After discovering Maserati, Lancia and Lamborghini monsters in Italy, Austria and faraway Australia, let's return to France! Vincent Lagache is a hill-climb racer from Vy-lès-Lure (Haute-Saône), who raced VHC (historic competition vehicles) for a long time, on R5 Turbos among others, before switching to modern cars. An automotive restorer since 2009, Vincent Lagache has never hidden his immoderate love of Italian beauties, which was to prompt him to acquire a Ferrari 458 Challenge for the 2016 season. After a spell in the VHC, he finally returned to the modern GTTS/Production category from 2023, with a new custom-built car: a Ferrari a unique F430, which, after modification, was named F430 "GTO", in a nod to the famous Ferrari 250 acronym.
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Thanks to the great freedom granted by the hill-climb regulations, it was then possible to modify it as one wished: "The regulations allowed us to develop this car, which dates back to 2008, but on which we can make numerous modifications".
In 2022, Vincent Lagache took part in the French Mountain Cup Final with this Ferrari F430. I knew I'd have to dismantle it, and I thought I had an opportunity to make it into a much more advanced car. So I looked at the regulations and went for it.
The Ferrari F430 was stripped down to its bare bones and beefed up with an in-house body kit. This also made it possible to change the tire size, from the original 19" to the 18" identical to those found on most cars competing in the GTTS/4 category. A polyester body was then built, with the major innovation of removable fenders and easy-to-change front and rear panels, making work on the car much easier.
The Ferrari V8 gains almost 300 hp!
They also set about fitting new shock absorbers and brakes, but the hardest part remained: the engine, which the driver had not yet worked on. He was advised to get a sharper engine. The original powertrain remained, namely the F136-type 4.3L 90° V8, which initially delivered 490 bhp at 8500 rpm, but the naturally-aspirated engine was converted to twin-turbo and validated with the technical commissaires, with 720 bhp under the hood.
For the 2025 season, Vincent Lagache has introduced an F430 GTO EVO, whose power output has been increased from 720 to 760 hp and 780 Nm of torque, thanks in particular to the installation of air/water intercoolers cooled by a dry ice circuit, enabling intake temperatures to be lowered! With the system mounted at the rear above the engine compartment, this video clearly gives the F430 GTO an air of the famous DeLorean from Doc's Back to the Future!
A new supercharger management system has also been installed, increasing turbo rotation by 22,000 rpm, while reducing turbolag.
Promising results
In the end, with its fiber body + a race-style slimming treatment, the GTO weighs just 1220 kg on the scales, including driver and full tank of fuel. Empty, it weighs in at around 1100 kg for 760 hp, giving a power-to-weight ratio of 1.44 for an engine that develops 177 hp/liter! All that remains to be done is to fully control the beast and transfer the power to the ground. 5e then 6e of his category in the French Cup for the 2023 and 2024 seasons, Vincent Lagache has continued to make progress this year, taking part in several regional and national events, and winning the Ormont hill-climb.
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