Dave, Remember me I saw you and your shop in Boulder when the IMSA348 was apart. I just saw the IMSA 348 all together at Monterey. You did a great job. The car looked awesome. I came too late and did not get to see it run however. I would sure like to see it surprise some 355/360C's. I forgot to ask the owner if that 355C next to his trailer was his. Since his 348 is together does he want to sell his 355c? I'm sort of casually looking for one.
The red 355C is actually a 358. It is a SCCA GT car with an engine that started life as a 348. Quite heavily camed and NO where near Challange legal! Huge brakes..... makes for quite a thrilling ride! I will ask him if he wants to part with it or one of the others he has. The IMSA came together too late for me to do any testing at the track, but it sure sounds nice! No way will it idle below 2000RPM and starts to come to life at 5000. Should be a thrill once sorted out! Further research showed the engine to be a "next generation" version of the one that ran in the Dyson Spice car. The claimed HP figures are quite staggering! You will have to stop by again when you come to town. The race car stable has grown to include a 1988 LeMans C2 Argo GTP car, a SEFAC 250SWB (these 2 cars ran LeMans 27 years apart!) the Harrison Special (a hopeful for the 05 season), the CanAm car and the ever faithful "ceiling art" D-Sport Chimera / Ocelot. These are on top of the IMSA and the 358, a few other Challange cars, and of course the daily driven Ferrari's. The SEFAC SWB was an all nighter to get preped for Monterey (Silver with the blue stripe, #2733), as we didnt recieve the engine until Thursday afternoon via airfreight. It got loaded on the trailer Sat. afternoon and was driving around Monterey on Sunday afternoon. Sounds like it did well against the GTO's in the Historics, shame it wasnt at the National event, as it is a very special car. A few problems now have to be sorted out before it goes to the Colorado Grand in September. Now this coming week the engine starts to come together on the 250 PF Cab series 1, as the machine work is finally done. Hope to see you soon, Dave
Dave, On the 358 did you build the engine? Is the 358 engine close to or exceeding the 355 horsepower and torque numbers? I have been thinking turbo for my 348 track car but It is just so much easier and about a $ break even to sell it for a 355 Challenge car to gain an easy 75hp and better handling and some ground effects. I think sometimes of a 360C but at that price... the Porsche gt3 cup car is just more race car IMHO. Also, on the times I have watched them they are faster too. Then on the other hand I'm not poor but potentially stuffing a $100K into a wall is just painfull to me. Wasting a 348 won't make me happy either but that's like a bad stock deal and I gotten use to those! I will come by for a visit next year on my next ski/fishing trip to Co.. Regards!
I did not build that engine, but a very reputable builder did. It is quite sound, and very quick. I have not put that one on the dyno yet but will do so as the sorting process proceeds. It has been converted to EFI injection so either I need to install a data recovery system or spend a fair amount of dyno time to bring it to its full potential. Painfully I have to agree with you, those Panzers are quick but DAMN, air cooling was meant for chain saws. I have never thought much of hanging hair dryers on the Ferrari engines unless they were designed for them. Too high of combustion chamber pressures in an engine not designed for it makes for a gernade, read big black hole to throw money into. One of these days you are going to show up and all of my chores at our property will be done. The horses will be ready to be loaded in the trailer, and the fly rods strapped to their backs. These two lawn mowers will climb any mountain to get to green grass! Dave
Now that sounds great. I'll be glad to come by the shop and sweep your floors so we can bug out to the high country. See you next year... Regards!
