Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale

For years, from the old 166 or 250 GT sport saloons to, somewhat later, with the GTO or F40, Ferraris have remained Spartan in terms of their trim, even though they had luxurious touches, to focuse entirely on performance in which every single gram of excess weight was eliminated. The other distinctive characteristic is the red body colour, an unmistakable sign of a Maranello car. But by the early '90s this way of conceiving cars seemed rather limited. Owning a Ferrari must give all-round pleasure and so any decision to limit comfort, usability and interior space excessively no longer made sense. The same went for colours. This change of thinking led to models like the 456 GT and 550 Maranello (and today's 575M Maranello), or the F355 and, later, 360 Modena eight-cylinder models. Ten years on, this progressive mutation has now given way to a certain feeling of nostalgia for a Ferrari with no frills, which models like the F50 and Enzo have continued to express even though they were produced in limited runs. With the Challenge Stradale Ferrari again proposes the very essence of a racing car. Only features that were absolutely essential to the performance and safety were built into the car; the rest were left out. The end result is an extremely lightweight, fast sports saloon, with a true racing-style set-up and impeccable handling: a model offering top-level performance that incorporates experience gained over the many thousands of kilometres covered by drivers in Challenge Championships throughout the world and advanced testing with the 360 GTs that have participated in the FIA World Championship. There's a choice of two Challenge Stradale versions: a more extreme one with racing seats and sliding windows, last used on the F40, and another, fitted with lighter, wrap-around, leather seats and wind-down windows.

The Challenge Stradale builds on aerodynamic concepts employed on the 360 Modena by taking advantage of the racing set-up (stiffer and lower) and adopting specific solutions that have led to a gain of 50% in vertical load compared with the 360 Modena. The results are extremely significant: at 200 km/h the load increase is about 40 kg for a gain corresponding to the effect of a wing with 15 cm chord length and 1.8 m span. Despite such a significant increase in vertical load, after all the modifications and adjustments to set-up the car has a Cd equal to that of the 360 Modena (Cd = 0.335). Four types of intervention were adopted to improve aerodynamics on the Challenge Stradale:

• Front section: modification of the bumper, which now extends below the air intakes to increase load at the front but without disrupting airflow toward the rear.
• Aerodynamic study of the car's underside and rear section: with the result of an increase in height at the rear and introduction of longitudinal fins to balance the load. The decision was also taken to modify the rear nolder to achieve greater efficiency by adopting a shape more appropriate to the function.
• Drag and modification of the sills: the new shape streamlines the rear wheels more completely and contributes significantly to improving the car's efficiency and balance. The combined result of these interventions is that compared with the 360 Modena, drag has remained unchanged, so leading to a significant increase in efficiency.

1. Optimisation of the compression ratio by means of additional work on components involved in it (heads, pistons)
2. Optimisation of the engine's fluid dynamics, by means of the following interventions:
   • use of an intake manifold with inserted stacks and burnished ducts, in addition to burnishing the intake ducts and head exhaust;
   • optimisation of the section and head of the intake manifold coupling;
   • use of a specific intake timing;
   • use of a new low-load loss, airflow meter;
   • new low counter-pressure exhaust silencer.
3. Optimisation of mechanical performance was achieved by means of the following interventions:
   • selection of low-friction cylinder blocks;
   • new positioning of valve-springs.

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