Building a new heat-resistant exhaust for a Ferrari 360 Modena race car

Internationally renowned photographer Mark has been working with TG for many, many years. When not taking photos he’s buying inappropriate cars. Here he shares his addiction with the world…

One of the problems with owning extremely specialist cars is that they require extremely specialist maintenance. And the problem with extremely specialist maintenance is it requires an extremely specialist attitude from an extremely specific mechanic.

That person is not and never will be me. I am hopeless with mechanicals and my patience goes from Philips screwdriver to hammer and chisel in roughly half a turn. The goals I set from a car are also slightly different to what it actually needs. And nobody knows that more than Paul at ICS Motorsport.

Paul does things properly. His main battle with the Ferrari isn’t stubborn bolts or wiring, it’s me. I enjoy making noise, being an idiot and putting cars in situations they were never designed for. Paul? His focus is speed and safety. So, when it came to changing the exhaust for something a bit spicier, his thought wasn’t Instagram stories... it was thermal management.

Those two words aren’t exactly clickbait. But they are important, especially when mucking about with a 22-year-old racecar that now has numberplates.

Its last owner did at least try with some heat wrap. Albeit not brilliantly because parts were coming undone and actually causing a fire hazard as opposed to suppressing heat. Needless to say, Paul wasn’t keen on this for the new exhaust. In fact, his exact words were “get it coated or it’s not going on”.

Zircotec is one of the longest-running brands for thermal management, but its expertise goes way beyond the silly world of racecars. The company has actually been around since the Seventies; initially tasked for creating heat barriers in the nuclear industry before hitting motorsport in 1994. But the firm’s coatings are used in agriculture, aviation and even EV batteries and vehicles.

The Ferrari 360 is one of its simpler jobs, but it’s still a mindboggling process that takes around 10 working days. Each part is inspected and masked up before the surface prep and grit blasting can begin. After this, the initial plasma spray begins with a metallic bonding coat – essential for the ceramic top coat (also plasma sprayed) to bond properly. Get all this right, and the coloured paint finish is added before oven curing and final inspection.

For the two exhaust manifolds and decat pipes, I’ve opted for Zircotec’s Performance Graphite finish which not only reduces surface temperature by up to 33 per cent, but also boasts a safe operating temperature right up to 900°C. The four exhaust tips have the same thermal benefits but come finished in Performance Solid Black for the simple reason that it looks really cool. But, if 900°C isn’t quite enough for you, then Zircotec’s Performance White will see you all the way to 1,400°C.

“One thing we’re seeing a lot more of is the use of our ZircoFlex heat shielding,” I’m told by Gareth Roberts from Zircotec. “We can add these to just about any system, and this technology is capable of reducing surface temperatures up to 85 per cent while being applied to heat sources up to 1,000°C. Aside from the temperature benefit, these help aid exhaust emissions and engine performance too.”

One of the benefits not listed on the Zircotec website is the happiness these coatings bring to people like Paul at ICS Motorsport. For once I’ve brought him a solution rather than a headache, and that can only be a good thing while the Ferrari is in many pieces. Especially as I might have just booked it on a track day in a few weeks’ time which he knows nothing about.