YYYYEEEESSS!! Thank you Dad! Ferrari F430 TEST DRIVE!
11-29-2008, 05:54 PM
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YYYYEEEESSS!! Thank you Dad! Ferrari F430 TEST DRIVE!
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.
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.
11-29-2008, 06:24 PM
#3
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.
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.
11-29-2008, 08:39 PM
#5
11-30-2008, 10:48 AM
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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.
12-01-2008, 07:48 AM
#13
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.
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.
12-01-2008, 07:33 PM
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12-01-2008, 09:57 PM
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12-02-2008, 04:09 AM
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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
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
12-02-2008, 06:13 AM
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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
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
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