30th September 2008

Ferrari 430 Scuderia on New Car Net

The New Car Net website this week, sees Graham Whyte review the 430 Scuderia. He concludes that “adding lightness” really works for this type of car:
 
'Minimalist' the cockpit of the Ferrari is Minimalist to the point of there being no carpets, and the lightest possible door trims and real weight-savings are far more technical. Hollow anti-roll bars, titanium springs and wheel nuts, lighter shock-absorbers, and a lighter steering box. Carbon fibre is widely used for all manner of bits, along with lightweight materials for various parts of the external trim.
 
A higher compression ratio delivers an increase in torque, and greater flexibility. Some 80 per cent of the rated peak torque of 470 Nm occurs from just 3000 rpm, which makes the Ferrari much more tractable than you might imagine of a car designed primarily for track use.

Whyte said “In pursuit of lightness, Ferrari has not gone as far as eliminating the radio, or on the test car, satellite navigation. The former is quite wasted, however. I cannot imagine any serious driver wanting to listen to a wireless when playing just behind the cockpit is an anthem to engineered performance. Acceleration, engine-load, revs, road-speed, lift-off, upchanges, down-changes: each action, each condition, has its own voice, combining intake chiff and exhaust note in a symphony of sound, compared to which the output of the Bose sound system is mere noise.
 
And why bother with sat-nav? As long as you can find the Route Napoleon, you've cracked it. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to motor down to the Alpes Maritimes, and instead had to content myself with the roads that meander alongside and across the South Downs. Some of those roads are pretty tortuous, but the Scuderia treated them all with disdain, as if to say: "I spit on your B2381, give me the Nurburgring."
 
The legal limit from standstill can be made in about four seconds, but the greatest pleasure is derived from the stab 'n' go mid-range punch. New 'parallelization' technology means that as gear changes occur, a number of things happen almost simultaneously; torque is reduced, the clutch is disengaged, cogs are swapped, the clutch is released, and torque re-applied. At full chat, all those things happen in about 60 milliseconds. Conseqently Ferrari calls its new transmission F1-Superfast2.
 

Despite the noise, the speed, the bare cockpit, and raw appeal, there is nothing primeval about the car itself. The 430 Scuderia is as meticulously engineered as a spacecraft.

 

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