Ferrari forced induction?

Go to Norwoodperformance.com. They are the best, and have been doing it fo 20+ years.


Darrell.

 

Depends what you mean by market... I think the mindset of Ferrari owners is quite different from typical car enthusiast - BMW owners want mods to differentiate themselves from other BMW owners (even M cars are quite common, had a couple - fun to drive). Ferrari owners are quite happy with the way their cars are since Ferraris are pretty rare and have a unique heritage. Rarely do you hear conversations between owners about modifying their cars. Ususally, if they want more power, all they need is $$$$ to move up to a different model.

Further turboing Ferraris I believe it is pretty pointless. For the most part Ferraris are well balanced cars with good power and already highly strung engine - add a turbo or two and you have to make significant engine mods and you get something that is real hard to drive. Sure it's great for quick speed squirts between corners but you have to be a superior driver to get a good flow and take advantage of a peaky turbo engine.

Finally a Ferrari engine that puts out over 200 hp/liter (and lasts) is very expensive to build and you have only a handful of people that are willing to do it. They will go to the best - Norwoods - and spend 6 figures without thinking twice. I am sure those same folks have 2-3 other ferraris that are stock.

These comments are based on direct experience having gone down the "twin turbo intercooled" path personnally. It was fun doing the project but really didn't enjoy driving the car very much. I prefer my Ferrari plain, if I go the turbo path again it will be an F40.

Note (as a potential market target) with all due respect, turbo experience with other cars is not enough to entice me (no matter how much RWHP you are able to squeeze out of a BMW engine), not that Ferrari engines are unique, they are just uniquely expensive to fix and I don't want to pay by big bucks for someone's learning curve.

Good luck with your new shop.

 

Novitec Rosso does Supercharging for the 360 & F430 and Norwood is well known for some awesome twin turbo cars over the years. Koenig-Specials also does many twin turbo kits in Germany that they are known for.

Ferrari Forced Induction is nothing knew, it's just not very popular due to the cost and few who are willing to do it.

Regards,

Kevin

 

The input has been spot on, Personally I have developed a 'kit' for the 308/328 series although it's a supercharger, i'm also working on one for the 360 and the 348, and it's a small market, more for the fun of doing it than ever making any income off of it. another member here as done the turbo route on the 308/328 and it's done very nicely and is very cost effective, still not sure if the customers are beating down his door either.

If you're going to boost your own car, go for it you'll learn a lot about these beauties but do be forewarned it's $$$$ to play with them at that level.

I went with a supercharge due to underhood heat issues, not that a turbo won't work but it's something to factor in.

best of luck to your new venture!

 

Wow, have you been living in some alternate reality. i have been seeing MANY threads reguaring supercharging and improviding/modifying Ferraris. Besides, pretty much anything made after 1975 is as common to buy as making a phone call. Mod away

Not really, but turbo can be peaky, so supercharging may be best. There are a few options out there and more coming online soon

200 hp/liter is a bit much, agreed. Especially for when there are a few under $10k supercharger setups avaiable. Agree that turbo is tweaky and why, like you, i want to avoid that. Norwood also seems to have unique pricing depending on the customer as when i called and another guy called, seems the same stuff was 25% less for him (same car, same mods).

Anywho, you make some good points and glad to see guys tweaking their Ferrari. The factory left A LOT of HP/TQ on the table.

 

To be honest, If there was a resonably priced and proven, turbo or supercharger kit available for my 355, I'd buy it. I just can't see paying 30k for an unproven kit. The only thing that disappoints me in my 355 is the lack of power. Sure it's no dog , but it ceertainly is no rocket. If someone were to produce a kit with 100-120 more horsepower, I would be all over it. And before anyone gets all pissy about power this and handling that, it is just my opinion. Think of it this way, why is the 430 so much more fun to drive? Horsepower, simple as that.



Darrell.

 

Yes I think I am in a alternate really; I am on FerrariChat which is a small subset of the Ferrari owners enthusiast that love Ferraris for the heritage engineering etc... Don't get me wrong I am the worst offender, since I had a 308/288 conversion with twin turbos, water to air intercooling, motec and all the goodies, amazing car but lot of $$$ and in the end made a normal Ferrari look like Toyota reliability... and speed. Mod away but don't esxpect to turn it to a money making venture

 

I'm a huge fan of mods, I've done pretty much all there is to my Subaru STi. But for the 355 I'd never do a turbo upgrade. One reason is resale value. I know these cars aren't investments, but a modded car always drops in value. Then there's the issue of longevity - as it is Ferrari recommends an engine out service every 3 yrs or 15k miles. How would the pistons hold up to a turbo? Can the fuel system handle the higher delivery requirements? and ECU programming? It's already high compression, will it require race gas with a turbo? On the STi this is all *relatively* cheap stuff...but on the Ferrari we're talking serious commitment. As they say, there's nothing like factory horsepower. Lots of modded STi guys like to brag that they have the same power as a Viper. That's true, if you like driving a hand grenade.

Bottom line, I think it's a fairly small market for Ferrari turbos. Keep in mind those in this forum are enthusiasts who may be more likely to do a turbo upgrade. But across the whole spectrum of owners, it's a very small percent.