360Stradale 6-speed manual conversion

Trev, I saw you mounted a 430 Challenge steering wheel. Did you have to buy any other equipment to make it fit? (a hub, for example?)

 

Hi Trev!
Can you explain to me how you installed your 4 point seat belt on your car?
It looks different of what Scott is doing. Seems that you only connect it to one point on the back which my car only has on the passenger side but I will check if the hole exists on the driver side removing the carpet at the inspection lid.
Also, can you show how you connect it to the floor?

Thanks Trev!

 

hey Trev how much weight did you save by replacing the standard bonnet with the lexan plastic one? And how much did it cost?

 

Been a while so time for a few pics and some updates.

I recently did a trip from England, taking the Eurotunnel from Dover, England into Calais, France. From there I drove through into Belguim, Holland and then into Germany. From here we did the long journey right across the country ending up in Krotoszyn, Poland. Thats a small town half way between Poznan and Wroclaw!

Very lucky as we had great sunny weather the whole trip. Here's a few teaser pics.

I have got updates and I will answer some of the questions posted soon enough.

Had a fabulous trip and the car behaved impeccably.
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Sounds and looks like a great trip Trev. How many miles?

I note you haven't got the centre hub wheels on yet. Still planning that mod or have you decided not to bother? Car is looking great regardless but I'd say those wheels would look really special.

 

Going on during the winter time, hopefully along with some 430 Challenge / Scuderia large ccm brakes.

 

Cool, I look forward to following the issues involved. An excellent looking and by the sounds of it a very functional mod to carry out.

 

Some pics of the re-coloring of the coolant and airbox... (and No I didn't do the hard graft myself, my brother in law got roped into dong it for me Thanks very much Norbert!

Also orderered a new Coolant sticker, Ferrari part no. 171339 from the dealer. I found it really difficult to find this part number on the Microfiches so my be useful for others too. They only cost a couple of pounds so well worth it to add the finishing touches. Final pictures to follow on Thursday when the sticker arrives. Pictures don't really do the paint job justice.

Driven over 1,000 miles now since having it done and it still looks perfect!
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Thanks for this mate - I've been after one of these for a while!

Any particular reason for changing the colour to silver?

 

Yes, a lighter colour reflects the heat better than black. Ferrari did this on the CS, probably not a lot in it TBH. Never did heat soak tests.

Really I only did it because thats exactly what Ferrari did on the CS.

 

Righto. Spiders have silver coloured intakes too (perhaps due to the reduced volume in the engine bay). Does the CS have a silver coolant tank too?

What colour silver did you go for?

 

I love this thread. Trev you're doing some amazing work.

Is it safe to say that upon first glance out in the street it would be impossible to tell the difference between this and a genuine CS?

 

Until I turn the engine over - its loud!

At the moment, cosmetically it is identical in exterior apperance, aerodynamics, handling and braking specs, as all of that is strad spec or better. Weight reduction and power output is also is significantly improved over stock strad specs too so its actually quite a bit quicker accelerating and more agile than a factory stock CS. Quite a bit faster in a straight line sprint than a F430 F1 too, even with me rowing my manual box to 9,000rpm+ vs paddles

I'm now deviating a slight bit away from Stock strad spec with more F430 Challenge and GT2/GT3 upgrade parts including the Center lock challenge wheels, scuderia larger brakes and ultra light center bells, detachable racing steering wheel, and lot more weight reduction and power improvements including full carbon doors.

Car is astonishing to pilot right now, its radically different in feel with more rawness, agility and directness of control but still with a great ride suppleness that has great compliance, good enough to do cross continent travel without issues. Just did 2,000 miles with no problems other than the occasional bottoming out on poor roads, even with the challenge fixed back carbon racing seats and race harnesses we had no back problems. Ironically when running original CS seats we did suffer some back issues on the longer journey's but nothing in the fixed carbon's....

