1989 Ferrari Mondial t Cabriolet Archive Road Test

From the July 1990 issue of Car and Driver.

Who among us hasn’t dreamed of driv­ing a Formula 1 car? Like a Cessna pilot fantasizing about flying an F-15 or a baseball fan imagining knocking one of Orel Hershiser’s pitches out of the park, most driving enthusiasts look to F1 as the ultimate adventure. And it’s more than just the thought of driving one of the world’s highest-performance machines. The high-brow ambiance, the jet-set life­style, and the sheer excitement that sur­round Formula 1 are at least as tantaliz­ing as the driving.

Alas, the dream is shattered by even the briefest rational reflection. Realisti­cally, none of us will ever race in a Grand Prix. In fact, few of us stand a chance of even sitting in a Formula 1 car. Reaching the top rung of motor racing requires a combination of talent, money, and com­mitment that only a handful of individ­uals possess.

There is, however, a way—albeit a costly one—of sampling the Formula 1 experience. For $97,000, Ferrari will put you into a Mondial t Cabriolet, complete with open-air bodywork, the prancing­-horse emblem worn by more than 100 Grand Prix-winning cars, a shrieking engine, a Formula 1-inspired gearbox, a mid-engine chassis with sophisticated suspension and brakes, and enough cha­risma to make you the center of attention wherever you go.

Not only does the Mondial t Cabriolet offer all the right pieces, it tingles your soul with all the right sensations. Slide into the cockpit, and you’re surrounded by purposeful gauges and controls. Turn the key, and you light off a hot-blooded powerplant that can’t wait to be un­leashed. Stand on the throttle, and you are shoved back by smooth, hard thrust that never seems to quit. Driving the Mondial t is definitely not your average homogenized automotive experience. What we have here is your basic Formula 1 street machine.

The engine is so strong that our Mondial t Cabriolet test car pulled to its 7500-rpm redline in fifth gear—an honest 159 mph. That’s faster than any previous Mondial we’ve tested.

Acceleration is also impressive. Al­though the Mondial t is a bit sluggish off the line—even with a good, tire-smoking start—it reaches 60 mph from rest in 6.2 seconds and runs the quarter-mile in 14.5 seconds at 98 mph. Keep the throt­tle down, and the Ferrari really comes into its own: It needs but 32.5 seconds to reach 130 mph. The Mondial t can’t quite beat a Corvette or a 300ZX Turbo across an intersection, but it will pull away steadily from both cars at anything above an urban crawl.

Motivating the 3540-pound Mondial t is Ferrari’s newest engine: the same lon­gitudinally mounted, 32-valve, 3.4-liter V-8 fitted to the spanking-new 348. De­veloping 300 horsepower at 7000 rpm and 229 pound-feet of torque at 4000, this dy­namic energy cell makes electrifying sounds that you don’t expect to hear from a car wearing license plates.

Like its Ferrari V-8 predecessors, the 3.4-liter engine uses a flat crankshaft that produces perfectly even firing intervals between its two cylinder banks. This de­sign makes for efficient exhaust tuning­ at the expense of greater vibration than in conventional V-8 configurations. It also contributes to a high-rpm shriek that makes the Corvette’s V-8 burble and the 300ZX’s turbocharged hum sound posi­tively wimpy. Wind the Mondial t to the redline, and you hear 90 decibels’ worth of precisely meshing gears, harmonically tuned intake pulsations, and staccato ex­haust explosions. Blast through a tunnel with the top down, and you can easily imagine that you’re accelerating toward the harbor in the Monaco Grand Prix.

Unfortunately, when it’s time to change gears, the Mondial t brings you back to reality. No Grand Prix car could be so hard to shift. Despite its all-new de­sign, the transverse gearbox feels as un­wieldy as its predecessors. It’s stiff, sticky, and generally uncooperative. The gated shift lever responds best to a heavy hand—although when the transmission is cold, you fear that the chrome shift lever will bend before the transmission moves into second gear. This is not the sort of gearbox you want to be stuck with in heavy traffic.

In other respects, the Mondial t is per­fectly at home in an urban environment. The power-assisted steering makes low­-speed maneuvering easy, and the sus­pension glides over most of the pock­marks and undulations that mar much of our transportation infrastructure.

Some of the credit for the excellent ride belongs to the Mondial t’s electroni­cally adjustable shock absorbers. The system offers three settings; within each, the damping varies with changes in speed and longitudinal and lateral accel­eration. Even in its plushest mode, the system tightens up the shocks sufficiently to provide excellent control when you pick up the pace. In fact, we found little reason ever to use the stiffer settings—­except to heighten the car’s Formula 1 character.

