How do you tell the difference between a Euro & a USA 550?? thanks, Bill
A Euro car (apart from a UK one) will be in kilometers not miles. The UK car is in miles but the steering wheel is the real give away, it's in the passenger seat. It is possible to get the instruments changed but it costs and the factory have most records of this happening
The speedo is changed out during conversion but the temp. control for the a/c and heat generally remain in celcius. DL
There is no "Pininfarina" badge on the front sides, instead you have the "nipple" orange turn indicator. --Dan
Thanks, guys. I had always wondered that very same thing and now the mistery is solved. Learned something new everyday....As a learning environment for all of us Ferrari enthusiats, this forum just rocks. A person can pose a question and seconds later, he/she receives everything one needs to know and more......Your knowledge-base is just simply astounding.
Actually there is a Pininfarina badge above the side vents in front of the nipple. Maybe not the same badge as on a US car? I think it basically says "designed by Pininfarina" in Italian (I am too lazy to go to the garage and check )....
Believe this is euro...note it has the nipple light and pininfarina badge... Image Unavailable, Please Login
Euro's also can have a larger rear license plate indentation (revised during some conversions), rear fog lights plus their switch on the dash, different rear turn signal lights, slightly convex driver mirror, and front fog lights that can stay on with high beams. The last two items may not be unique.
Can anyone comment on engine internal differences. Does a US have lower compression pistons, cylinder heads, different cams etc. All the usual emission stuff.
Preumably US cars have different mapping and lower power to run on lower octane fuel? Or is that adjustment made automatically by the ECUs when they sense different fuel?
Octane ratings use different methods of calculation in the US and Europe. R+M divided by two here. Actual octane is approximately the same. Pistons and compression ratio are the same. Advance curves and mixture ratios may vary slightly., but Europe had emissions regs, too, just not as strict for cold start. If someone really wants to know, just compare the pieces in the parts catalog.
I owned both. No performance difference. Slight Evap difference is only thing I could see visually mechanically. Extra light sidemarker extra USELESS rear foglight switch on dash. It is the perfect dummy switch in USA cars to use as a Nitrous oxide switch. Euro was a bit more difficult to set smog obd2 monitors but has full OBD2 functionality in the USA legal conversion just like the USA cars. And the VIN's on the eruos have a "B" in them USA is "A"
Interesting. I'm still remembering the bad old days when US cars had smog/emissions equipment that drained them, back in the 80s. And to Taz's clarification about octane, I won't get so excited when I pull up at one of those German 100 Octane fuel pumps anymore. Not as special as I thought they were!
Europe and usa has all the same requirements just small differences in amounts of nox etc and amber vs. clear headlights, mandate of a side marker light, and meaningless stuff like that.
Carl, do you remember if your Euro 550 had the SAI system? I did a poll awhile back with 550 owners, and it seemed that most true Euro cars did not have Secondary Air Injection.
M My Euro 550 has secondary air injection. Makes a whining sound for about a minute. I also installed a VW beetle vacuum valve for the VW SAI on my 550 yesterday for the valves for the exhaust. Exactly the same part!! Both made in USA actually. In the bottom picture, the Ferrari part is on to and the VW part I got from a friends donor Beetle at the bottom... worked like a dream. Now super quiet and quite loud when going hard on the throttle.
I don't know about Ferraris but Euro and US mainstream cars in the 80s were very different, particularly when the USA required cats/unleaded and Euro didn't. I remember importing a Saab Turbo 16v into Oregon in 1986 to be told it would have a 15% power deficit if ordered from the factory to relevant US spec. (not California spec). Similar with many high powered Euro saloons/sedans back then. (For example the 5.6 litre Mercedes V8.) Which is why I was interested in the original question, but it sounds like by the time Maranellos came round all were cat cars so it sounds like the differences disappeared..
True. Those were dark times. The new world order is now and accelerating. Everyone trying to control everyone else with group think. And that is how we get stuff like the UN small arms treaty that tried to regulate US guns through a back door violating our Constitution. There was 49state and California for years. California won and now there are 50state cars. Cali keeps up the pressure. Now you cannot import a non California stamped cat converter into cali. Our prices went up because of that. I can pass sniff test with any $50 cat but I am required to spend $10,000 for a Ferrari one. Thats right 10k!
I'm sure @tazandjan can clarify this but I'm pretty sure the 98(?) and later 550's have an extra catalysator on USA cars.
As stated earlier, pistons, cams, compression ratio are identical. No 550s have precats like the 575s, so cats are the same, too.