 

Fantastic. I cant wait to see the 'end' numbers with all these weight reduction coming..and the center lock wheels on. (Will those be 360C or 430C?).

 

430Ch center locks. As it needs them to fit the Scuderia larger ccm's.

Don't know the current dyno figures but *before* the sports cats, manifolds and deletion of the emissions control egr system it gave slightly more power than a stock CS and a rather fat +30ft.pounds of torque over stock.

Feels much quicker still now, cats made a big improvement, yet to fit my sports manifolds as they are awaiting ceramic coating to be done. Also investigating a carbon intake plenum with an oversized F430 throttle bodies conversion.

 

Any idea how much the 360CS wheels weigh, and the 430CH ones? I'm sure you can save quite a bit of unsprung weight over stock wheels...

 

Trev I recently purchased a Timate exhaust based on your recommendations. THANK YOU! This exhaust couple with a pair of test pipes is pure sex. And I still haven't taken the car above 5500 rpms! I can't imagine it at 8k after I get my tune done!

 

And wait to hear it at 9k rpm!!

 

o god lol i can't imagine. when i first started i told my friend, "I want this thing so loud it'll break glass." After I got there and he started it he's like " I think it's loud enough to bring down a building."

 

Lol!

 

I'd convert a CS to manual myself. Has to be a reverseable modification, even if you have to cut a couple of panels ... just buy them from a wreckers yard or Ferrari if necessary.

Also who cares about the residue value of the car, if you get more enjoyment out of it then you've won. If it just sits in the garage then man have you losts.

The other thing is I bet it would actually go up in value ... and become more desirable, after all there are lots of people on this thread giving the idea the thumbs up.

As for the electromagnet brakes ... funny that you want full control of the gearbox but are prepared to relinguish control of the brakes to a computer. Interesting and odd. Sorry I'll never own a car with either.
Pete

 

interesting point.

 

I did think about mag brakes for quite some time and I feel they are quite different to paddles for several reasons, the interface to human is the same and with work you could get the feel very very good - but equally the application could be bodged so your right it could effect the driving experience quite a bit if done badly. I was after the reaction times and huge potential for weight saving. No hydraulics, etc.

On the braking front, at the moment the only plans are to go with Scud brakes. Having experienced just how much stopping power even the standard ccm's afford I cannot see how it can be improved on by much. Pressing the brakes hard stop's you so aggressively you feel the g's hard on as on your harness belts.

 

Here's where my engine bay is upto right now.

Still need to blue anodise my EGR (Exhaust Gas Recycling) vent piping from the heads to the Oil Disarator but other than that engine bay its getting close to 'done' now.

Repainting the airbox, coolant box and replacing all the nuts with zinc coated / stainless steel fixings really refreshed the look's. Pretty happy with the final outcome too now that the coolant sticker is re-applied, its about finishing off the little details that matter.
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Pete,

This project has turned into much more than a CS to 6-speed conversion.

Having studied in details what Ferrari did it became obvious where the vast improvements in weight reduction could be applied. By moving the project goals slightly closer towards trackday focus and using a lot of F430 Challenge car inspiration and parts the car has almost twice the weight loss of a standard CS compared to Modena. Original CS was 20% track, 80% road focused, whereas I decided to take it towards 40% track, 60% road. Things such as 4.9kg superlight fixed carbon racing seats, snap off boss racing steering wheel, etc. all combine to shed huge weight. Also gaining over 30ft.pounds of torque over a stock CS made for interesting comparison (even before the race cats where fitted or headers) and +20hp on top of CS power.

Overall I absolutely love my car now and consider it superior to the factory stock CS in many respects (especially for my particular tastes and wishes) in many many ways. I haven't messed with the styling but everything else was fair game. It out handles one, is quicker in the corners, soon it will out brake it too and also out accelerates the stock CS too. All while feeling very 'factory standard' in looks and feel (Deliberate). I honestly couldn't have wished for more (although it has taken me an awful long time to get here ....