Acceleration: F40, F50, Enzo, CGT & Veyron

Yes.

I have heard from a Ferrari factory engineer that quite a few EU F40s delivered to VIP customers (clienti speciale) had blueprinted engines: Nigel Mansell, Nick Mason, Walter Wolf (he confirmed this to me personally), Michael Gabel etc. I haven't verified this myself, but both Mason and Gabel's cars produced quick times whenever tested...

 

I made some notes on all this a few years ago and my understanding is that Ferrari SpA were concerned that the cars they had carefully set up to meet USA DOT & EPA mandates referred to as "Tipo USA F40"s should not encounter emissions issues with the USA authorities, so it was mandated that all the USA cars were supplied to the USA in uniform mechanical configuration. There was no allowance for blueprinting, drop dears or any such 'enhancement' for USA VIP clients. This is confirmed to me by at least 2 USA clients who asked for special cars. "No possible" was the response.

The EU market was another matter. It is my understanding that 'at least' the following Eu F40s had engines that were breathed upon ('motore potenziato' as confirmed by an F40 project engineer to me directly) and as such they were F40 hot-rods. Of course I have no proof, but at least its first-hand information without any basis for falsification whatsoever.
- Nick Mason
- Michael Gabel
- Walter Wolf
- Jean Blaton
- Albert Uderzo
- Giorgio Perfetti
- Albert Obrist
- Nigel Mansell
And others besides...
Remember, the F40 engine is incredibly easy to enhance, and just the blueprinting process during engine build alone will result in a more potent unit compared to an engine that did not receive this care.

Just a small theory why you find certain Eu cars that have 'standout' performance.

 

I don't know about. I only know that Ing. Materazzi and Dario was always saying that the 1st specification of that engine was always so close to 500 bhp when their engines were coming out to the dyno-test rooms (DIN corrected), and the Dario said my father that the car was good and fast when we delivered it from the factory in early Jenuary '90. Pay attention with it, he said..
That car was always a lot fast in may comparing, even when I drove/own some cars like F50 or Diablo GT that were always quoted 60 - 130 mph 9.6s!

So too, recently my friend own a very low mileage Euro F40 with cats and a special resech on the delivey history shown that car was delivered 474 bhp coming out the engines dyno room.

Hope some of this helps for understanding.
I don't know, I think some blueprinting process during the engine productions are surely possible, but some Euro cars with no cats are fast over any particular reasons, or particular engine demand by the customer. I repeat my car is not fast as the F50...it is much faster.
It was delivered with plexi windows, Michelin tires and no cats engine, it was my personal chioce.

 

Infact these aren't really tuned engines, these engines being build with this process of care, are just stock engines being only build in top end tolerances of production.

 

I think we are saying the same thing!

 

Thanks for sharing this. It further confirms that some Eu cars got engines with special care in the build process.

 

DK eng for a Euro no cats F40 engine

http://www.dkeng.co.uk/sales/blue-chip--competition-cars/ferrari-f40-for-sale-(80786).aspx
The 2936cc motor produces "approximately 500bhp" at 7000rpm with the help of two water-cooled IHI turbochargers running 1.1bar of boost - at 1202kg the F40 had a and still has a phenomenal power-to-weight ratio.
The car was delivered very early on in the production run. Being one of the first, the specification of this car is widely regarded as the ultimate variation of a road F40 being a Non Cat with Non adjustable suspension with the addition of very rare but most sought after Sliding Perspex windows.


Carobu for a US F40 engine

http://www.carobu.com/html/f40.html
This engine was tested as-is from the car, then upgraded with our LM turbo kit. This engine wasn’t particularly fresh, but was representative of an average F40 engine.
Carobu Engineering dyno results for a stock, non-freshened F40 engine are "468 bhp" @ 7200 rpm and 390 lb-ft @ 4500 rpm utilizing the stock engine management system.



At the fact I'm saying this a few pages ago. During the productions, engines are always made within the tolerances of 5%.
The first specification no cats engine was always mentioned (as DK engineering is saying in the site) as wildest specification of the F40 engine, as Ing. Materazzi and Benuzzi were always saying yet. Probably the 1st spec of that engine were build with a special care as the ultimate variation of engine, achieving always the top end of tolerance of engine production on these units.
So too, like Carobu is saying in their site, their US engines verified were lower in the data even being non-freshened, but representative of an average US F40 engine, because for these engines there was no allowance for blueprinting.

Like Joe is saying, just a fact why you find certain Eu cars that have 'standout' performance.

