My first day on a track with the 355

So, Ive owned my 355 a couple of years now, and after much toil, blood, sweat, I finally took her on the track as Id been working towards for so long.

Bit of history of the car, when I bought her, she was an abused dog, her previous owners had treated her very badly and let things get well out of hand...but I got her cheap and she needed rescuing.

Now shes in a near perfect mechanical state, and the only thing thats remaining to be done is some uprated front brakes, which became VERY apparent yesterday And perhaps some additional/uprated water/oil cooling.

At present she has the following mods...

Custom made exhaust system from manifolds to rear box
Uprated coil overs/suspension inc shocks, and all bushes and a good amount of time setting up.
Uprated rear brakes, grooved and dimpled.
Challenge wheels
Uprated clutch
A Diet

Plus lots of other recommended bits and pieces from a local Ferrari racing specialist (plugs, leads, coils, filters etc etc) and various work performed rectifying the other owners abuse.

The result, she is INCREDIBLE!! I thought I knew were the limits were and I was out by around 3 light years of distance Ive had (and still have) very fast, well handling cars before, but this was in a different league!

On each lap I pushed a little more in the corners, no tyre squeal, no scrubbing, lurching or anything. It got to the point where me and my passenger were groaning and grunting in the corners from the stress of trying to keep our heads up, it hurt at times, really hurt!!

At one point we had a Radical SR I think behind us coming through a section of the track, banked turn, short straight, double chicane, straight. Coming to the banked turn he was on me, by the time we had got to the 2nd straight, I had a good 7-8 car lengths between us, I was doing the banked turn and chicanes faster than he was....then he came past as it had a lot more power Also on many occasions I was quicker through turns and corners than a number of the westfields and caterhams there (Atoms however were a different story, them things are FAST!!!)

Ultimatley I was unsure if all the time, money and effort would be worth it...it is..and then some more.

One of the highlights of the day was the tangle with an Audi R8, we went out pretty much at the same time and he was just behind me on the out lap. Hot lap we are both going for it, in the straights I was pulling away, and at the corners is was a clean walk....his brakes were better than mine though, and he was braking later and harder than I could and so staying with me. Great fun...and I was happy that straight line, I had the edge
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Thanks...yeah it was at Oulton. JMH was in the pit garage next to me, with a Porsche and thier F430, them cars are incredible fast!

I had a pop at the Porsche one lap see if I could hold it off after it came screaming up behind...I was swiftly handed my ass

 

Yeah they've done some work on her. Though a lot of the time I like to do it myself, Im pretty good with spanners and stuff and have built entire engines before etc....time permitting with work, I enjoy it, helps me clear my head.

Still, theres somethings that are best left to the pro's

 

Will do, Im hoping to do another one as soon as I have uprated the front brakes on her.

I'll keep you in the loop

 

I didnt do anything the fronts just yet.

I wanted to do a track day first to decide whether to just overhaul and improve the standard ones when they need it, or whether to go for a full on replacement along the lines of AP or similar and stump up the cash.

After yesterday, just improving the standard ones is out of the question, most of the time I was driving to save them, and when I did push hard, they were giving up after a lap or so.

She builds speed very quick now and on some laps where I was going for it I was having to brake hard from 120+ to 30ish on a number of occasions and it was just killing them.

Im now going to decide on what I want up front and get it ordered asap.

 

I didnt manage to get a great deal of video, I dont have any mounts in the car to house a camera as yet and its not allowed for even a passenger to hold and film.

I got some vids on the pit wall of the other cars, including the crazy JMH Porsche and 430.

My friend also took a couple of me going past the pits solo which I can post if interested, you'll notice Im braking though VERY early and using my gears to help slow down, brakes were shot by then and these solo runs were the last of the day.

I'll edit them a bit later and post a composite up once Im done at work.

Plans for the future after the brakes and cooling is just weight loss and lots of it....shes well sorted now in the handling stakes and will just need some tweaking when the weight comes out...Im considering "going to town" in this department too.

Enginewise I dont think theres much more I can do, Im thinking about a Gruppe-M intake as Ive read a lot of good stuff about them and potentially swap out the clutch for a proper racing item.

That should keep me plenty busy for this year

 

Fluid and pads are fairly new, I replaced them the same time I upgraded the rears last year and she only clocked up a few hundred miles since then, mainly motorway miles too.

 

First, thanks Indeed it does belong on a track

Second, the pads are Ferodo, I think the same as yours, the fluid is pretty fresh as stated, but I believe the rotors are the originals, thier condition isnt great at all, and when getting warm you can feel the warp in them.
Also I may be harder on the brakes than normal, Im running very sticky tyres so I can stand on the brakes and they dont let go.

Either way, Im intending on turning her into a proper track animal, so upgrading the brakes is part of the plan.

Third, I can drive And while you are right, that the standard setup is great, I wanted that little extra for track use and "fettling".

Finally, your correct again, no car "likes" being muscled around, in the end it'll get pissed at you and bite your ankles, smooth, precise and direct movement of weight transfer around the car is what you want, even when your in a pickle, brash actions only make things worse