458 Speciale heat damage rear bumper?

Hi all,

saw severall dents or buckling on the Speciale rear bumpers.

Anyone with same experience?

Greetings Christian
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Here on another car...
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I have seen this on CS Stradale - caused by "extreme" heat of the engine. But never on 458 Speciale.

 

Heat is indeed a problem with these cars (with all cars naturally, but with exotic, supersports cars even more so).

With cooling improved in the Speciale, namely with that extra grille above the cavallino, I would've thought heat would have an extra way of escaping (for instance, the Italia is worse in that department: heat only comes out through those small openings on the side of the rear glass). I have a Challenge grille on my 355, and it really helps the engine to cool off with regards to a standard 355 without the grille.

Will try to learn more about this issue.

Kind regards,

Nuno.

 

My thought is:

When you're moving, the heat has a way to escape.
It's when you're NOT moving that the heat can/will build, and possibly cause this issue.
This is precisely why I always open the engine compartment when I park my car in the garage after a drive, to let as much heat escape as possible...
Maybe it helps(?) as I don't have this issue with my Speciale....

 

Speaking of heat, I saw a Lamborghini (Diablo if I recall) where the rear license plate holder had warped due to the heat. Bumper was fine however...

 

"It's when you're NOT moving that the heat can/will build, and possibly cause this issue."

How about the 458 then ? That has quite smaller grille/louvres than the wide Speciale ...

But this is not an answer to Christian .... (is there maybe a "relation" between the dents and the exhaust pipes )?

I myself have never seen that kind of damage on a Speciale yet ...
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Me too (on my Italia) and I think it's very sound advice.

Is the OP sure that bumper damage definately comes from excessive heat and there's no other plausible cause? (minor bumps/small impacts from foreign objects).

Heat damages usually (not always) presents itself in the way of a wavy surface (resembles something melted/scorched), which in turn is very different from the damage shown in the photo.

I suspect there may more to this story than it meets the eye. If this was a heat question alone, the Italia would be extremely vulnerable. So would the Spider. The Speciale, provided it doesn't get hotter than the Italia or the Spider, if anything, should be less prone to excessive heat. And even if the Speciale gets hotter than the Italia or Spider, it also has additional channels to get rid of the excessive heat.

Kind regards,

Nuno.

 

... Yes, all true. But then again, the compression ratio of the Speciale engine is 14:1, versus the compression ratio of the Italia engine at 12.5:1... So it may be reasonable to assume that the Speciale engine generates a bit more heat than the Italia engine....

 

LOL
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Can you show us foto's of the inside Christian ? Of the spots where you have your shown dents ?

 

Yes, but i doesn't help...
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Haha!! An eight car salute!!

 

I have the same dimples on my Speciale, both driver and passenger side equidistant from each other. It looks to me as it is a mould forming issue, rather than a heat generated issue. I can only see them when looking at an angle towards the area. I have noticed the same dimples on other Speciale as well. I tend to think that all Speciales' will have the same issue, if the owners look close enough.

 

Has anyone looked into this further or have additional pics of the buckling? Is it mounting/stress marks or heat?