Can anyone here shed any light on this issue? Thanks JM http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=194841
Simple Precis - How many factory built Challenge cars? Of these, how many are RHD? The answers must be out there somewhere !
we can't even decide on what actually constitutes a real factory 355 challenge...what chance do we have with numbers?
Whatda mean you can't tell a factory challenge car from one that is not. The easiest way is look at the roll bar mounts and how they are installed and also the upper harness bolts and the way they are installed, you can tell they were installed before the paint went on. The '96 Euro cars have twin air meters as do the '97-'98 US cars when the road cars had OBDII single air meters. To change a OBDII car to OBDI would take a completely different wiring harness and 2 ECUs. The best way is to look at the wiring harness tags that are attached the wiring harness under the foot rest/console area. Mine say USA Challenge Ferrari 19/07/96.
now you're talkin'! so even the challenge cars that DIDN'T need changing from OBDII to OBDI had that on the wiring harness? I'll check out my harness bolts and cage mounts.
Not sure I understand the question. All CH cars that came from the factory had OBDI engine management ie; '96 Euro cars and '97-'98 USA. The road cars from '96-'99 had OBDII. I don't know of any '96 or newer 355s converted to CH specs, there wouldn't have a reason to do it when you could buy a factory assembled CH. There are so many unique parts to a 355CH that it would have been cost prohibitive to try to convert a '97 road car for example.
so are you saying that ALL 355ch cars are factory cars? I was always under the impression that you could buy a kit and install that to a road car (obviously with OBDI though). live and learn! i was wrong again.
IIRC in america all 355C 1996 + were factory cars with bill of sale no title and thus did not need obd2 and build at sportiva gestone or something like that. 1995 355c are the only real challenge cars that are usa street legal and have a title. Some owners took 1996+ obd2 cars and converted them to challenge spec by FNA dealers with the "challenge kit " and called them 355c's. Rob Lay's car formerly Jon Kofods car I believe is like this. 1995 355's and all 1996+ 355C ran the motronic 2.7 ecus like the 348's which are all obd1. I hope that is correct and hope that helps.
What I was saying is that all factory assembled 355ch cars had OBDI engine management. But, not all 355's that were raced in the series were factory assembled cars. You could buy the CH kit and convert lets say for example a '95 road car(already has OBDI). I think it would have been cost prohibitive to try to convert a '96 or newer 355 because it would not be as competitive without changing the OBDII engine management to the OBDI. So, not only would have to buy the car('96 or newer) and the conversion kit you would have to spend the money to change the engine management too. Why not just buy a factory assembled CH in '97 or '98 their serial # are in the 107... to 112...or convert a '95 car As far as I know there are no '96 North American factory assembled 355CHs there are however Euro '96 CHs. They seem to have 104... serial #s. there are a few in the US now but as far as I know none were here when the cars were raced in the series.
Correct on the bill of sale deal on US CHs that were built in '97-'98(I know of one that is titled). I'm not so sure about the conversion of '96 road cars to CH specs, as I said above it could be done but I don't think it was(for reasons stated above) just MHO tho based on the research I've done. The cars I have looked at over the years have either been '95s converted or factory assembled '97 and '98 cars but I have not seen ALL the cars that competed in the series. Likewise on the hope this helps deal, haha
OK, so to clarify, if it's '97 build, and has the CH bits, incluuding OBD1 wiring, this woulkd be a "factory built" CH car. Yes?
Well that is the theory. I suppose if these cars ever become collectable there might be a need to know the complete list of differences(to watch for fakes), there are many. There is one way other than all the unique parts to tell a factory CH it has to do with the wiring harness. You could have purchased the CH kit and added it to any car but you would still have the road car wiring.
yes...correct! i know a ch car that had a different motor put in from a 1995 355 2.7 road car and the engine management wiring was all wrong. that surprised me...i didn't realise that was changed in the ch.
