More detailed info on hgte upgrades

As many of you know, I recently traded my 458 back to the dealer for a 599GTB. While the 458 is the best performance mid-engined rocket, the looks and power of the 599 are incredible. I've read a bunch of posts from some of you regarding the HGTE retrofit and have done a lot of research on it myself. I finally settled on choice of a number of the upgrades and thought I'd share my findings.

First, your dealer can provide you with a four page brochure from Ferrari SpA entitled "HGTE retrofit kit for 599". I'd attach it as a PDF but the powers that be on fchat have such pedestrian document size caps that I can't attach it.

The upgrades are broken into 4 categories:

Handling kit
Performance kit
Exhaust kit
Aesthetic kit

HANDLING KIT. This option includes more rigid springs and a thicker rear anti-roll bar. It also includes new calibration for the magnetorheological shocks. This calibration works to enhance the stiffness of the shock performance when you're using the sport or race settings on the manettino switch! This leads to better response time. The springs are 16% more rigid in the front and 10% more rigid in the back.

The upgrade also includes lowering the car 10mm. All this helps to reduce the heave, pitch and roll and it gives the car faster turn in with less understeer effect. Even in the brief time I have owned the car, I notice this is a major issue with the GTB (maybe partially extenuated by my ownership of mostly mid engined ferraris).

While the upgrades also includes the five spoke rims and wider front tires, I elected to skip this option because 1) I think the rims are ugly for the 599 and 2) my car was fitted with the 20" upgraded wheels and tires already.

The retail price of this entire upgrade is $24,000 but without the rims and tires the retail is probably $12,000. I'm quoting retail because you should negotiate with your dealer for discounts.

PERFORMANCE KIT. This kit cannot be installed on manual tranny cars. This upgrade includes a Ferrari ECU upgrade that reduces shifting down****fing time in sport or race by 20ms and 15ms during upshifting. Coming out of the dual clutch 458, this upgrade is a must for me. It also updates engine control mapping that enhances the rapid increase in revolutions across the wide engine use field.

The performance kit can be done to include the exhaust upgrade or not. The exhaust is really nice looking. The sound is also enhanced. I think this is a necessity given the timid sound of the 599 GTB.

The performance kit in conjunction with the handling kit apparently shave .6 of a second off the Fiorano track time for one lap. While that may not sound like a lot, the fiorano track isn't large so shaving more than a half a second is substantial in my opinion!

The retail price of the performance kit with the exhaust is $15,000. The exhaust alone is $6,200.

AESTHETIC KIT. This is a different grill and prancing horse.

I did everything but the rims and the aesthetic kit. The work begins on Monday at Algar (my dealer) and it will be the first upgrade they performed. Should be a 20+ hour job and I expect to have it back for next weekend. I cannot wait!

I will keep you all updated on progress

 

Patrick, they estimate that upshifting is improved from 100 ms to 85 ms. So roughly a 15 ms improvement in upshifts

 

I will keep you guys Updated as it is completed. I'm expecting the handling aspects to be the most noticeable