Well, today I drove a Ferrari F430.

I'm going to skip all the luxury / when I got there I.... / Its comfortable **** and get right to the good stuff.

To start, its loud. Not as loud as the Gallardo, but...loud. And not bad loud, good loud. Its deep and raspy, and it growls. I got a nice grey one with a paddle shift manual transmission - I wish it came in true manual, but it doesn't, or they didn't have one that does.

What I love about this car is its only hyper powerful when you want it to be. For instance, in the Gallardo, its insanely powerful with any tiny jab of throttle, which makes it kind of hard to drive. The F430 is a bit more relaxed, but when you say GO, it GOES.

It accelerates like a bat out of hell...the engine sounds like its some ancient, omnipotent creature that is breaking out of the ground - Press the gas...the titans cometh. It really sounds like its breaking free of something and ripping though the air faster and faster.

The acceleration is like the M5 in some ways, faster but it doesn't really inform you of it in the eye-sucking way the Gallardo does, what I mean is that when you step on the gas you don't really get hurled up to speed as much as you just sort of "skip" from 20-80mph. The Gallardo - you felt every single MPH. In the F430 you're just sort of there.

Not to say that there isn't any acceleration feedback - you feel it, a lot, but its not as savage and brutal. You just sort of get there. I guess its smoother.

What REALLY impressed me was the CORNERING. OH MY GOD.

We would come up to a light at 30mph and I would take a right. I was expecting big lateral Gs but there weren't any. It didn't feel like I actually turned at all, like the car had pointed a different way but was still traveling in the same direction. But not like sliding. There just WEREN'T any lateral Gs to speak of. It corners like a Go Kart.

The only thing I don't like really is the break pedal. Its very stiff, so you end up pushing on it pretty hard to "get it going" and than it breaks its little "stick" and you end up pressing the brake harder than you actually wanted to. Which is actually very impressive, 90 ish mph to like 45 in seconds.

I managed to snap off one picture as I was walking into the dealership. Here it is: Thats a maserati...err...quattroropflogogwallawallablahahw haspo in the back I think. Or is it the falablahrstavlartinamovitalimolamieaflouvie...I don't remember.

 

that is awesome

 

That makes no sense, but okay.

 

lucky ***... i want to test drive...

 

I went with my boss to test drive a 07' Spider and it was nice but he decided to keep his CL65 for the time being. It was just too much car for him. The sound is sexy.

 

That picture... were you stalking it? Did you have to jump out from around the corner and take the shot before it bolted (or ate you)?

 

No, I'm actually facing away from it, the thingy blocking half the screen is my arm because I was trying to take a sneaky picture around it.

 

Was this up at Lake Forest Sportscars?

 

i hate you

 

Spoiled little kid.

 

Jealous old man.

 

bet it was a wild ride!!

 

Sure it makes sense. For the price of an F430 you expect it to come with inertial dampeners.

Nice writeup btw Falken.

Originally Posted by Falken
What REALLY impressed me was the CORNERING. OH MY GOD.

We would come up to a light at 30mph and I would take a right. I was expecting big lateral Gs but there weren't any. It didn't feel like I actually turned at all, like the car had pointed a different way but was still traveling in the same direction. But not like sliding. There just WEREN'T any lateral Gs to speak of. It corners like a Go Kart.

 

Nope, i'm young as well. But drive cars like that a few times a week...My most recient favorite car was the new R8. All time favorites are the Ford GT, and Porsche Carrera GT. Very fun cars to drive.

 

It really feels like they did come up with something like that, star trek aside.

 

Hate to break it to you, the F430, nor any other car, defies the laws of physics.

 

Please, I'm not an idiot. I'm just saying it corners well.

 

Well saying there were no lateral G's when describing "corners well" is fairly idiotic. If anything, there would be MORE lateral G's.

 

lol dang Falken, you gots a hater

 

haha, I'm not a hater of anyone. I'm just saying that it makes no sense and did not feel like that.

 

the interwebz is serious bizness

 

Dude, Falken I wouldn't fight with him......see his avatar? He has a gun!!!

 

 

So let me get this straight. You claim to drive the beast and have a camera on you the whole time....

Yet the only pic you get is one of your RX8 parked next to it?

I am thinking you parked your car next to it.....sneaked a pic in (you stated this yourself)....and then came up with this driving story...

Tis' a nice car though

 

if your going to try and test drive an expensive car that you have no intensions of buying you are gonna want pics of it right? so you can remember it and show it to people like he has. problem is, if the dealer sees you outside taking pics of the car, they will clue in that you probably arent coming back, so why let you test drive it....

he has a thread a while ago of a lambo he did this with and a few more pics.

nice write up man. wish i could pull that off....i was talking to a salesman about the new GTR at the local nissan dealer for a while when they had one. we talked for a while, then got into numbers. i hinted that i'd need to drive it before i even concidered spending that kind of money. then the converstion ended. lol. got back in my 8 and left, tail between my legs. haha

Greg