F430 has chains not belts?

Just received both Forza and Cavallino on the same day so I'm not sure which one carried the story but I believe it was Cavallino. I'm at work now but the article said something about Ferrari abandoning the combination of gears and belts in favor of chains which shortened the length of the engine. Is this true?

 

The engine is basically a messaged Maserati and it uses lifeling chains. Not sure if Ferrari decided to use the same config or go with belts for that wonderful $$$$$ belt change fee.

 

Its true!

Even the F50 & Enzo has chains

Strage that the 612 is still belts though!

Paul

 

And 4 valves per cylinder.

 

AhhhH! And all this crap they fed us about belts being better was a load of hooey to get us to spend money at the dealership! DAMN!

Birdman

 

Do chains have a different type of sound? I have not had the pleasure of
hearing an F-car with chains.

 

Good question. I don't know of any cars in which all things are equal other than belts vs. chains.

The 430 may give a good point of comparison.

For what it's worth, Columbo-designed V-12 (or real Ferrari engines) use chains and have that wonderful sound that grown men pay a fortune to listen to. The kind of sound that Steve McQueen was racing against in LeMans. The kind of BAWROOM music that's in the soundtrack of Rendezvous . Fantastic stuff!

 

But with e-diff they now have 3 clutches that can wear out - income safeguarded!

 

Gives me goosebumps... I picture a "raw", "metalic" kind of sound...

 

I just had the opportunity to view the TopGear (?) vid the other night where they test drove and reviewed the F430, and the exhaust note is quite lower and deeper -- different than the current 360.

 

so does all this mean the f430 will need less services at the stealerships?

 

My '74 Dino has chains (guess that makes it a "real" Ferrari!!). The exhaust note is fantastic, but i don't know if it has anything at all to do with the chains. The only time you will hear the chains is when they get loose, and then they need to be tightened immediately before they fall off the sprockets. So I don't think chains in a 430 are going to contribute to any sound difference. It's primarily the exhaust responsible for the sound (and to a certain extent, in carbureted cars, the intake, but you really only hear the intake inside the car).

 

Chains will add to the "mechanical" noise you hear right behind your head but not to the exhaust note. Chains are more reliable than belts, as long as their properly tensioned. The reason many car makers moved to belts was to reduce rotational mass. It takes power to turn a chain. If Ferrari has come up with a way to get the chain to take the same amount of power to turn or just a bit more then it would be a no brainer to go back to chains.

Does anyone know what the F1 cars use? It may very well be that belts are not reliable for the Revs the new car is making. They may have gone back to them in order to rev higher even with a reduction of HP that chains normally bring. That may be offset by the higher HP of reving higher. Make sense?

 

What will be the 30k service now???? I will miss them so much.... I guess it will be new tensioners?

 

F1 cars use neither belts nor chains. Their valves are pneumatically operated off compressed air. Im not sure they even have camshafts in the traditional sense.


Terry

 

The compressed air (nitrogen really) only closes the valves as springs dont cut it at 19k rpm. The cars still have cams and the belts were replaced by chains years ago.

 

about time ferrari made a low maintenence car

 

The new multi-plate clutch in the F430 scares me. The new V10 Porsche is having lots of problems with theirs. It was the only weak point of my old 95 NSX. Honda switched back to a conventional clutch in about 1997. Smooth take up was poor and wear was significant.

 

Amen....

 

I thought the problem with the Porsche CGT clutch was its ultra-small diameter and ceramic materials that give it a very pronounced on-off quality. I haven't heard anything bad about the service life, however, in fact it's supposed to last a very long time.

Gary

 

I've only seen one Porsche CGT up close. It was on a hoist having its clutch replaced after 3000 kms! The bottom of the car was staggeringly beautiful. All that carbon fiber.

Small diameter has its obvious advantages (low weight, lower center of gravity, low inertia). Works great in a race car, put not so sure on the street in stop and go.

 

There was another thread started a couple of weeks ago regarding flat or 180 degree cranks which may be the producer of that Ferrari mystic exhaust note.

I was under the impression that F1 cars use pneumatic valves, which may not be driven by chain or belt and driven by air pressure and electronics.

 

The F1 cars have for a number of years used pneumatics for closing the valves in place of springs.

Ferrari has in the past used twin plate clutches on both the BB512 and the TR. Both cars had a reputation for clutch problems and many complaints for poor feel. TR clutches could last a long time with an astute driver, but the lack of feel caused many to wear out prematurely.

With the advances in designs of chains and tensioning methods they out perform belts in every way.

 

After posting I read other posts that discussed the F1 technology. I think MB had many issues with this system as I recall on some instances they brought the car in to pressurize the pneumatic system.

But on chain vs. belts scenario where chains would require more rotational power to turn, I am pretty sure Ferrari overcame this particular loss of power traditionally and simply by increasing the engine displacement. All other entry Ferraris as I remember, 308-328-348-355-360 has marginal increases in displacement compared to 360 to 430 which is about 20%.

 

If you're interested in how the F1 engine works (from the 2000 championship winning car) I suggest you read:

"Ferrari Formula 1: Under the Skin of the Championship-Winning F1-2000"

This is written by Peter Wright who was one of the leading lights at Lotus during the colin chapman years (designing the ground effects car that Andretti won the WC with). He's now one of the senior people at the FIA.

I saw him speak at the Museum of Transportation in brookline, MA a couple of weeks ago - fascinating. Someone did in fact ask the "pneumatic valve" question. Rifledriver's answer is essentially correct. Cams to open, compressed gas to close.

Here's the publisher's site for the book. Expensive, but very interesting.

http://www.bullpublishing.com/cgi-bin/web_store/web_store.cgi?page=12b.html&cart_id=7241874_1069980