Ha ha Rick. I'm not the one with girl troubles. I still love ya. As for the Stradle... I'm all for it. However, it has to be F1.
Option 3. Keep your 360 and put as many miles on it as you want. Buy a 360 Challenge car to park next to it. You should be able to find one for the difference between your car and a CS. Granted its not street legal, but its a hell of a car for the track...
Funny how great minds think alike. I've already had a few conversations with Martin at Cavallino and Costa at FX about this. Between the two of them they know as much as there is to know about the race cars. The idea is brewing ...
This is why I love this site. I am trying to make the same decision. I have a 360 spider (stick) and I have been tracking it for the last 6 months under the instruction of Carl McGinn and his driving concepts school. The rock chips are out of control. Once you get on the track with a 360 a regular model will never due. My question is keep the spider and get a 360 Challenge for $100K or get rid of the Spider and get the stradale? Oh yeah, it has to have the stripe right?
It would be a risk if you got in a wreck...but you could hang your 360 license plate on a challenge car to get it to track events. Here is a question: Why can't you title one of these somehow as a custom made car like people do with Noble and Cobras and all that?
I would assume that it's because most of those other cars are purchased as a rolling chassis only, without engine and transmission, and is put together by a third party (on paper, at least). A 360C isn't delivered anywhere in this configuration, AFAIK.
It definately has to have the stripe (IMO). You're buying such a special limted edition car and part of that "specialness" is the stripe (sorry Kevin). As for the Spider/Race car or the Stradale - that is the question I am pondering. I am honestly leaning towards keeping my 360 and purchasing a Challenge race car. I do not track my car often now simply because I do not want to beat it up. If I had an actual Challenge car I would be on the track frequently. The bottom line is this. If I bought a Stradale I would never track it. I would be too concerned with damaging the car, chips, etc. Therein lies my problem. Ideally, I would have two Challenge cars - one race version and one Stradale. But that is not in the cards for me as long as I have an offshore powerboat. Just too many holes in which to pour $$$ ... Interesting question Kevin. There is a difference. I am not sure of the details but it is not something you can easily do. Maybe there is a possibility of taking a Challenge car to someone like G&K who does the Euro conversions and having them do a "conversion" on the car to make it meet federal standards. I am not sure what that would entail. I know the cars have wipers, lights, turn signals, etc. When they do Euro conversions what exactly is being done? Reinforcements in the doors? One of the companies I am involved in deals in the Beck 550 Spyders which are replicas of the Porsche 550 Spyder that James Dean was killed in. The cars come from Brazil as a rolling chassis - frame, painted shell, and wheels. The engine, trans, etc. are all installed here. The cars are sold on a MSO from Beck Motorsports. Depending on your State (CA is the worst) - it is either easy or hard to title and register the car. Simply stated the car has to be inspected. If you are in a state that does NOT have smog laws - ie. Arizona - then you have no worries about emissions. The Spyders come with headlights, wipers, turn signals, etc. They do not meet federal standards for bumper height, reinforced doors, etc. They are kit cars. From Jay's description it sounds like a Challenge race car would be almost the same thing - a kit car. The question then becomes ... why couldn't it be registered on the road like a kit car?
Jerry - There is one other option I have been looking into - a high mileage regular 360 Modena. If a Challenge car is $100k and it not usable on the road and has likely been crashed, etc. - it is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it. The race cars are not easy sells because they really have no value to the masses. It's either going to be purchased by someone who really wants to race it or by a club level guy who wants to run it on the track. Other than that there is no other market for them. I found a semi-high mileage 360 in the high $90's. Not a bad deal. As cool as a race car is I am thinking that a high mileage/not so perfect road car might be the wiser purchase. Even if you raced it and put some serious miles on it - it would still be an easier sell because it's a road car. A 60,000 mile 360 would still likely be worth $70k. Anyway, just one more option to ponder.
Wouldn't it just be easier(and cheaper) to use your car for the odd track use? Maybe get some 3M on it and you're good to go.......
Hi Jeffrey, long time no speak. I guess my brother hasn't had a wedding event for a few months! ;-) A nice dilemna you have there. If you are interested in track days then definitely buy a Challenge car as they were built to race all day long and you won't be carless if you smack it or something blows up. Who knows, you may get the racing bug and that will just be the best fun! The CS is a fantastic car, but not as fast on the road as an F430 nor as everyday usable and certainly not worth the prices being asked. As F430s become easier to buy you will see a huge drop in CS prices. David
CS allll the way! I owned a 360 spider before this and I'm telling you this car is worllllds better! 1. The CS will never depreciate as much. It's a production run of 1200 cars worldwide vs 16000 Coupes and Spiders. THere are supposedly less than 300 in the US. 2. You can drive it as much as you like. The car will not depreciate as much as the regular 360. The looks, the feel of a car are worlds better than the 430. Techs have the factory have said outright that after the F40 the CS is one of the best cars they hav ever built. It is perfection CS.. All the way
I was at Willow Springs last weekend and did the Driving concepts Competition race school and my instructor forbid me to bring my 360 spider which I did HPDS in. I was pissed so instead I rented a BMW race car for the race weekend. He was so right not to bring my car. There were three P GT3 cars and all ended the weekend with broken windshields and major front end rock damage. It would kill me to do that to a CS. Track days are O.K. but if you want serious track competition I think I am leaning towards the challenge car.
