| Author | Message | ||
| martin J weiner,M.D. (Mw360)
Member Username: Mw360 Post Number: 332 Registered: 5-2001 |
Ooops thought the first posting didn't go through. | ||
| martin J weiner,M.D. (Mw360)
Member Username: Mw360 Post Number: 331 Registered: 5-2001 |
Frank, Yes I am super-sensitive when my "family" is criticized over and over and over again.And I consider my 360 as part of my family.In your many postings when the subject of the 360 is at play you seem to embark with critique not just of the front end but just about the entire car. O.K.-I have got it off my chest-no hard feelings. P.S.You spelled "criticized" incorrectly. | ||
| martin J weiner,M.D. (Mw360)
Member Username: Mw360 Post Number: 330 Registered: 5-2001 |
Frank, I agree that each of us is entitled to our own opinion especially when it comes to subjectivity. My point was that whenever the subject of the 360 comes up (not just the front end)you take the opportunity to berate the car.Yes,I am sensitive about criticism of my "family"-and I include the 360 as family. No hard feelings. p.s.You misspelled "criticism" | ||
| Frank Parker (Parkerfe)
Member Username: Parkerfe Post Number: 563 Registered: 9-2001 |
My my Martin, aren't we sensitive about the looks of the 360. As I have posted before, there is something about almost every car, including Ferraris that I don't care for. As for the 360, it is the Japanese looking front in. I don't like the interior door panels on my own 348 Spider. In law school I was taught that there is never a right answer and that the truth and change for the better comes from constructive critizism. I would think the state of modern medicine also improved in a like manner. You say you don't like the side grates on the TR and 348. A lot of people must have agreed and that's why Ferrari didn't include them on the 355 and now 360. I dare say that future V8 Ferrari will go back to the classic egg-crate front grill. Lets all wait and see ? | ||
| Michael (Mtabije)
Junior Member Username: Mtabije Post Number: 230 Registered: 10-2001 |
OHHHHHHHHH I love that grill and the wing...heck I love the whole thing! | ||
| BretM (Bretm)
Intermediate Member Username: Bretm Post Number: 1634 Registered: 2-2001 |
I think it's kind of cool. | ||
| Jon P. Kofod (95f355c)
Junior Member Username: 95f355c Post Number: 86 Registered: 8-2001 |
Here is the write up from Ferrari of Washington's Press Crew after the race! Scuderia Ferrari of Washington Daytona We laughed, we cried, we cried some more, we felt good. The Scuderia Ferrari of Washington 360 GT spotted the field three and a half hours and still managed to finish the race in 14th place. While it was running it passed the class leader twice on the track, set the second fastest race lap in class (at night with a full fuel load) and generally kicked tush. The weather gods smiled on Daytona this year. The legendary cold and rain never appeared. Instead we enjoyed dry, 80 degree weather. Race day even provided some cooling overcast. It never would have happened if the team hadn't brought along rain gear, heavy coats, watch caps, gloves, boots, etc. Mr. Murphy was a no show with the weather, so he decided to make his presence felt in other ways. More on that later. For the race SFoW had the strongest driver lineup in the GT class. Bill Auberlin, ex BMW factory driverand previous Daytona winner; Cort Wagner, previous GT Champion and Daytona winner; Derike Cope, NASCAR driver and Daytona 500 (NASCAR) winner; and Costantino Bertuzzi, Ferrari factory test driver. Truly a wealth of speed and experience. The decision had been made early on that the first serious Ferrari GT effort at Daytona in over 20 years couldn't be short changed on the driver front. Unlike the other cars, the 360 GT had no previous experience at Daytona. Despite the three official test days in early January, the team spent Thursday and Friday before the race trying to find the right setup. Anyone who's done chassis setup, knows it's a two steps forward, one step backward process. In some cases it's a one step forward, two steps backward process. In fact that's what happened in qualifying. The team tried a setup change that resulted in the slowest times of the weekend and 16th place in class at the start. Fortunately in a 24 hour race, starting position is pretty well meaningless. The 360 GT is a wonderful race car. All of the drivers declared it the easiest car to drive fast they had ever raced. Their usual cars (all from Germany) were universally referred to as various animals by way of comparison: pig, bear and the generic "beast." The 360 GT is down on power relative to the Germans, but has far better handling and vastly superior brakes. My, how roles have been reversed! The drivers