Ferrari Challenge Stradale, A Road Racer In Production

What would you buy if you wanted a car that was as close to a really hot 180 mph racing car as you could get? A Ferrari. Others come, and others go, and may produce some brilliant cars, but Ferrari just keeps on designing and building the most sensational cars for the road and race track.

Challenge Stradale (Challenge the road) is just that as near as you can get to a racer that you can buy as a production car. It has some pedigree, being based on the 360 Modena, the first of Ferari's new generation cars with an aluminum frame and superb V-8 engine.

Some informed observers have called it 'the most exciting car in the world', and as you'll see, it must be a top contender. Maybe some fantasy cars with 500-600 bhp compete, but they'll be hard pressed.

A true Italian beauty

This is also a stunningly beautiful car, with the characteristic twin air intakes at the sides of the front, and flowing lines. It is beautifully balanced from the side, with a fairly short nose and upswept wings. At the back, the rear end curves upwards in the middle to provide a different look which is highly practical it helps increase that down force.

Down force? At high speeds, the air flows over the body of a car separating ear the tail, and tending to lift it up the last thing you want. Down force can be created to reduce this effect and increase stability.

Compact and very powerful engine

As with all Ferrari's the story starts with the engines. Based on the 3.6 litre V-8 of the 360 Modena, which has 5 valves per cylinder, this unit has been tuned for power, but is not turbocharged, using methods from racing. It has the titanium connecting rods and four overhead camshafts of the less powerful engine.

Now, though, the Ferrari Challenge Stradale engine develops 425 bhp at 8,500 rpm, and is red lined at 10,000! Just imagine the noise this engine makes, as its taken up through the gears pure music! That's a lot of tire-screeching power for a compact, lightweight supercar. OK, so the 118.5 bhp/litre may not be quite up to the Honda S-2000 engine, but with 425 bhp on tap, who cares?

Gearbox like a Grand Prix car

To keep this in tune with its racing background, the engine is coupled to a six-speed sequential gearbox, just like on the Ferrari Grand Prix cars. There is no gear lever unlike on most sequential boxed but just a pair of buttons on the steering wheel. Separate buttons on the central console are used to get reverse. To suit different drivers, the gear shifts can be set for comfort or speed but either way, it'll be like driving a racing car.

On the other hand, you might want to dawdle slowly up the streets in your main town, waving to all the people you knew you certainly would if you were Italian!

Of course, the suspension is also close to the racing Ferraris. Springs and anti-roll bars are stiffer than normal. To cut weight, the springs are made from titanium. As a result, the car corners flatter than the already impressive 360 Modena, and skates through S-bends with hardly any roll. Just fantastic.

In testing, Ferrari has recorded a lateral acceleration of 1.3 g; in theory, of course, 1.0 g is the maximum, although racing cars get well beyond that. Must be something wrong with the theory; the practice is, well, incredible.

Aluminum structure for light weight

For good road holding, you need a stiff body structure, and the frame of the 360 Modena is a great starting point. Produced mainly from extrusions tubular shapes of all sorts of cress-sections and precision die castings, the frame is both very light and extremely rigid. It also has excellent crash absorption. To reduce weight and increase stiffness, the floor is made from carbon fiber composites, a material used for many small components. Weight is also reduced by the ceramic/carbon fiber brake discs.

Overall, the Ferrari Challenge Stradale's weight has been reduced by 240 lb (110 kg) compared with the 360 Modena. Among the minor changes made to reduce weight are the drilled brake and accelerator pedals, and the fact that they threw out the carpets. After all, racing cars don't have carpets!

So, when you wriggle into that seat that hugs you like an over-zealous girl friend and look at the steering wheel, which is slightly flattened like a racer, you feel you're in a true racer. This impression is heightened by the mark on the red top part of the steering wheel which shows you when the wheel is central, and by the music of the engine as you blip the throttle.

Well, this beauty will get to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds, cover the quarter mile in 12 seconds, and get to 120 mph in a touch more. Keep your foot down, and make a few more shifts, and the Challenge Stradale will whizz up to 186 mph if you can find the room. This is one super fast supercar, but you just need a lot of room to get to over 180 mph in anything. Of course, with a car of this class, you'll get more fun hustling round twisty and curving roads than you would blasting flat out to 180 mph.