430 F430 upgrade with rear carbon Challenge grill by Sforza

Hello F430 Owners,
In this thread i want to share with you our experience as a manufacture Company with the exterior upgrade of base F430 to "Challenge"style and i will explain what are the steps needed in order to install the carbon rear connector also well known as the "Carbon Challenge Grill".
We have developed this project a few years ago, following a tailor made request from a group of F430 owners.
The first crucial and reasonable questions of all F430 owners are...
Q. Can i install the carbon challenge grill on the standard rear bumper?
A. The answer is no... You will need the specific rear bumper in order to install the carbon grill correctly and if you want to pursue the real genuine look.
An our Customer has tried to cut down the standard rear bumper on his own but unfortunately for him the result has been a total disaster with the rear bumper not aligning correctly with the carbon grill.
The rear bumper in F430 launch years (04-05) was not designed from factory to host the carbon grill and it became a reality a few years later when Ferrari released the F430 restyle with a new rear bumper & the carbon grill. Then the F430 Scuderia followed up but this is another story.
Q. Is the carbon challenge grill the same on all models Coupè & Spider?
A. Due to the different rear engine trunk shape, there is a specific carbon grill for F430 Coupè / Scuderia and another one for F430 Spider / Scuderia16M.
Q. Are there any differences between European & USA rear bumper version?
A. Yes there are a few differences due to homologation requirements in the US. The USA rear bumper has side marker reflectors and the rear plate lights are in a different position if compared to the European one.
However the fixing brackets are the same, so an European rear bumper can fit on F430 USA models as well.
So for this upgrade it is required to change rear bumper and install the correct carbon challenge grill.
The oem F430 rear bumper challenge grill version is rare to find on market... therefore to satisfy our Customers requests we have manufactured the rear bumper molds starting from an original European one and we can produce this rear bumper on request as well as the carbon challenge grill for both Coupè & Spider models.
The rear bumper is made of glass fiber reinforced with carbon fiber and has all the internal fixing brackets same as the original one.
As mentioned, this rear bumper is an European version which does not have the side marker reflectors housings. It can be supplied with or without parking sensor holes and it is delivered unpainted .
Here below some pictures of first install testing and a few pictures from on our American Customer F430.
We look forward to hear your comments

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Hello Mel,
I think you refer to the 360 Challenge Stradale, but this is an alluminium black mesh grill and not a carbon fiber part.
We have not worked on 360 and we do not produce this part. Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Hello,
the carbon "challenge grill "option was introduced on the F430's when the 430 Scuderia was unveiled in 07 that as you know is equipped with this cf part as a stock spec.
So, the last F430 Coupè & Spider units produced M.Y. 07-08-09 were already mostly equipped with the cf grill and it's specific rear bumper while the previous models had the standard rear bumper without the grill.
The cf challenge grill is the same part on both F430 Coupè & 430 Scuderia and then there is another specific cf grill for the F430 Spider and Scuderia 16M due to the different rear engine lid.

About the rear bumper, we are aware that the F430 stock bumper appears to have all the fixing bushes to retain the cf grill , but the point is that in our opinion if you would cut down the stock bumper you would first need a trimming jig.
And even if the trimming would be done correctly, it would be very hard to have the cf grill to sit flush and allign correctly with the tail-lights because the carbon fiber grill is stiff and the plastic cut-down stock bumper would no longer be that stiff as it was before in the section where the cf grill is retained to the bumper.
As a result , finding the right allignment on the tail-lights would be quite a job.
We have made the replica of the specific F430 "challenge grill" spec. rear bumper for this reason and so far all our Customers were pleased with the outcome.

The cf challenge grill is mounted to the bumper only with screws, here in the pic below you can see our specific rear bumper replica that comes with all the mounts same as the OEM bumper and can be optionally supplied with the parking sensors retainers.

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here you can see how the stock F430 rear bumper ( without the cf challenge grill) looks like from the interior:

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Hope this helps!


Cari Saluti dall'Italia!

 

Hello,
DM sent,
thank you

Nicolò
Sforza.tech