Anyone looking for a F355 Challenge grill. http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150561234390&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
That's a nice grill, looks OEM. If I didn't already have one, I'd do that before spending 2x on a factory one.
+1. You can always reinstall the original panel if you want to go back to stock. Looks like a great deal. Wish this type of grill was available for the 348...
Could this grill be one of the Pro-sport newly made challenge grills? A mate of mine bought and fitted one in January. There making quite a few of these now. If its not a Pro-sport unit, is this another company making them as well?
Fitted a pro-sport one on mine and it looks great perfect fit too. No way in hell i was paying more for a genuine item when these look exactly the same Image Unavailable, Please Login
Your right. And then it would also make you wonder if they would spend money on a "real" mechanic to do the 30k service or use joe blow down the street or maybe just pass on the service.
are all those bosch parts under your deck lid "OEM"? You know, those ones that cross reference to the VW Golf and Peugot? Sorry to bust the bubble here, but outside of the body and engine block, there are very, very few parts and pieces on a Ferrari that are true "Ferrari OEM". Ferrari parts are borrowed from the parts bins of a variety of manufacturers, including Delco, GM, Nippon denso, Bosch, and many others. Heck, even that air horn of yours is standard Fiam issue and can often be found 50% off at your local Harbor Freight store.
There was a guy in the Boxer/TR/M forum that performed his own engine out and found that the fuel injector wiring harness was embossed "Ford."
OEM = Original Equipment Manufacturer. In the case of body panels, Ferrari designed them and manufactured them and likely they would carry a Ferrari part number, labels, serial numbers somewhere non-prominent. In the case of connectors and pins, Ferrari just buys them from well known "Original Equipment Manufacturer" such as Amphenol, Molex, etc. And in those cases, Amp and Molex sometimes design parts for Ford, Delphi, and mold the customer logos onto the connectors, but retain the right to sell them as Amp and Molex parts. For the challenge grill, if it is NOT manufactured by Ferrari, you will not find a ferrari logo or part number on the part.
Parts from Ferrari come in the yellow horsey box... Apparently the box costs more than most of the parts. Most of what goes into a 355 is outsourced...
Sorry for offending you by having such a strong opinion. The reason for my strong opinion is because I personally dealt with this issue and bought the proper OEM Challenge Grill from my local Ferrari dealer for $1600 shipped + new cavallino. Dealer initially wanted over $2,200 retail but they will bargain just to get your business, just shop the retailers against eachother. Remember that the economy sucks right now and so does the retail parts bussiness. Better price than Daniel @ Ricambi let alone some aftermarket rubbish. For the record, this makes 6 posts total. Thank You
Thank you very much for your explanations!! I have one further question; can an aftermarket grill (a non Ferrari item) be recognised when it is installed on the car? If yes, how? thanks again Y
I can't help but laugh at some of the stuff that gets voiced on here. Really. Aftermarket rubbish vs OEM? It strikes me that anyone who's of that persuasion has done very little work on cars, let alone their Ferrari, which is Italian built so shoddy by definitiion. And as for the value of main dealers and their work versus having the faintest clue about what is really going on with your car?? Good luck with trusting the stamps in the book as well. As regards the Challenge grille, the prosport ones are an exact fit and indistinguishable from the genuine Ferrari items. Except when in a few years time, when the galvanised and properly finished Prosport one will still look good whilst the genuine item is rusting away merrily, like the vastly superior genuine sills. I suppose you're also of the opinion that the Hill Engineering items are inferior? Enjoy your factory headers, clutch release and cambelt tensioner bearings....
Can a fake Rolex be spotted when I wear it? All depends on the quality of the fake. Like it is said above, many factory Ferrari items are so poorly designed and manufactured that after market ones (and home-made ones) are superior.
Have you any pics of your OEM grill fitted specially around the lights on the outside of the grill, reason i did not even consider a genuine grill (apart from the price) was the fact that i have seen Genuine grills on F355s and the fit to my untrained eyes was pretty poor.
Nothing wrong with your eyes Chris, I too have seen some OEM grills which look a bad fit, plus as Cactussed points out, they also rust. As to whoever posted against the after market grill, have you actually seen one to form any opinion for or against it?
