A useless fact of the day. Q. Did you know that the entire 430 Challenge carbon door panel actually weighs LESS than just the Silver painted Aluminium door trim/pocket from the standard Modena doors! Crazy!
Nobody is going to believe me when I tell them what I found in my door!!!! Basically the previous own (its a 1 previous owner car) or a garage he visted did the biggest botch I've yet seen on a Ferrari. At the time my car was less than 3 years old and what can only be described as a 'remarkable' hack was implemented. I unwrapped the plastic cover only to find a HUGE chunk of wood glued to the bottom of my door!!!! I did a double take, i couldn't believe it. So I wound down the window only to see the reason why it was there. Basically the mechanism was 'going past' its stop point and continuing down on into the bottom of the door only to almost break the glass (after the wood was removed). The wood was there as an alternative 'stop' point to the broken stopper.... Arrrgggg..... The stupid idiot who did this hack should never work on a Ferrari.. Just awful. All it actually needed was everything tightening up and a couple of extra washes adding. Dear me...... The mind boggles!!! Pictures to follow...
Dude - I found wood in my front bumper! Tell me you weighed it?! The only thing for you to do is to take the car apart - it's the only way to be sure....
Yes I did 368 grammes of stupidity! Whoever did this, if your reading this, hold your head in shame. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Wow that is unbelievable, best start searching around that car Trev you might shift another 50kgs if you find any more )
lol! Thankfully thats actually the last bit of the car that I hadn't competely had out in bits... The door glass weight is 4kg's The door motor is 3.5kg's = 7.5kg's (15kg's for both doors) With the glass, motor and door panel off the car the door feels paper light, the difference between when you lift the plexiglass lidded engine cover vs the glass modena version. I'm guessing the lexan side windows only weigh about 1.5kg's each so the difference in weight between a CS running around with Glass windows and one without is around 12kg's. If we take Ferrari' quoted best weight reduction of -110kg's - 12kg = 98kg's). I'm guessing around the same weight saving where done for the stereo by deleting the stereo pod, speakers and speaker box too (estimate of around 12kg's). So the typical stereo'd, glass equipped car shed around -86kg's over a Modena.
You started a new trend . I figured if your car has it .... mine should have it too , CS Specs, 6 Speed Manual, Wood (LOL) ! Image Unavailable, Please Login
Are you going to Plexiglass windows? These look interesting and the price is right - just need to figure out the frame... http://www.plastics4performance.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=874&P_ID=761
If your still looking for a manual 6 speed transmission dont look any further the sollution is here. this transmission comes from a car handling up to 650 Hp http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/170649878331?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fmotors.shop.ebay.com%3A80%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dp4712.m39.l1313%26_nkw%3D170649878331%26_sacat%3D%26_fvi%3D1&_rdc=1
Well the modified dash is now back in and the doors close perfectly with both 430 Challenge door panels fitted. Very happy with the results although I've needed to order a lot of new Button headed allen bolts. Found a good supplier (in the UK) on ebay http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Stainless-Button-Head-Allen-Bolts-Nuts-Washers-300-Pk-/370092868764?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item562b41049c These are replacing the rounded and knackered looking original's. The Carbon Door panels look great and combine to save significant weight. Even with electric windows and motors still retained the weight saving's are considerable (somewhat helped by the deletion of door mounted speakers). For anyone trying this 430 Challenge carbon door panels themselves take heed it requires significant modifications and is not an easy job for the novice. Upper Dash 1. The side of the dash needs modifying - About 1.5cm's shaved off each side and re-glued (Yes it needs removing to do this). Also I had to drill out the 2 end cap coverings too (bolted on to the side of the dash by two 8 or 10mm hex nuts so they had more movement adjustment). The lower dash has no problems. Electric Window Motors 2. The electric window motors need modifying - A metal retaining bracket sticks out and normally the original Modena door car bolts to it. I cut this off as it stuck out too much and fouled the carbon door panel. Electric Window Mounting Bolts 3. The electric window motor retaining bolts need replacing with 3cm longer ones. I then added spacers between the window motor and the door mounting flange. This allows the motor to sit much further recessed into the door space itself (while still not fouling against anything). This was essential because otherwise the door panel will NOT fit. (sticks out by around 3cm's.) Electric Window Mounting Adjustment Bolts 4. There are 2 adjustment hex head adjustment bolts which protrude out by quite some margin. These where simply swapped around so they faced inwards which made them much flatter. Door opener pull cable 5. The door card pull cable needs replacing. I've got an original challenge on fitted for now but I need to fabricate a longer one (5cm will suffice) for perfect non interference from the electric windows and the pull cable when the window is fully wound down. They work but make an annoying (light grating) sound as the windows are fully wound up/down. This can be fixed with new custom length cables that I'm going to make up... Door allen head bolts 6. Finally not all of the mounting bolt positions mount up and some of the original bolts are too long for the original fitment bolts. Either you can cut them down to side (slightly smaller by about 2 cm's) or order new bolts like I did. The top mounting point doesn't exist (near the original tweeter location) so this needs drilling too. After all of this messing around you'll have a fully functional pair of 430 Challenge ultralight carbon door panels working with your 360 Modena. Another big plus point is a large increase in cabin space. Around 6cm's on each side of the car!!! The same principles apply for the 430 too. The only problem now is the cost of these panels. They are significantly lighter than either the Scuderia, 16M or CS door panels but they cost substantially more any of them. You *pay* for lightness.... Going to see if I can get custom curved lexan side windows manufactured that could be used as a direct drop in replacement (no flap) that would still work with the electric window mechanism.
Great write up as always! I copied this and put it into my document of other things you wrote about. So when i do them i can refer back to the document. I can speak for everyone when I say thank you for all that you have provided us! now, where to get challenge doors lol Also, i want to run this by you and see what you think. I get offered deals on challenge 360 gt cars here and there. Is it possible to make one street legal? The ones i have seen have Vin numbers etc, and all the indicators. We do not have emissions where i live. I know registering a car here is pretty lenient. Do challenge cars come with a title of owner ship, or should i file for a lost title etc. I ask cause a lot of the stuff i want to do is done. and my budget doesn't allow a lot of things. And the challenge gt cars i have seen are priced to my liking and very well taken care of. I do not race professionally, but i am a great experienced driver. I want something i can take to the track but drive on the street as well. Can you please ask you GT Racing mates if they normally come with with titles from factory?
None of the Challenge cars where road registered from factory and the few that have been have required significant changes to get them to work. Also none of them where registered for payment of taxes either (none road legal) so I believe they require VAT paying if they are modifed for road status. Quite a few changes are required not to mention a functional handbrake, foglight, emissions compliance, etc. Hence the reason why the CS exists...
Here's a couple of latest pics with the cf door panels fitted. Appologies for the lack of natural light. They where taken in the garage. Better pics to follow. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Natrual light or not looks damn awesome! I talked to a few guys here and said that if it has a vin a bill of sale title or no title I can get one. They also said you can register it as a kit car based with original parts. And the state patrol will apply a new vin. I think America is the easiest to get away with this. Hence why a lot drive the old lemans cars as well with a historic plate. Anywho enough of the off topicness lol
just to chip in here ref the maps. i had CS maps in my car before Ferrari fitted CS engine ecus to my car as part of a whole range of mods they carried out for me. the car with CS engine ecus is far and away better than the car with just the maps. theres more info contained in the ECU than just fuel and ignition info so with mapping you get some of the CS performance/response but not all of it. Trev, nice to catch up with the car after all this time. you got decoupled shocks yet on there? it makes a huge difference to the control you have over the car when you can set them totally independent of the rest of the systems.
