360 360 faster than La Ferrari / FXX-evo / SF90 around Fiorano

Slicks, downforce, weight.

GT2 regulations allowed a minimum weight of 1100kg, so the car was 800 pounds lighter than a 360 CS. GT2 aero was making probably close to 1000kg of downforce at top speed in those days. Race slicks are way faster than road tires.

The engine also made 540hp when derestricted (probably around 490-500hp with FIA restrictors).

 

Wowsers, just the thought of a de-restricted 360 is making my ears bleed !!

 

Yes, it's mostly down to tires.

Obviously lower weight, higher downforce, track set-up, racing brakes, etc., do help as well but racing tires are by far the biggest advantage when it comes to lap times. In fact, when a track version based on road car is designed, most of the parameters of the springs and dampers are defined in fuction of the extra grip from the racing tires.

 

Kills me when people talk about 360 handling poorly… You are bolt ons away from great hpde fun.

 

I've found that Hoosiers are around 2-3 seconds per lap faster than a sticky road tire (Trofeo R, Cup 2, etc). Pirelli or Michelin slicks are a further 1-1.5 seconds faster.

So probably around 3-4 seconds slower with a modern Cup 2 R. Modern tire tech has come a long way since the 360GT2, so those old slicks are probably not too terribly much faster than Cup 2 Rs.

 

Lower weight makes an absolutely staggering difference to track performance you can not imagine, especially if that weight is "unsprung" rotational weight. Colin Chapman called it the "circle of light" since as you reduce the weight you need less beefy components which weigh less and so on. It makes the car hyper alert and much more enjoyable to drive absolutely everywhere in the rev range. Literally feeling as hyper alert as a 'go kart'. You can brake much later in any situation, carry much much more speed through any corner, adjust your cornering position with faster responses and easily clip any apex and turn with agility that would shame a house fly. It also places less stress on every single part of the car when its lighter so it also is more reliable. When I lost over 500 lbs of weight out of my 360 it just become a different car and combined with tuning an absolute beast! Looks the same but absolutely isn't.

Think about it like this too. When you add more power or torque to an engine that power is generated not at zero rpm but probably at quite a high peak rpm. This is why when I working on engine calibration I am always considering how to optimize the application of available torque in any given situation and power particularly at lower rpm's too where you spend a lot of time on the open road. This is far more important to enjoyable, accessible performance than bragging rights about a slightly higher "peak" power because as you push an engine to produce more power you can inadvertently push its power band higher too which might not be what you actually wanted. Unless your on an electric hybrid drivetrain and can apply 'torque fill' to help the combustion engine get to the point where its generating meaningful torque numbers. In other words its just not going to beat good old fashioned weight loss for overall benefits. Is why race cars focus so much on weight reduction efforts!

In racing your probably pinging off the top of the peak rpm band much more than in a road car. Its just how you tend to drive a race car and quite a bit different to typical road car situation so it doesn't surprise me that a race car can be significantly quicker even with much less peak power. How much of the time your at its peak power (and rpm) kind of depends on how technical a track is.

Yes significantly upgraded mechanical grip (tires) is going to help a lot too but the benefits of a 900kg kerb weight race car with ballast in 'optimized' locations are vastly different to a 1100kg kerb road car. Why? Well typically that FIA or governing body sanctioned maximum weight is actually significantly bettered in many GT race cars. You'll actually find they weigh significantly under that weight limit but then they use 'ballast weight' located in the lowest central point (normally bolted to middle of the vehicle and on the floor). This improves handling further still as your now lowering the CoE (Center Of Gravity) and improving weight balance.

Also don't forget the GT2's also ran a Hewland Sequential shift too with straight cut gears so also a big difference to the F1 transmission in the road car (and also a lot lighter!). Aero allows that weight to be carried through very high speed sections of a track in a way that any non-aero car would simply have no grip. It also takes a lot of faith and experience to use too because if your not used to it and slow down too much your going to spin off !!!!

Last point to add here is that just because there where some cars like a La Ferrari's on the track doesn't mean the owner actually knows how to extract the best performance out of them..

 

No replacement for displacement! Amirite fellas?

 

This was an interesting argument so I had to look up some history. I think to be fair, we have to place the F80 in the road car category, in which it has taken the fastest Ferrari title by more than 2 seconds at 1:15.3 : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiorano_Circuit
https://www.goodwood.com/grr/road/news/ferrari-f80-is-a-once-in-a-decade-hypercar/#:~:text=Around%20Ferrari's%20Fiorano%20test%20track,include%20Hybrid%2C%20Performance%20and%20Qualify.


That's quite an achievement I'd say as two seconds is a long time in track seconds. Our 360's and 430's are quite the ways off for road going cars, even the Scuderia which was the fastest of the bunch at 1:25