 

Some good points.

If I may, 2 more points to make:

1. You can blame US Government mandates for the standardization of USA F40 engines.
2. The car that went to Carobu was known to me at least to me to be, er, slightly 'tired' before it got there, one of the reasons it was subjected to some performance upgrades. To hold its pre-upgrade performance stats as the benchmark for USA cars would be incorrect.

 

Yes Joe, you are right. Like Powerchip is saying, US engines are rated "475 bhp" in standard form.
This engine was good for 424 lb-ft compared the tired engine that Carobu has tested at 468 bhp and 390 lb-ft.

The other article, DK engeenering is saying that Euro engine produces "approximately 500 bhp" running 1.1bar (16.1 psi) of boost.
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BillS, Joe Sackey,

I have bought the last number of the UK EVO magazine with the factory Ferrari 458 Italia sent to the press in every part of the Europe.
The car is very fast and it shown a very impressive 60-130 mph 7.8 seconds with two passengers.

 

Holy.

 

lol. One more time. Tell me wich CGT was tested with "two passengers" so fast here in Europe?

And just to point out, this car was a factory car sent to the press. Was not a customers car. But these points still seems so strange.

 

Yes, this car is just a rapresentative example of factory car. And being a car sent for the press there are really good reasons to think it could be a good car in its tolerance of production. A friend of mine being so close to the factory said me that some engines built for the factory 458 come out so close to 600 hp.

This is the reason why sometimes factory cars sent to the press are always a bit faster than the customer cars. And now, I'm coming back to the 5% in power of engine production.

 

It's 60-130 mph 7.8s or............ 60-128.8 mph 8s looking the 1/4 mile data??????lol

7.8s is impressive, but 8s to 128.8 mph seems to be over 8.2s from 60 to 130 figure.
This is funny!
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http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/6799/90001.jpg

Infact the customer 458 UK registerd sent for the Autocar test was almost .9s slower than the factory car tested by Evo in 60-150 mph figure.

The 60-130 mph could be almost 1/2 second slower than the car tested by Evo. I'm coming back to the 5% in power of engine production again.

This is the point because sometimes customers cars are a bit slower than the factory cars.

 

This is very interesting. Since the old days, it seems this tradition continues!

 

Yes, and the only reason why a huge difference (double difference) from the factory Carrera GT tested by C&D with only the driver and the customer CGT tested by Evo with two passengers.

Looking the average of the data we have of 599GTB, CGT, Scuderia... there is just a half second ( 60-130mph) for the passenger weight difference.

Looking the CGT, 458 Italia data,... could be 1 second (60-150mph) from factory car to customer car behind the 5% of engine tolerance of production.

So, we must pay attention in the value of the test data, and sometimes comparing factory car data could not to be the same as comparing to customer cars.

 

If production cars alone have an engine output variation of 5%, the difference between a well-tuned "factory" car and a lower output production customer car is even more than that!

Very interesting, and one really ought to know the production output of the engine if the performance results are to be definitive...

 

I think the two important things to know are: behind registration plates is possible to know or guess about factory cars or customer cars. And behind this awareness of, is possible to guess when factory cars are particulary fast, to know that we are talking about 5% or more about power output of their engines. Then, when a customer car is fast we are talking about the value could be within the tolerance. This could be though for a max of 4% or little more about power output...

I have always thougt that the CGT tested by C&D was a 640 hp car, when Mason's F40, even the 2nd article, explain well that the engine keep nearly 500 bhp.
The factory Enzo that all the world magazines had tested was come out engine test room with 687 and today a factory 458 seems it could be so close to 600 hp... and so on.

 

Hi Bill,
your car, you are always said that was 7.7s, on flat, with driver and 1/4 of tank gas (C/D was 7.3s)... with 160 lbs more the passenger and 3/4 of gas, I think should be difficult to maintain the high 7 seconds. Just for weight added by the passenger it could be like a half second more. Remember the "factory" CGT tested with two passengers was 8.1s. The customer CGT UK registred was 8.5s..

 

Our modern European tests were "generally" made with our high octane fuels like RON 98 (just sometimes Italian magazines with RON 100) that they are the same, after the conversion, of your 93 AKI (and 95 AKI).
Our standard RON 95, is the same as your 91 AKI. Our old "red gas" was the same octane as RON 98 or your 93 AKI.
We have not 105 RON on the pumps, so is not right to campare European tests and runs with your 100 AKI fuels.

With higher octane rating fuels even our old and modern tests will became bit faster