This is an original Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale V8 engine from 2004 that suffered a camshaft failure, this resulted in some of the valves and pistons meeting in the left hand cylinder bank, resulting in severe damage to the cylinder head and some damage to the cylinder liners.
The Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale was a more track-focussed version of the regular Ferrari 360 Modena, it was fitted with a higher-performance version of the naturally aspirated Ferrari V8 engine (F131). This engine is a 90° V8 with a capacity of 3.6 litres (3,586 cc), double overhead cams per bank, five valves per cylinder, a compression ratio of 11.2:1, a red line of 8,650 rpm, and it produced 419 hp at 8,500 rpm with 275 ft lbs of torque at 4,750 rpm.
Although Ferrari made a name for themselves with V12s and horizontally-opposed 12s, many of the company’s most iconic models have been fitted with V8s including the Ferrari 288 GTO, the Ferrari F40, and of course, the Modena 360.
As the engine now stands it’s a display piece that’s likely destined to be turned into a coffee table with a glass top, or a conversation piece in someone’s garage. It probably is possible to resurrect the engine however it would need a new left hand cylinder head, new liners, and all new internals – and that would just be the beginning of the rebuild.
The age of naturally aspirated, non-hybrid supercars is rapidly drawing to a close due to increasingly stringent emissions regulations – this means that engines like the one you see here likely won’t be built for much longer.
The engine comes with all of its external parts in place, so there’s no outward sign of the damage contained within. It would be interesting to have the damaged left cylinder head lifted and flipped over to show the damage if it is made into a coffee table, as it’d be even more of a conversation piece.
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
