800 miles, 4 months old. Currently located in Long Island, NY.

The color is Pozzi Blue and Sterling Blue interior with white stitching. Very mellow in appearance. I was looking through my journal from 3 years ago and these are the colors in settled on as the best. I've been looking for a car with this combination, and this is the only one available. Ferrari is no longer taking orders for custom built California Ts because they are changing the production facilities to the newly announced Portofino, which is probably just a next-gen California T, and they will deliver the first of those in a year. A Ferrari now is better than a Ferrari later.

Exhaust Note, Engine Sounds, and Specifications of the California T - Ferrari Website

Walk around video taken by my brother Jim - YouTube video

First road trip: Sequoia National Forest; another long delayed adventure.

Photos taken by sales rep, a couple of days ago:

Seat leather colors are off due to showroom lights. Seats are same color as dashboard.

Why

Is there any real justification for getting a Ferrari? Isn't it purely self gratification in public? This is the kind of second-guessing that happens before making the commitment to buying a Ferrari.  

I'm writing this after just giving the ok on the purchase of "The Car" and now all days forward will be as a person who has a Ferrari. There aren't that many of us. Some people own several, even lots of, Ferraris. But I'm a one-car guy. The Car will be my daily driver, so it has to be reliable, and friendly in traffic. 

Why would I get a Ferrari?

1. I fell in love with my first Ferrari in 1974, that's 43 years ago at this writing. It was a physical experience as well as emotional. The love object was a 1965 model of the 275 GTB. The curve of that long hood was sensational. Perfectly clean. Over the years there were times of famine, life without a Ferrari. For the last 17 years I was a man without a Ferrari. I think I am overdue. Here's my first Ferrari:

My first Ferrari: 1965 275 GTB, short nose.
Purchased in 1974 for 8,500 USD.

2. Ferrari has for most of my life represented the pinnacle of the art and craft of building automobiles. Beautiful, powerful, unique, luxurious, yadda-yadda-yadda. Of course anyone could argue agains this opinion, and it wouldn't bother me a bit, because I'm just fully into Ferrari. The point is that if a pinnacle exists then why not achieve it if you are so motivated, and you are capable of doing it. "What a man can be, he must be." These are the word of Abraham Maslow, and he ought to know Why people do what they do.

3. Current daily driver is out of warranty and 7 years old. I have owned it since new, and it's the longest I have owned any car. It's in near-perfect condition and with only 26,000 miles on it. Audi S5, 2011, with aftermarket Brembo brakes, just like the Ferrari, red calipers, sport exhaust, European grille, de-badged, tint, all brightwork painted except window surround, many extras. Interested? Available soon.

I earned it.
Assume for a moment that you are at a carnival, and you stroll down the midway, with games of skill and chance to the right and left. You know that these games are rigged, with very little chance of winning, and even if you do manage to win, you only get some cheap ashtray or whatever. And yet, there is that huge stuffed animal, the Grand Prize, but you must win many times to accumulate enough points to win it. It seems impossible. But you give it a try anyway, because for some reason that  Grand Prize speaks to you. That's kinda what happened to me. Against all odds, and over a period of 10 years, I built a software product and a company to market and support it, and slowly came back from bankruptcy, entered a period of poverty, then some time of barely being able to pay my bills, then reaching a point when I could be comfortable, and ultimately came the day when I could claim my prize. It was an "overnight success" that took 10 years.

That day was 25 years ago, on October 2, 1992. I traded my software company and my stress for a bank account and not stress, and then traded some of the bank account for my Grand Prize: a Ferrari 275 GTB/4:

Why the California T?

I need a car that is reliable and easy to drive in local traffic as well as on long road trips. This is the model that fits that requirement. Other reasons are the looks of the car remind me a lot of my second Ferrari that I drove every day for 2 years in the late 70s. The two cars feature a long hood line, front engine, rear drive. coupe, etc. The California T is even better because of the automatic hardtop conversion into a true convertible/roadster configuration. Two cars in one!

Yours truly in 1978, Big Sur, Highway 1, California central coast.
1966 Ferrari 275 GTB, V-12.

Why now?

1. Yesterday was my 75th birthday. I can live my remaining days with a Ferrari, or without. Every day that goes by without a Ferrari seems somewhat wanting, like a sundae without a cherry on top.

