Ferrari recalls cars after fires

Burning Ferrari 458The owner of this 458 noticed the fire while he was driving along in Paris

Ferrari has decided to recall all of the 458 Italia cars it made this year, following reports of a number of the luxury cars catching fire.

Ferrari said its engineers had flown around the world to investigate five reports of “thermal incidents”.

As a result, it will be asking the owners of more than 1,200 of the supercars to bring them in for modification work.

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The 458 Italia typically costs about £170,000 ($260,000).

There were reported incidents in California, Paris, Switzerland, China and one other unnamed location.

Ferrari said the problem had been traced to adhesive used in the wheel-arch assemblies.

In certain circumstances, the glue can begin to overheat, smoke and even catch fire, a spokesman told BBC News.

In extreme cases, the melting of the adhesive can lead the heat shield – the liner which protects the engine – to deform and move closer to the exhaust, causing the lining to catch fire.

The handful of owners who first reported the fires – and that were later confirmed to be due to this problem – will now receive a new model, Ferrari said.

For the rest, their cars will be modified to replace the adhesive with mechanical fasteners.

Ferrari launched an investigation last month after photos purporting to show 458 models on fire or burnt out emerged.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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