Posted 12.03.03
Filed under: Ferrari

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Ferrari Challenge Stradale gallery: 10 photos >>

Ferrari Challenge Stradale: World premiere in Geneva

With the Challenge Stradale, Ferrari again proposes the very essence of a racing car. Every feature that in no way improves performance and safety has been reduced to the minimum or eliminated.

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 GT ? World Championship.

There‘s a choice of two Challenge Stradale versions: a more extreme version one with racing seats and sliding windows, and another, fitted with lighter, wrap-around, leather seats and wind-down windows.

The new Ferrari Challenge Stradale lines up alongside the 360 Modena and 360 Spider with the precise aim of giving drivers the performance and feel of a true racing car for road use.

This aim meant Ferrari technicians gave exclusive preference to Ferrari Challenge and 360 GT racing-type solutions for all aspects of the car and every single performance parameter, the combination of which gives this car its highly individual character.

The starting point was aerodynamics, where the aim was to obtain increased vertical load, or downforce (which gives more speed when cornering rather than a higher top speed), and followed by then all the vehicle-specific features (transmission, set-up and braking, in particular the introduction of carbon-ceramic brakes as standard). And finally, that determining factor for all racing cars - achieving the lowest possible weight.

In fact the car‘s drastic weight loss reduction is one of the most significant achievements of the Challenge Stradale project: the weight was reduced lowered by incorporating racing solutions for every single one of the car‘s components, in addition to the benefit of using only aluminium to build the chassis, just like the other 360 models. it.

Exterior and Aerodynamics

The Challenge Stradale builds on aerodynamic concepts employed on the 360 Modena by taking advantage of the racing suspension set-up (stiffer more rigid 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 metre 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).

Three? Four areas feature in the types of intervention were adopted to improved aerodynamics ofon the Challenge Stradale.

In addition to the changes interventions outlined so far, the focus on the Challenge Stradale‘s aerodynamics and styling has been enhanced by a painstaking review of all technical details of the project: 360 GT-style aerodynamic, carbon mirrors, new 19" wheels with a Challenge-type design.

Weight Reduction

Careful project development has led to a Challenge Stradale car weight that is fully 110 kg less than the 360 Modena, achieved by concentrating on three complementary areas spheres: materials, construction technology and project optimisation.

The basic material used to build the Challenge Stradale is aluminium, as is was already the case for the 360 Modena and Spider. Aluminium has been used for both body components and, above all, the space frame, a combination of castings, extrusions and plates. This initial approach towards drastically reducing the Challenge Stradale‘s weight already made it extremely competitive (compared with the 360 Modena) given that the basic material used, aluminium, has a specific weight one third of that of steel.

Starting from this base new developments were introduced specifically for the Challenge Stradale. Titanium, already used for the piston rods, was also adopted for parts of the suspension, in particular for the wheel bolts (a 50% weight reduction) and damper springs (a 27% weight reduction).

Carbon technology, derived directly from Formula 1 and used extensively on Ferrari limited-run road cars, is was employed here for the first time on an 8-cylinder car.

For the Challenge Stradale it has been used for both structural parts (door panels, racing seat shells, filter-box covers) and for interior and exterior trim features.

A particularly advanced construction technology was adopted for the car‘s floorpan. This involves impregnating the resin with multi-axial carbon fibres in a vacuum in order to obtain the necessary rigidity, but which simultaneously leads to a 50% reduction in the weight of the floorpan itself.

A key factor in the search for the best weight-performance ratio for the Challenge Stradale was adopting a braking system comprising carbon-ceramic (CCM) discs developed for Formula 1 combined with aluminium brake carriers as standard equipment.

In terms of weight, the reduction achieved on the Challenge Stradale as a result of CCMs is 16% compared with conventional brake discs, but given that the weight eliminated affects unsuspended masses, its contribution to the car‘s performance is can be assumed to be even more significant.

Racing Interiors

Only the essential remains Essentiality - in the most specific meaning of the term - is the dominant characteristic of the Challenge Stradale‘s interior, right from the elimination of unnecessary features like carpeting and mats, to a racing-style interpretation for every single feature.

The rev counter located right in the centre of the instruments becomes the driver‘s main point of reference, emphasised by the yellow graphics and red indicator that ensure optimum contrast and legibility. The entire panel is enclosed within a carbon-fibre element that also houses secondary instruments and other telltales.

The new steering wheel, with a squashed crown in the upper section fitted with a sight just like on the racing version, has F1 gear-change paddles, the right one having been lengthened to facilitate changing up when pulling out of corners.

