355 faster than 360 over a two mile straight

I think it's pretty clear that your enhanced car with you driving was faster; but it's not clear why you think all 355's are faster. There seems to be a large discrepancy in performance between a 355 and 360 in most reviews. For example, here are some Nurburgring lap times for Ferrari's:

Ferrari Challenge Stradale ( 2/2004) 7:56
Ferrari 575M Maranello (12/2002) 8:05
Ferrari 550 Maranello ( 6/1998) 8:07
Ferrari F360 Modena ( 10/1999) 8:09
Ferrari F355 ( 6/1997) 8:18

 

Yeah but that's taking into account corners, the 360 stock is definately quicker than a 355 stock through the corners.

Rick

 

I find it funny that you insist on misreading these posts. You only confirmed what I stated. Your modified car is faster than a stock 360. No excuses. But then you tell other 355 drivers that if they "drive" properly, they will be faster than a 360. That's not what your win demonstrates. As you also imply, I have no vested interest in defending standard 360's, since I don't own one.

It also wouldn't matter to me if you did beat a CS, but particularly if you have to start down the road of nitrous injection to do it. Once you start the mods, there's no end to it. There are plenty of 600-1000 hp 996 turbo kits around that would kill anything that F makes stock in a straight line.

 

"I have no vested interest in defending *standard* 360's, since I don't own one."

It's not a standard 360. The CS is to a 360 as a 996 GT3RS is to a 996.

Why are you so getting so hot under the collar, with the namecalling and the challenges?

 

I resemble that remark!

BT
Play nice kids...

 

Yes, and internet posts are internet posts.

Gary

 

can chaa have his fishing rod back please;-)

 

Ferrari Results

1st - F40 - 192mph - Man the F40 was moving!
2nd - 575 - 182 mph - 12 cylinders working hard
3rd - 430 - 176 mph
4th -360 CS - 172 mph
5th - 456 - 170 mph -wow faster than the 360?
6th - 355 - 168 mph - beats the 360 too?
7th - 360 - 167 mph
8th - 355 - 161 mph

Top speeds recorded: http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69035

Adam Treanor Ruf 195
Albert Vella Ferrari F40 192
Davy Jones GT2 DMS 188
Zafar Aslam Porsche GT2 187
Henry Sage Porsche GT2 183
Rob Fackerell 996 Turbo 183
David Jones Ferrari 575M 182
Christian Ward 996 DMS TT 181
Carlo Tawed Murcielago 181
Andrew Ptolomey 996 Turbo 180
Ian Sutton 996 Turbo 179
David Warrior Ferrari F430 176
Pani Pastou Lam Gallardo 176
Martin O’Donnell Porsche Turbo 173
Anthony Wright TVR 172
Harry Nijjar 360 Challenge 172
Steve Farnworth F456 170
Chaz Richards F355 Spider 168
Alex Emin F360 167
Just Jones Lotus Esprit 162
Gel M3 AC Schn 162
Martin O’neal F355 Spider 161
Joey Thompson BMW M3 159
Jason Smith BMW M3 158
David Adams BMW M3 158
Paul Huxley Audi S4 157
Philip Counsel BMW CSL 156
Hassan Emin BMW M3 153
Pete & Bina SL500 150
Martin Haliday Merc SL350 149
Ed Nielson Lotus Exige 140
Richard Hardwick Lotus Elise 133

 

I'm wondering how the Exige beat the Elise by that much with such a large wing as it has...

 

I never post this kinda of story because the people I ran against and the 360 owners here all cry excuses. I have a 95' 355, tubi, hyperflows, thats all, I have beaten all three 360's I ran against in a casual off the line run. I don't leave them in the dust, but slowly walk away. The 1st guy told me he was "just playin" and feathering his pedal, yeah thats an Fcar driver, the 2nd didn't want to discuss it at all. The 3rd I never spoke to after the run, I think he's avoiding me.
Now I also had a casual run off the line with my good friendWoodearin his Stradale and I can tell you the performance is much better than a 360, Chris walk away from me pretty damn fast.
So for all the 360 owners, different cars, different look, different feel, same performance as the 355, get over it already.

 

So from this we can determine reliably that the GT2 is 4 mph faster than the GT2, the 996 Turbo is 4 mph faster than the 996 Turbo, the M3 is faster than the M3 CSL, the 575 is faster than the 430, and the 456 is faster than the 355. I'll take all that to the bank.

Gary

 

Sure, since the 360 is lighter, more powerful, and has a better drag coefficent, I'll buy that...whatever you say.

Gary

 

I keep telling people that the 95's are the year to get.

 

I think you should (remember these were the best of 3 runs and they had 2 straight miles to get to top speed - so the driving skill is not much of an issue.)

The three GT2 were all within 5 mph of each other
The 4 996 turbos were all within 4 mph of each other.
The 3 M3s were all within 1 mph
The 456 did better the 355 by 2 mph

Not surprising to see the 575 easily best the 360s however, I am surprised to see the 575 beat the 430 by 6 mph, however, it does have more cylinders and horsepower - same drag. The 575 is heavier though.

I guess we you guys can argue all day long - however, that is what these cars did on this day.

 

Maybe only 1-1/2 out of 3 is true (of course since Ferrari is not forthcoming with real numbers, it's sometimes hard to tell).

Looking at some different data sources, I have the 355 Spider at 3000-3150 lbs, while the 360 Coupe is 3150-3250 lbs (US version). So the 360 appears to be 50-100 lbs heavier (Ferrari claims of a lighter car are apparently in relation to the increased volume of the car).

Horsepower is quoted at 375-380 HP (355) vs 400 HP (360), so 20-25 more HP for the 360.

Cd is 0.35 (355) vs 0.335 (360) but the frontal area increases for the 360 (bigger car), and it turns out that it is about a wash in terms of effective drag. This seems to be a tie.

Net it could come down to weight (advantage 355) vs HP (advantage 360). The differences might offset each other enough that laden weight (actual fuel % and driver weight) might be an influence. Of course any mods present or missing on one car versus the other as well as which version (coupe vs spider) would also be a factor.

Of course weight vs HP primarily matters for high-speed runs. For most mountain/track driving - torque curves, suspension/handling, gearing & shift times, brake performance, etc are also significant factors and here the 360 has generally demonstrated better times than a 355.

 

4-5 MPH variance out of 170-180 MPH is only 2-3%. For an engineer, this is usually "close enough" (however for racing purposes, there is always a winner, regardless of whether that is by 0.001% or due to a 1 in 10 million event). If we accept that driving skill wasn't much of an issue (don't know if this is univerally accepted) then the deltas must arise from specific car and environmental variances (actual weight, actual horsepower, tire condition, track condition, car condition, etc.). If even cars of the same model have 4-5 MPH variance, then contrasting statements between models that are within 4-5 MPH are certainly meaningless. Of course there was a specific ranking that day for those cars (kudos to the faster cars and drivers), but more generic statements, like 456 > 355 or 355 > 360 aren't on solid ground, since the margin was 2 MPH or less.