Actual Challenge car...will use it very lightly for the road and a little on the track. Picking her up next week. No lights, horn, parking brake, and none of the goodies that make a street car a street car (carpets, radio, ac, etc.) Straight exhaust (headers directly out the back). Has the 'slow down' lights for the 1-4 bank which I will be debugging since they do not make sense (no O2 sensors on this car from my understanding). Will post some more in the Challenge forum but it is a F355 after all ;-) Image Unavailable, Please Login
Awesome! I considered buying that car before I bought mine. The only reason I didn't get it was it's a Euro car and I was concerned about how much I would need to do to make it street legal here (all the goodies you mentioned that a street car needs). Otherwise it looked like an excellent specimen.
Did you look at it when it was at Universal? Which car did you end up buying? The main reason I got it is because it's Euro and it has a VIN. It will go in a state with no inspections or questions asked -- so hopefully it will go well. I don't plan to change a thing on it.
No O2 sensor? Doesn't it have the 2.7 ECU that 95 street cars had? I would think there would be 1 O2 sensor per bank, as opposed to the 2 per bank of the 5.2 street cars. AWSOME CAR btw :O)
I have no idea about the O2 sensors; it does have the 2.7 ECU but it has the headers straight into the pipes (with exhaust tips) so no cats. Where do the O2 sensors go in such a case?
It had them at one point but they're probably unplugged or tucked out of the way. It sounds like the cat ECU, at least for the 1-4 bank, is still plugged in. Unplug that and the slowdown light should go away.
Not at this time -- I'm in the US mostly (Waterloo is my home town) so it will stay in the North East for now.
Correct the Ferrari F355 Challenger cars that ran the North America were all using Cat but, after the series were over and most cars used for SCCA, NASA or CCR then the Cat were no longer required to be used. Most likely they just took them off or unpluged the O2? PS. Have fun with that F355 Challenge! I kept my eye on that one for some time... Would like to here more on your track usage, etc... Ciao, SRR
On this note -- can anybody tell me what wheels I have on this car? I love the look just not sure if they are easily identifiable as a known model/brand. Thanks.
Ha! I've been looking at that one for a while - and was thinking - "God knows who will buy this one"....and then ta-da!
OZ Racing wheels? Manufacturer should at least be shown on the inside of the wheels. What a nice car you have, my dream car.
Were you in the market for one and if yes what kept you from getting this one? I think the main reason it was on sale for about 2 months is because the car will absolutely not pass any inspection in any state that requires it. Currently it would fail inspection visually because of lights, horn, parking brake, exhaust, etc., etc. but even if one addressed all these issues the final problem with inspecting it is: The car is a 1996 so the inspection place(s) would try to use OBD2 for it; however it's set up by the factory as a 1995 ECU so it would never work; I don't even think the connectors are the same.
I posted this in the Challenge forum but the 355 forum has much more activity so I'm going to re-ask this here... In the attached picture what is different on a Challenge car in terms of the sensors and ECUs? The headers go straight out but I don't recall (and don't have the car here) to verify what else is still on the car? Image Unavailable, Please Login
I bought a car from an F-Chatter that already had most of the street legal stuff figured out. I didn't physically look at your car as I live on the other side of the continent. However, the car looked great in pictures and Universal appears to have done all the recent maintenance. I thought it was a good deal but I need it to pass an inspection to register it. Also, because it's a euro car (grey market) I was concerned about bringing it across the border. One thing I did do is search the VIN on the web. I found a number of previous advertisments for it and it had slightly different appearances each time - particularily in the rear if I remember correctly.
Congratulations! I considered this car when it was at Universal; I was again tempted when it was offered for $10K less than Universal's price. Best wishes to your ownership experience and please share with us your adventures with this car.
Here are the websites I found: :: ICT Motorsports :: 1996 Ferrari 355 Challenge LNS Performance Motorcars, LLC >>> HOME http://www.trackacarslife.com/search-registry-expanded.php?page=20&searchRecords=
Thanks for sharing; I had seen two of these three links. I can assume that the car was hit previously and the rear bumper/area was changed or rebuilt and hence the different configurations for the bumper and exhaust output. Universal did a great job to update previously deferred maintenance and I talked to them numerous times as well as with the previous owner about the car. We'll see how it turns out.
I don't know if I would assume the car got hit. Perhaps it was changed for cosmetic reasons? Regardless, the current condition of the car is what had my interest as it appeared to be in great shape. Good luck and take some video or pictures when you finally get it.
Interestingly enough I found a video of the previous owner taking it on the streets on Long Island: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSAdDI21Hfg
Just a question but looking at trailering car and wondered how you tied it down? Looks like you just looped strap around A arm.
