Cold startup: Enzo and F40

IMO the straight pipe setup is the best sound possible. Mine is stainless, but all the LM pipes I've seen were Inconel. Whatever the case, driving around town off boost is fairly quiet and sounds like a real muscle car. At WOT its INSANE! The only downside as I see it, is its a major cop magnet as they can hear you 1/4 mile away. It also scares the **** out of people when you pass them on the highway. Its also pretty obvious you don't have cats. Other than that, OMG.

Performance wise you can tune the car via cam timing to deal with the loss of backpressure. I don't think it adds any HP, if anything you might lose a few pounds of torque, but I didn't notice any seat-of-the-pants change either way. But it will probably show up on a dyno.

 

Bill, I will dig up some more. Note the unfinished pipes, welds and the bracket attachments. Made by Tubi. Remember Tubi work closely with Ferrari and supply units for their F1 cars. They made me a set of straight pipes in inconel for my street F40.
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Now that is an exhaust! And it goes to show you if the GT/LM/GTE had the straight pipes, you know what is the best. Tuned properly of course!

Joe what is the advantage of inconel? I know it is very pricey.

 

I think it dissipates heat better and has better tensile strength. I think its lighter too. But I DO know it is pricey!

 

The increase in tensile strength isn't terribly useful in exhaust. Instead the inconel forms a protective oxide layer when it is thermal cycled. Additionally, its properties are very stable regardless of temperature.

It's supposed to be difficult to weld, but I have no experience there. But then again tubi likely has the facilities and experience to negate that point.

 

Most people think that removing the exhaust system or mufflers will automatically increase BHP. This is rarely the case, especially in a Ferrari. The exhaust systems are finely tuned to maximize BHP. There is a thing called scavenging that uses back pressure to tune the system to actually PULL exhaust gases out from the exhaust valve ports.

I would venture to guess that there is nothing you can do to increase the BHP of a Ferrari by doing anything to the exhaust. And that anything you do will almost certainly decrease HP.

Now if it is the sound you want and not the HP, then it just does not matter.

aehaas

 

Can't agree with you there. Yes, they need to be tuned but I have SEEN Ferraris gain power with exhaust work. My friend gained some 18 RWHP on the dyno on his 355 with his upgrades....

 

Probably more to do with removing two or more of the cats than with the exhaust shape. Most if not all aftermarket headers I've seen are almost exactly the same shape as the factory headers.

 

Pretty sure he just did headers and a Capristo, kept the cats if I recall, as he lives in Cali. But to make a statement like Ferraris can't gain power with aftermarket exhaust is outlandish and incorrect. Especially if tuning is done, there is a reason race cars use little or no mufflers. It makes (or doesn't lose) power.

 

There are performance cats that will pass CARB... every set of 355 headers I've seen are the same shape as the factory sets, so how can performance be gained?

 

Cats on the F40 are a fire hazard IMO

 

Shape isn't the only thing that can gain power you know. Size of the tubes, how smooth the tubes are, material, if they have less emissions bungs, there are many factors....

 

Why is that? I mean yes, the car will run better without, but if they are maintained that should not be the case.

 

The F40 motronic ignition system is pretty antiquated by modern standards (discalimer - please note I am not a mechanic but this is bits and pieces I have put together from private conversations by experienced mechanics, so take it for what you paid for it). The system runs the car rich until WOT (or somewhere abouts), which is better for the car as a lean air/fuel mixture is suicide for a turbo car. This can be seen by looking at the tailpipes of most F40s are black, and even some with burnt bumpers. This rich air/fuel mixture loads up in the cats, and when you finally open it up, this either burns the cats (over time) or starts a nuclear meltdown if the cats are already burnt. The all-to-familiar slow down condition will occur, if the car has working o2 sensors. This is one of the reasons many F40s have burnt to the ground, and the reason I have a fire system in my car.

Now I suppose if a car was properly tuned, driven regularly (ie miles ) so the injectors weren't gummed up and dumping raw fuel into the cylinders, and the owner went through the proper warm-up sequence each time, well this condition would not occur. But sadly this is not the norm.

I apologize in advance if i got any of this wrong, but it mirrors my personal experience.

IMO the cats are to save the environment. For the number of miles I put on my car per day, in comparison I'm a bigger threat smoking my daily cigar..

 

Nice video Bill!

As a CS, Enzo, and F40 owner you could probably answer something I've always wondered:

I'm sure the ownership of these three cars is second to none, but do you ever long for a more luxurious Ferrari, maybe a ragtop, like a 430 or a 599? Or do you find that when driving the Enzo for example all your "Ferrari needs" are filled?

Steve

 

Have you driven the Veyron? Did you like it?

 

I see. That works!

The E63 is a great car. Do you think you'll ever pick the new one? I recently test drove one and it was great. You feel like you driving a race car when you put it to the boards, but then you look back and see a full size back seat. Though the new 6.2 is less torquey then the old 5.5, I like how it is much more free revving. As far as the new E, I like the back of yours better, and the front of the new one is so much more aggressive to the more refined classier front on yours. I can't decide which front I'd rather have. Regardless, the best part about the new E63 is the tranny. That would be a huge buying factor for me.

Steve

 

A place where I think the M5 lacks.

 

I have three exhausts for my F40:

-Stock
-Tubi (sport)
-X-ost (straight pipe)

I also have three things to put in the "cat" spot:

-Stock cats
-Tubi sport cats
-X-ost straight pipes

After running different configs with all of the parts, my favorite is the straight pipes. I've had the car tuned to run optimially with that exhaust setup, and I love it.

Plus, pulling out pictures of my exhausts on my iPhone got me impromtu tours of both Tubi and X-ost when I was in Maranello last year.

 

Hey, Bill. I'd really give the guys at X-ost a look. Build quality is idential to Tubi (I've got Tubis on my other Ferraris and my Maserati QP), their shops are within spitting distance of each other (and the factory), and they were really easy to work with - and about 1/2 the price of Tubi. http://www.x-ost.com/

I had a local mechanic here in the Seattle area (Carlo @ Alfa of Tacoma) do the initial tuning on it after the new exhaust was on (mostly timing-related), and then I tweaked the wastegate spring tension settings myself while at the dyno (I recommend very slight changes here if any).

 

Found a direct link to their F40 info sheet: http://www.x-ost.com/pdf_ferrari/XOST_Ferrari_F_40.pdf