MY FAVOURITE TOOL

‘Ferrari’s Colombo V12 engines are very sensitive to precise timing; the two sets of points in each distributor have to be exactly 180 degrees apart and then the second distributor has to be timed to the first one,’ says Tim Bate of Emblem Sports Cars. ‘I like this oldfashioned probe with a lightbulb inside for setting the static timing because unlike an LED, the bulb in this one flickers and gets brighter or darker depending on how close to spot-on you are. They’re harder to get hold of now – I’ve had this one since I was 20 or 21.’