I’m buying my first Ferrari! 360 Challenge Stradale Evocation

Hi guys,

I’m new to the forum so I just wanted to introduce myself - I’m Kev and I’ve just put a deposit on my first ever Ferrari. I cannot believe just said that, having dreamt of this day ever since I can remember (since I was about 5 years old - 27 years ago!!). I would love to, but I cannot afford a real Challenge Stradale, so this is as close as I can get at this stage.

I toyed with the idea of a 430 for similar money and viewed a couple but my heart lies here - the car that occupied my bedroom wall as a kid and my laptop screensaver forever….The Ferrari 360 CS.

Again, I know this isn’t a REAL Challenege Stradale but it has LOTS and LOTS of history and has undergone a significant ‘Challenge Stradale conversion’, to the total cost in excess of £40k in parts, and it’s being sold as a ‘Challenge Stradale Evocation’. It has obviously the original CS body kit, carbon airbox and AFMs, CS roll-bars, CS flamblocks, bushes and CS-spec springs etc, to bring the handling somewhat ‘close’ to a CS. It has also had the ECU and TCU Challenge Stradale tune to bring power up to 435bhp, similar to that of a real CS. The only thing I’m not absolutely set on are the 18” Challenge wheels - I think I need the 19” wheels to perfect the CS look.

I’m a long-time Ferrari dreamer and buying this hasn’t sunk in yet - probably won’t sink in until I’m driving it home this weekend.

anyway, I would really love the help of you guys - I reached out to @360trev on Instagram but I don’t think you’re active on that platform so maybe you wouldn’t mind sharing your wealth of knowledge, or maybe you even know this car? I’d love to pick your brains bud!

I’ll let the pictures do the talking….


Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

haha thanks bud! I made a promise to myself when I was very young that before I turned 33 (which at the time I thought was old), I’d have a Ferrari.

I’ve messed around with racing cars this past few years and having figured out how expensive that actually is, a Ferrari purchase was ‘sensible’ by comparison lol.

hopefully I’ll have it in the garage before next weekend - just trying to figure out when I can get free from work to collect

 

thanks bud

 

haha yeah that’s a very good point actually re not having time to waste on the main social channels lol.

ok great - admittedly I don’t know how many posts I need but I’m not going to be here for a pass-through. Im obsessed and always have been but only getting around to signing up now since ‘the dream has come true’.

p.s. I’ve watched all the videos with your car and looked on from a distance, with admiration so would be brilliant to get chatting to you

and thanks for the well-wishes

 

Oh I forgot to add some interior pics

Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

yea the 19” wheels are quite distinguishable even from a distance. That said, I believe these wheels are the 18” original Ferrari Challenge wheels and at that, very lightweight!

 

Thanks bud!!

 

yes, it does have the 430 modified exhaust. Thanks mate, I’m chuffed with it

 

I decided it’s about time I updated this thread having now owned the car for almost 7 weeks.

waow….who ever said don’t meet your heros?! Buying this car has been the best decision I ever made! I have put almost 2000 miles on the car since I bought it (yes, I bought it to use it) and it has not let me down once!

I have been endlessly surprised by how compliant the car is, how pleasant and polite it is, how well-built it is, all at the same time as being surprised by just how fast and aggressive it can be when you want to open it up!

In my 33 years, I’ve developed a semi-significant background of tinkering/tuning cars (as a hobbyist) and as a weekend racer. I really never expected that this car would excite me or scare me like some of my other (much faster) vehicles have but my god, there is just something about a rear-engined Ferrari with minimal driver aids and 435bhp. It really does put manners on you when driving it - especially in the wet weather! lol

Anyway, it didn’t take long before the modifying bug bit and I started buying different bits and pieces!!

First up - the seats! I wanted to change the seats for a set of carbon sports but finding a set was one thing and if they come up, they were likely to be at a price that I was uncomfortable with. So I did some research and came across these….Cobra Misano Lux. These seats are 11kg per seat, with carbon backs and with a custom trim, would look very similar to the Challenge Stradale seats! I got Cobra to produce these seats in this custom dinamica trim, styled very similar to the CS seats but in grey. My decision not to go mostly red was for one, to be different but two, was because I wanted to retain the red carpets. I figured that red seats and red carpet would just be a bit much. Here are some pics of the seats fitted:

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login


We were then off over Christmas to a nice hotel and got some awesome pictures in front of the castle.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Next up I wanted to add some spacers as I thought that the current 18” wheels looked a little lost in the arches

these are 11mm Hill Engineering wheel spacers with the Acer Titanium extended wheel bolts. I think the car looks so much more aggressive now

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Next it was to address the non-challenge stradale dials. I thought the standard dials in the car were so boring so I reached out to Mike at Prosport in the UK who has been extremely helpful and was able to supply me with the CS dials and directed me to a European supplier for the CS electroluminescent panel to give the correct backlight illumination for the new dials.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login

I wanted to go one step further however, and stripped the complete cluster, modified the needles so they had red backing and while I was at this, I sent the circuit board off to a professional to fit the EL panel and replace the LEDs for the gear indicator and needle illumination to red (just like the CS)

before the EL panel/LED illumination mod:

Image Unavailable, Please Login

After (dunno why it appears blue backlighting here - it is white)

Image Unavailable, Please Login

As you can see, with the red LEDs behind the needles, the needles really pop. That completely yellow dial is just awesome but the star of the show for me is the red gear indicator!

 

I’m also waiting for a full carbon fibre interior pack from R-Tuned to include the centre console, radio surround, instrument cluster fascia and the carbon fibre vent covers. They should be here at the end of next week so will update the thread when they arrive.

The next items sticking out like a sore thumb for me were the standard leather dash and door cars when compared to my alcantara CS-style seats. So, I pulled the dashboard out and I am sending it away to be professionally retrimmed in the same warm charcoal dinamica material that the seats are trimmed in.

im going for a grey upper half of the dash with red stitching and a red dinamica lower, just like the CS.

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

However, that requires fitting of the carbon doorcards in order to complete the look. So I’m currently trying to source carbon 360/F430 challenge doorcards. These will obviously require the dashboard modification as per how @360trev first did and many others have followed. I am therefore going to make this modification before the seats are trimmed next week so I have no issues with fitment once I do get my hands on some door cards.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

yes buddy! You convinced me that I need the challenge doors! Lol