Your fleet running reports

[Sundayjumper]

I’d imagine the alternator won’t be the easiest of things to get to...

With the undertray off (which I've mentioned before but still not tackled...) it looks to be very easily accessible:




It's also visible from the bulkhead access panel but I think you need to get underneath to remove it. Bottom left in this pic from when I did the thermostat:

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[GG.]

OK, fair enough Beany & Mito, I'll attack the battery first.

I put a new battery in The Compact a couple of months ago, it's one size smaller (same height & width but 36mm shorter in length) so it's not ideal but may be better than the - potentially - dodgy one that's in there. It won't cost me anything to try it.

Yep the Fezzas all get extremely unhappy if voltage is not as it should be. My dad's FF is the same - I think that threw traction control warning lights. is yours on a mains conditioner? If not it'll almost certainly need it...

[GG.]

I think we all do!

Sounds good on the surface - I just crunched the numbers versus someone doing a 9-5 and I work an extra 105 of their working days per year - roughly half again!

Respect to you for doing it (glad you at least allow yourself a Porsche as reward), but fuck that!

I think its a bit like the proverbial frog in a pan of slowly heated water - you kind of get used to it. Anyway - I'm not always up at the current level - I'm pushing to be promoted so need a couple of year runway of good figures to achieve that.

[GG.]

I think we all do!

Sounds good on the surface - I just crunched the numbers versus someone doing a 9-5 and I work an extra 105 of their working days per year - roughly half again!

That's without even factoring in the pain value of closing a deal from a Hong Kong hotel room at 4.30 in the morning as I did over the summer...

Maybe you need to get better at negotiation or time management then?

The way law firms are set up there are reverse incentives to doing so. If I hit the required numbers it will feed into an end of year bonus - basically you'll never get away with doing less than 80% of what I'm doing and if you do 100% of those figures you get a bonus worth a 1/3 of your salary so makes sense in reality.

It obviously doesn't trend toward efficiency as there is less incentive to delegate to reduce your hours (at least until you become an equity partner when you break the chain of pay being in part linked to what you personally bill).

[Sundayjumper]

Yep the Fezzas all get extremely unhappy if voltage is not as it should be. My dad's FF is the same - I think that threw traction control warning lights. is yours on a mains conditioner? If not it'll almost certainly need it...

OK, OK, that's three votes for the battery now ! But it's been raining all afternoon so I've been sat on my ass doing nothing

It's been on a charger some of the time. It's living outdoors atm so it's a bit of a faff. I should maybe look at installing an outdoors socket next to where it sits.

[GG.]

Yep the Fezzas all get extremely unhappy if voltage is not as it should be. My dad's FF is the same - I think that threw traction control warning lights. is yours on a mains conditioner? If not it'll almost certainly need it...

OK, OK, that's three votes for the battery now ! But it's been raining all afternoon so I've been sat on my ass doing nothing

It's been on a charger some of the time. It's living outdoors atm so it's a bit of a faff. I should maybe look at installing an outdoors socket next to where it sits.

I think that will probably save you a lot of pain in the long run.

[Beany]

Yeah, if you replace the battery and maintain it (Seeing as it's not being used daily) then for any future issues, you'll know it's not the battery, too.

That's not to say not to look at earth straps, terminals etc while you're in there, obviously.

[integrale_evo]

Ferraris aren’t magic. If the battery is good and the alternator is working properly you shouldn’t need to have it constantly sat on a charger if it’s used a couple of times a week. Obviously might be a good idea over the dark miserable months.

[Rich B]

Sounds good on the surface - I just crunched the numbers versus someone doing a 9-5 and I work an extra 105 of their working days per year - roughly half again!

That's without even factoring in the pain value of closing a deal from a Hong Kong hotel room at 4.30 in the morning as I did over the summer...

Maybe you need to get better at negotiation or time management then?

The way law firms are set up there are reverse incentives to doing so. If I hit the required numbers it will feed into an end of year bonus - basically you'll never get away with doing less than 80% of what I'm doing and if you do 100% of those figures you get a bonus worth a 1/3 of your salary so makes sense in reality.

It obviously doesn't trend toward efficiency as there is less incentive to delegate to reduce your hours (at least until you become an equity partner when you break the chain of pay being in part linked to what you personally bill).

I was only kidding mate, I don't really care what hours you do!

[GG.]

Maybe you need to get better at negotiation or time management then?

The way law firms are set up there are reverse incentives to doing so. If I hit the required numbers it will feed into an end of year bonus - basically you'll never get away with doing less than 80% of what I'm doing and if you do 100% of those figures you get a bonus worth a 1/3 of your salary so makes sense in reality.

It obviously doesn't trend toward efficiency as there is less incentive to delegate to reduce your hours (at least until you become an equity partner when you break the chain of pay being in part linked to what you personally bill).

I was only kidding mate, I don't really care what hours you do!

I know you were - I was just explaining that the legal sector works on a weird outdated system!

[Jobbo]

It obviously doesn't trend toward efficiency as there is less incentive to delegate to reduce your hours (at least until you become an equity partner when you break the chain of pay being in part linked to what you personally bill).

