FLATOUTRACING's 355 C Sold !!

Well, I guess it’s time to change my screen name (95F355C)!!

This past Friday I sold my 1995 Challenge car to Charles Vest of the New England Chapter of FCA. Charlie made a very generous offer and the car has found a good home. Charlie will be running the car along with several other Ferrarichat members like Dennis Lui, John Tirell (Independent Ferrari Service), and a couple of other 355 Challenge owners that all run at the Glen and Lime Rock.

It’s been a lot of fun owning the car and tearing up tracks here on the east coast but the time had come to sell it as I am getting more and more involved in racing wheel to wheel and came to the conclusion that time constraints would limit use of the car. That and of course, the realization that in order to drive the car any faster would mean running the risk of putting it into a wall. There were many times last year that I told myself I would dial it back a bit but to those of you who have driven a 355 or 360 Challenge car near the limit it’s hard not to drive it that way.

Although I will remain a Ferrarichat member and post as often as I feel I can add something relevant you may see more of my postings on the “off topic” section for a while.

As far as Ferrari ownership goes it may be a few years until I get another one and it will likely be a streetcar this time around. As I have mentioned to some of you I still want to race at the Daytona 24 Hour race sometime in the next few years so that takes precedence over a Ferrari at the moment.

One of the things I missed the past few years was driving a Ferrari on the street. My list of possibly cars includes a 355 Spyder or 360 Spyder but I have not ruled out returning to a TR or a Daytona.

I would also like to thank everyone on Ferrarichat that helped me with information on 355’s and 355 Challenge cars in general. I saved a lot of time and money reading some of the highly technical threads on this forum.

I will still post videos from my races this season on www.flatoutracing.net but the footage will be a little slower for obvious reasons. Plans may include a couple of Grand Am Cup races at Watkins Glen and VIR. I am trying to put together a deal to co-drive a Porsche GT3 Cup Car at both venues.

I am sure Charlie will join Ferrarichat in the coming weeks so please give him a warm welcome.

Regards,

Jon P. Kofod
www.flatoutracing.net
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One last picture of the car in action and a season ending video clip.

Cheers,

Jon

Watkins Glen FCA: http://jpkofod.lunarpages.com/TestA.mpg
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Congrats Jon! She was a firebreather...

 

Hey Jon, do you have copy of that video w/o the music? I'd much rather listen to the 355C and the cars around it.

 

So does this mean Hot Wheels won't be making a 1:18 model of your car, with your name on it and www.flatoutracing.net sprawled across the side...? It would've looked nice next to my Steve Earle FoH 360 C...

 

Well congrats to Charlie - I'm going to be really surrounded by 355C's at the track events this year

 

OK, Everybody keep driving past his house in a F-car with the engine SCREAMING. Let's see how soon he'll be back.

Oh I would hate if someone would do that to me > > >

 

Jimpo,


Go to my webpage at: http://www.f355.homestead.com/glen.html

Videos 3 through 8 contain all the footage in the highlight video w/out the music. They are longer clips of each highlight scene.

DES,

Some darn guy named Rob Lay beat me too it (see below). Don't know who he is but he must have gotten Hot Wheels to do his car instead. I knew I shouldn't have demanded they pay me $2 royalty fees on every 1/18 355 C sold.

You can however make your own. Get a Barchetta red street one and add yellow stripes and a wing!

Regards,

Jon
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LOL... Or i can just call Rita @ Cavallino Models and ask them to replicate yours to a T. They do great work...

 

Hello F-Chatters... I'm the lucky buyer of Jon's 355 Challenge car! I'm new to FerrariChat and I look forward to participating in what I understand to be an excellent forum.

I've owned a 1984 308QV for just over 3 years (see attached picture of the car) and have done about 25 track days since my first track event in July 2002. At the track I run with Team Pilota, which includes regulars and great friends "BigHead" Dennis Liu, John Tirrell, Joe Capasso, Pete Lombardo, and Bob Hatch, along with others who occasionally join us such as Dan360.

Best of all, I've been able to share my entire Ferrari experience with my teenage son Alex. Alex now has a couple of track events under his belt working with BigHead Dennis -- an EXCELLENT driver and teacher -- and he shows great promise.

It will be a privilege to be able to drive #23. For those of us who've been on the track with Jon, we know how great a driver he is and how passionate he has been about this awesome 355 Challenge Car. Best of luck in your racing pursuits Jon, and I hope to be able to meet some of you at track events and other Ferrari happenings in the Northeast.

Charlie
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Welcome to the website and congratulations, Charlie! Ive always had a crush on Jon's car, so knowing its in good hands will allow me to sleep better

 

Charlie!

Greg Owens here (S/N 48345). I am so glad to hear that you bought Jon's 355C. He approached me about a month ago, but it's still about ~2 years away for me to make that jump.

Are you keeping the 308?

I think it is so neat that within this close-nit group of F-car owners, we all have a connection to each other. Jon and I are good friends and after seeing you at Watkins Glen and then Lime Rock, it is such a close group of friends.

Congrats!

 

Dan360... I think with five 355Ch's in the Team Pilota stable, you certainly will be surrounded! Hope to see you on the track again this year as well as some of the FCA New England region events.

