550 for track

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i have had mine on track once. was a perfect experience. had to stop before i made an error. i am too old to be out there with my judgement.

 

there was a user here that upgraded the brakes put on a fhp and did some other mods (lm wing front spoiler canards etc) a while back

 

Well I'm a racer and formerly race a 348 now a Z06 in SCCA T1 and have thought about something for my 550. First I'll say that these cars are 10 years old and still can hold their own. That's a good thing. I think you need to decide if you are going to drive the car to the track or trailer it because many more things can be done once you trailer it. The 550 chassis is very stiff for a ferrari that's good. Since I have a racecar I would drive my 550 to the track and just run it 8/10's as a trackday car or auto-x with less serious friends who mostly wax and polish. So I would build a harness bar and do a 6 point belt system. Maybe I'd put a 4 point rollhoop in there since the back of the shelf is totally not useable anyway. The 550 understeers badly and has a bit too much roll. So as not to kill it's street manners I'm initially thinking keep the springs and up the front bar rate maybe 30% and then up the rear bar rate up to the point I get some mild oversteer with an adjustable bar. I'd run dot legal race tires with large tread blocks like the toyo RA1 which also works well in rain. I'd run 4 rear OEM wheels and 295 on all 4 corners if they fit. Just the bigger rubber on front and square setup should take out some understeer. Shocks I think I have to delete the ferrari auto adjustable system for at least a single adjustable with more adjustments and likely a double adjustable. Brakes I'd run carbotech XP 10's front and XP8 rears as a starter but the weight of the car concerns me and maybe I'll have to got Xp12/10's. Rideheight keep stock because it needs to be a streetcar and plus I want all the shock travel. Zero thrust, -2 front, -1.5 rear, 1/16" rear toe in, 1/16" front toe out pretty typical starting suspension settings. Anyway that's my guess and one of these days I'll try all this stuff on my 550.

 

That's exactly what I did.

 

FBB:

Good suggestion on wider front tires to reduce understeer.

You'll need to run stiffer springs though. OEM 550 is too softly sprung for the track.

 

Seats and rear silencers.