Ferrari 458 Italia GT2

[herman]

can somebody post pics of the damage? how come it's just in one particular spot?

[cowboysir]

From what I've seen of some FB posts, the front splitter can crack at the front and split the "air intake" area at the bottom giving it a "smiley mouth".

[Sammich]

i'll try to take one when i get home, i think it's just a bad spot to put the clip, even thought that's the only place to put it..but the area it's in, if you look, it's a thin area, so i dont think it takes much to destroy it. i mean i can pop it back and drive around w/o it popping out and what not, but i did tht once and well..now i ahve a crack around my headlight. so it's off the track until i solidify it

edit: took this from hrdvr's FB:

[Juggler]

Hmmm....i had two breaks in different spots...i'll post pics later!

[Sammich]

Hmm...ok...because truthfully i dont remember hitting the wall straight on when that body broke at that spot, or showed itself broke at that spot, i remember sideswiping the wall pretty hard

[arch2b]

eh, not the first one to suffer from structural weak points at the nose and won't be the last. especially with these getting thinner and thinner (as costs go up and up).

[Sammich]

trying to decide if i should get another body and just lay a small layer of epoxy on it from the jump. i do love how it drives

[Traveler]

Pedro, are you seeing this? You know what I'm thinking!

[pedrocamp]

Yea, I'll draw something up when I get that body, looks like it needs more than flat plate.

[Sammich]

yall thinking of reinforcing from the rear portion? or trimming the lip and adding a stronger diffuser

[krazy_miniZ]

A fellow club member also cracked same smiley face into his 458.

No on selling the white body but nice try.

I think they getting thinner for lightness for more agility around track and speed and not the cost of the material getting to expensive for another gram or 2 of material.

458 for show
R8 for go

Maybe I might be willing to trade the 458 for a R8.

[arch2b]

Originally Posted by krazy_miniZ

...I think they getting thinner for lightness for more agility around track and speed and not the cost of the material getting to expensive for another gram or 2 of material....

just pointing out that they are indeed reducing overall mass while increasing cost. 2+ grams per body on a 1000+/- unit production run adds up though and i'm sure every gram counts.

it's unfortunate that this body ends up being one of the brittle ones but i'm sure that will not stop most. there are many others that suffer the same structural deficiencies and people always find a way to make it work

i'm hoping i can get the weight down with the lexan window. right now the white body is 10+ grams heavier than my R8 with lexan window. i was hoping Atomic would release one before going with the PN offering.

[Sammich]

i hope with this body being fragile they dont stop producing white bodies like they did w/ the R8s

[arch2b]

off topic- i have not heard anything about ending production of the R8, where was that seen/reported? there have been licensing issues with certain models in the past. production runs in general have been getting smaller as the price increases have reduced sales. it's a vicious cycle where kyosho raises prices for whatever reasons (hinted at rising manufacturing costs) which reduce sales so manufactured numbers are reduced possibly raising manuf. costs per run as they are not spread over a larger number and it just continues to spiral... the facts are; 1. production runs have declined. 2. dealer costs have risen. the rest is conjecture, informed opinion, etc.

as i've mentioned elsewhere, if you see a body you want, buy it soon and if necessary, in duplicate. i like to buy white bodies in pairs for example. you simply never know when or if kyosho will ever do another run. i to am looking for another R8.

[Sammich]

sorry for the bad wording, i think i did hear of them making R8s again, but they 'stopped' for a while...i do plan to buy AT LEAST one more 458 white body, maybe 2. waiting on my real car to make it out of the shop right now