348 anti roll bar upgrade

Hi guys, quick question. Is there a source for stiffer sway bars? The challenge cars came with a stiffer anti roll bar setup correct? I’m assuming those are not an easily attainable part, are there any other options? I’m assuming any 355 upgrades would also work. I can not find any info in the intra webs.

 

348 has a lot of chassis flex. Stiffer bars will likely lose most of their effectiveness by making the chassis flex more. The CH cars got away with it by having a roll cage that stiffened the chassis.

 

I don’t think the Ch cars roll bar (not at all a roll cage) made much of a difference. Now if it connected any suspension mounting points or even close to that would be different. Not trying to argue chassis dynamics and such. Just trying to figure out if there are any available.

 

But I see your point and agree they are not stiff cars. Especially mine as it’s aTS

 

The 348 Challenge sway bars are same as on standard 348s but they have different sway bar bushes. The roll cage usually significantly stiffens the car body. The 348 Challenge has a roll cage, not just a roll bar:

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Hmm i thought I’d read some old posts about upgrading to CH anti roll bars. And I thought I saw a thread about the differences in part numbers. I must be remembering wrong.
I’m familiar with the challenge cars bolt together cage. But as a guy who has built lots of real cages I don’t think the way the CH cage is designed it offers a whole lot of stiffness. I little probably Some extra safety yes. But I didn’t start this thread to argue that. What I was hoping to do is find a solution to sharpen and flatten handling response without changing springs and dampers. I’d rather not increase street harshness to much. Parts for these cars are so limited. Maybe just I’ll stop clowning around and do a three way coilover setup and try to dial out harshness with the compression dampening.
Hope that makes sense

 

348 challenge bushes will most likely be delrin. That should stiffen them up. Or Energy Suspension poly.

 

The 355 Challenge 1999 has two options:
Standard:..............159353 front, 159303 rear
"Upon demand":.....176031 front, 176032 rear

I guess the "Upon demands" are thicker.

 

Those are the part numbers. I’m sure they are pretty unattainable these days.
My original thought or question was if any small aftermarket company ever offered anything? Even adjustable end links with stiffer bushings would be nice if there was anything available

 

Delrin bushings anre incredibly easily to machine or have machined.

 

Wanna make some for my challenge roll bars? 24mm and 19mm.

 

Is this just a project for fun or is there a performance reason to do it?

 

Stiff sway bar and/or bushings

I remember way back one of the Ford SVO engineers a dear friend Doug, big red head bearded biker dude, was one of the best.
They had Jackie Stewart tune the suspensions as they could just not get it to stay on the road in dry much less wet conditions. Sir Jackie was hired, came in and softened everything up making it a beast in dry and wet.
The entire car needs to be taken into consideration with real seat time to get it right. Something Google and here say just cant do.
I have 2 355 challenges with 2 different style roll cages and weight distribution. The set ups on paper are not remotely similar. Both 1995 355 challenges.

Street is not track

We have a guy here that currently races a 348 Challenge thats on top of things. may want get his opinion

Get it out, lots track seat time then make small adjustments. unless you just like to google race but I understand that's quite popular today LOL

 

I just want the car to be a little more responsive without having to go stiffer on the dampers. I like traction. I come to this opinion from all my other high performance vehicles. Some with a way higher ceiling. The 348 is lots of fun but I think some improvements are still possible without going overboard.

 

I’m not looking to build a race car or a track car. So those setups don’t exactly apply.
Just looking for some information from guys that have been there done that, just in case I missed something. But I guess they’re just isn’t very much support for these cars, as far as certain chassis parts.
Anyways, I appreciate all the Reply’s to this thread. I guess I’ll move on to upgrades in the damper and spring set up.
Thanks guys

 

I don't mean top be a curmudgeon. You can do a ton to these to make them suit your feel and liking.
Shocks are my favorite. With all the new designs today you can go bat poop crazy. Our cars the shocks are like 300 years old in design.
I need to do an upgrade one of these days but I'm check so 15k on shocks I rather give it to my hooker

 

Haha good

 

Well I ordered a set of Nitron R1 coilovers, with the nose lift system.
There has to be a Guinea pig for everything I guess.

 

And a set of red sway bar bushings. I’m guessing this setup will spice up the handling.

 

I see in the online catalogue that the 348 standard sway bar bushes are red and the Challenge bushes are white. Did you buy the red Ferrari bushes or red aftermarket?

Also, the 348 Challenge uses different (harder I believe) wishbone bushes, front and rear. These should "sharpen" the handling further.

 

lol

They are red but say updated quality, so I’m not positive. I can not find and challenge parts available.
https://awitalian.com/product/front-sway-bar-bushing-2-per-car-110874.html/

 

Have a look at Maranello (ferrariparts.co.uk) website. They appear to have Challenge anti roll bar and wishbone bushes in stock.

 

Driving on the street and tossing it around corners I never find myself saying, I wish it rolled less and was stiffer. One thing the factory shocks oil and nitrogen are 100% shot, start by having them rebuilt perhaps. I did, made a world of difference.

 

I do. But I think I’m after a more hardcore feel than most Ferrari owners.

 

I think you can still buy the cage or have one built. Good luck!