Greg... great to hear from you! Yes, I'm keeping the 308. It has great sentimental value and I will continue to drive the heck out of it as my daily driver for 9 months of the year (it had 22,000 miles when I bought it 3 years ago and the odometer just passed 72,000!). Right now, the car is in John Tirrell's shop for a top-end engine rebuild. How's the sister car doing?

Greg and I have a great story about our particular 308QVs -- both Eurospec models. We met at the FCA Watkins Glen track event on Labor Day weekend 2002. It turned out that, with Ferrari serial numbers only being odd numbers at the time, Greg's 308 (s/n 48345) and my 308 (s/n 48343) were probably one after the other coming off the production line. How about that for a "small world" story!

CV

 

Sorry to see Jon sell the car, but hope that he gets the ride he wants in the Daytona 24 hour. When I first got the 355, Jon sent me his headers, without a deposit, etc. to see if they would fit. An absolutely great guy.

Art

 

Yeah, I am very happy it's staying in the local Ferrari family (Empire State Region/New England Chapter).

Charlie, Greg, and Art, thanks for the kind words and the compliments on my driving. It took a lot of hard work and a few off tack excursions to learn the car.

I think the 355 Challenge is the best all around track Ferrari, save maybe the real expensive exotics (333SP, F40 LM). It's much faster than a 348 which basically only has upgraded saftey gear and it's much more forgiving and easier to drive at the limit than a 360 Challenge.

With the exception on fellow Ferrarichatter Will Haney, I have yet to find anyone able to drive a 360 C faster than my 355. You can learn to drive a 355 C at the limit and occasionly go over that limit and still be in good shape.

The 360 C by comparison, doesn't suffer fools lightly. I still think FNA did a dis-service to it's customers not allowing a rear wing to be put in the 360 which it clearly needs.

While I have seen plenty of folks go off in 355's I have seen twice as many 360 go off and unlike the 355's most of the 360's ended up with serious damage (witness the guy with the broken neck at the Glen this past year).

For what most of us are using the cars for (track days) the 355 is a much better deal. For someone with professional talent a 360 C is a much faster car but it's not very friendly to bad driving.

Greg, is Paul P's 355 C back together yet?

Look forward to seeing all the 355 Challenge cars from the Empire State Region at the Glen. My car is now the 5th 355 Challenge that has changed hands between folks in the Empite State Region.

That's keeping it in the family.

I went to FOW today to look what they might have as a replacement for the 355 C and look what I found.............. (yeah right !!!!)
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Glad to see you found a good home for your car.

Welcome Charlie to the chat family. I hope this does not mean that Jon will no longer give his support.

Glad two good minds met and a deal could be struck.

My Challenge is in for a compression check and then being shipped to me for next week hopefully Can't wait...

Martin

 

Charlie - rest assured I'll be out and about @ the track events this year - I'm sure I'll see you passing me in your new challenge car!

 

Jon....I see you took a picture kneeling next to my new toy!!

I could only wish.....

 

Congrats, Jon! And thanks again for all the guidance you offered when I went to VIR!!!!

Best,

Dave

 

Matt,

If I sell the house and my stock portfolio and you go in half we might be able to pull it off. Don't know what the wife will think of us living in my trailer though. And the kids will be going to commuity college not Harvard. Oh well it'll be fun!!!

What's that old saying.....

"You can live in your car but you can't race your house"

Can you imagine what type of lap times we could run with that thing at the Glen and Summit??? Heck 1:50 at the Glen and 1:10 at Summit would be warm up laps while bedding in the rotors and pads.

Martin,

You all are not losing my support by any means. I am a die hard Ferrari fan since birth and while I may not own a Ferrari for a while that hasn't changed my passion for Ferrari.

By the way I am just on my way out but will send you some contact info from some of the other interested buyers who didn't purchase my car. Maybe this will lead to a sale.

Regards,

Jon

 

Jon, I just watched your Watkins Glen video. Very nice. Was amused by 3 things:

-the car that spun out right in front of you at the film's beginning
-the sound of the 333SP as it went by you
-how truly awful the 333's driver seemed; looked like he was scared of getting onthe throttle in the corner, despite his HUGE downforce

 

Dave,

The car that spun had gas leaking from his gas tank. Someone forgot to put the gas cap back on and it was topped off.

The 333SP driver is Benny Caiola in his 70's. He has slowed down quite a bit in the past few year since he stuffed his F40 GTE into a wall. He was also driving the F40LM in the video.

The fast 333SP that blew by me at the start of the video is the only one at track days I have really seen driven fast.

I imagine in his youth Benny was pretty darn fast. Heck I'll be playing bingo at this age.

Actually I trailed him for 3/4ths of a session and then passed him. He must have gotten ticked off because suddenly he got on my tail and re-passed me and after that I had trouble keeping up.

Regards,

Jon

 

Interesting, Jon. Among many Ferraris, Benny Caiola also has TWO Enzo's...

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Jon, I know Paul always tears the 355C down to look at everything during the winter...but this year he may have gone farther than normal. Paul is compulsive about maintaining his Ferrari which is why I purchased his other one. I'll talk to him and find out...

 

John, hate to see you sell the 355C but I understand the circumstances and wish you great future success. Our entire family (wife/2 kids) watched your video tonight with the music and it was great (who is playing in the music?).

Your posts have always demonstrated the fact that you're a class act. Just because you've temporarily departed the F-habit, don't leave F-Chat in the dust. Keep us posted on your future racing successes!

BobD