What are best turbo upgrade for F40 ?

Alot of people go with ball bearing units now. Any big units are gonna have some lag, but the idea is that when you are tracking it, you are usually in the powerband always anyway.

What about going with more of an LM upgrade? Didn't they have different ECU's that allowed more boost? I think the turbochargers and intercoolers were upgraded stock units too. Might be a pretty penny for that route though.

 

The LM turbos are the most common upgrade.

 

Most popular upgrade, of course there is a new or reprogrammed ecu and fuel system

 

Ferrari themselves do the best upgrade for the F40. At least I know they used to. You give your F40 to them and they upgrade to turbos to larger ones which ups the power from 478 HP to 600 HP. Top speed rises to 220 MPH. Send Ferrari an email to see if they still do it.

 

Just found this.. http://www.carobu.com/html/f40_project.html

 

To my knowledge they never did this. Are you sure your not referring to Michelotto? The made the GT/LM/GTE for Ferrari.

I also don't think a 122 HP gain would equal a 19 mph increase in top speed. It takes alot to gain that much vmax. The LM's, would hit 229 mph with alot more power then that. But they did also have more downforce....

 

The most popular larger turbo upgrade. Garrett "roller bearing turbos"

 

With stock downforce, I have no doubt 600 HP would make 220 mph possible with the right gearing. I believe the stock F40 was already near redline at 201 mph, so either more revs or higher gearing would be needed regardless of HP.

With a car like the F40, I'd go with a well proven setup for engine management and allow flexibility for the actual turbos depending on your goals. The original LM turbos are quite behind the curve compared to the latest tech available.

 

Agreed, it doesn't seem hard to believe at all.

 

There was a F40 close to my home with Michelotto upgrades and (claimed) 900+ HP = evil performance. Afaik the original owner bought the parts for his F40 racing projekt in Italy and had it converted at a local specialist. Would be also my way to go for more performance on the F40.
Best TOB

 

I think Garrett GT28RS's are more or less the same size as the stock turbo's, but far less lag. Up the boost to 2 bar and you'll see 600+hp

Holset also makes very good turbo's, apparently good for 3 bar (45psi). A stock F40 runs 17psi if i'm not mistaken.

 

Ferrari definitely did used to offer this upgrade to wealthy customers who wanted more power from their newly acquired F40 back in the 80's. Email or phone Ferrari to confirm this. I remember back in 1989 my father had a very successful business man friend who just bought a new F40. I remember him telling my father that he was given the option of having the F40 shipped back to Ferrari in Maranello for the larger turbo upgrade. I recall he used to brag about it to his friends back in the day. I even remember looking at some old F40 literature back in the mid 1990's which also mentioned something about this upgrade.

 

I believe the official factory or factory sanctioned package included upgraded turbos and cams for 670 HP, a truly STUNNING power level for those times!

Turbos and especially engine management have certainly come a long way since the '80s. It would be fascinating to see someone go for broke with the latest tech for the F40!

 

Im sure there are better options in terms of power and efficeny with a newer style turbo compared to a LM. Turbos have come a LONG ways in the last couple years. Check out some billet wheel turbos.

 

I did some research on this, and as I thought, Michelotto, not the factory did the conversions if you wanted one. Which, is a good thing since they made the GT/GTE/LM.

 

I've also checked this out. A number of years ago I spoke to a couple of salesmen at Maranello Sales in the UK, which is the official UK distributor of Ferraris here in the UK, and have been so for a number of decades now. They informed me that back in the late 1980's when customers were ordering brand new F40's from them, these customers were given the choice of specifying a FACTORY PERFORMANCE UPGRADE KIT as an optional extra. This was actually performed by Ferrari staff in their factory. Read the following excerpt below taken from a Ferrari enthusiast website.


'F40, the four-cam, 32-valve motor produced 478bhp at 7,000rpm (some 20 percent up on the 288) with the promise of a further 200bhp if the optional factory tuning kit was specified.'

 

Let me say this again, Michelotto did this for Ferrari. Michelotto was considered a "factory" supplier. But if you want to think otherwise, be my guest. I'm just speaking the facts.

 

OK fair enough I believe you.

 

That is a complete can of worms. I have yet to see any aftermarket upgrade that works better than the factory turbo's. Most of the guys in the turbo business are concentrated on making more power at the expense of driveability. Drag racing vs road racing. Sure you can put on a bigger compressor but it increase lag as it spools up more slowly. The new designs are much better in terms of reliability but a bigger turbo is not going to give you the driveability that you have now. You can make over 750 HP with the "LM" turbos. You can further increase power but it would not be a car you would want to drive on a road course. There are no aftermarket turbos that match the stock architecture and would require considerable fabrication to fit. The turbos are not holding the engine back, its the engine management. Add VP 109 octane and you will get almost a 70 HP increase. An Aquamist Water injection system will produce better results than adding larger intercoolers. Both will increase your power by allowing the engine to run more timing advance. The LM turbos are the only way to go unless you want to start from scratch. If you are going to do that, better build some new headers as the factory ones are tiny. Throw in a 3.5 liter conversion while you are at it. The car is working pretty hard for only 3 liters. Good luck!

 

What are your power goals? As others have said, even with newer technology if you run a larger turbo you will likely sacrifice some transient response.

Anyone have specs and compressor map for the stock turbos?

 

+1.

 

The 900+PS Michelotto:

http://www.myvideo.de/watch/394912/F40_GTE_Michelotto_Umbau

I think the owner is member here, car was for sale quite a while ago.

TOB

 

That is the ultimate F40. Racecar on the street. Engine tuning done in Germany with Bosch management system. A totally professional job with "LM" turbos. Only the bodywork is F40 GTE. Gotta love that rear wing and nose. A cracking bit of kit!