OK, first of all let's talk about the Ferrari. I ran my 360 spider on the track before I bought a Challenge car, and it's a blast. The street car is actually MUCH safer than the race car, because street tires will give you plenty of warning before breaking loose. Slicks don't. The 360 Challenge is definitely not for novices, it's a real handful with a steep and scary learning curve (I'm not implying that you are a novice), but you'll really enjoy the spider. Just remember: YOU HAVE NO ROLL CAGE, and crazy things happen, so start out easy. I no longer track the spider because I got tired of repainting the front end, even with 3M Stoneguard. Now I use it just for cruising. It has the best brakes of any production car I have ever driven. But pump your tires up 4 lbs. over factory settings and listen to them. When the squeal becomes a howl you are at the limit. I have even tracked my Dino, and while it's a bit underpowered, it's a blast to drive on a track.
I just got back from Watkins Glen, my first outing with the SPF Daytona coupe. I had a blast, even with street tires. The torque on a 427 is incredible. Doesn't Roush use an MSD ignition? If so, just plug in a 6000 RPM Soft-touch limiter. I knew about the oversteer problems, so I ran 36 psi front and rear cold (40 hot), and did not have any oversteering problems. If your car is constantly oversteering, raise the front tire pressure and lower the rear. I happen to think that the factory recommended psi settings are way too low for any kind of performance tire. Try slowly increasing pressure in fronts and rears over a few days, KEEPING FRONT AND REAR PRESSURES THE SAME!!, and see what happens. You might be very happy at 32-36 cold. This alone can cure most of your oversteer. The reason you are not hearing anything from your tires before breakaway is that they are not "working" at 24-26 psi, or even 29 psi. Those pressures are fine for street driving, but that's about it.
The power steering pump insisted on boiling over every 10 minutes, filling the car with fumes, and spraying ps fluid all over the engine compartment. Since it's flammable, and sits about 2 inches from the headers this is a bad thing. It got so hot that the plastic cap on the reservoir just kind of turned into taffy, so we clamped it back on with a hose clamp, and it ran great for an hour, until the pump failed totally in the middle of turn 9 and locked up the steering. A very interesting moment in my racing history.
Removing the cap revealed a melted dipstick twirled into a spiral shape by the fluid motion. Plus a lot of pieces of plastic floating around in the fluid. The plastic got into the pump, and most likely into the rack as well.
So I call Dennis Olthoff who immediately tells me that the pulley design is faulty, and is spinning the pump so fast that it's boiling over and melting everything. Wish I knew that beforehand. Anyway, he is sending me a special kit with an underdriven pulley that will cure the problem and reduce the steering ratio at the same time (the ratio is WAY too light for any feedback). I'm also adding a billet pump and reservoir. You'd think some engineer would have done his homework on pulley ratios back at the factory.
He also told me to shave the rear roll bar to 7/8" to cure the oversteer, which I'll do, even though I can cure it with tire pressures and some throttle steer. I also ordered a set of front splitters from him. The nose does like to lift over 120.
Alignment setup is crucial. Use the new front upper control arms and get max castor, camber, and toe-it really helps. You can also lower the ride height a bit.
The other thing that really sucks are the temp. gauges. My
oil temp read a constant 300 degrees, yet I am still here, and the water pump read 190 on the track, but 270 within 2 minutes after pitting. My pyrometer showed both
oil and water at 180-190 into the radiator, and 160-170 back to the engine. So I ordered new gauges and senders. Might go to a Stack dash. I believe the speedo is also off, because I was playing tag with a buddy, and he clocked 155-160 down the back straight with me right behind him, but my speedo never went over 125. The brakes are also nothing to write home about, but then again I'm used to Ferrari race brakes. I'm going to go to EBC Yellowstuff front and rear, flush the system with Motul or ATE, and get some cryo treated slotted rotors made up. If that doesn't do it, it's off to Wilwood or Brembo. The stock PBR brakes are decent, but I don't love sliding calipers in the first place.
In general a lot of fun, VERY unique-I had crowds around me all the time and everyone loved the car. Extremely rigid chassis, monstrous torque all the way through the power band which I think you will either love or hate depending on your driving style,(actually scary sometimes if you get on it a bit early out of a turn), and a bulletprof engine (with the Accusump). Could be a real contender once the steering and brake issues are worked out, and I fit some slicks to it and get some decent gauges. Make sure Roush doesn't make the same mistake with the ps pump. They build excellent engines, but very few of us are tracking these cars, so no builder is getting much high speed feedback.
Now I just need an SCCA class to run it in.
Be careful and enjoy yourself.