The car is fitted with carbon fibre-structure racing seats upholstered with a high-grip textile.

Door panels are made entirely of carbon fibre, as is the central tunnel, which has been designed to house all the car‘s main controls - ignition button, reverse gear button, dynamic vehicle settings (race, launch control, ASR excluder) within easy reach of the driver.

The car can be fitted with either 3-point attachment or 4-point racing attachment racing seat belts and an aluminium roll-bar that‘s 40% lighter than a conventional type, developed specifically for the Challenge Stradale.

Engine

The Challenge Stradale is equipped with the existing previous 360 Modena 90° V8 engine mounted centrally behind the cabin in a longitudinal configuration as a single block together with the gearbox and differential. Peak power output of the V8 engine has been raised to 425 bhp at 8,500 rpm to give an exceptional power rating that exceeds 118.5 bhp/litre, which makes it the most powerful normally-aspirated V8 ever built by Ferrari. The extremely high peak torque remains unchanged at 373 Nm (275 lbft) at 4,750 rpm.

On the mechanical front, couplings for rotating parts in the Challenge Stradale‘s V8 have been carefully selected and this has led to a significant improvement in performance.

F1 Gearbox

The entire development of the Challenge Stradale was based around the F1-type electro-hydraulic transmission that controls the clutch and gearbox by means of blades integral with the steering column - a trademark of Ferrari cars and a solution developed specifically for racing.

The increase in precision guaranteed by the new control strategy applied specifically to this car, and also by a faster processing speed, has reduced gear-change time throughout the entire range of use, with a minimum of 150 milliseconds when using the super-performance option.

The available gear-change configurations are consistent with the car‘s top-level sporting profile and so only include manual gear-change operated by the driver using F1-type paddles (there is no automatic gearbox option).

The reverse gear is engaged by means of a button on the central tunnel.

There are two gear-change configurations (Sport and Race): each of these configurations corresponds to an integrated car-control logic as regards damper set-up and traction control (ASR).

In "RACE" mode and with the ASR disengaged there‘s also a "launch control" strategy as used in Formula 1, a feature specially designed to give drivers a high-performance start in good grip conditions.

Chassis Components, suspension, set-up, wheels

The Challenge Stradale has been derived from the 360 Modena and maintains the same basic approach and architecture.

However significant changes have been made to the suspension system and set-up. The titanium front and rear springs are stiffer more rigid than on the 360 Modena (around +20%), and whereas the rear anti-roll bar has a larger diameter. These interventions have increased resistance to roll and to dip and in general terms have made reaction to direction changes more rapid, giving the driver a more direct feel of the car.

Damper settings have been reviewed and defined specifically for this model. The car‘s centre of gravity has been lowered by 15 mm.

The tyres are Pirelli P Zero Corsa type - this new Pirelli super-low profile tyre adopted specifically for the Challenge Stradale measures 225/35 at the front and 285/35 at the rear and is fitted on 19" Challenge-style wheels secured by titanium bolts. The choice of these tyres exclusively for the Challenge Stradale confirms the effectiveness of cooperation between two of motoring‘s historic brands, not only in the case of the Ferrari Challenge-Pirelli Trophy but also in the FIA GT Championship. A long series of tests carried out together with Pirelli has identified a tyre compound and tread design that maximises torque transfer red to the road surface and produces very high lateral acceleration (1.3 g) while maintaining superb balance between the two axles. The innovative characteristics of this tyre, which makes de its world debut at the Geneva Show together with the Challenge Stradale, means grip can be adjusted to suit the thermal conditions under which the tyre must perform.

Carbon Ceramic Brakes

The braking system on the Challenge Stradale comprises carbon-ceramic (CCM, Carbon Composite Material) discs: the result of highly advanced studies conducted by Ferrari in conjunction with Brembo, the supplier of this system.

Dimensions of the brake discs are as follows:

front: 380 mm diameter x 34 mm thickness; and a differentiated-diameter, 6-piston calliper;

rear: 350 mm diameter x 34 mm thickness; and a differentiated-diameter, 4-piston calliper

The carbon-ceramic system installed on the Challenge Stradale, together with the aluminium brake carriers, makes for astounding performance and short braking distances. levels.

In terms of weight, the reduction achieved for the Challenge Stradale is 16% when compared with conventional brake discs.

Overall deceleration rates for the Challenge Stradale are 15% better than for the 360 Modena.

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