Mounting Harnesses in My 360 CS - The Odyssey continues

I'm not sure I understand why you'd want harnesses if you're not going to the track?

For mounting, I bought a harness bar for my 355, I would have something similar made up. Same amount of work to install and easy to remove. You could easily have one made by any place that does roll cages.

 

Rob
If you do this please do a write up so the rest of us can get an idea as to what is involved. The radiator from Ricambi is about $1200 and a silly $1400 for a metal bracket that could easily be fabricated. The rest would just be oil lines available from any good hose supplier. I assume they connect at the same points on the casing.
Alan

 

Be careful doing this on a street car, the heat exchanger works both ways in that it warms up the gearbox oil when cold more quickly. Ferrari transmissions are notoriously cranky when cold, so you could have some crunchy/harsh gear shifts on a street car as it will take longer for the trans to warm up.

 

Interesting point. Esp. since the tranny is an F1. With a 3pedal we can be more careful placing the shifts.

But.. as we live in the Southeast, for 9 months of the year its hot and keeping down transmission temps is of greater importance IMHO. If my intercooler pops.. this is something I'm definitely going to consider.

I'll bet we can use a cheaper oil cooler and fab some lines to the tranny. For the intercooler I might just be tempted to use the adaptor Ferrari intended. It doesn't look like the system has a thermostat. I wonder if it can even be mounted beneath the main oil cooler in the right fender or in 3 pedals where the F1 pump is with a temp actuated fan..

 

Curt
On the CS it looks as though it's mounted above the muffler area on that bracket that is attached to the rear of the tubular sub frame -- but it's difficult to tell from the parts diagram -- would have to look at the WM. Still cannot figure why the heat exchanger is $1200 and the mounting bracket is $1400 -- ah welcome to the world of Ferrari.
Alan
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I highly doubt you'll overheat the trans fluid unless tracking heavily. If that's the intended use, I'd swap, but for a dual use or mostly street car I think it'd be a waste. Just keep the fluid fresh so the heat exchanger doesn't clog.

 

Gotcha. I'd just get the belts that clip in to the rings you install and you can put them in/take them out easily when going to the track (and you can run the full 5/6 point setup and just leave the anti-submarine belt(s) in the car tucked under the seat). If your main concern is 'cohabitation' of the lap belts so to speak, I think you'll be ok if you just take out the buckle portion of the stock belt when going to track. Post some pics of your seat setup and maybe the issue will be more obvious. I personally wouldn't run harnesses on the street and when harnessed in and helmet on at the track, the airbags won't really add much so I wouldn't worry about them - just deal with the airbag light being on at the track and use the regular belts on the road.

 

I have gone from streetcars, to dual use track cars, to full caged racecars. Be very careful. Safety systems are very difficult to engineer. You risk making your car less safe thinking you are making it more safe with added track gear. It would be wise to consider full street safety system while ok the street then harness setup, proper seats, helmet Hans for the track. Some would say cage too full containment seat etc or you are fooling yourself. The Ferrari is not a 100hp miata but capable of high speeds and the energy increases at the square of the speed. Airbags have not been shown to be a problem with helmets and better left functional in a streetcar. Good fia rated seats have an expiration date as do harness belts. Note those dates.

 

Also six point parachute style is way better than four point. If you can mount six point hybrid scroth that is the best with individual substraps

 

I may be selling my setup since I bought a challenge car. It's exactly what ur looking for with custom mounting brackets for the seats and a serious harness bar. All very over engineered by a fellow fchatter. Let me know if you want to know more
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Then you have selected the wrong seat for the application. Either find a dual use seat or use the stock seat with stock belts and change the seat when you go to the track or are at the track. It is only 4 hex bolts. Besides if you change seats at the track you could get a safer seat like a containment seat which would be a no go for a streetcar. Your seat is the foundation to any safety system.

 

Couple of suggestions, if you are going to track your CS I would change some of the suspension settings (do a search F430GT has good suggestions for camber caster and tires) and corner weight the car - start with normal ride height and look to get a cross of 50% and adjust at the track depending on how the car feels. Properly set up, it is is very easy to drive at the limit and you can even be a (slow) hoodlum with nice controlled drifts...

My car has the Swain ceramic coated fabspeed headers and sports cats, that works well (regularly get CEL b/c of secondary air system delete) but the engine bay will get hot regardless of coating and blankets especially when driving hard. I have use Jet Hot coating on other cars, it looks great at first but doesn't perform as well as Swain, especially over time. I have put a lot of track miles on my CS all in the texas heat, as long as you are moving the temps are fine even when pushing the car hard, just account for a cool down lap or two for engine and brakes and you should be ok. Open the lid when in the pits to help further with cooling. Again this is a well engineered car and I have driven it in 114 F and it doesn't overheat so you probably are not going to get you a lot from the transmission mods (unless you have a wind tunnel to confirm effectiveness).

I also have a 4 point harness (a 3" Sabelt FIA rated with welded mounting points) in addition to the normal seatbelt) and partial roll cage be added safety. As this is a Street/track car I didn't didn't go all out on the belt set up though I do wear my HANS when pushing hard or when there are a lot of other cars on the track just is case. The buckles fit fine through the seat back opening and can be stored when driving on the road and lap belt is mounted off the lower seat frame. Everything clears fine and gives a tight snug fit, as the seat angle is pretty steep, I felt a submarine belt was over overkill (again this is track car not race). My race car is a very different set up... BTW, don't mess with airbags it's overkill especially if you plan to drive the car on the road...
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I went with a 2-pt rollbar for my Scuderia. It is 100% reversible, non-intrusive ie doesn't require any drilling or cabin modifications etc. It mounts directly to the oem seat belt mounts on either side of the car.

I was also fortunate enough to have been able to get unobtainium oem Ferrari 4-pt harnesses, complete with Ferrari shoulder pad sleeves. It was obscenely expensive but our cars deserve nothing but the best =)

I think the setup really sets off the interior and makes the already special-to-me Scuderia interior just that more special and "track-focused".

I abandoned the 5-6pt harness route because I still wanted the ease of entry/exit that the 4-pt harness offered. The 4-pt harness is also what eurospec Scuderias are packaged with and I wanted to keep my car as clean and oem+ (as they call it) as I could.

pic:
http://distilleryimage11.s3.amazonaws.com/478751b0a88411e2a94522000a1fbc56_7.jpg
http://distilleryimage4.s3.amazonaws.com/a9b28cdad59611e28fe822000a9e17dc_7.jpg

vid:
http://distilleryimage11.s3.amazonaws.com/21faa81a2f0311e3a5a022000ae9129a_101.mp4