355 POWER ADDITION

Does anyone know how to gain any extra horsepower (for not a lot of cash outlay), for my 355. There are a lot of domestic cars that can blow my doors off.

 

<"There are a lot of domestic cars that can blow my doors off.">

Oh really?....other than a Viper or a Corvette C-6 special edition, I can't think of too many that can touch a well-tuned 355 overall (0-60, 0-100, top speed).

 

Will the current ford mustang cobra? I think it might, def. easier to launch. hmm...maybe some of the late trans am's? I dont know just guessing.

 

Give a quick search on 355 Power or HP - you will find a few mods like Tubi, Test Pipes, MGroupe Air Intakes, etc.

You could only expect to get maybe 30HP...

Of course the alternate route - You could always go Nitrous or Turbo... but that is another story

 

I understand your concern, but to be fair, you almost certainly didn't dish out nearly six figures because you wanted a car that would run quickly on a drag strip? (If you did, go buy a twin-turbo vette, or soup up a Cobra!)

 

Hi Mac59,

I made a few modest mods to my 99 F355B. I started by putting in K&N air filters (no noticable improvements), then I added a Tubi (no noticable improvements but the less weight/heat do not hurt), 91 Octane gas (no noticable improvements) then I added hyper-flow cats and the car woke up.

I could be because the old cats were really bad, but now the car revs much faster and "feels' light and nible. Step on the loud pedal and it takes off.

In Monterey last week, I was able to drive three other 355s and none were close to the performance of my car. To be fair, two were spiders which weigh a lot more and the third was a 95 coupe.

YMMV
--tony

 

I have HyperFlow cats, Tubi and the GruppeM intake with Challenge chip. I think the car has good power, but it is all above 5000rpm where you are normally shifting on most cars. If the car is in the rev range of 5000-8000rpm the car is great, but most of us don't drive that rev range for any period of time. I had a Viper coupe and you could shift at 4500 rpm and out run any car, with the F355 it is not even coming into it's power band yet. The car is very sensitive to what gear you are in. On the highway, in 6th it does not have great acceleration, put it in 5th and it is really good. The car requires a different driving style compared to Vipers, Corvettes and Mustangs.

 

Bob, you are so right. 355 needs much different approach to "speed management" than 550 or viper. I love the low end torque those cars offer. I had a sc'ed viper that put down almost 700ft/lbs of twist and could light up the tires at almost any speed. Sure did not sound as fine as the tubi'ed 355 though!!
Where did you get the gruppe m?

 

A supercharger worked wonder on my 308. It now makes 425rwhp, so maybe 520 crank. Very fast and honestly very very hard to drive. 1st gear is just useless, rolling open the throttle in 2nd lights the tires and a hard shift into 3rd will light them and get them spinning to nearly redline, so about 80 mph. I had it at an autocross recently and it was the very incarnation of evil to drive, I guess it would be better manered on a bigger track. The car is great and I love it, but it has more power than it needs on the street, I can't even imagine what 700 ft-lbs of torque would be like.

 

I got my GruppeM intake from Manu at Scuderia Systems which is a sponser on this board. Meridian in LA also carries them.

 

Hi F355Bob,
How much of a difference did the GruppeM intake make when it was installed?
--tony

 

Hey Mike, have you got that beast dialed in yet? Sounds like it. Is there ever enough power really???Seriously, are you done tinkering or is there more power to be tapped?

 

It's very close, but not perfect. I'm working on street stuff like cold start/drive maps and such. I do strongly believe there is more power to be had, but I have made a decission not to look for it. It's a street car first, that's were I drive and enjoy it and it is getting near the point where it would become a chore not a pleasure to drive. Right now I live in fear of being caught out in the rain where just touching the throttle on an on ramp could send the car spinning. True, it won't lighht up the tires in 4th or 5th gear on dry pavement, but I think I can live with that. I now a lot of people may not believe it, but the traction control on modern cars is your friend and the only reason the factories are making the hp numbers they are. That's why it resetsa nd is on every time you start the car, it is just not safe on a wet road with it turned off. The car was ok at 370 hp on a wet road, but it's sure not ok now.

Under the heading of you can have too much power, someone was kind enough to send me this link to an old ebay auction for a car I build lmost 20 years ago. It had way way too much power. It was undrivable on the street. I don't want to build any more of these.
http://www.network54.com/Forum/message?forumid=12159&messageid=1061589497

 

The GruppeM intake seemed to make a difference unlike the Tubi install.
Throttle response was better, more midrange power. It was expensive, but I would do it again.

 

From standing still, definitely, if you care for your car.
From a rolling start, no way!

/Peter

 

"Under the heading of you can have too much power, someone was kind enough to send me this link to an old ebay auction for a car I build lmost 20 years ago. It had way way too much power. It was undrivable on the street. I don't want to build any more of these."

So, in other words, you are admitting to having been crazy for at least the last 20 years!!!

"From standing still, definitely, if you care for your car.
From a rolling start, no way!"
I agree with Peter, although there are cars that will beat you, there are very few that will humiliate you. AND there are none that will sound better!

And as for caring for your car, that is for sure the truth. Standing start hard acceleration is not the friend of your cars longevity. Rolling starts will serve this end much better. Personally, I try and limit my WOT to second gear and above. One thing that comes to mind was advice from Roland about such matters. His description was "mechanical compassion", which is such a great term for being smart and caring about how you use and enjoy these great cars. If you really enjoy drag racing and the "hard to the seat thrill" you might consider a second car, there are tons of very fast cars that can be had for 30 to 40k or even less that will outrace any ferrari made except the super cars. And they will do it for much much less $ spent to maintain.
Ferraris are not the fastest cars on the road by a long shot, but they remain one of the most exciting.

 

and you will definitely travel by far more style per mile than most other guys!

/Peter

 

If you wanted NA power I would go with this setup....

Powerchip ECU or UPsolute

Kreis-sieg exhaust, pipes, etc.

Video Clip

BMC Airfilter with their Carbon Dynamic Airbox