An exhaust does not need to cost $10k... Especially if you pay for a decent fabricator to build you one. There is no excuse for a $10,000 dollar exhaust system on the F355, none.
Expensive but I am seriously considering it. I would say however I'm very impressed with the performance as it is but the thought of keeping it stock appearing and losing several hundred pounds is very tempting.
It's amazing how fast and nimble the car gets with weight loss. Slide recovery is greatly increased. If you can get rid of the glass and those door windows thats huge and a great bang for the buck
Thanks Dave, I need to get started on it. Still need a passenger side stock 2.7 header so I can build fixtures, I will start looking. Tim, I think I would keep the glass myself. Need to stay with stock appearance
I understand, its cold sometime's. Just rubbing it in. I'm angry as I had to put on pants the other day it was so cold here
Non-f1 gtb's were around 3050lbs depending. Racing seats and aftermarket exhaust will get it under 3000lbs. Lighter wheels, replace all leather with alcantara or cloth, remove trunk carpeting, remove interior carpet, remove engine splash shields, lightweight battery and you're under 2900lbs without really affecting driveability or comfort or spending much money. From there things get expensive and/or affect driveability. But, to what end? You're not going to race it, at most it will be able to do competitive time trials and autocross. For road driving it's mostly a waste - you really can't exploit the performance it has now on-road let alone a lightened/heightened version. If you're going to track it, though, then I can see going part way down the road - and if you have the pockets the lightweight bumpers and some composite panels can be done without affecting driveability or road worthiness. I am tempted to go partway down the road. I have the 8lb challenge exhaust, lighter (challenge) wheels, splash shields out of the car, buying a lightweight battery, remove the trunk carpets and possibly interior carpet - racing seats if I can find some that will provide the same/more headroom....But that's about as far as I'll go as that's about all that can really be done without making it difficult to revert back to stock and/or affecting streetability too much for it to be every day usable. I don't know if I'd even want to remove the interior carpet...
As was hashed above ..... losing weight is a great way of gaining performance .... as long as structural parts are not being compromised ..... so no drilling the subframe! ...
I have a set of F355 H&R Springs should anyone be interested. Used but, good as new and better then OEM! Goes best with the Challenge Sway bars but, not required.
What were the original weights of the F355 front and rear bumpers? I agree it's a hard road to follow. I want interior carpet and all those door panel switches, the F355 Challenge doors don't look so nice to me. Take a look at any Porsche GT3 interior door, what a great design. My car is not a city car unless your very careful due to it's very low ground clearance. I'm never going to race it but, I run almost as fast as the race cars do with the current setup. If I could only get the weight down then were in serious business. ciao, SRR
German tuner formula GT offer a complete engine tuning package for the F355, 480hp (EURO 35,5K) or 495hp. They also offer a cf. hood and dash by the way. "Complete modifying a original not destroyed 355 engine to a 480 hp raceengine. This includes: Machining bottomend Nicasil aluminiumliners (own construction) pistons (own construction) cams, followers with all necessary modifications all wear parts new almost all moving parts strongly lighter tensioners new lightweightconstruction cpmplete intakesystem modified incl. throttlebodies.. ecu including cabels sensors... adjustment on dyno with powerwaranty. To use 360 crank gives encreases the power to 495 hp. To install this is an extra from 800 without the crank itself." formula GT - TUNINGTEILE
You are not alone in feeling that way... Now I am stuck doing all the leg work. like, will a Bosch 044 fuel pump fit inside the Ferrari tank? Who makes shorty headers? Where do you normally install the T4 turbo? Where does the muffler go? Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
Comfortability can be subjective. Everyone has their own quirks about what they feel comfortable with and not. I daily drove an 1800 lb Exige which is no nearing 100k mi. All I need is a well supported/properly cushioned bucket seat, a nice steering wheel, a smooth clutch, a smooth shifter, leg room and I'm comfortable. But of course, tire selection and damper/spring selection can also dramtically help improve comfortability. My car weighs close to stock. All I have fitted are challenge wheels and a Capristo muffler. i've been collecting parts here and there and planning what I want to put on the car as I go, but I haven't driven my car in 3 years. The rising values don't help as it makes me hesitant to make too many changes. Probably best to keep this one cherry. I need a cheap high mileaged one. Maybe I should buy GTSNJ's car haha
I've never weighed the stock setup, but a BBK should reduce weight and it really doesn't have to be carbon either. But as Mike mentioned, most likely more rotating mass as larger rotor has weight farther away from the axis. But perhaps if a car is light enough, a 330mm rotor as opposed to a 355mm rotor would suffice. I don't have much experience with CF brakes, but on the Scud they feel difficult to modulate. Especially for street driving, I would say it is near impossible to brake smoothly. The initial bite is intense and I am not sure if that has to do with the rotor size or the special pads for the CF rotor.
