The Ferrari Circuit Challenge: 626pp F430 Challenge clone

[Tommy_D]

Well, I did one of these for the Porsche Cup Races and thought it would be fun to make a Ferrari version since there are the Ferrari Circuit Challenge events. Based on what Ferrari cars are available and what of these cars may be missing from the game, I made a F430 Challenge clone to run in the events.

Search “F430 Challenge” in the Showcase section and you can download my livery.

Now, there isn’t a ton of information on the F430 Challenge cars. Most sites say they have the same HP and torque as the stock F430, yet they have upgraded intakes and exhausts. Hmm…. I couldnt find any dyno sheets online to check if my power curves are accurate to the car, but I managed to get the power numbers in line with the power numbers I found on Wikipedia. I also did the weight reduction like the car has and needed to add a bit of ballast back to match the weight of the real life car.

Apparently the gearing in the Challenge cars is the same as the factory car for the first 4 gears but 5th and 6th have been changed and the final drive was adjusted IRL, so after a small amount of testing I went with the customizable manual transmission and made the appropriate adjustments. The car tops out in the 190’s unless you have a big tail wind.

After that I gave it an adjustable suspension but not the fully customizable suspension. Just the height adjustable suspension. I figured Ferrari wouldn’t send you home with 10 different front and rear sway bars if you bought one of these. The car doesn’t need them anyway. It drives great with this suspension.

The one caveat I made was the tires. Yes, this car would come with racing slicks from the factory. However, in testing the races are a complete joke with RH tires on the car. You get in to first place in just a few laps and run solo the rest of the way. That’s no fun. So I put on sport medium tires to make the races harder. The car is slippery like the GT4RS but it has a lot better high speed traction than the Porsche. It still drives really well with these tires.

Here is the tune:

No aero, wide/wide center lock wheels, tow hooks

As for the races, they are all pretty engaging. Boy, does the AI like to block the racing line. The bobbing and weaving I had to do at Lake Maggiore was glorious. Anyway, I didn’t win them all, but they were close races:

Best of luck to you all. Have a good drive.

Edit: If you want to have more fun with this car, put on some RH tires (making it a true Challenge car), increase the natural frequency of the suspension accordingly and go race against the Gr.4 cars. This is a really competative vehicle against them. You need to run at FM5 if you want your fuel to last anywhere close to theirs, but you have very similar braking, accelerating and handling as the Gr.4 cars do. I just did LeSarth and missed the win by 2 seconds and just finished a custom 10 lap race at Dragontrail Seaside (8x fuel and tires) and won by 3 seconds. I grid started in 10th.

It’s a fun car.

 

[Akers]

Great work!
I did something similar myself, but used the Scuderia edition as a base, as I felt the stripped out nature of the Scuderia was a closer staring point for a Challenge, despite the difference in the front air dams (which I prefer). I opted for Racing suspension, as the Challenge has significantly stiffer and lower suspension than a road edition, in terms of both ARBs, and springs as well as modded dampers.
I also opted for custom body parts, as while they weren't factory fitted, you'll be hard pressed to find one IRL that doesn't have aero upgrades, such as the FF Corse Aero Kit, and it looks great too!

One thing I noted on your build spec was the 'Normal' brakes, whereas the Challenge cars came equipped with Carbon-Ceramic brakes as standard.
Nice addition of the BBE RE-CL rims on your build. I think these are as close as you can get to the centre-locks the Challenge was fitted with. 👍

 

[Tommy_D]

Great work!
I did something similar myself, but used the Scuderia edition as a base, as I felt the stripped out nature of the Scuderia was a closer staring point for a Challenge, despite the difference in the front air dams (which I prefer). I opted for Racing suspension, as the Challenge has significantly stiffer and lower suspension than a road edition, in terms of both ARBs, and springs as well as modded dampers.
I also opted for custom body parts, as while they weren't factory fitted, you'll be hard pressed to find one IRL that doesn't have aero upgrades, such as the FF Corse Aero Kit, and it looks great too!

Yeah, you can do this, I suppose. I was trying to mimic the one from the Ferrari website so that required the regular F430 as a starting point. Unfortunately, none of the exhaust options in GT7 shift the exhaust where the license plate is like the real-life Challenge, but I guess beggars can't be choosers. And even though most people would add aero parts to their own Challenge cars, again, I was going for matching the one on Ferrari's website. The car already has plenty of high speed downforce and grip without adding any aero, so I wasn't concerned about adding any. If the car had terrible grip at high speeds I would have been forced to add aero parts to help keep the car planted.

One thing I noted on your build spec was the 'Normal' brakes, whereas the Challenge cars came equipped with Carbon-Ceramic brakes as standard.

The regular F430 comes with carbon ceramic brakes from the factory in the game, so no need to upgrade. I'm not sure what the Scuderia comes with in the game. Maybe they are regular steel brakes and upgrading to carbon becomes required.

Nice addition of the BBE RE-CL rims on your build. I think these are as close as you can get to the centre-locks the Challenge was fitted with. 👍

They were the closest I could find. They are almost spot on with the exception of the real ones having a bit more of a concave look to them. But these get the job done.