360 improvements.

well my 360 mod program is finally complete and the car is home so thought i would post it up.
i was hesitant to post, mainly as i sigh rather too frequently at too many forum posts across the wider internet and didnt want to add further to the great splurge however here i am though i willl try and keep it short.

while theres many cars going about with parts of what ive had done to my car fitted it doesnt seem like there are many with it all done so hopefully its of some interest. that i had it all done by ferrari themselves may hopefully add a little extra interest on top. it took ALOT of going back and forth with ferrari to get it to where it is, achieving this part was not easy however once movement was achieved i was very surprised at just how great everything went. i eventually took the car from the US temporarily over to europe with me in order to be able to have the work done as i wanted however its all completed, all work done by ferrari themselves with alot of great technical input and feedback from them as part of the process and im very happy.
how one would label whats been done, i dont know, 360 HGTE perhaps?
i just wanted the best ferrari i could have for my needs and i think im pretty much there. it wasnt cost effective (my numerous ferrari invoices total a rather large figure) and it was alot of effort to get it through but the result is a fantastic 360, and one that by way of having the work done by ferrari is certainly unique i suspect. sadly my feedback is that there will be no official offering of this to other owners as a result of this long process. a real shame imho.

ill try and keep all the lengthy and rather boring details of what went on to a minimum to this doesnt end up long and windy.

i bought a 360 modena after failing to enjoy the 430. its a great car on a technical level but the looks had never appealed to me and the extra levels of comfort and electronics offered turned me off from it so i had to look elsewhere.
the challenge stradale wasnt for me as i didnt want what it offered in terms of aesthetics, especially inside. this is not to say it isnt a great car, opinion shows very much the opposite but i have race cars (a 360 challenge at the time that is now rehomed with a 430 challenge on the way, along with a porsche 997 cup) and a road going 996 cup car built as a previous project so the CS offered too much overlap with what i already have and would simply add to a list of cars with similar ethos i already struggle to juggle seat time in.
as a result the modena offered the closest match for me in terms of what i was wanting from my ferrari ownership experience and was the car i felt would fill a void in my garage and ownership experience has proven this to very much have been the case.
everyone has their own opinions on cars and why they chose what they do, whats right for one can be the very reasons another person rejects a model however this was path from which i was coming to the car. its not important in anyway but i just felt it might answer questions or help explain where i began.

sadly while the overall package of the modena was right where i wanted the car to be there was much about it that i either felt, or knew could be better. after some discussions, and alot of reading i started a process of trying to deal with these areas. initially i had to do it piecemeal, partly due to the natural process of learning what i could do with the car to improve it, partly by that natural process of expansion where one stage opened up other areas for looking at and partly due to restrictions on what ferrari was willing to do for me. i made some good strides with the car and everything improved it but it didnt take long for me to run out of options for the car if i wanted to remain within the ferrari network in the US. it seemed liability concerns feeding down from FNA were the main obstacle though this is purely my opinion. with much still to do on the car and no more avenues available to see them achieved i decided to take the car to europe and try to have it completed there.
after a once more piecemeal approach for a short while and constant requests to get information and have far more done ferrari finally got onboard and were fantastic. it did require me to answer some serious questions as to my intent and what i wanted to achieve and reasons why. thankfully with racing cars i was able to articulate my thoughts and experiences thus far into some semblance of order and satisfied things really got going with huge amounts of technical support along with advice and options.
the dealer support was also unbelievable since they bore the brunt of the heavy lifting. always enthusiastic and with outstanding work from all the car is light years ahead of when i got it and my appreciation for ferrari has increased tremendously.
it also shows that somewhere within the organisation, that original vision carried by enzo appears to remain. i had long come to believe that it was long gone but this project and the enthusiasm shown along with the hard work given by so many really shows that once you get past the extremely firm outer it is still there.
again its a real shame it isnt available for more owners and that i had to fight so hard to get to it.

anyways, on to the car. ill avoid lengthy pieces on why i wanted what i wanted done etc etc. if anyone actually cares or wants specifics feel free to post and i will see what i can do. instead ill just post a list of the upgrades ferrari carried out to the car. much of it was a carry over of CS parts however with that car being 6 years behind in terms of development there were some things adjusted based on experience since development was done on that model.

- engine ECU upgrade to Challenge Stradale ECUs (incl timing etc) with i was told some adjustments to improve performance further.
- Challenge Stradale air flow meters
- Challenge Stradale air intake
- Ferrari racing exhaust system
- Challenge Stradale F1 ECU
- Challenge Stradale Suspension ECU
- Challenge Stradale Titanium suspension springs
- updated flanblocs and suspension bushes
- Scuderia rear anti roll bar
- Ferrari titanium wheel bolts
- Scuderia 19" wheels with 235/35/18, 285/35/18 Pirelli Corsas
- Challenge Stradale CCM brakes incl discs, calipers and handbrake calipers
- Challenge Stradale brake booster
- Challenge Stradale brake master cylinder
- Challenge Stradale brake distribution block
- Challenge Stradale ABS/ASR ECU
- Challenge Stradale instrument panel
- Carbon Seats
- updated dash vents
- Carbon shift paddles from 360 GT
- Carbon air intake boxes
- Carbon engine bay panels
- Carbon engine lid louvres
- Carbon door mirrors
- Challenge front grills
- Rear diffusers
- LC added, auto and low grip removed
- updated geo settings. this is still a work in progress but we are almost theres. its dealt with some of the shortcomings of the CS setup and added some extra rear grip. still some fine tuning to be done so i will post up where we exactly end up at once its finalised.
once again, this was all done by ferrari, theyve done an incredible job and the car is where i always wanted it to be.... and then some.

heres a photo of the car. its low quality iphone but its all there is. its raining but i will get some proper pictures taken on the next sunny day.
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did you hit reply to the wrong thread?

