Ferrari F430 Car Review

Facts At A Glance
Car: Ferrari F430 Spider
Prices: £129,002 - on the road
Insurance Group: 20
Emissions: 420g/km
Performance: 0-60mph 4.0s / Max Speed 196mph
Fuel Consumption: (urban) 10.5mpg / (extra urban) 21.2mpg / (combined) 15.4mpg
Safety: Twin front airbags/ ABS/ ASR
Dimensions: Length/Width/Heightmm 4512/2051/1220

COUNTERATTACK!

Our Rating: 6.6 / 10

And the numbers keep on getting bigger at Ferrari. Andy Enright reports on their hardest-hitting entry-level model, the F430

Ferrari doesn’t find itself on the back foot too often. Accustomed to setting the pace, the styling agenda and the technological state of the art in the supercar division, Ferrari have, of late, seen themselves locked in catch-up mode. A whole slew of pretenders to the 360 Modena’s crown saw the lithe Ferrari outgunned, outmuscled and some would whisper outclassed. The response has been unambiguous. The F430 has been designed to punt Ferrari back onto its accustomed top step on the podium.

As ever, Ferrari’s perennial challenger, Lamborghini, has been the thorn in their side. The 492bhp Gallardo made the 360 look rather quaint and even the racy Challenge Stradale version was launched only just in time to be battered into submission by Ford’s GT supercar. The problem Ferrari faced was that unlike, say, Porsche they couldn’t turn up the wick on a turbocharger to release a mountain of extra horsepower. The 360’s 3.6-litre normally aspirated engine was already squeezed until the pips squeaked to produce 400bhp. The company knew that the answer lay in more capacity.

The F430 – as the name suggests – features a 4308cc engine derived from that which powers the Maserati Coupe and Spyder models. Like its predecessor, it employs a flat-plane crankshaft which means that the peak power of 483bhp will come at a heady 8,500rpm, in turn guaranteeing one of the greatest automotive soundtracks in the world. Lessons learned in the development of the 360 Challenge Stradale have also pared weight from the F430 body with the result being a power to weight ratio of 333bhp per tonne. This puts the Gallardo (324bhp per tonne) and the Porsche 911 Turbo (246bhp per tonne) firmly in their places.

Unlike both of these rivals, the F430 doesn’t utilise all-wheel drive to deploy its power, instead relying on the same rear-wheel drive mid-engined layout as one of the company’s all-conquering Formula One cars. Ferrari may have eschewed four-wheel drive as a principle but they’re not averse to learning a few tricks developed in all-wheel drive cars. An active limited slip differential – E-Diff – monitors driver inputs, wheel slip, yaw and much more to direct power to whichever of the rear wheels is best equipped to deploy it. In many respects, it’s not dissimilar to the system Mitsubishi use to great effect in their Evo VIII all-wheel drive rally replica and greatly assists traction without ‘dumbing down’ the feel in the way that an electronic traction control device is occasionally wont to do.

When the 360 Modena was launched, a suspiciously quick set of performance figures was obtained by one of the leading UK magazines, leading to all sorts of speculation as to whether the car was in standard trim. Certainly a sprint to 100mph of 8.8 seconds was savagely quick, eclipsing anything the 911 Turbo and Gallardo were capable of. Quite how the vastly more accelerative F430 will measure up to those figures remains to be seen, but Ferrari claim a maximum speed in excess of 196mph and a sprint to 60mph in comfortably less than four seconds which is enough for most. Rather reassuringly, Ferrari haven’t pointlessly chased maximum horsepower. Perhaps knowing that some Mercedes coupes generate over 600bhp has focused the F430 on capability rather than ridiculous power. Besides, the upper echelon of performance cars now seem to have reached a plateau in terms of straight line speed. The F430 instead looks to corner as well as it goes.

The aluminium chassis is draped in lightweight alloy body panels. Carbon ceramic brakes are offered as an option and many 360 details remain, such as the basic suspension layout and that glazed-in engine window at the rear. Electronically varia