The phrase “shout it from the mountain tops” is meant to invoke imagery of someone proclaiming some heartfelt sentiment to everyone, whether acquainted or not. Usually used as a way of professing love for someone or something. In the case of this Zytek-powered Ferrari F355, it is the thing doing the shouting for which I have fallen smitten. This hillclimb car was built for competing in the Swiss hillclimb championship, and I’d be happy to drive it to the top of a mountain and shout right along with it.
This Ferrari has been racing hillclimbs in Europe for over 15 years, and its original Ferrari-built engine has been replaced with a de-stroked 4-liter Zytek (now called Gibson) naturally aspirated V8 with 520 horsepower and 387 lb/ft of torque. While you might expect an engine built in Derbyshire, England to be industrial and clattery like the little British engines of old, this brutal screamer was built for endurance prototypes and revs out to a mega 9,000 rpm.
NyyyyyyyyyyyyYYYYYYYYYYYYyyyyyyyoooooooooooooom. Crack crack crack pop pop crack snap snap boom. Nyyyyyyyy… And so on it goes.
Somehow driver René Ruch managed to get this delightful Fezza down to 2150 pounds from its stock 2975 pound weight. Where in a mid-engine Italian exotic sports car do you even find 800 pounds to strip out? Actually more than 800 pounds, as some of the weight was added back in to account for safety equipment. Goodness me. I adore this car, and the foolish speed demons who assembled it.
Everything sucks right now, and the cure to all that ails you can be found in the exhaust note of this tremendous Ferrari racer. When things are out of your control and you’re feeling downtrodden, try screaming along with this high-revving British V8 in an Italian chassis. I’m doing it right now, and I gotta say, it’s working.
NyyyyyyyyyyyyYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHGHGHGHGH.
Try it. Maybe it’ll help.
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