I hear you! Hope the info proves useful. Really makes it much easier to compare the adjustments Ferrari made and see how they compare to each other. Took some time to get all the information into one place.
Excellent Info Trev. Something I can add which may help people from having to fool around with loads and loads of different shim sizes........ For 360...... 1mm additional shim adds 0.20 degrees of additional camber on the front axle 1mm additional shim adds 0.40 degrees of additional camber on the rear axle Also, if you want to save time at the alignment centre and do the camber yourself there's an app for the iPhone (and probably others) called TiltMeter which is incredibly accurate. Using this you can set your camber very accurately at home and just get your toe set at the alignment shop which brings it down to a very simple and fast procedure.
Really interesting to see the alignment specs! You can see the toe out for that super sticky traction setup! I know how it feels to have a good amount of toe like that in the back. It corners sooo hard. Mix this with what ferrari uses to get that precises steering and suspension by using ball joints, you got pin point accuracy on steering
Lets face it the CF Challenge Stradale and Scuderia door mirrors, CF engine vents / louvers and other bits look just fantastic in the flesh so why not go with CF door handles too to complement the rest? That's what I was thinking so it got me to look at the official factory offerings in this space. Ferrari do indeed offer them as an option you can buy, however look into them with a bit more energy you you'll find that even Ferrari themselves jumped on the band wagon and produced "carbon look plastic door handles". Shock, horror! This has me squirming inside much more than any aftermarket offering. I personally think Ferrari should offer the real thing but perhaps production costs factored in here since they are not an easy or cheap part to produce due to the complexity of the shape (6 layers of carbon where required for example!). Finally got some time to look at my most recent commission. That is, 100% carbon fiber door handles. Not cheap imitation carbon 'plastic' handles that have had a lamination over the top. Since I wanted the best that money can buy I decided NOT to go with the very popular 'lamination' technique that other well respected aftermarket companies have gone with,. While this results in good-ish looks (from the front!) It some how just felt dishonest to me, overlaying a layer of Carbon on top of the original cast metal handles which already before adding the carbon weighed in at 70g each handle, perhaps 80g or 90g after. Don't get me wrong, I am not having a dig at any aftermarket companies here that are involved in lamination, I just wanted the best. Some people may be happy with lamination, I am not one of them. Here's the result. These pictures show the recent commissioning I had manufactured by a specialist whom has used Formula 1 techniques and know how to produce precision 100% CF. The resulting in a staggering 80% reduction in overall part weight and a large increase in torsional rigidity and strength. The old handles weighed 70g each, the new ones 14g each. Ok, this isn't going make much difference at this level but I intend to use them again for other parts and already I've had them do some amazing other bits (more on that in later!) which not only look brilliant will save significant weight. Anyway enough words, lets see the pictures... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Still loving this build. Must have read it 4 times already since I first laid eyes on it. Any chance of a video from your exhaust? Very few Timate videos on youtube...
Not yet but they can. I've got the very first set. Here's one the other bespoke commissioned CF parts (before and after) that I've had commissioned. This time for the engine bay Driveshaft covers which where made of fiberglass before, riveted together with some steel rods. Mine had an unfortunate overheat problem with the cats where positioned slightly offset so got damaged. They also looked very ugly imho with exposed rivets and ugly against my race cats, headers and exhaust that I'm getting ceramic coated. These driveshaft covers really finished off the engine bay and complement the other carbon bits such as airbox covers nicely. Again less than a third of the original weight. The original covers weigh in at 147g each, these gorgeous CF ones are 46g each. (202g saving). They are only 3 bolts to swap one over too so easy enough. Will post pictures once they are fitted! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Sure. See what I can do, bear in mind, my car doesn't sound like a normal Timate since its quite a bit different with the extra headers, cats, etc. May even have a dyno session video'd somewhere
How about next weekend ? May also have the very rare to find full strad titanium susp.kit for you too!!!!
Fitting in progress on the Carbon Fiber Driveshaft Covers. Here's a first picture (from in the dark garage...). They are a major transformation.. Look fantastic! More pics to follow later. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Great thread and project! Like the axle covers! Do they fit F430 F1 transmission? Greetings Christian
Trev - do you know that Zircotec can apply their ceramic coating to CF now? Might improve the life of the heatshields.
----------------------------- Trev now they are dammmmmmmm SEXY !!!! definatly need to get those into mass production. You coming to the Cliveden meet next month, be good to catch up ???
The original heat shield only got a beating because the cat wasn't positioned correctly so ran too close to it. No problems once its been adjusted so it didn't get too close.
Back to the caliper refurbishment... Well after much angst, annoyance with general incompetence I decided to bite the bullet and take a leading roll in "doing it myself". I unfortunately met with considerable misinformation and disinterest exhibited by quite a few companies doing stickers for calipers. I got the same 'sorry its not possible' to get brembo carbon ceramic stickers made up in the sizes I wanted, namely 5mm height was the issue, most of the lettering being around 3mm high. Everyone could supply me the Ferrari stickers (all of them simply using the Rosso Ferro font) [which incidentally is the wrong font for the calipers which use a different quite subtle style variance] but nobody could do so small. This was the issue Scott also posted about, however after researching the specs of the machines I was confident it was possible (!) but possibly 'hard' to weed. Well like I said, I bit the bullet, purchased an old used Roland CX-24 vinyl cutting machine with PC for £600 off ebay all in and got to work. After around 20 prototypes and re-adjustments I finally managed to perfect it (!). I could now see the reason why companies didn't want to do it. The reason is its very time consuming and hard to 'weed' the sticker. I.e. remove all the bits you don't want. I also decided the best way to refurb the caliper was to NOT leave any stickers on the refurbished caliper. After studying the factory items it was clear that they used some sort of stamp or stencil which allowed them to 'paint' the logo's on. So that's the exact method I used. A stencil (essentially an opposite of the decal is cut and the inside is removed leaving just the outside...) This can then be placed on the caliper, painted, then removed, leaving just a painted version left on the caliper. Factory style. In the end I managed to pull it off. First trying to paint a can of Guinness to learn the best way to do it. It worked brilliantly. Much better than I anticipated .... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
As you can probably tell by now I don't believe in doing botch jobs and I just because someone tells me its not possible it doesn't necessarily mean its the case. So armed with my new found knowledge I decided to tackle the calipers themselves... My original used 430 Challenge calipers where in excellent mechanical condition with perfect pistons but cosmetically had certainly been bashed around a bit. When the teams pull the center lock wheels off not everyone is so careful to lift the rim carefully past the caliper so they get bashed. Hence mine required quite extensive re-working, lots of sanding and filing to make them good enough to paint. I used throughout the excellent VHT caliper paint and to complete the quality look I used the VHT caliper lacquer too. This had a great effect of smoothing out the final finish to look super smooth. Great paints. I carefully removed all the pistons and seals for the oven bake (they need to go in the oven for 1 hour at 93 degree's to bake cure the paint). NOTE: The rear calipers do NOT have the 'brembo carbon ceramic' logo on them so I followed the same as the factory. Anyway i've taken extensive photos diary... so let the pictures speak for themselves.... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Rear CCM's baked to cure the paint. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
And finally the front calipers.... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
