That's always a nice shot of an F355. This is one of the first pictures I took of my car the day it arrived in April 2012... Image Unavailable, Please Login
On the track there are times I wish I had F1. Challenge cars often had their gates dremeled for quicker shifting. Here's mine... Image Unavailable, Please Login I guess mine is a precursor of the Hill Engineering Slick Shift Gate. I also have a R-1-2 lockout to prevent a costly accidental 5-2 downshift... Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Available from Ricambi America: SG04 SLICK SHIFT GATE - 355
IMHO - the danger of mis-shifts is when people jump gears. Like 6th to 4th - when ends up 2nd.. BAM! If you practice discipline of at least 6th to 5th first, the springs naturally lead to 4th. Some people also muscle instead of smoothly guiding the shift action. And if you heel-toe, the 355 engine sound is even more glorious!! One day I should post but need a willing rider. Best effect is to squirt to 100 1/4mi from exit ... then whoam... whoam.... whoam... heavy braking and smooth, quick pedal dancing.
It's good practice not to skip gears when downshifting. A 6-4 downshift would require extra time to try and match RPMs. A 5-2 downshift is, fortunately, a rare error but I've seen it happen three times on the track in the past ten years; twice with the same car. F355 Challenge cars were often fitted with R-1 lockouts by the sponsoring dealerships as was mine... Image Unavailable, Please Login I had it converted to a R-1-2 lockout with a metal plate secured by three Allen head bolts... Image Unavailable, Please Login I've never had to downshift to 2nd gear on the track. Pitting out, once I shift into 3rd gear, I lower the lockout plate. Pitting in, I raise it once I'm in 3rd gear. This is what shifting is like in an F355 Challenge at Lime Rock Park... A 3-4 rod control fork (#10) was added to Challenge cars to withstand the type of shifting you see in the video... Image Unavailable, Please Login
So, to steer back on topic, here's a photo taken by Robb of me at Lime Rock Park trying to do what the sign says... Image Unavailable, Please Login
And here i am a year later driving faster and blowing off some of my undertray... Image Unavailable, Please Login
Palm Beach Cavallino Classic 2020 Concours d'Elegance Platinum Award "1st in Class" My 1998 Gated F355 GTS Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
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