2. If not now, when?

Why not donate the money to a worthwhile cause?

Good thought. I do give plenty to worthwhile causes. The Car uses other money.

Or, I could do a software startup...

Yesterday (DECEMBER 10, 2014) I got the call from the Ferrari dealer, saying that they got the call from the Ferrari factory that allows them to order a few more cars. My car was next on the dealer's wait list. They say I can expect it to be delivered in April, 2015... 4 months away.

Hooray! Right? Well, not so fast. Over the past month or so I have been moving toward starting up a new software company that may require some invested capital. That's pretty normal, but I'm a bit concerned about the "optics" when the startup founder is driving a new Ferrari and looking for OPM (Other People's Money) to invest in his startup. Doesn't seem quite right, does it? There are arguments for and against, but I'm leaning in the against direction, so I told the dealer I'm going to pass on this go-around and re-order for delivery when I have a nice exit from this startup adventure.

There is another thought about "keeping some dry powder" when doing a startup. It's advice I would give all of my clients, so I should listen to myself...

So it looks like I'll be driving my trusty Audi S5 (highly modified, of course) for a while longer, and that's not a bad thing at all. In 4 years I have managed to drive it only 17,777 miles. It's practically brand new! The license plate sure is, as it was ordered a few months ago, and arrived just last week. New license plates are far less expensive than new cars! :)

Black top looks good

I like the idea of painting the top black, as it seems to show off the lines of the body better when the top is up.  I'll probably be driving 90% of the time with the top up...

Wow! What a great color...

Still thinking of colors... here's one you won't see every day: (maybe I'm partial to it because it's on one of the prettiest Ferraris ever made)

When?

If "sometime in the spring" is the current estimate of when the car will arrive, then to put some numbers to that concept, here is a countdown to the First Day of Spring, and as of this writing, it shows 195 days. For a middle of spring date, add 45 days to get 240 from today. And that's an interesting number because that's about what the car will cost, in k. This gives me a target of earning 1k/day more to be able to pay for it when it arrives. All good things to know...

On a positive note, it will be considerably less time until my Next Ferrari than it has been since my Previous Ferrari (2001). So there's that...  :)

And, another positive note: As of today, I have crossed over from being a man who has no Ferrari to a man who has one on order. That seems to be a massive leap in itself.

Counting the days until Spring...

Blue car

Blue Pozzi, with Blue Sterling interior, leather and Alcantara (suede). White (blanco) stitching. Ordered it today. "Spring" delivery.

Wheels...

Test Drive Video

GoPro video clips of my Test Drive of the Ferrari California T. Recorded and edited by Ferrari North America.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANFuOxVmKo8

I tried to keep my composure, and not wet my pants, or worse. This video clip does not reveal the inner leaping my soul is doing, the emotional backflips, the sensory overload of it all. But here are a few moments of my hour attacking the streets of Newport Beach in a brand new Ferrari California T.

The white car next to me at the stoplight is another Ferrari California T that had started out ahead of me by several minutes, and I caught him here, and finished several minutes ahead of him. He got to enjoy his ride longer than me, but I think I had more fun. It's all philosophical fidgeting about Ferraris and Fun...

 I tried to be blasé, and not reveal my burning NEED to drive this car, every day, for the rest of my life. I think I appear seriously interested, but non-committal.

Forgive me, Father; it has been 14 years since my last Ferrari

It seems like such a long time to be without a Ferrari. It is a Wrong that must be Put Right. A disharmony in the Universe. A Nit which must be Picked.

More than a Nit, of course. Or a Nit on the scale of the Nail that was Lost. A Nit with Grand Consequences.

It was not intended to be this way, that is, so long since my last Ferrari. It was, at the time, a mere transition, without any characterization of when the next one would come along, or what it would be, etc. At the time, it was surely unintended that it would be my LAST Ferrari. Surely there would be others...

I should speak of it as my Previous Ferrari, not my last Ferrari. There are only Previous, Current, or Next Ferraris.

It was merely a move from a giant airplane hangar in the desert with 6 cars to a seaside condo with only one parking place. Only one of my rides could be the daily driver.  The Maranello needed 20 minutes to warm up before the manual shifter would smooth out, so it was poorly suited to daily driving and reluctantly I let it go. I chose the Jag XK8 convertible, blue, for the daily driver, and drove it for 5 years. Then a Corvette roadster, C6, in 2006 followed by the Audi S5. Time slips away...

