Is gothspeed still around?

I have a goth unit that came on my 348. Haven't heard anything from him in years.

sjd

 

I had the full Gothspeed Exhaust on my F355, installed it back in 2011. I heard from him a couple years ago but I reach out to him to check-in a month-ish ago and did not hear back.

Super nice Guy and he had some great solutions for the F355. Hope he is OK if I do hear from him I will let him know folks are asking about him.

 

Out here, gothspeed was last seen: 5y 44w ago
My guess is he's moved on.

 

The professor is alive and well. About 50% of the time we can rally him to show up at an annual stoogapollussa.

He is happily retired working in the Goth lab on his personal projects. I can hardly wait to see what he comes up with next when he surfaces for air.

 

I just checked my Email Archives, last time I had an Email Exchange with him was Jan 1st, 2018. Hopefully its simply a matter of moving on to other things.

@Ricambi America I think Goth used to supply you perhaps you know something.

 

It has been many many years...

We dropped the Gothspeed products when, like you, we were unable to obtain timely responses to inquires and orders.

 

Could you ask if he will share or sell his design files and/or jigs for the CV boot shields? I will buy them from him and have a run of them made. Every 355 should have them. I fabbed up a pair out of some galvanized sheet metal but they're crappy. I get that he doesn't want to be in the biz anymore, but he's sitting on some IP that would help our enjoyment of the cars. I don't get why he took his ball and went home rather than sell the knowledge he worked so hard to develop.

 

You never posted a driving video of your 355 btw .

 

very happy to hear that. I’ve never met goth, or even corresponded, but his work on the 355 thermostat was illuminating, and my car definitely ran better after I changed the t’stat.

I owe him a beer, for that alone.

 

Think we need to have an Italian night at my place, Meatballs sausage and Pizza. He can smell it at his place when I put them on and be here in 10 minutes flat LOL

 

The 355 in 1995 was 80's tech but at the highest point of development right up to the racing edge in 1980's. Ferrari cracked the 100hp/L barrier while others were at 75-80hp/L and just added weight and displacement. Theory was better than 80's achievable with the "care" of an Italian workforce and few if any of these cars ran at peak performance. We got this slapped in our faces with the 355 valve guide and header issues blaming materials rather than mixture control. We did not understand why some cars were perfect and other cars melted several sets of headers. Some still blame headers and never address mixture control using a thicker higher quality metal header to mask an underlying problem. Dave Helms was one of the early pioneers and a pro shop working toward mixture control. The gold connector kit was an early necessary attempt to make the cars run right by having wires that could get signal from A to B. Sensors became another issue. We did not know how important a high quality low tolerance range temp sensor was to getting quality data to an ECU tuned on the edge for 1980s. Goth was/is working on getting quality data from sensors that could operate under high engine temp swings with narrow range. How could we get good data to the ECU when Ferrari sensors reported 170F +/- 30 degrees? We needed like +/- a single degree. Every time Dave Helms or Goth would make a positive change the performance of the 355 woke up more without power adding with nitrous or turbos or big headers. Guys like Helms and Goth were just making the 355 run as Ferrari envisioned. There is a reason there are no more bosch 2.7 and 5.2 on new production cars. If the 355 was made today with modern bosch engine management system...what a 355 it could be.

 

Do you think it's really the 5.2 Motronic software or the problems of sensors and connectivity in the harness? I have some experience on this in the Porsche world and if you take a 993 and swap out the stock Motronic for, say, Motec, you will have accomplished nothing you wouldn't have gained by remapping the stock ECU. I wonder if anyone has considered making an updated harness/sensor package for the 355. That's something I would buy.

 

Goth is very much alive and well! We see each other on a semi regular basis, go on a very occasional cars and coffee together, etc. Also has most if not all of his products on my car, including a one-off (for now) set of headers and a trick twin-sliding valve exhaust system, that, combined, did a total of 35+ rwhp. His recalibrated thermostat is indeed a game changer, much more important than most people think. Stock thermostats typically run cold, causing the ECU to think that the engine is still cold. This enrichens the mixture which in turn heats up and destroys the cats, and the headers, and causes a flurry of CELs and SDLs. Installing his thermostat indeed made a huge difference.

Then he also has a collection of exhaust sensor ECUs (the Vescovinis) that also solve a number of reliability issues.

Anyway, he has indeed semi-moved on, but still has one foot and an eye into our 355 world. I will ping him.

 

And just for context...Alex has the most wicked best running 355 I have put eyes on.

 

Thanks, Carl. Coming from you that is special ;-)

 

I was also trying to obtain some of his SS CV heat shields, but was unsuccessful. So I took my OEM fiberglass ones down to my local vocational school's metal fab shop and had them copy them in SS. They came out looking better than factory! I just covered them with some one sided heat reflecting covering that was recommended here on a post regarding these shields. The finished product looks like they were installed OEM.

 

The problem with the stock CV shields isn't the materials, it's the design. They don't block the main source of radiant heat coming off the exhaust. They cover the top of the boot when most of the heat is coming at it from the side. That's what the gothspeed shields correct. I replicated this with tin snips and thin galvanized steel but they're sloppy and it would be great to do another run of the goth shields.

 

That design is not that hard tough, it's water jeted flat stock then bent and tacked. The bending is the hard part, bent it all but the top then do the top seam last. There are also other ways to design it to cover the front and sides. I suspect the reason he's not selling them is because no one bought them because they were not $19.99.

Once that stainless heats up it's not a lot different than the exhaust. I prob would have used aluminum sandwich as it disapates heat far better than steel. Same reason aluminum radiators are better than steel, heat soak.

Steel was not an optimal choice actually but it is easy to tack for that design. Aluminum has other issues like you can't tack it the way he did but that can be designed around.

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Yeah but let's say they're $300 a pair -- that's pennies on the dollar compared to replacing CV boots with the engine in.

As for heat shielding, they just need a layer of adhesive 1/4" thick DEI heat shielding (aluminum dimpled skin w/ insulation underneath). Super easy.

 

True.

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This is my attempt at DIY CV boot heat shield from many years ago:
DIY CV joint boot heat shield | FerrariChat