Got a couple of questions regarding the 355 Challenge cars. 1. How does the 355 Challenge suspension differ from road going 355's? 2. Is the Challenge tranny cooler worth installing? Had a chat with someone who had it removed "because it was too much trouble". Didn't have a chance to asky why. 3. Is the water cooling system the same? Thanks
The suspension has solid teflon bushings, swaybars are larger, springs are several times(also lowers car) heavier ie; frts are 2200 lbs./sq. in. vs. a few hundred for the road car, Hiem joints for the sway bar links and different sway bar bushings. Shocks are unique to the car. Brakes are huge brembos. Never had problems with the trans cooler so not sure what your friend is taking about. It would be expensive( it also uses one of the A/C lines to move oil so no more A/C if you install by factory instr.) to install and I'm not sure, for a road car, it would be worth it. The cooling system differences are that there is no thermostat and a plug in place of it to get the coolant to flow thru the radiators there are also fan shrouds between the fans and the radiators and different inner fender panels to except the increased depth of the shrouds. There is also a switch that allows for manual override of the automatic/thermo switches to control the cooling fans. If you want to see all the differences in the car pick up a copy of the parts manual for the 355CH it is thorough. PS if the guy you talked to removed his cooler on a CH and was still tacking the car he will have problems. Even the road cars have a heat exchanger.
Thanks for the info. Very much appreciated. I don't know the guy who worked on the 355 challenge, just had a brief chat with him at a trackday last week. Their car semed to be running well.