Weight reduction can certainly be expensive and as some here mentioned, it is a difficult road to follow. I have some recommendations that can be done tastefully. The exhaust system is a must for reliability and proper sound. And you if want the best of the best, it will be probably close to $10k. For me personally, this is the route I recommend: A 321 Stainless Steel header set for heat retention, reliability, and weight reduction. $2500-$3000. Header blankets $1000-1500. Test pipes $500 or 200 cell cats $1500-2500 ? Lots of exotics seem to be using HJS cats, but they are relatively expensive. I don't know much about cats to value them properly, but you see individual cats ranging between $100-600. Perhaps the higher end ones pack more material for longer lasting conversion. To reduce cost, one could source inexpensive test pipes and have a shop turn it into a V-band clamping system where the cat can be easily replaced if one turns bad. The v band mod wouldnt be expensive or difficult at all. I am actually planning to go this route on the Scud as I think $3k for a pair of 200 cell cats on a car that prob won't break 50k mi is a bit too expensive. Anyone recommend a good 200 cell cat? i also recommend the Capristo Exhaust. $4000. I've recommended this exhaust for years, but every now and then owners try to find something they think would come close for half the price only to find out years later after purchasing a Capristo that nothing else really came close no matter how many youtube videos/sound clips they heard. Don't try to rationalize this purchase. Just buy it. The stock hood and engine lid are aluminum. It is usually not cost effective to replace an aluminum part with a carbon part as the weight reduction is minor. Just to give an example: Stock hood weighs about 20lbs. A pre-preg carbon hood weighs 9 lbs. There is a company in Japan producing them for $4000. A $2000 Carbon hood most likely would not use the best process and probably weigh 15 lbs. $2000 + paint to save 5lbs is not a road many would go down. I don't know if the factory front fenders are steel or aluminum, but if they are steel, some significant weight can be saved. If aluminum, I wouldnt bother unless you were competitively racing. Battery. Change it. It is waay too heavy and probably the cheapest $ per lb purchase you can make. I havent removed the front bumper , but if it is anything like the rear bumper, it is damn heavy. My guess would be 40-50 lbs. U.S cars will tend to have the largest/heaviest crash re-inforcements built into their bumpers. Just comparing the re-bar or whatever you want to call it built into the US rear bumper to the Challenge rear bumper, you can tell there's much less of it on the Challenge helping reduce the weight significantly. One could cut portions of it to reduce weight. The OE bumpers are also alot thicker than they really need to be. Take a DA orbital grinder and start taking some of that fiberglass off. Just to put things in perspective, a Scud front bumper, which is much larger than a 355 bumper, weighs 29lbs. Does a 355 bumper really need to weigh 50 lbs? Thin down the sideskirts as well.
Some divergence, if you really want weight reduction, you will skip the 321 stainless and go right for inconel. It's lighter, stronger, and yes, more expensive than 321. FWIW, the 304 stainless holds up pretty well (even in Guam it survived with only minor degradation). Don't get me wrong, 321ss is wonderful stuff, but it's my understanding you should go right to inconel if your goal is no cost limit weight reduction and associated durability. Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
Lightweight Challenge wheels to keep a Semi-OE look. A Big brake kit. Light weight bucket seats custom upholstered to make the interior. This should make the car that much more enjoyable
I've only heard of one company offering inconel headers for Ferraris and it is for the Speciale. Significant weight reduction to your wallet as well . Ironically, there's no company offering 321 SS headers to the Ferrari community off the shelf. Capristo uses a 1.428 SS header. Just purchased a set for the Scud. Could certainly be lighter... Especially for the price. I picked up some off the shelf 321 SS headers for my Exige for $1500 new. Ferrari owners deserve better. Ferrari owners should demand better. Image Unavailable, Please Login
