The Ferrari 430

RESERVE IT NOW !

The Ferrari F430 is a high-performance sports car produced by the Italian
automaker Ferrari to succeed the 360. It debuted at the 2004 Paris Motor
Show. European left-hand drive sales began in November 2004, but right-hand
drive sales did not start until Spring 2005, and the United States did not get
the F430 until Summer 2005.
 

RESERVE IT NOW !

RESERVE IT NOW !

Overview
The F430's chassis is heavily based on its predecessor, the 360. Also, the next car that will be after the F430 will be the F450. Internally,
both cars are referred to with the same model number (F131), though the F430 has the Evoluzione tag attached to show that it features
some major changes. Internally, the car is simply known as the "Evo".

The MSRP for a Ferrari F430 is between $168,005 - $227,000 in the United States. The F430 is sold starting at about £120,000 in the United Kingdom, approximately €175,000 in the European Union and $389,000 for the base model to $450,000 for the Spider F1 Sequential in Australia.

Design
The body has been redesigned to be more curvaceous and aerodynamic. Although the drag coefficient remains the same, down force has been greatly enhanced. A great deal of Ferrari heritage is found in the car: at the rear, the Enzo's tail lights and interior vents have been added. The car's name has been etched into the Testarossa-styled driver's side mirror. The large oval openings in the front bumper are reminiscent of Ferrari racing models from the 60s, specifically the 156 "Sharknose" Formula One car and 250 TR61 Le Mans cars of Phil Hill.

Engine
Along with a restyled body, the F430 features a 4.3 L V8 petrol engine derived from a shared Ferrari / Maserati design. This new power plant is a significant departure for the F430's line: The engines of all previous V8 Ferraris were descendants of the Dino racing program of the 1950s. This fifty year development cycle comes to an end with the entirely new 4.3 L, the architecture of which is expected to replace the Dino-derived V12 in most other Ferrari cars. The engine's output specifications are: 360.4 kW (483 hp) at 8500 rpm and 465 N·m (343 ft·lbf) of torque at 5250 rpm. The F430 will reach a top speed of 197mph.

Brakes
The brakes on the F430 were designed in close collaboration with Brembo . The result has been a new cast-iron alloy for the discs. The new alloy includes molybdenum which has better heat dissipation performance. Another option Ferrari is providing are carbon-ceramic discs. Ceramics have much higher resistance to heat and brake fade than metals, the F430's brakes offer not only good performance but also a longer lifespan. Ferrari claims the brakes will not fade even after 300-350 laps at their test track.

Features
The F430 includes the E-Diff, a computer-controlled limited slip differential which can vary the distribution of torque based on inputs such as steering angle and lateral acceleration.
Other notable features include the first application of Ferrari's Manettino steering wheel-mounted control knob. Drivers can select from five different settings which modify the vehicle's ESP system, "Skyhook" electronic suspension, transmission behavior, throttle response, and E-Diff. The feature is similar to Land Rover's "Terrain Response" system.

The Ferrari F430 was also released with exclusive Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD3 EMT tires. "A car with such performance needs to be equipped with the best tires on the market," said Jean Jacques Wiroth, European director of Original Equipment Sales and Marketing for Goodyear tires, adding "we are proud that Ferrari chose the Goodyear Eagle F1 with run-flat technology." The Eagle F1 GSD3 has a striking V-shaped tread design and One TRED technology.

Performance

Car and Driver magazine found the car's performance worthy of the Ferrari heritage, and recorded a 3.5 sec 0-60 mph acceleration run in the F430 This makes it the third-quickest Ferrari road car ever made, after the Enzo and the 599 GTB. That being said, the 3.5 second 0-60 run was made on a European spec car, which has launch control, a feature designed to help launch the car from a standing start at high RPMs. Much like the E-Diff and the manettino, the launch control is a technology borrowed from Ferrari's Formula 1 racing program. The launch control is unavailable in U.S.-spec F430s, presumably due to liability issues.

On the BBC Top Gear TV show, shown on the 17 July 2005, The Stig achieved a Power Lap time of 1:22.9. While the lap time was 0.89 seconds less than a Lamborghini Murciélago, the F430 was slower than the 360 Challenge Stradale at 1:22.3. The slower lap was blamed on the F430's Bridgestone tires supposedly having less grip than the Challenge Stradale's Pirelli's.

Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson has commented on the F430's handling being absolutely brilliant, a marked improvement over the 360; he claimed that Ferrari holds that "even the most butter-fingered, incapable driver could drive the F430 around their test track only one second slower than the most skilled test driver". He has in fact proclaimed, on more than one occasion, that the Ferrari F430 is "just about the best car I've ever driven", a status he previously attributed to the F355 (but never the 360).
The car develops about 300 kgf (2.9 kn) of down force at top speed (without rear wing).