were constantly being held up in the corners. As if the handling wasn't sweet enough, the braking was the class of the field. One Porsche driver commented "I could get by the Ferrari on the banking then brake just past the one marker - thinking I as going to die - when the Ferrari would come flying by me, still on full power." The team had confidence the 360 GT would be very competitive. Despite the poor qualifying, everyone felt we could run a quick race pace. The start of an endurance race is not the time to be aggressive. With 75 cars all bunched up, the potential for your 24 hours to be over in 24 seconds is quite high. Nevertheless, Cort quickly got up to speed and started picking off cars so that with 25 minutes gone the 360 was running 10th in class. Everyone was feeling good. Never feel good in a 24 hour race! About that time we got our first in-car TV coverage of the race when Cort had a rather spectacular spin in the infield. As it turned out, a rear tire had blown. Replacing the tire wasn't a problem, but the shredded tire had done a good job of ripping up the fender well, brake ducts, etc. Again, not too difficult to replace, but first the crew had to get to the car. It was stranded on the far side of the track. The car may be fast, but a pit cart loaded down with an air bottle, tools and mechanics is SLOW. We could have reached the car quicker by walking. By the time we got the tire changed, got the car back to the garage, made the repairs and got back on the track, we had lost 28 laps or almost one hour. We cried. In a 24 hour race anything can happen, so there was nothing to do, but press on. The 360 lived up to its promise and the drivers were effortlessly setting a quick pace. Once night fell, we really started to gain ground. As other cars slowed, the drivers were actually able to run quicker laps at night in the 360. Even with a one hour head start, we figured we could get back to fifth place by the end of the race just on our race speed alone. Everyone was feeling good again. Never feel good in a 24 hour race! About 4:30 a.m. the gearbox took a dump. Once again it was back to the garage, fix the car and return to the race. This time we lost an additional two and a half hours or about 75 laps. As the 360 roared back onto the track the first rays of morning were peeking over the horizon. We had at least made our original goal of being in the race when the sun came up. For the remaining six hours the car ran flawlessly. We passed a few more cars for place and ended up in 14th. At the end we had lost 103 laps, but finished only 98 laps behind the class leader. If ifs and buts were candy and nuts... Ferrari has just announced that they will be giving full support to the 360 GT program and all future cars will be built with full factory involvement. A limited number will be produced and only serious race teams need apply. We have been told by the factory that they want Scuderia Ferrari of Washington to have one of the new chassis. As such our Daytona car is for sale. It will be available for delivery in May after two more races and probably some victories to add to its pedigree. Anyone can get a used 360 Challenge car. This is a rare beast indeed. Blow Challenge cars into the weeds with a car that has a big time race history to boot.    | ||
| Willis Huang (Willis360)
Member Username: Willis360 Post Number: 498 Registered: 8-2001 |
It seems like the racing Ferraris alway have gearbox problems. I hope they figure it out soon. | ||
| Viken Bedrossian (Vikenb)
Junior Member Username: Vikenb Post Number: 109 Registered: 5-2001 |
What's the point of arguing about the looks of the GT? It is not even a street version of the 360. The front end looks awful, IMO. | ||
| 89TCab (Jmg)
Junior Member Username: Jmg Post Number: 136 Registered: 9-2001 |
For those that would denegrate it, Mr. Pininfarina called it one of his greatest works at CI this year as it answered both the calls of aerodynamic functionality and beauty while explaining how/why the lines were formed. Let's just say that as he explained it, I finally saw the true beauty of the desing (and I liked it before). | ||
| Tino (Bboxer)
New member Username: Bboxer Post Number: 37 Registered: 8-2001 |
Frank, Could you please tell us how is the front of the GT car better looking than the regular 360 ? Please give as many detail as possible; some of us, designers or just car buffs would be very interested in your criteria. BTW, no other group of owners including Pcars, Lambo's, NSX's, C5;s, not even Supra's have denigrated the 360 as much as Ferrari people have, especially those whith cheese-graters.<g> | ||
| Jerry W. (Tork1966)
Junior Member Username: Tork1966 Post Number: 103 Registered: 7-2001 |
