2018 poll https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/355-rear-body-color-panel-or-challenge-grill.577040/
To come back in the choice where to buy challenge grill, I just bought my one from Eurospare. It came from a package script Ferrari Genuine Part from factory. No surprised when I opened the box, all was perfect and new, off course Horse was missing but I ordered it even if it was possible to keep the old one, existing some Do it yourself on internet … all was easy, a screw was a bit tiring to tighten but with time… all was fine
My car was pictured with the painted grill when it was advertised for sale but when I got to the dealer, they had installed the challenge grill. So after getting the deal done I asked that they reinstall the painted grill, which surprised the salesman. My car is red and I don't like the look of a black grill.
Totally agree with you Ken. I’d certainly do it on a black car, but any other colour I’m not convinced.
I still love the challenge grill on my car, but I am noticing the the rear end actually look wider on cars with the stock grill. I think the shiny panel accentuates the distance between the cavallino and the inner tail lights. So I guess if a wide rear end is important to you, the painted panel is the way to go...
Better with or better without: does not really mater. Temperatures on track speed driven in anger: 5-7ºF lower water and10ºF lower oil temperatures. {We are talking water temps of 130ºF+ and oil temperatures of 175ºF+, something I have never achieved on public roads--and I have tried.....}
I just purchased my F355 (Full write up coming along with build list here in the coming week). So this is a little preview. Taking delivery early next week, shipping to my house. If I had standard color grill, I'd definitely move to challenge grill. Mimics the F40 (which is quite possibly one of the best Ferrari's ever produced) too. I'm going to throw out an alternate. And just as OCKLasse stated in his other thread, some purists may hate this. My car has the Iding Power body kit, which is now impossible to find. Custom triple exit exhaust and rear diffuser. Some will love it, some will hate it. For certain Iding has brought some high end creativity to top Ferrari models, many bespoke F40, F50, Enzo, and LaFerrari. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Oh I get it. Absolutely I do. Just wanted to share an alternative most people don't see. I likely will switch to the challenge grille myself once I do my build out. I do love the bumper though and triple center exit exhaust.
Joel, My 1995 F355 Challenge was the first one built and the only one raced in the 1995 North American Challenge Series. It served as a "test bed" that year and based on driver reports, several modifications were made... Image Unavailable, Please Login High engine bay temperatures led to the development of the Challenge grill. The prototype Challenge silencer had three outlets. The lateral two scorched the paint on the bumper. This led to the development of the Challenge exhaust silencer as we know it today... Image Unavailable, Please Login Barry
Very cool Barry. Love getting to know the ins and out of a new to me platform. Hopefully will continue to learn and grow on the forum here. I wonder the difference in temps between the challenge grill, the slotted Iding grill, and the regular stock grill? I'd imagine they'd go in that order least to most, but unless you were tracking the car you'd never know the difference. I have a couple of other cars in the stable too. I generally get a new car to add to the collection every couple of years. Currently have an R8 V10 factory gated 6MT, and 991.1 GT3RS in PTS RS Green. I'll definitely include some shots of the other cars as well as some of them all together when I post my welcome thread next week. Next on my list is a 488 Spider. So here in a few years it will be next up. I have a huge build I'm doing on my R8 to convert it to custom street LMS build.
That's a nice stable of cars you have, Joel. I'm looking forward to seeing them in your welcome thread. There's lots of information on this forum you can learn and benefit from and your fellow forum members are eager to assist. There are a few threads where airflow through the engine bay is discussed and comparisons made between the standard rear panel and the Challenge grill. Your slotted grill adds another variable. Here are two related threads: How much does the Challenge grill help 458 Speciale Spec Challenge Grill for F355 Barry
Sorry for the multiple post pics. it won't let me delete them. I tried to get the text to be better, but no matter how I attach them, it degrades the image.
Copied the text to post: ------------------------------ If you are not a Ferrari buff, you could walk past the Iding Power F365-SIII thinking it was a standard F355. Significant visualchanges have been made, yet this car remains as subtle as any Ferran can be It is the culmination of years of experience modifying Ferrari cars for a dedicated band of enthusiasts in Japan, who believe that today's Ferraris cater too much to the nouveau riche dilettante, and ardently support this company whose mission statement is to extract the essence of Ferrari. That is their Holy Grail. With that in mind, I set off on my pilgrimage to the Mecca of Ferrari tuning, a humble workshop in suburban Hamburg. A most unlikely place to stumble upon the ultimate interpretation of a Ferrari F355. Japan? Hamburg? Ferrari? The reason for this amazing cross-pollination of international ideas is that Iding's founder, Shinkatsu Ide, a successful Ferrari and BMW tuner in his homeland, realized that to put his ideas on the world stage, he must succeed in Germany, the seat of European road car tuning. And so, a few years ago, he moved himself and his family to Hamburg, which as an international port, provides the ideal backdrop for an international export business. Teaming up with the best European component makers was his next step, and Iding now has famous names like BBS, Bilstein and AP Racing making some of its bespoke components. Entering the hallowed portals of Iding's workshop, I found a yellow F355 sitting on the ramp minus its engine and wheels, undergoing a total makeover. This enabled me to see exactly what work is carried out to the guts of the car and why the Iding conversion eats up so much hard cunehey. *The standard F355 is a very good car indeed," said Shinkatsu Ide with obvious admiration, "but there are some owners who want to go beyond that level. They are experienced drivers and long-time Ferrari owners who want driving sensations approaching those of a racing car but with. out the attendant problems on the road such as a serious loss of ride comfort. Thus, we tread a very fine line in developing our sus. pension. While the standard set-up is a good compromise, we nove some parameters to strike a different balance and it is, of course. still a compromise." That new balance is one the keen driver will appreciate, however. Driving a Ferrari is largely about feel and sound, feel through the steering, and feel through the seat of the ints now the chassis reacts to inputs from the driver and the road. "More recent Ferraris cater to a new kind of owner who is wealthy and loves the cars but is not necessarily a keen driver. We aimed to restore the feeling of the older cars and hone it further." Walking me around the stripped-out car, Mr. Ide started at the front. "Here we replace the steering rack and front suspension bushes with Teflon ones which are 80-percent stiffer. Then we weld a tie bar onto the front subframe, which dramaticalLy curtails the suspension pitching. This is important as the front end of the standard car quickly moves towards breakaway when you turn in at very high speed on a track. The tie bar improves this by a huge margin." To enhance steering feel, Iding removed the power steering from their demonstrator, but owners who use the car on the road a lot may want to retain it. The scrub radius is also altered to improve steering feel. *Old Ferraris used to be inaccurate on point-to-point dimensions in their body and chassis construction," Mr. Ide contin-ued. "Those days are long gone however, and these new cars are very precise. The factory X-brace stiffens the rear against vertical movement, but lateral movement is still a problem, so we add a strut brace to the rear. This has moderate stiffening because if you overdo it, the rear stiffness gets out of synch with the front. The combined effect of the front and rear braces works out at about a second a lap on a race track but you would hardly notice the dif. ference on the road. The car just feels more precise in its reactions to steering inputs.' The uprated suspension uses
Anybody with an Iding Power 355 looking for an extremely rare set of Iding Power wheels ? Image Unavailable, Please Login