Special versions: F430 Spider

The F430 Spider is the convertible version based on the coupé. The 430 Spider is Ferrari's 21st road going convertible. The Spider is - just like the coupé - quite similar in looks to the Ferrari 360. Despite the car's mid-mounted engine Ferrari's engineers found a way of creating a hood that automatically folds away inside the engine bay, thus ensuring purity of line. The striptease from a closed top to an open-air convertible is a two-stage folding-action that has been dubbed "a stunning 20 second mechanical symphony". After a short to and fro, the entire top disappears into a closed storage area between the seating and the engine. The interior of the Spider is identical to the coupé.

The F430 Spider joins the F430 as the latest addition to the new generation of Ferrari V8-engined sport cars. The Spider boasts all the F430's stunning technology, itself the product of a close working relationship with Ferrari's Sportiva F1 racing division.
The track is the Prancing Horse's finest research and development arena and the impact of the Scuderia's experience has had a huge impact on both the F430 Spider.
The F430 Spider's highly innovative aerodynamics, honed to generate special flows to increase downforce and improve cooling, and the F1 gearbox featuring upgraded software, are just two examples of how Ferrari's technological excellence has been seamlessly transferred from the track to road.
One of the most important new features introduced in the F430 was the electronic differential
( E-Diff ) initially developed by Ferrari for its F1 single-seaters and designed to male the most of the engine's torque to optimize traction. The handily placed steering wheel-mounted commutator switch ( better known to the Scuderia's drivers as the manettino ), which directly controls the integrated systems governing vehicle dynamics without distracting the driver, is another. The F430 Spider's light, compact 4,308 cc engine is completely new and gives the car its name. It punches out 490 hp (483 bhp) and delivers a specific power output of 114 hp/l and 465 Nm of torque.
Needless to say, performance is outstanding: acceleration speed in excess of 310 Km/h. Every area of the F430 Spider has been influenced by Formula 1. For instance, owners can order a braking system using carbon-ceramic discs which offer superior stopping power and give the driver the satisfying feeling of being in complete control of the vehicle even in the most demanding situations.
The F430 Spider's all-aluminum bodywork has also been carefully strengthened as has its chassis to guarantee both occupant safety and the structural rigidity demanded by a car as high performance as this.
Two very robust steel roll-bars are integrated into the windshield structure to guarantee maximum occupant protection. The electric hood is fully automatic and folds away completely into a very compact space indeed, so that the engine can be seen in all its glory at all times, despite the Spider's uncompromising central-rear engine layout.

As observant chroniclers of the automobile scene will note (along with students of Hollywood B-lists and Sunday-dinner fixings), midlife makeovers are not always good news. Alleged improvements are easy to count in the version 2.0-or, as we used to say, Mark 2-editions; we've got press releases just in case we miss them. But sometimes these revisions are harder to feel behind the wheel. Indeed, be they mortal or super, most cars are lucky to emerge from the face-lifting process no worse than they were before.

So welcome, first, the most exceptional of the many exceptional features of the new Ferrari F430 Spider, the just-launched revision of the Ferrari 360 Modena, which debuted in 1999. This follow-up is a striking exception to the rule, not only equaling but fairly blasting past the incredibly super model it updates. As if it suddenly had 483 hp and 343 lb-ft of torque at its disposal, which, of course, it now does. Not since the Z06 version of the C5 Corvette debuted in 2001 has a vessel already so exciting to drive gone in for a mid-ocean course correction and returned to steam so wickedly strong and so noticeably improved.

Outward refinements seem subtle on this most unsubtle machine, until you learn that the only carryover sheet metal is the doors. Plus, there are improvements to the wind-deflection system, a revised power convertible top, and new polished stainless-steel tailpipes. There's an updated instrument binnacle, a slimmer central tunnel, and a driver's-mirror shell now embossed to read "F430," just in case anyone was in doubt that yours was the latest and greatest example of a car that now costs about $200,000.

 

But the F430's biggest news lies under a glass cover, just behind the driver and just ahead of its nineteen-inch rear wheels, cradled in the exposed rails of a high-tech aluminum spaceframe.

Seven-tenths of a liter in additional cubic capacity doesn't sound like much, even if it does represent an almost 20 percent increase over the none-too-shabby 360 Modena's 3.6 liters. But it turns out the old adage about the lack of a suitable replacement for displacement holds as true for fancy-pants DOHC V-8 rev monsters crafted from aluminum by Italian artisans as its does for the V-8 rock crushers puked out by American factories in cast iron when the adage was new. The F430's larger-displacement V-8 and new four-valve cylinder heads serve up an additional 91 hp and 67 lb-ft of torque, shaving half a second off its 0-to-60-mph time (now about 4.0 seconds) and raising top speed to 193 mph.

