F355 Paddle Shifter Questions ANSWERED!

Thank you all for contributing to my thread of questions about F355 paddle shifting logistics.

A down point was that I lost the bet to my friend. According go the experts, it is NOT POSSIBLE to light up the tires in an F355 F1 by being able to shift the car into first while the engine is held above idle. Evidently, the Stradale has a new feature (launch control) specifically designed to overcome this deficiency.

What was funny was that none of the F1 owners I had spoken to even knew their cars were incapable of being able to perform this maneuver. They never even researched it before spending that kind of money??
WOW.

Thanks again,
Mike

 

>>>Maybe the Ferrari owner on this site are more interested in GO then >>>show... I dunno.

>>>Indeed, I could not care less and would never do that to a car I >>>own. Red lights drag races are IMO the automotive equivalent of a >>>pissing contest (beside any other consideration regarding mechanics)

Okay, let me rephrase.

Doug Hayashi is a long time F355 GTS F1 owner. Wayne Mellow is a long time F355 GTS 6-speed owner. They are great friends, both have race cars, both are NSX owners, and are highly competitive with each other for fun. They tell me that an F355 6-speed can beat a stock NSX in a 0-60 race, while the F355 F1 CANNOT beat a stock NSX in a 0-60 race. Why? Because, according to Doug, you cannot get a good off the line start in the F1 car.

This is the kind of information I was surprised to NOT hear from F355 F1 owners out there.

And if a good standing start was not important to anyone, then why did Ferrari come up with the Launch Control feature on the Stradale?

 

>>>Mike, when are you going to hold a paddle shifting seminar?
>>> j/k

Ha ha good one! :-D

Well, I sure talk a lot for someone who has never even ridden in an F355, let alone driven one. It's just that I'm from the camp that these kinds of cars are meant to be driven. I do NOT baby my 410HP, blown/injected NSX. I drive the crap out of it! And with a 4.55 aftermarket final drive, it is a rocket out of the gate.

However, I still contend that if you cannot light up the tires in your car (and again folks, one would never really want to do that), then you cannot get a good (read: quick) start from a dead stop. That's what prompted me to contact the head of a Ferrari race department in the first place. I have seen enough pit exits to know that if anyone would know the answer to this question, HE would. And this gentleman flatly told me that you could not do this with the F1 cars.

This is what I love about these chat forums. Most of the time I just glean information from people who have researched some topic. But, once in awhile, I am able to contribute something that I have researched. Very cool!