After leaving the camping site the next morning, we started heading towards Bologna, We took the soft top off the car and tried avoiding the highway as much as possible. It started to feel like a real summer road trip. A few hours later, in a small village while standing at the traffic light, a woman started waving at us and pointing at the car and at that moment I noticed the smoke coming out of the right wheel arch. We stopped immediately and yeah.... the brakes were on fire so after an hour and a few litres of cold water we started the car again and drove straight to the mechanic's. We found one in that village and after a short inspection, he told us we basically had two options, either wait 4 weeks for the new parts which only God knows where they had to be sent from, or fix it the Italian way with a hammer and oil. As painful as it looked, it actually worked and according to him it was the piston that pushes the brake pads onto the disc which expands when overheated and gets stuck so that it basically keeps braking continuously... so what do you do to avoid this problem to recur?.... Well you don't brake or at least try to brake less. This was actually pretty scary keeping in mind that we still had to cross the Apennines and that a 93 Wrangler is build of mostly steel and not of recycled yogurt cups like modern cars are. On the other hand gears as short as the arms of a T-Rex allow you to use the engine brake pretty well.
Back on the road with a provisional fix on the brake we continued on our journey, with an initial stop at Bologna, followed by a slight detour to Maranelllo for a few hours. The Ferrari museum is a must-see for every petrolhead who visits Italy! Packed with cars from old to new including crazy prototypes and a room dedicated to the winning Formula 1 cars, it definitely is worth a few hours' visit and for those who want, you can even have a two-hour ride in a California through the nearby mountains.