Back home, of course, a red Ferrari driven in anger is a surefire invitation to the courthouse anywhere, anyplace, anytime. But in Italy- in the hills above Maranello, at least- it's an entirely different kettle of fettuccine.

 

We headed skyward at the suggestion of photographer Mark Bramley, who knew too well Ferrari's planned route for the U.S. journalists who were there to drive the F430, having negotiated the same course with a group of British scribes the week before. So, while I and the rest of the American journalists were busy letting out a collective gasp as our bus pulled into the Palazzo Ducale in Sassuolo to reveal a dozen topless F430s with keys in ignitions, Bramley was already plotting our escape. He had it in mind for us to take an intentional wrong turn out of the plaza, with no goals beyond driving hard for nine hours and rejoining the group at day's end, in the parking lot of the Galleria museum and gift shop adjacent to Ferrari's shrinelike Maranello factory. It sounded like a plan.

In the name of photographic possibility and to smooth our way through the Italian countryside, we were fortunate to detach German (pronounced "Herrman") Gilli, a Ferrari wrench and test driver, complete with company car-in this case, Italy's people mover of choice, the Fiat Multipla diesel. Gilli would serve as our guide, translator, and rabbit.

Initially, it proved hard, comically so, to keep pace with the Multipla, at least as conducted by the twenty-eight-year-old Gilli, who came to Maranello three years ago from his native Argentina. A man possessed, Gilli piloted the Multipla at breakneck speed most everywhere. Showcasing what we took to be local custom, he drove on the wrong side of the road and ignored solid lines as he shot apexes and overtook on blind corners. This in villages whose size, along with general notions of etiquette and the natural impulse toward self-preservation, would seem to have dictated hauling it down to a walking speed or facing the prospect of certain arrest.

F430 Pista
The F430 Pista (Pista means "Track" in Italian) is the racing version of the F430 for the Ferrari Challenge. The engine remains untouched but the vehicle's weight has been reduced and it can reach a top speed of 196 mph (315 km/h). The production model was unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto Show in January, 2006.

F430 GT2

Risi Competizione's Ferrari F430 GT2 at the American Le Mans Series' Generac 500.

Built to replace the 360 GTC in 2006, the GT2 is a racing car designed to compete in international GT2 class competition, such as in the American Le Mans Series, Le Mans Series, and FIA GT Championship. F430 GT2s also compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. They are the fastest and most developed racing versions of the F430. In FIA GT2 championship, in order to render the car performances more uniform, the cars are forced to run with a specific minimal weight and with an engine restrictor that depends on the engine displacement.Hence the 4.3 L V8 engine in GT2 races is destroked to 4.0 L in order to compete in the 3.8-4.0 L class, which is allowed to race with a minimum weight of 1100 kg (2425 lb).Using the 4.3 L engine, the minimum weight of the F430 would increase by 50 kg (110 lb).In this race configuration, the engine produces somewhat less power, but this is compensated by the lower car weight, which yields a better power/weight ratio. The F430 GT2s won their class championships in the ALMS and FIA GT, as well as scoring a class win at the 2007 12 Hours of Sebring^.

F430 GT3
Originally based on the F430 Pista, the F430 GT3 is a specialized racing car designed for the FIA GT3 European Championship, but also used in other national GT championships. It is mechanically similar to the F430 Pista, yet has some better developed aerodynamics, including large air exhaust vents in the hood.

Having a full 4.3 L engine the car is more powerful than the GT2 counterpart, however the GT3 rules require that the car has a weight/power ratio of about 2.6 kg/hp, hence the car has a minimium weight above 1200 kg (2646 lb) in race trim (driver and fuel excluded).^{[citation needed]} Considering the less developed aerodynamics, and about 10% of extra weight, the car is clearly slower than the GT2 version; for example in the 2007 Spa 24h race, in which both models were entered, the GT3 spec vehicle was about 8 seconds slower in its best qualification lap times than the GT2 spec vehicle.

430 Scuderia

 

Ferrari 430 Scuderia at 2008 NAIAS

Serving as the successor onto the 360 Challenge Stradale, the 430 Scuderia was unveiled by Michael Schumacher at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show. Aimed to compete with cars like the Porsche RS-models and Gallardo Superleggera, it is 100 kg (220 lb) lighter than the standard F430 and increases engine output to 375.4 kW (503 bhp) at 8500 rpm. Thus the weight-to-power ratio is reduced from 2.96 kg/hp to 2.5 kg/hp. In addition to the weight saving measures, the Scuderia semi-automatic transmission gains improved 'Superfast', known as 'Superfast2', software for faster 60 millisecond shift-times. A new traction control system combines the F1-Trac traction and stability control with the E-Diff electronic differential. The Ferrari 430 Scuderia does 0-62 mph (100 km/h) in less than 3.6 s, with a top speed of 198 miles per hour (319 km/h).