anyone know anything about this 360 Challenge car?

I was going to suggest calling Martin (Cavallino motors) after just reading the title of your thread. I've seen the red one (and took it for a spin) it's in great shape. Martin isn't just a dealer he's a racer and usually has at least one challenge car for sale. Give him a call he'd be able to give you a pretty good idea of the costs involved.

 

I do believe I cut the circlular holes in the rear hatch vent. I don't know much about the car, but , a very active F-Chat member knows quite a bit.

G

 

While the black car on ebay may well "never have been crashed" its pretty safe to assume all challenge cars have had at least bumper or fender damage at some point. The challenge is not an "after you, no after you" type of event. There are a few cars that were never run in the series, but in general Ferrari did and still does make it difficult to buy a challenge car without a commitment to run some races. In any case have a car inspected for straightness/alignment.

I love real race cars, they are so superior to road cars on the track. The 360 is a fairly challenging drive in stock config (as raced) but much easier with the "grand-am" splitter and rear wing. Most track day cars are now thus equiped since they are no longer able to really run in any race series.

Maintenance is directly correlated with use. Pads, rotors will wear dependent on use. Oil changes probably per run. It all depends how much running and how hard you run the car. Of course you do have the added expense of getting the car to the track (trailer etc) versus a street car. You do really need someone with an SD2 to run a 360 "a lot". I ran my challenge car with support from a guy that supports a whole bunch of CH cars here in New England.

I then suffered the problem of deciding to run the actual challenge series and am now supported by a race team... running a 430CH in anger means running through tires in about 60 laps (at 2500$ a set), and pads every 2 or 3 days of use (at 2K) and rotors suprisingly frequently (at 16K all round on a 430CH). A 360CH is miles cheaper on brakes, but the slicks are about 2K a set and a pain to get. Its worth getting a few for when you change them.

Slicks will last quite a long time till they are down to the wear markers, its just that after 60 or so laps or a certain number of heat cycles they are "slower" - about 2 or 3 seconds a lap slower vs a set of stickers. If you are racing that suddenly becomes important and its all about the lap times. Some of the guys I run with at FCA events, used to try and get cast offs from pirelli after the challenge guys were done with them because they still had "life" not ultimate speed. Clearly with the 360 on 18s and the 430 on 19s this is no longer possible.

Good luck - just search on youtube for some footage and you'll be hooked. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyU6mEdcW4U for example is a 360CH running at Road Atlanta - that's where I'll be this weekend in my 430

 

It's my old Challenge car.

A little history. I bought it from Ferrari of Houston a little over two years ago. Like ALL Challenge cars it had been in its fair share of fender benders. I actually bought it WITH damage. I don't have the photos of the way the car arrived on my office computer but I can probably dig some up at home.

The car had sustained a front impact that had damaged the bumper, one headlight, and the radiator strut. Basically a corner impact. It also had a hole cut on the right side to repair a leaky fuel tank (they actually gave me the piece of aluminum they had cut out).

Although the car looked a bit beat up it was straight on the frame machine and the engine was mechanically sound. I replaced the front bumper and the right rear quarter with new pieces. I had the whole car repainted to the way it sits now. I drove it a few times then sold it to DC Motors since they were using alot of Challenge cars out at Spring Mountain outside of Vegas.

I don't know if anything happened (crashes or additional damage) after they took possession of the car. I fixed everything that needed to be fixed to make it a decent running car but it was never a great car. It was my second Challenge car and my first one just felt better all the way around. Could have been setup, tires, etc. Alot of factors that contribute to making one car seem great and another seem like crap.

In this market and knowing the history of most Challenge cars - I don't think they're worth more than $75k to $80k max. You can't drive them on the street so they're only good for one thing - track days. The way regular street 360s are coming down in price I'd rather buy a street version with some miles for $85k and spend $20k in suspension, roll bar, seats, etc. and have a car you can thrash on the track AND still drive to events in your community.