My Previous Ferrari was a brand new 550 Maranello. Photo above.

Low Profile version 1.0

Just now playing with the online configurator. Minimum of brightwork. No badges. Preview below. Check it out.

And then there is this remote resemblance, circa 1978, at Big Sur, with 275 GTB, long nose:

Test Drive!

Image from Test Drive confirmation mailer

Location: Pelican Hill resort, Newport Beach, CA

Date 8/28/2014

Time: 1:30Pm

Passenger: Matt, factory test driver

Weather: sunny and hot (90), cloudless

Car: as pictured

With virtually zero familiarization with controls, push the start button and learn that the brake will disengage when I give it some gas.  That's the same brake that engages itself when the car is turned off, with the key. It seems a bit old fashioned that you should need a key to be inserted into a lock.

Spectacular automobile, great drive through Newport area.
Four cars with New Jersey plates. Red, White, Blue (2?).
GoPro camera on windshield pointed at driver (me). That could be interesting.
Lots of power at the right revs.
Good sound.
Good seat.
Good fit.
The door closes with the right sound and feel.

The Test Drive car

Looking at the photo of the test drive car and the top photo, the car looks better with the A-pillar and top painted black. It seems to highlight the lines of the body. 

The wheels on the test drive car are definitely better than in the top photo.

I want to go badge-less, especially on the fenders.  It's too much.

I count at least 18 logos or brand names on the exterior and cockpit combined, and that just seems unnecessary. Almost seems a bit needy of attention, like trying overmuch. A bit too much influence from the marketing department. I'll do my best to simplify to the minimum number of signage elements for a total low profile automobile.

Saw the top operate,
but did not look closely.
Didn't get under the car.
Didn't get to drive with top up.
Didn't play with any features, controls, etc.
Took one photo.
Didn't look at engine (saw it at Prototype viewing in May).

It's amazing to me all the stuff I didn't do,
and all I can think of in my defense is that
I was fully hypnotized by the drive.
I was totally jacked up by the time it was over
because I drove it with great enthusiasm,
and got well over 100 for short bursts.


Driveway clearance was a concern, but if the Viper could do it, the California should be ok.
(But really should verify)

Tease!

Drove an hour north in my low-profile S5 to see a (somewhat) real life Ferrari California T. It was exhilarating but not accelerating. A feast for the eyes, for sure, in every nook, cranny, scoop and scallop. The leather is so good I just wanted to live there. Seat is perfect. A car you strap on. Body wear. The fit and feel of the door was right, it made the right sound, and yet it was light. High quality of build and finish.

I think the paint was good. Couldn't tell. The light in the showroom was strange. It was noon, which is always a challenging time to get good visual appeal. And the overhead fluorescent lights didn't help either. So I have to admit I didn't fall in love with the beauty of it the way I thought I would for my First Time. That's ok, I've fallen in love on the second date before, it's not all about just spontaneous Lust with me. I'll give her a second chance, and come back under better light, like at sunset.

So that's the highlight of my experience today, seeing, for the First Time, the 3-dimensional Ferrari California T.

Say what? That's all to report? No test drive? Sadly no. In fact, I have yet to hear it start. It is just for display only! The dealer is forbidden to start it. Such a tease!

Why would the Ferrari factory do this to me? Because this is one of the prototypes, the very small number of cars that will make their way around the world to dangle in front of the regular Ferrari buyers. A preview of things to come.

The first real dealer demonstrator cars will arrive sometime around October, according to career Ferrari salesman Pat Persichini. What a job, right? Ferrari salesman. What the heck am I doing playing with startups and computer software? I could be selling Ferraris. And other exotic automobiles. How great would that be!

Pat sold me my last Ferrari, 14 years ago. Can you imagine that? Fourteen years since my last new Ferrari. Boggles my mind. How have I managed to deal with everyday life without a Ferrari? This is an injustice that must be dealt with.

I just need to get through the next few months...

Until I can hear the noises she makes, the growl and thunder, the moaning and wailing... bark like a bad dog, scream like a banshee.

Until I can feel her supple glove leather interior pressing me full into the turns.

Until I can smell the new, and the heat, and the fire and rubber.

There's much more I need from this new Ferrari.

October seems very far away.

I know the wait will be worth it....