Twin Turbo F355 'Down under'

I wish I had an F1, but alas, I don't...

Hmm, are you sure 11,000rpm? Not 9,000rpm...11K rpm, that seems like a very high number for the 355's V8...

Good luck on reaching 540rwhp!

 

And theres me getting all exited and looking to remove my rev limitter. I hit between 9000rpm and 10,000 rpm in my old TR when the rev limiter was broke, (got alot of stick from the usual moaners on FC). But 11,000rpm in a V8...now thats what i am talking about.

 

Even 9000 rpm on a std internal engine is pushing it. The std pistons are not bad, but still quite heavy for that speed....and as for the conrods......you really should have a look at some of my paperweights.......

 

FWIW, turbo Ferraris have been done in Melbourne before and it was by a guy with very deep pockets. The car in question was a mondial and all he achieved was creating an unreliable car that cost a fortune and nobody wanted to buy after he lost interest in it. The Ferrari world is tiny and once a future buyer works out it's history the car will be saleproof.

I have seen good cars get canned because they had a reputation as being "raced". The reality was a couple of club track days, hardly racing in reality! Imagine the image conjured up by a turbo 355 spider...........

FWIW

 

I think that car was actually started in sydney, and then good old joe viola got his hands on it and did lots of work. To be fair to the guy doing this 355 turbo, that mondial was really a terrible car and was never sorted....well...not for many many years. So, there was an undesireable car with a bad conversion. Here's a car that most people love, and if it's well done and works, then I don't see a great problem with it. It will almost certainly be worth less after the conversion than before though, I'd imagine.

 

I wouldn't be too worried about it. I think a good twin turbo would be great personally, and I'd guess other 355 owners would feel the same. I don't intend to sell the car so I don't care the precieved value determined by a few. The MB S600 is twin turboed and it's working great. Hats off to whoever is designing this. I'm disappointed more mods like this are not avail., but I'll wait.

 

I would be very interested. Can you talk a bit about expected costs of this intial project? or what a kit might be offered for? I know it would have to be ballpark but....
For instance, I have a porshe boxster that the previous owner swapped a carrera 3.4 engine into. The cost of the conversion, dyno tuning and ecu programming and related addons(headers, intake, exhaust) was about $32k. Was it worth it to the former owner, maybe, maybe not. Is it worth it to me, most definetely. The car has stunning performance and at 2500lbs, mid engine, low(flat 6) very low center of gravity, will run circles around almost anything in the twisites. I think a tt 355 would offer a great value to second hand buyers after the initial owner took the big $ hit and I know I would buy one if it had been well sorted. As for being the intial investor, it would be ok if planning on keeping the car for a good amount of time, at least that how I see it.

 

Any chance you can post the graph? I love graphs of stuff, particularly cool stuff. It's an engineer thing I guess

 

Not to stray too far off topic...but that Boxster sounds absolutely wonderful...could we hear more about it? I'd really love to see some pictures...it sounds like the perfect car. I've driven a Boxster, and about the only thing wrong was a lack of power...which you seem to have dealt with!

 

Did you do a dyno run before the mods? Got the graphs for that? How about an overlay?

 

Nice! Very smooth hp curve. I'm used to seeing a bigger step as the tubo spools, but that graph looks great.

 

Jonathon, Well I am my second Ferrari, had a 700hp viper, 5 BMW's and a bunch of other cars, many of them modded to the t's, but this boxster is hands down the most fun car of all. I have not been to the track yet, but the in line acceleration is about equal to my 355 or an M5 up to about 125. But in the twisties I have had 996TT's pull over because they could not match my speed. The cornering speeds are just amazing. My next project is a full coilover susp upgrade. The coolest thing is this car is so comfortable driving fast, much easier to wring some speed out of that my 355, can carry so much more corner speed that the 360 or 996TT and go way deeper into the braking zone because it is so light. If it had the sound of my testpiped and tubi'd Fcar it would be the ultimate car short of the super cars. Porsches can have a pretty nice, very urgent sound but nothing sounds like a ferrari at 8krpms!!
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Thanks a lot for the pics! It looks like a very potent machine, and its great to hear about a project car that went so well. Sounds like an absolute blast to drive, and not just the driving part...but being able to pass those 996 turbos and 360s like they are standing still...hehe

 

Don't get too carried away, only in the corners, only in the corners. The car has 996 brake upgrade too. Very nice, amazing what 700 or 800 lbs will do! I would love to get her down to about 2100lbs, now that would rock.
Can you imagine the 12cyl 550hp Zonda coming in at just 1500lbs. That must be one scary ride!!

 

Yes, of course...but isn't it a whole lot more impressive to fly by them in the turns than in the straight sections...after all, anyone with a Camaro and some cash for a pro-charger could dust off a 996 turbo or 360 on a straight road...but it takes a real car to beat those exotics in the twisties!

I know all about the joy of light weight cars...I used to own a 2200lb MGB, and I have some experience with Miatas...neither of which can be considered quick in a straight line, but the both are very very good fun in the corners!


On topic:
Thanks for the dyno-graphs cuspub, there are some very impressive power gains there...

 

If I'm reading the graphs right, there is no increase until around 4200 RPM. Is that correct? Is this normal? Also what is happens in the 7500-8000 RPM range?

 

can you bring this car out to Calder on Sunday 26th Sept...it's ferrari club track day....you could pick up some work if it goes any good......

 

gday guys l am the owner of the car in question.I have fallen in love with my car again. It is now a real supercar. The aim was to make a car that l will never sell faster. 600hp was the target. As you can see it will be accieved next time we dyno the car.The ferrari service manager in melbourne drove my car and said it was slighty faster than an f40 .I then took it to anther ferrari workshop where the owner sandro from terzini motore also said it was faster than a f40 and he sevices 2 of them. Then he ordered the first kit . The power this car now has in first gear fryed the tyres and when you put it in second the traction is not much better.The rev limit has been dropped from 8900 to 7800. Because it is making good power we do not need to rev the engine . The next stage is to flow the injecters and increase the flow capacity and then increase the boost to 8or 9 pounds .

 

Great car! It must be a blast to drive!

It's funny how a goal gets picked, I was looking for 600 from my 308 when I started my project too. I came up short at about 520 (425rwhp) and unlike you, I called it done after the the first drive. The wheels spinning with just gently rolling open the throttle in 1st or 2nd and in 3rd with a hard shift was enough to convince to my goal, not the car was wrong.

Mine is supercharged vs your turbo. Looking at the graphs, as expected I guess, the supercharger has a big edge down low then the lines cross at about 5000 rpm and the turbo runs away.

Here's a link to a thread with the graph I posted while dynoing and tuning mine
http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24743

And if you haven't seen it a 348tt with dyno results
http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?p=134394970

 

Interesting,

Do you think lowering the rev limit w/ turbo will create less wear on the engine and belts then the stock engine rev at 8500? Also, 600 hp? Rear wheel? Are you tracking this car or is it for the street?