We have several customer segments – (a) our main stream, bread and butter maintenance and service customers, (b) our street performance upgrade customers, (c) our track addict customers, (d), our race / motorsport customers, and finally, (e) our street / show customers.
This project is about one of the latter (street /show car). It is a beautiful car to begin with, and it is indeed a little more unique in the Ferrari world due to it both being a Spyder AND the color of the car (California Blue….how appropriate).
But, it doesn’t jump off the page at you….you don’t walk away thinking (oh my gosh, that is an amazing car)….you are for sure thinking what a nice Ferrari…..so, the plan is afoot. How to make this car an amazing around town show car.
Here’s what we started with…the great canvas to develop the project / concept from.
We looked over the car, and noticed that the core color is so nice….that California Blue is just stunning, but the rest of the car didn’t tie in. The wheels, brakes, all the little support items didn’t tie in to create an integrated whole. So, that’s exactly what we set out to address – wheels, tires, brakes, engine compartment, interior enhancements.
The most visible part of the car were the wheels….so, we attached that part first…..and if you were going to add a new set of wheels to your Ferrari, what would you pick? There is only one style that goes well….the traditional open Y spoke design. But, in keeping with our design theme, we couldn’t just add a new set of wheels, we needed to have them in the right color….so these were custom painted (powder coat) in “sea foam metallic blue”, to add the matching color element, but still add some distinction to the look of the car.
But, what do you notice now? Do you see the integration of the wheels and the car, or the use of the Ferrari Yellow center car to match the Ferrari Yellow side badge? Or, are you eyes now able to see the brakes…..the RED brakes. Hmmm….that doesn’t seem like the right choice to truly integrate the colors on the car. We need to deal w those brakes….they are the wrong color, look a little weak….
We need to add some color…..we need to add some size…..we need to add some performance…..we need to have a set that incorporates the rear parking brake caliper as well (as this will continue to be a daily driver….so, no sacrificing of daily requirements versus performance…so, the parking brake has to be there, and it is not available on all Big Brake Kits (BBKs).
Now that we have the wheels, tires (Michelin), and brakes…there was one more thing to make the car have the right look….the suspension. We believe the current Ferrari suspension doesn’t have the right mix….its a little too high in ride height, its a little too stiff for a daily driver, and it doesn’t perform real well when you drive the car hard either….not a good combination of features. Therefore, new springs are called for (H&R Sport Springs)…so, off comes the stock spring and suspension, and on go the new springs.
But, this was meant to be a complete project….not just making the outside look nice….we wanted it all to look nice, and to fix some of the little minor items that bother us in the Ferrari.
If you are not familiar with the F360 (or the F430 or F458), one of the really sexy features of the car is the window into the rear engine compartment…..there is much to see there. Much to see…but not a lot to see that really is trick or cool or neat…so, there is an easy fix to that with the Carbonio Carbon Fiber intake system…..these indeed are something to look at. This is what the interior engine compartment looks like now –
Does that look exciting or sexy to you? If you have a Ferrari….it should look better than the way it comes stock….so, the receipt of the Carbonio is just what we needed…..
The car is starting to come together. The F360 had a much better transmission than the earlier F355 F1 transmission….and you love to hear the motor, and play w the gears. But, the orientation of the paddles (can anyone get this right???) makes the use of the transmission hard to do….don’t try shifting gears in the middle of a turn, even if you are just turning right from a stop sign. But, Carbonio has a solution for that without changing the basic design of the car….not only are these much more effective, and significantly increase the breadth of turning area where you can grab a gear up or down, they are darn pretty.
Here is what the OEM paddles look like, in orientation and size (these do NOT rotate w the turning of the steering wheel…they are where they are, so the amount of surface area is key to being able to enjoy the driving experience).
Here are the new paddles installed….you can now see how much more of the steering wheel area is covered, making the grabbing of a gear much easier….and due to them being CF, they don’t flex or bend when pulled.
But adding CF stuff to the interior is a dangerous move…once you start, where do you stop? Well, we didn’t want to stop w just the paddles, so we look to another part that would help tie the interior together, and found the cup holder.
Now we think we have a complete project – wheels, tires, springs, brakes, paddles, cup holder, custom alignment….and it all looks like a complete, integrated, color coordinated solution….Woo Hoo.
Now…we think we have a stunner here….
BRracing – what can we create for you?