To each his own guys. Martin is right, like the old saying goes, "if you don't have anything good to say..." I think the 360 has absolutely stellar looks, but it's MHO, which are like A-holes...we all have them. Jerry | ||
| Edwin F Herr lll (Letsgofst)
New member Username: Letsgofst Post Number: 44 Registered: 9-2001 |
One may question how the front end looks (not me), but when one also takes into consideration the functionllity (is that a real word?) then it is indeed a work of art. If I recall, some didn't like the looks of the 333SP, but it did prove itself on the track and now most consider it a beautiful car | ||
| Jon P. Kofod (95f355c)
Junior Member Username: 95f355c Post Number: 83 Registered: 8-2001 |
Hi Red, I am curious to know what you guys thought of the car on the track. Ferrari of Washington's race customers got a press kit about the car and the drivers. The kit had interviews with Wagner and Auberlen stating they had never driven such a smooth, well balanced car at the GT level. I found this somewhat unusual that they would heap so much priase on the car at the outset. Don't get me wrong the street, Challenge, and GT versions of the 360 are all great cars but I just didn't expect them to be so excited about the car. Given the type of machinery they have both driven in the past. I wondered hom much of it was PR hype and how much of it was genuine praise. I also heard that some of the Porsche guys seemed very impressed with the 360 under braking, especially going into turn one where a few of the GT3RS guys could not get by the Ferrari. Which Porsche team were you with? Yeah it certainly is work, no doubt about it. I spent some time in the Doran pits and was amazed how much work is being done even when the car is out on the track. Boy did Kevin Buckler's group (The Racers Group) sure had a nice race result with their cars. A friend of mine drove a Porsche in the race for ZIP Racing. His name is Rick DiIorio and he is a chief instructor at the Barber Racing School. Where are you guys racing next? Regards, Jon P. Kofod | ||
| martin J weiner,M.D. (Mw360)
Member Username: Mw360 Post Number: 328 Registered: 5-2001 |
Frank, Whenever you have the opportunity you denigrate the looks of the 360.How about giving it a rest? I happen to think the 348 is gaudy but never have cast aspersions (until now).So according to you all of us who have chosen the 360 do not have your aesthetic sensibilities? Sometimes silence is golden! | ||
| Red Lindell (Redhead)
New member Username: Redhead Post Number: 27 Registered: 12-2001 |
John, I was at the race as well, and working for Porsche team(Hey it was work). Our transporter was right next to theres. It is a sweet car. The sound is unbeliveable...  | ||
| Jon P. Kofod (95f355c)
Junior Member Username: 95f355c Post Number: 82 Registered: 8-2001 |
Here is a pciture of the car running in full race trim at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona run by my dealer, Ferrari of Washington. I was at the race and the car was only a second off the pace of the fastest Porsche GT3RS's. The driver lineup included 1990 NASCAR Daytona 500 winner Derick Cope, BMW regular factory driver Bill Auberlin, Cort Wagner (won the GT class at Daytona in 2000) and the Italian Touring car champion from last year. The car had a tire blow up in the first hour that cost them 30 minutes in the pits and then had a gear box failure late am that cost them another 2 hours, but the car did finish 25th overall in the race and was the only one of 4 Ferraris to finish (333SP, 355GT, and two 360 GT's). Regards, Jon  | ||
| Frank Parker (Parkerfe)
Member Username: Parkerfe Post Number: 562 Registered: 9-2001 |
While I admit that the front end looks better than the regular 360, it still doesn't look as good as the 550 nor the new 575. | ||
| Ben Lobenstein 90 TR (Benjet)
Member Username: Benjet Post Number: 480 Registered: 1-2001 |
Just FYI they also released the 360LM at the same time, lookout LeMans. -Ben | ||
| Matthew Jenson (Moab355)
New member Username: Moab355 Post Number: 24 Registered: 9-2001 |
Vision's of 333SP domination in my mind....... | ||
| Rob Lay (Rob328gts)
Intermediate Member Username: Rob328gts Post Number: 1093 Registered: 12-2000 |
"Oh oh oh" Thanks Ferrari "Oh oh" I knew you would come back to sports racing "oh oh oh!". Is there anyone that doesn't think this is the best looking Ferrari being sold new today? I know that will get this post going. | ||
| Randy (Schatten)
Junior Member Username: Schatten Post Number: 194 Registered: 4-2001 |
Wow! =D If you could only see my "Oh-Face" right now. *laughs* link not working at the moment. | ||
| Mark (Markb)
New member Username: Markb Post Number: 9 Registered: 1-2002 |
Details can be found here...  |