i said i dont even know what materials he used. seems like original bodywork other than fender flares. regardless i think a restomod 355 with lightness as the main goal would be awesome and way better than a singer as ferrari always has better style than porsche.
If he didn’t take that offer, he’s crazy. It’s a race car build, not a street car build. This is why you often see 458 challenge cars cheaper than road-going 458’s.
It’s easier to remove weight off a race car build imo. Everything is done for the sake of performance, with much less consideration for beauty. A street car build focuses more on maintaining beauty while introducing higher performance features. In a subtle enough manner, it becomes an artistic endeavor. Different sport.
i think he had that offer before turning it into time attack racer. for sure its less valuable as a car now but it might be more valuable to his video channel the way it is now
Aye, that car is essentially full race car with a lot of custom fabrication. There's not a lot Ferrari left in it tbh.
Very tempting to put more carbon on Challenge car and go for even less weight. How much are rear fenders, rear bumper and engine lid? Stay close to “as-raced” or go faster in vintage races…I wouldn’t mind loosing more weight in the rear.
Its not the panel you see there where the weight is, its the structure behind it, which would also have to be replicated in carbon, not a cheap task. It is also a structural panel, and the back end of a 355 is flimsy enough as it is! The one I still have is about 10 kilo's at a guess.
I received a response from Eurospares and they said the rear quarter in it’s packaging and box (from Ferrari) is 26kg! I don’t think they are willing to remove the quarter panel from it’s packaged state just to weigh it. https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/97-f355-spider-collision-project.612502/ This thread gives you an idea of the structure behind the rear quarter. If it is a structural piece, it should probably be left alone.
There is a hell of a lot of weight in the steel structure incorporated into the dashboard, lots of speed holes in that or remove it all together and just have the dash outer shell is a quick and easy option. Image Unavailable, Please Login
You already have a challenge rear bumper. Upon closer inspection, they appear to be fiberglass, not carbon or carbon-kevlar. However, they only weigh 20lbs. You’re good there for now. We’re going to try to get this manufacturer in Japan to produce the engine lid after we order a few hoods. No idea on cost at the moment, but if you are interested, send me a pm so we can at least give them an idea how many are interested. We currently have about a handful interested.
U.S and AUS spec 355’s have heavier/more reinforced doors than our UK, Euro, and Japan counter parts. Their doors are almost bare. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Most of the weight is in the buttress, that quarter I put a pic up of I can pick up easily enough but it feels around 10 ish kg It is actually quite a complex, multi part component, something like 10 or more individual panels to make that assembly. As you can see from that post it is welded together by various methods to give strength, not a case of chopping it all off and simply bonding on a thin carbon outer skin covering instead. I would advise looking elsewhere for savings.
At the time Aus and the US mandated heavy side impact bars in doors where as the EU did not, that is the difference.
Interesting you bring up “at the time.” A U.S 430 Scuderia door feels 1/2 to 1/3 of the weight of the U.S 355 door. It is a slimmer looking door, but still a big difference. Image Unavailable, Please Login
The sad reality is that there's no easy way to drop weight on a 355. I suppose bumpers and seats are the lowest-hanging fruit, but even then you're not losing enough weight to make a difference. Back when I tracked my 993, I did a bunch of lightening mods. And you only really start to feel it when you pass the 200 pound mark, and even then it's pretty meh. 300 pounds and you actually notice it. My car at 2800 vs 3100 was a nice change, but still nothing to rave about. Gasoline weighs about 6 lbs per gallon, so 15 gallons is 90 pounds. If you can't tell the performance difference on a 355 between a full tank and an almost empty tank, you're not going to feel the performance difference of a carbon hood and race buckets and carbon bumpers. The juice is not worth the squeeze.
Agree, you could put that powertrain into a go kart and it is not going to perform much better, too much weight for the output produced.