The direct steering also contributes to the sporting spirit. The power-assisted rack-and-pinion mechanism provides a light and delicate touch with excellent feel. And that’s important, because the revamped Mondial t maintains the han­dling characteristics of the previous mid­-engined V-8 models. As you start cornering hard, you first encounter reassuring understeer. But as you approach the car’s 0.85-g cornering limit, the tail steps out—and then you’re in for a challenging ride. Unlike a Porsche 911, whose lift­-throttle oversteer can be controlled by firmly reapplying the throttle, the Mondial t steps out with no predictable way to pull the tail back into line. Basical­ly, you fight the wheel like crazy until you somehow gather the car up.

This tail-happiness makes fast driving challenging. Indeed, the Mondial’s pendulum-like limit handling keeps it from being as quick over the road as many lesser sports cars. But it also pro­vides an opportunity to sample first-hand the excitement that is the Grand Prix driver’s stock in trade.

We find little to fault with the Mondial t’s brakes. The anti-lock-equipped four­-wheel discs stop the car from 70 mph in just 176 feet, and they resist fade even af­ter repeated braking from high speeds.

Good as the Mondial t Cabriolet is in providing a simulated Formula 1 experi­ence, it is also a remarkably practical package. In coupe or cabriolet form, the Mondial t is the most comfortable Ferrari on the market today. The back seat is too small for adults, but it does provide a handy place to toss your briefcase and overcoat. And the additional interior volume provides a spaciousness lacking in more closely coupled two-passenger sports cars.

A new dashboard and interior layout make the Mondial t airier than previous models, but the arrangement of the instruments and controls is still haphazard. Although the steering column’s tilt is ad­justable, it’s impossible to find an angle that offers both a good hand position and a decent view of the instrument cluster. Happily, the wheel is within easy reach, and the overall driving position is rea­sonably comfortable.

Raising or lowering the Cabriolet’s top is relatively easy. You must perform a number of simple maneuvers in the proper sequence to have any hope of get­ting the top into its well; but once you master the drill, the only tedious task is the fitting and removal of the boot. With the Lop up or down, our blood-red Mondial t looked smashing.

Admittedly, the Mondial t Cabriolet provides only a taste of the Grand Prix experience. But it’s a stronger flavor than almost any other car can provide. Plus, the Mondial t is easily the most comfort­able and practical of the high-priced Ital­ian exotics.

You can even drive it without wearing flameproof underwear.

Specifications

Specifications

1989 Ferrari Mondial t Cabriolet
Vehicle Type: mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2+2-passenger, 2-door convertible

PRICE

Base/As Tested: $97,000/$97,000

ENGINE
DOHC 32-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injection
Displacement: 208 in³, 3405 cm³
Power: 300 hp @ 7000 rpm
Torque: 229 lb-ft @ 4000 rpm 

TRANSMISSION
5-speed manual

CHASSIS

Suspension, F/R: multilink/multilink
Brakes, F/R: 11.1-in vented disc/11.7-in vented disc
Tires: goodyear Eagle ZR55

F: 205/55ZR-16
R: 225/55ZR-16

DIMENSIONS

Wheelbase: 104.3 in
Length: 178.5 in
Width: 71.3 in
Height: 48.6 in
Passenger Volume, F/R: 49/28 ft³
Cargo Volume: 4 ft³
Curb Weight: 3540 lb

C/D TEST RESULTS

60 mph: 6.2 sec
1/4-Mile: 14.5 sec @ 98 mph
100 mph: 16.1 sec
130 mph: 32.5 sec
Top Gear, 30–50 mph: 9.0 sec
Top Gear, 50–70 mph: 9.1 sec
Top Speed: 159 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 176 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.85 g

Interior Sound
Idle: 65 dBA
Full Throttle: 90 dBA
70-mph Cruising: 79 dBA 

C/D FUEL ECONOMY

Observed: 16 mpg

EPA FUEL ECONOMY
City/Highway: 12/17 mpg 

C/D TESTING EXPLAINED

Reviewed byCsaba Csere

Contributing Editor

Csaba Csere joined Car and Driver in 1980 and never really left. After serving as Technical Editor and Director, he was Editor-in-Chief from 1993 until his retirement from active duty in 2008. He continues to dabble in automotive journalism and WRL racing, as well as ministering to his 1965 Jaguar E-type, 2017 Porsche 911, 2009 Mercedes SL550, 2013 Porsche Cayenne S, and four motorcycles—when not skiing or hiking near his home in Colorado.