Firstly, and most importantly, my Working Holiday visa for Australia has been approved, so I'm starting to work out what I'm going to be doing for the next year. Lots to think about; I've been planning to take the Maserati with me and have some fun in that, but it looks like there's been a bit of a "Haynes Manual Moment" (you know, where it's only 3 steps to do a task but when you look closer: Step 2. Just remove the engine and then ...) in that I overlooked some of the pre-requisites for personal imports. Apparently, I may need to have owned the car for 12 months prior to import. Still working on that to see if it's out of the question though. If it is, then the car will have to go into storage. :(
The fan problem I mentioned turned out to be far more involved than I had imagined - basically the header tank in the car developed a tiny hairline crack, which resulted in coolant squirting out under high pressure after a long run. It was squirting onto the fusebox, and shorting out the fans that way. Sadly it took 2 weeks to locate the correct type of header tank (how difficult can that be, really...).
I was glad to get the car back, and headed off to make the most of a very nice day by going to Portsmouth, and having a wander around Gunwharf Quays and the Royal Dockyard. Very nice day, spoilt only by the fact that now the aircon doesn't work.
Just to really top things off, I left the car outside the day before taking it back in for the aircon to be looked at because there was building work going on in the garage forecourt and some $%^&* reversed into it and drove off without leaving a note. Damage is pretty minor, but it's a proper kick in the balls. Quotes have ranged from £600 (St George's Coachworks in Doman Road) up to £2700 from Bodytechnics (through Maranello in Egham). That was quite funny, apparently they think it will take them a total of 13 hours to remove and refit the bumper, grille and door trim. A whole 8 hours of paint prep too. Though, of course, "we are one of only two Ferarri approved body shops in the country". Riiiight - that's not a license to print money, then, is it ...
Anyway, no news from Fiorano on the aircon, I'm getting tired of them and I'm probably going somewhere else to get the aircon sorted.
The alarm has played up a bit still, but at the moment it's reset itself to factory defaults and isn't auto-arming, so I'm happy with that. If it goes wrong again I'm going to rip it out and fit a cobra system; even the local Clifford dealers have told me that they're crap and that I should bin it. Refreshing honesty I guess. :)
If anyone knows someone looking for a cheap, reliable motor, though, I'm getting ready to sell my VW Bora. It's a 2000 (W) 2.0 SE in Anthracite Grey, 5-speed manual, full service history, 94500 miles on the clock with a recent-ish belt change (at 72k). Electric Windows all round, alloys, 6-disc CD changer, 4 new tyres, rain-sensing wipers, trip computer, air-con, more airbags than you can shake a stick at, ABS and the rarest of accessories these days, a full-size spare wheel. It's been reliable over the 4 years I've owned it and it regularly returns over 35mpg (even up to 400 miles on a tank on longer runs), which is the first time I've ever owned a car that lived up to the manufacturers' figures.
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