Video: 360 Challenge Stradale is the best-sounding Ferrari V8

14th August 2024

Ethan Jupp

What is the best-sounding Ferrari of all time? Isn’t that a tough question, given this is a company whose cars are famed for their vocals. The V12s are obviously up there, but in hot contention from its line of mid-engined V8s is the 360 Challenge Stradale. No V8 before it and no V8 since – not even the 458 Speciale – has produced quite such a guttural howl. It’s on this sound that we find ourselves gorging today.

Sat on a near-abandoned stretch of rural road, snaking through a snowy forest, this Argento Challenge Stradale has been rigged up with microphones and cameras, to perfectly capture the sights and sounds. Here is what its really like, to grab a CS by the scruff and chase the horizon. You can hear the idiosyncrasies of that 3.6-litre V8 with its unique bi-modal exhaust system. The ferocity with which it revs is only exacerbated by the less than ideal levels of grip, as the tyres struggle to deploy its 400PS (294kW) to the floor. You can hear the slight delay in shift times, working as the 360 does with a mid-generation single-clutch hydraulically-actuated automated manual transmission. It was probably the first of them to be somewhat good in terms of shift speed, but hindsight shows us they’re still far from ideal.

So, between this, the 458 Speciale, the 430 Scuderia and the 355, which gets your vote for best-sounding Ferrari V8. Does the CS have a shot at best-sounding Ferrari? We’d go as far as to say it’s in the top five.

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