My Dino...

This is my toy car: A 1974 (Ferrari) Dino 308 GT4. 3 liter V8, 255 hp, 265 kph (!) and sooooo much fun... It's a rough diamond, it is loud, it smells, it snorts, stutters, spits out flames, corners like it's on rails, and did I mention that it is sooooo much fun?

Unexpected bonus of owning this car is that it has proven to be the perfect way to meet a whole bunch of very nice people. Some of them having nice cars, some being very gifted with a camera. These are a bunch of photos, taken at some of the numerous meetings that we've had. Enjoy! I certainly do....

Bare metal respray

I took the car to Alsa automotive, a specialist in Wales, where she has been stripped down to bare metal and was to undergo a complete respray. It took a while, but the results are staggering!

Can you spot the car??

Click here for the complete photo gallery of the respray.

These were taken after picking her up in Wales...

Dyno time

Two clips of the Dino on the Dyno. 213 rwhp, which translates to 257 hp on the crank. Better than new!!!! It does explain the outstanding performance of this little thing though. 265 kph (165 mph) and still power to spare (but no rpms left)

Chassis and suspension refurbishment

One of the fun parts of these old Ferrari's is that the technology is so very straightforward. And thus, I can do a lot of work on it myself.

First, I upgraded the suspension - springs and shocks, plus the wheels. This made a HUGE difference in road holding.

I also changed the muffler. I've got an X-OST stainless steel muffler on there now. It's loud and sounds wonderful.

Then it was time to work on the chassis. I've sanded the entire frame and re-painted it with POR15. Then I took the suspension off, powder coated everything, fitted new rubber bushings and a thicker anti-roll bar. That helped road holding even more.

Click here for the complete photo gallery of the chassis and suspension refurbishment

FChat goes Italy 2009, the preview,

Corsa a Italia 2009 from henkie on Vimeo.

Stelvio Pass, Italy. WOW

The back side of Stelvio, plus some more

Tunnel fun in Italy. Bad boys

New family member: Ivonne's 328 GTS

Ivonne liked my Dino and the kind of driving we did with a lot, but never felt really comfortable with the heavyness of the steering, clutch, shifting, etc. And so she got herself her own yellow 328.

We're no longer together, but the memories are still worth mentioning here...

A fun vid I put on youtube named "Crisis hits Holland hard"

Ivonne became a member of the Ferrari Club Netherlands. One of our first trips resulted in the now world-infamous flip-flop video. Note the number of views on youtube: More than 250,000! And this does not include the rip-offs that we came across on car sites in several asian countries!!

To clarify things: This is a multi-day event and the club had simply rented 60 bungalows in a holiday park.

Please excuse the heavy breathing in the beginning. We we supposed to depart right after that, so I had been running a bit to be able to film this. Comments are in Dutch, but you'll get the point.