Then you have to beast your employees instead. I also don’t think the bonus of 1/3 of your salary is all that common; when I was at Links it was only a few people in corporate who got that sort of thing, in a firm with hundreds of fee earners per department.

[GG.]

I'm sure the precise amounts vary but large bonuses of that kind of scale are normal for US law firms but commonly set at 2000 hours billable. Much smaller typically in UK magic/silver circle (max of probably 10% of salary) but perhaps at 1850hrs so a significantly lower threshold to meet. 2000 billable is also c. 2500 hours in the office IME once you've done your BD, billing and mentoring of associates!

That said - technically our bonuses are always "discretionary" until confirmed after the end of the bonus year... this has been a rocky few months in the M&A and leveraged finance world so possible for them to decline to pay them - though I think everyone due them would probably be touting their CVs around / stick their notice in if they did that... In theory given its all done on hours, if the firm is quieter then fewer people hit their targets and everything is self regulating.

[GG.]

Ferraris aren’t magic. If the battery is good and the alternator is working properly you shouldn’t need to have it constantly sat on a charger if it’s used a couple of times a week. Obviously might be a good idea over the dark miserable months.

I think that's the point though - a couple of times a week is probably the minimum to keep it topped up (and its pretty well documented that Ferraris/Maseratis do typically suffer from a much more significant current draw than other cars for whatever reason - both my dad's Maser GT and FF didn't/won't go more than 10 days before being flat). The number of Ferrari owners that use their cars that regularly (after the initial honeymoon period has worn off) is non-existent.

Given Steve's sizeable fleet I expect he won't be any different in that regard. I only have two cars but the RR is sometimes now sitting for at least a week in between uses.

[Explosive Newt]

Sounds good on the surface - I just crunched the numbers versus someone doing a 9-5 and I work an extra 105 of their working days per year - roughly half again!

Jeez - I was about to do this and I realised it would not be good for my mental health to know the data....

[Jimexpl]

Ferraris aren’t magic. If the battery is good and the alternator is working properly you shouldn’t need to have it constantly sat on a charger if it’s used a couple of times a week. Obviously might be a good idea over the dark miserable months.

I think that's the point though - a couple of times a week is probably the minimum to keep it topped up (and its pretty well documented that Ferraris/Maseratis do typically suffer from a much more significant current draw than other cars for whatever reason - both my dad's Maser GT and FF didn't/won't go more than 10 days before being flat). The number of Ferrari owners that use their cars that regularly (after the initial honeymoon period has worn off) is non-existent.

Given Steve's sizeable fleet I expect he won't be any different in that regard. I only have two cars but the RR is sometimes now sitting for at least a week in between uses.

It was pretty common back in the day when 360s where the current model (and similar era Maseratis) for my mate at Auto Audio to install Alcantara covered solar chargers to cars that lived on London streets - matching the parcel shelf on front engined cars or having a connection near the A pillar to leave it on the dash of the 360s. I guess the Italian's couldn't be bothers to make the ECU shut everything down.
A crap feature of the Corvette Z06 was that the battery drained overnight if you didn't leave it in reverse, and the gel battery didn't like being charged from flat - our showroom car was always dead from tyre-kickers sitting in it and moving the lever to neutral!

[Sundayjumper]

Timely !

I pulled the battery today and it's a "Powerline" in there, literally the cheapest thing you can buy

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I'm glad I pulled it & checked rather than blindly ordering a new one though as it turns out the internet was wrong. First time for everything eh ? The battery from The Compact should be the right height but it's not. It's too tall. So a) the battery hold-down clamp won't reach and b) the terminals end up far too dangerously close to that bar across the top. The crappy battery in there is at least dimensionally correct.

TL;DR: I've ordered a new Bosch S5, it should arrive tomorrow.

[Jimexpl]

Timely !

I pulled the battery today and it's a "Powerline" in there, literally the cheapest thing you can buy


IMG_2156.jpeg

CLICK


I'm glad I pulled it & checked rather than blindly ordering a new one though as it turns out the internet was wrong. First time for everything eh ? The battery from The Compact should be the right height but it's not. It's too tall. So a) the battery hold-down clamp won't reach and b) the terminals end up far too dangerously close to that bar across the top. The crappy battery in there is at least dimensionally correct.

TL;DR: I've ordered a new Bosch S5, it should arrive tomorrow.

And someone has already fitted a charging lead for you!

[integrale_evo]

Fitted a new bosch battery a little while ago. Instantly regretted it because of how ugly they are and wished I’d just bought a black plastic Halfords one and taken the orange stickers off

Yes I am strange, and no I don’t often show off the mundane power plant under the bonnet.


Both my old ones had thermal blankets over the battery, however they were also crumbling and falling to bits. Probably why this one no longer had one. Spotted one on Amazon which looked like it might fit.

Makes it all look much tidier

[Sundayjumper]

The Bosch “silver” are, well, silver which is probably less offensive than the blue.

And mine is here already ! Amazing service from Tayna. Ordered yesterday at 12:30, delivered here at 07:25

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[mik]

Amazing service from Tayna.

They really are setting themselves apart from the competition on price/service/packaging.