Help with 550 performance Modifications

Honestly, none. Ferrari does a pretty good job at finding hp. There is more to be had, but it requires a lot of work. You can change the exhaust and make it louder, but it won’t really help hp, maybe gain a touch on top, but loose a bit down low.

A turbo or supercharger will give you the most bang for the buck, but plan on spending about $20000 of them for a mild setup, maybe $30K with all the bells and whistles. You’ll need to change the pistons to lower the compression ratio, but that should be it inside the engine. Then a turbo will require a custom exhaust or a supercharger will probably require custom intake. You’ll probably need to add an aftermarket EFI computer, although I think it is possible to reprogram the OEM one, it’s just not as easy to do. Probably a better clutch. The standard these days on pump gas is about 200 hp/liter, that will make it fun.

The other option is to add a little more cam and try to get the redline up. You might be able to ring another 10-15% out of it, but it won’t live very long if you spin it up very often.

I guess you could add nitrous. Up to about 30% hp increase is pretty safe. You could do that for about $2000 - $3000 I would think.

 

Talk to Karl Troy at European Road & Racing http://www.europeanroadandracing.com/

 

Engine mods are possible. Hi compression Pistons, new valve profile and new cam profiles all give improvements. Need to build to order in my experience though, and about $45,000 Australian will get your engine rebuilt with these parts to give about 20% power/torque gains over standard. This would be a perfectly drivable reliable car that "appears" std. To Fit a turbo(s) or supercharger would give more power but detract from reliability and installation "integrity" of a road car.

Just fitting a hi-flow air filter reaps dividends on the 550, try it!

19" wheels are now available from BBS. The "le mans" type in 8 and 10 inch wide I think. Need to check. Pirelli 19" Corsa R compound tyres are available now in Europe, and August for Australia, not sure for US.

Steel braided brake hoses, better pads, or a full disc/caliper upgrade for serious track work.

Tubi or similar of course.

Injection manifold for 12 butterflies, but pricey if available.

The race team is just about to take delivery of the ex-Rafanelli 550GTS, so I'll see what bits on that will swap over to a road car too! Sequential transaxle for starters!

 

I think generally it's just the opposite actually. A turbo or supercharged engine will be as reliable and have a much longer life expectancy than a high reving naturally aspirated engine of similar power. The reason is just E=mv2, the internal loads (piston, valve, and bearing wear) are proportional to rpm squared, a small increase does a lot of harm. Going from 7k to 8k will give about a 15% hp increase, but at least a 30% wear rate increase, probably closer to 50% when the additional heat is considered.

With a turbo or supercharger engine the increased wear is not more than the increased power and on the street the engine tends not to loose any life. That is true because with the added power available across the board, not just at high rpm, people tend to short shift. With my car, when I let others drive it pre-supercharger, they quickly learned to shift at 7k+. Post supercharger they tend to shift at 4000, maybe 4500 and rarely open the throttle enough to see full boost because they get scared. The wear rate at 4000 rpm is almost zero even with the extra power. All the street cars I build in the past were naturally aspirated, the ferrari was my first supercharged engine. Having had both, I can say that I will probably never build another naturally aspirated street engine (race cars are anther matter) they just cost too much and deliver too little. Why spend $45000 to get 550-575 hp when $30000 will buy you over 1000 hp if you want it, or $20000 will get you easily over 600 with like stock drivability and life???