355 front bumper

I am a little confused. My 98 spider has a fibre glass bumper. My mechanic says that plastic is original. I spoke to a Uk dealer who has plastic and fibre glass as (ex Ferrari) and says that the plastic was original but at some stage Ferrari started to supply a fibre glass version.This seems crazy as it is heavier and more expensive! A salvage company with a couple of rebuilt used bars claim they were all fibreglass!!!!!
Does anyone know the history and what is OEM?
Thanks

 

There is fiberglass and there is fiber reinforced plastic. Two very different products but they both have strands of glass for strength. Could there be some confusion as to what the bumpers are actually made of?

 

The F355 fascias are not realy ply fiberglass, but a product whereby they shoot chopped fiberglass strands into a mould along with expoy after preping the mould.

With access to the original mould, one could make a fascia about 60% the weight of the current one and somewhat stronger in ply FG and a lot stronger in ply CF. If one went for structural CF layed down in unidirectional strands one could get weight down under 30% of the weight of the original ones and be stronger to boot (at only 15X+ the cost).

 

The thing I wonder about is the 5 mph crash rule. Once upon a time, I'm pretty sure the US required that the car be able to bump something at 5mph and not sustain any damage to the bumper. I'm pretty sure that 1 mph bump on a 355 is going to result in spider cracks like crazy! One of many reasons I never leave it parked in SF. (People seem to be in the habit of bumping into each others cars here, when parking)

 

Thanks Mitch, I don't quite know if there is in fact a "current one" as ferrari are quoting both fibre glass and "plastic". The "plastic" is, as you say, much lighter than the fibre glass. I might just go a buy a CF and be done with---lighter and stronger again and we know they were the factory issue for the Challege at least?? don't we??

 

Challenge lists a diifferent front bumper but not rear. Not sure what's unique about the challenge front bumper? Maybe that's the plastic one you're referring to.

http://www.ricambiamerica.com/product_info.php?products_id=234721

 

I can vouch for roadracer, here. My sister-in-law is from SF, and she parks that way! Seriously, in parallel parking, she back until CLINK, then forward until CLUNK, then centers it up. It's like they're all driving rentals! I told her that if I saw someone doing that to my car, I'd kill them with my bare hands!

Sorry, back to the thread: one more possible explanation for confusion could possibly be that the predecessor 348, which shares several body panels with the 355, had a real (and real freakin heavy) fiberglass front bumper.