$603k for CS on BAT! Has this world gone Batty?

Curious me...
For valve springs, what can be done with their "position" on assembly to get more performance?
For better machining and polishing of surfaces, is this a thing where they changed the finish specs or do they have a black box room/process center where the workers in there put out a higher quality product using better machines and techniques?
For blueprinting in a production environment, are you saying that they put more checks into the CS engine assemblies? ...to meet the F131 engine specs?
Trying to learn more about the brand, thanks for any reply!

 

Was he asking how to get an "OWNER" badge in F-Chat? lol

 

RF’s CS Sold! After the $100k increase following the “batty” sale

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Yes, I too appreciate the interest.

So many years ago when I read the factory broadcast on this (Challenge Stradale engine) I too wanted clarification on valve spring positioning... At the time I was in the height of my engine building period (Porsche hotrodding) and this interested me to no end. I was (and still do) using titanium valve spring caps / keepers and was well versed in the gains of lighter & matched bits for rotating assemblies etc. So, intrigued I looked for the answer. Without going too geek here ~ perhaps you know the valve spring height on a racing engine can be adjusted for gains, including gains with change in spring rate etc. Assuming translation to English, I think that may be what was implied by the factory description. I could not find any data on Ferrari actually moving the angle or location. So... That is most likely it.

As for polishing, this is a hotrodding bit that has produced results from way back. The polishing has many facets that give performance, including better windage resistance, and strength to the metallurgy from the polishing procedure.

Blueprinting is the final wizardry that does not actually add power, but it makes so that the engine has less power loss while rotating. To clarify this means that it actually has less parasitic losses (from the weight minimizing & matching of internal parts) so that its final output is higher then that of a similar engine with lower tolerances. In general terms the engine does not have to fight as hard to make power. Making it a more efficient (more powerful) unit.

The Challenge Stradale. Ferraris factory hotrod.

 

Bummer, I was fairly interested in at $395K, but when the price changed to $495K I gave up. It is a gated conversion so couldn't really figure out how that would affect pricing.

 

IMO that was for your offspring to deal with...if they turned out to be car people!

 

My 17 year old niece is car obsessed. I had nothing to do with her upbringing, she moved here a year ago and now all we do is cars (two Miatas, two BMW Z4s, two Ferraris). This was a car we were shopping together. We currently have three manual cars (1990 Miata, 2003 Z4, 2025 Z4). This car checked a lot of boxes for us. We will restart our search next year.

Rob

 

360 CS were much more special cars than people think.

The best way to summarize the cars is that CS started out in the motorsport department and then they added things to make the car slightly more comfortable and street legal etc...

Do not confuse this with the scud or Porsche approach which is given the customer less and charge more.

The CS was actually a specially developed car from the motorsports department. The engines had significantly more attention put into them. They were probably some of the most scrutinized engines ever assembled for a production car with 1300 units. They received a ton of extra attention and were truly race balanced and polished and blue printed. If I remember right the f1 dept lent a hand but can't remember what to be 100%.

They received many bespoke parts in the engine bay and if course the suspension/springs etc... body work... Thinner glass etc... Enzo brakes.

After the commercial success of the model Ferrari figured out people didn't really care too much about that stuff and were able to dial back some of the pain staking hand touches and really crank out profits on scuds and speciale etc ...

While people hold the scud and speciale in super high regard and value...

Honestly if you want to talk about specialness and special care of a mid engined v8 Ferrari... Nothing comes near a challenge stradale in terms of unique Ferrari magic being rubbed into the car.

By comparison the scuds and the speciale and on are really just marketing exercises to part rich guys from their money.

I'm sorry scud guys. I do love a scud. They are absolutely fantastic. It doesn't make your car less awesome. It's just the challenge stradale is something that really was never repeated as far as the motorsport departments involvement.

 

Here is a high level summary of the difference of the CS over a 360. Not as detailed as some of the engine comments previous, however it does cover everything inside and out.

Updated Front bumper
Updated rear bumper
Rear diffuser
Sharper Side skirts
Underbody tray (50% lighter than Modena)
Lexan back window with Carbon Fiber grills and braces
Lexan side windows optional outside US
Thinner and lighter windshield
Titanium lugnuts
Titanium springs
Carbon Fiber door panels, sills, center console
Carbon Fiber seat shells
Carbon Fiber intake filter boxes
Carbon Fiber mirrors
Carbon Fiber panels (water shields) in engine compartment
Indented gas door with polished cavallino
CCM brakes
19″ Challenge style wheels
Pirelli Corsa tires
Low back pressure exhaust
Titanium exhaust tips
Launch Control
Mass air flow sensor upgrade
Valve spring positioning change
Claimed special engine component selection, machining and polishing
New engine and F1 transmission mapping firmware
Rear engine lid (had revised more protruding ‘nulder’ for downforce)
Uprated clutch (to handle Launch Control)
Uprated drive-shafts (to handle Launch Control)
Engine bay to passenger compartment glass – thinner, lighter.
Due to fitment of CF engine panels and CS sports exhaust, they also implemented a pair of fitted heat shields.
Free flowing air box resonator (less airflow restriction)
The MAF (Mass Airflow Sensors) a pair of bigger ones where used to stop air restrictions at the very top end of the revs (for squeezing the last few bhp out).
Dashboard instrumentation fascia clocks revised, rev counter in bright yellow
Dashboard instrumentation fascia cover in carbon
Dashboard heater controls fascia cover in carbon (smaller, deleing stereo space)
Dashboard lower (revised, deleting glovebox and stereo box, less weight)
New s/w for dash clocks (including CCM brakes wear algorithm and race mode graphics among other updates)
New s/w for suspension tcu
New s/w for abs controller (in addition to the already noted ignition ecu’s (pair) and transmission ecu).
New s/w settings for throttle maps (much more sensitive)
New s/w settings for valve opening (opens later than on a Modena)
On the blueprinting of the engine, all 360’s engines were blueprinted but to within 2% tolerances when bench tested. On the Stradale that tolerance was down to just 0.5% so the selection of pistons, connecting rods, etc. was obviously more precise hence CS’s should be virtually identical in power between one and another (from factory when new).

 

If that's the reason, I think you're better off without that $400k original priced CS. For that budget and those goals, you are better off with a standard 360 and modifying it how you like if you're that into cars. Working on cars and doing things your way without caring about resale or reverting back. It can be more rewarding in a young persons life to experience cars that way than just buying and driving. People here and likely you have see the Ratarossa 360 to CS conversion on YT, which is cool, but I think vin_tra is doing more interesting stuff to his 360. IMO, I would get a regular 360 and just modify how you would like and then drive it hard, including track days, and rebuild as needed. Can get it in F1 and do a gated conversion together. Have it resprayed in a custom color (like vin_tra), wheels, interior reupholstrey, etc. Vin's car was $50k and he's prob still less than $100k in it all together and it looks incredible and fun to drive.

 

Agreed, at no point did I think it was worth $395K. Just surprised it sold when the asking went to $495K.