 

except that wouldnt have gotten me anywhere near where i wanted to be with the car still. id have still had a long way to go to get what i wanted as converting a CS would have required far more than a set of carpets and a set of wheels. i would have also had to replace the entire interior for a modena one, replace the rear engine lid for a modena version so i could run a glass back window. i might have been able to live with the bumpers/side sills but these wouldnt have been my first preference and its likely these would have been changed too.
this route would have seen me pay a whole load extra for a car with items i would just have to replace and would have put this car into scuderia price territory by the time it was finished.
having ferrari replace the interior with the car already delivered would i suspect have been a far harder task than it was to get them to do the mechanical work, and this itself required a lot of pulling.

i could have simply just bought a CS and a modena and driven each when i wanted but this would have put me into the position of always having to choose which compromise i wanted each time i went out. the modena offered what i wanted in terms of aesthetics and how i could use it but involved a heavy compromise in terms of the drive, the CS offered no compromise in terms of the drive but charged too heavy a price with the looks and interior. each wasnt where i wanted them to be so it made sense to buy the cheaper modena and then work with ferrari to get it to where i felt it wasnt a compromise when driving. for my needs now this car is pretty much perfect. as with everything there are always many routes that will get you to the same end point, its still my opinion that this route was the most sensible for me but ofcourse others may think otherwise.

the only items that were a "style" change were the carbon engine louvres and the carbon engine panels. with the mirrors and airboxes changed these items remaining stock looked out of place and the car disjointed. everything else was changed purely for function. im 6'4" and the regular seats werent comfortable for me hence the change to leather carbon ones. the A pillar blocked my view in the offside door mirror with regular mirrors and always had done so these were changed to carbon CS versions so that i could view them correctly. scuderia wheels were chosen for the larger tire width etc

 

im sure there were plenty of people who would have done the work for me in the US, the problem for me was that ferrari wouldnt do it or even entertain the idea and for the sake of the car i wanted them to do this. this way i not only get to keep the cars integrity but im also able to use any dealer i wish to work on the car going forward. there were also some moments when we had rather detailed technical discussions and alot of info flying around and this wouldnt have been available had it been a 3rd party doing this work.
the car in the end did not go to maranello. it was taken to a main dealer who did the heavy lifting with alot of assistance and info from HQ.

i shipped a couple of cars over to europe along with some personal items in a container so i could use them while i was here. the cost for this was about $9k for everything one way. when i had talked about just doing the one car in a container costing was quoted with a $6500 ballpark.
i havent sat down and added up all the invoices for an exact final figure but i do know that its past the $60k mark for everything thats been done excluding any shipping costs etc. i did say that it wasnt cost effective if you view this against the price of a CS but there was no way to get the ferrari i wanted.

as for the car, it doesnt drive any differently than any CS ive driven (save for a little more rear grip and less pronounced bump steer, frond end bump stop understeer due to the geo).
its a touch less stable at large 3 digit speeds however there is a carbon front end splitter being designed (similar to that on the 430) to deal with this but it is not yet ready.
as im sure many are thinking, i could have easily bought a CS however this is to completely miss the point of what i have tried to achieve here. that the car ended up with so many CS parts is purely a testament to how good the CS is from a technical aspect. we could have drawn on parts from all models, at times other items were indeed considered.

the issue for me with the CS was never how it drove, it was with how it was finished and presented. the pseudo race car interior wasnt what i wanted for a ferrari road car. i have race cars and a converted race car that i use on the road so buying a CS would have just added to this group and brought nothing to my garage other than a slightly different flavour of the same.

i didnt want a full on, lets get our nomex out and strap ourselves in ferrari interior and experience (i have a challenge car for that). i wanted an interior that was functional but that was at the same time a nice environment however what i wasnt willing to accept however was the fact that in order to achieve this i had to sacrifice the driving experience.
this is sadly exactly how one has to choose with the 360 and with the 430 so i set out to have this addressed as best i could and this is where i ended up.

 

thanks, can i just say that to anyone who hasnt seen trevors work you should definately go and check it out. its staggering.
to say that trevors work was an inspiration would be to put it mildly. his efforts on his car really opened my eyes to the potential to have my car dealt with and in the early stages when discussion was a tad heated regarding getting this green lighted, having his info to draw on or to just know in my mind that it was possible having seen him work on his was a huge huge help. more than perhaps he realises.

there were others that also helped me with info, though at the time they perhaps werent aware what it was in regard to with respect of the bigger picture. scott and mark being two. to them id also like to say thank you.

ill get the car out and try and get some photos later today or tomorrow.

 

hi,
yeah i will be putting that on when the car gets back to the USA. its seems crazy to not do it when its so simple to stick on.
i was pretty much just concentrating on having ferrari deal with the items under their control so when the car ships back there are a few other things i want to try out for it too.

im considering making up a small plate to put where the reverse lever and auto/low grip switches go and using the CS reverse and LC buttons in its place. it would be nice to have the race button and the start button here too but given that that will need the interior pulled to run wiring for these i might pass. we shall see.