Ferris Beuller's Day Off, car scene revelation

If I recall it wasn't a real one. It was either a much less expensive model "made up" to look like one, or a total replica.

 

Where is youtube when you need one..

 

Gauges for classic Ferraris (and several other Italian car and motorcycle marques) were made by Veglia Borletti, an Italian firm comprised of a merger of two watchmakers who had expanded into making instruments for other applications around the time of WWI. They were renowned for their precision, and were even preferred by Mercedes and Auto Union race teams over the German options for some of the early LeMans races.

Given that their expertise stemmed from experience making watch calibers and that they were building instruments for Ferrari, race teams, and other "high-end" cars and bikes, I would imagine they considered mechanical elegance and attention to detail to be cornerstones of their work, and find it hard to believe they would neglect something as basic as a clutch mechanism to prevent reverse operation of the speedo/odo mech.

Therefore, I choose to believe Ferris and Cameron's desperate efforts weren't completely futile (at least in theory)!

 

Thanks Thermionic Dude, I like the reply.
I am a full tile car doofus, as well as someone who repairs clocks and watches, so I like your commentary on the Veglia gauges.
While the original 1961 Ferrari 250 GT probably did have Veglia gauges, and the replica may have Veglia gauges too, what we are shown during the movie are Smiths gauges.
Smiths gauges are great too, and have a classic look others can't easily match, but I do not know the internals well enough to speak about which gauge can, and can not be rolled back simply by turning the input cable to opposite direction.

All of the Veglia and Smiths gauges I have worked on had some type of anti roll back clutch, slipping gear, one way cam to prevent exactly that.

By the way, here is the screen shot where Ferris looks are the gauge to see it is not rolling back.
He has the best reply to Cameron too. After Cameron loudly protests the miles are not coming off, Ferris looks at the gauge and says, "Huh" in almost deapan style.....Perfect.

 

Thanks! I had forgotten that they acknowledged the miles did NOT come off in the film.
The reason I looked into this was actually to see if odometers added mileage when cars are driven in reverse. I wasn't even thinking of the movie because I always thought it was a foregone conclusion that they would not go backwards when the car is in reverse. I never got a conclusive answer on the original question but I learned that in some old cars they actually did run backwards when the car was driven in reverse according to several sources.
Thanks for clearing that up, at least I know that the boys didn't shave any mileage off. But had it been an old Chevy or Ford maybe it would have worked! They weren't as foolish for thinking it might work as I thought for decades.

 

Well the film taught me one thing. Don't ever try to roll back the odo in an elevated glass garage. Kicking the car leads to a negative outcome.

 

I think you missed the whole point of the Public Service Announcement....Yes, the director had a hidden message to deliver.
The message;
Never trust a bumper jack.

I always thought this was a long way to go to deliver such a message, but hey, who am I to judge?
I think we all remember what happened.....Message conveyed indeed!

 

What was not addressed in the film now that I think about it was the incredible amount of exhaust fumes being pumped into that garage with the two of them standing there hashing out life.

I don't think they built that beauty to be emissions friendly! Haha.

Hey Cam, you feeling ok? I feel a little sleepy. Blink if you understand me.

 

I can tell you, from direct experience with vehicles of this type, that garage would become quite unbearable in very short order with the engine running at around 2,000 rpm as they attempt to run the odometer backwards.

But this whole movie is one giant suspension of reality...so we don't really care about the emissions...or the gazillion other "faults" one would find if they were to pick this movie apart.
Just watch, enjoy, remember back to when you were that age...and ask yourself....would you have stopped running to talk to the bikini girls, like Ferris, as you are making the mad dash home?

 

the garage looked pretty big and possibly had central air. would that make any difference?

 

Yes.

 

I remember our '63 Ford Falcon ...when it was nearing 99,999 we were on a road trip to Lake Placid,NY it was a thrill watching it turn to all zeros...I seem to remember that the first digit never reset quite right.

 

A 25o California Spider and a pack of (heh) lesser Ferraris inspired an earlier post at the "CARS, just cars." thread. Cross-linked.

 

Car scene revelation is an apt description as that is exactly what takes place.