Today's Autocar..................

[tonyhopkins]

First drive for 430 and test vs Gallardo. a good read. Here's a little snippet;

It'll take me too long to type the whole report out so here are a few snippets;
"...the 430 is so quick it has become one of those rare cars in which you need to pick your moment carefully before opening the throttle fully; a car that eats up straights so rapidly you have to be extremely mature about where and when you deploy full acceleration........
A little later, up in the hills above Maranello, the 430 gradually begins to reveal more of it's dynamic repertoire- and it's a mind boggling experience all in all.Its steering is so light yet so incisive i found it impossible not to get carried away throught the corner where we took the photos.Its suspension was beautifully-and i do mean beautifully- composed over every surface it was asked to deal with.And the brakes;well, the brakes are just incredible.
This car is fantastic. Not, perhaps as good on the track as it is on the road,as i discovered an hour later. But remember, despite the way it goes and looks, this is not a racing car. It's a road car. Very probably the best road car Ferrari has ever built........"

>>> Edited by tonyhopkins on Tuesday 5th October 08:15

[lambojim]

Typical...the most interesting road test of the year and autocar subscriptions dept are on the blink.....funny how the Skoda Vs Hyundai issues always arrive bang on time?

[tonyhopkins]

lambojim said:

Typical...the most interesting road test of the year and autocar subscriptions dept are on the blink.....funny how the Skoda Vs Hyundai issues always arrive bang on time?

Here's a snippet from 430 vs Gallardo test;

Here are some snippets from article-
"The 430's 'manettino' switch on the steering wheel altering the traction control is a direct lift from the Ferrari f1 car.The cabin of our test car had 4 point harnesses and carbon seats and trim, and the engine note does a better impression of an F1's top end rip than even the Gallardo's V10.But does all this work?? You may think this is lapse of journalistic cynicism, but i was utterly sucked in. Ferrari might have laid on the racing heritage with a trowell, but after the 430 every other manufacturer's efforts to play to a sporting heritage will look like pitiable fakery.The Gallardo is in trouble already, despite 40 yrs of credibilty. It's downsized -Murcielago styling is pure supercar and very hard to upstage , but the 430looks like a racecar inside and out and still makes the Lambo look like an upstart.....
they're hard to seperate on ride; both combine iron body control with fluency and compliance.So which is faster?The Gallardo has marginally more power [492BHP vs 483 BHP] and 33lb ft more torque [376 lb ft vs 343], peaking 750 RPM lower than the Ferrari's.It feels more flexible in gear but this seems less relevant when both have paddle shift manuals which goad you into a perfectly rev-matched downshift at every opportunity.. And when the engines are working at the top of their range the Ferrari's slight power to weight advantage-no 4 wheel drive- seems to count double;the throttle response more urgent, the kick in the backside even harder.Am i really about to write that a near 500 BHP Lambo feels slow? After the deft, light, frentic Ferrari it does; it's slower and slightly wooden.
But these are 1st impressions. They may have been coloured by the Ferrar's novelty, and the perception of its speed is skewed by an engine note which definately shades the Lambo's ,starting bassy and finishing with a shrill detonation at peak revs or on downchanges that we could hear for a full 5 seconds as it rolled up the sides of the valleys south of Maranello. I wish i could explain how utterly correct it felt to drive a red Ferrari and a Yellow Lambo in bright sunshine near as fast as they'd go over the italian mountain roads they were made for. I can't , so i'm going to take this key and do it again. I'll be driving the Gallardo , but i'll be thinking about the 430".

[alanc5]

Wow, anymore?!

Sounds superb.

[tonyhopkins]

alanc5 said:

Wow, anymore?! Sounds superb.

No! My one fingered typing skills are all typed out

[alanc5]

tonyhopkins said:

alanc5 said: Wow, anymore?! Sounds superb. No! My one fingered typing skills are all typed out

And you were doing so well ;o)

Thanks though, that 430 sounds like much fun. I cant wait.

[tonyhopkins]

http://img16.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img16&image=Page9.jpg
http://img16.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img16&image=Page10.jpg

Should be links to scan of article.

[danhay]

Tony, don't let Stuart Forrest catch you posting that on here!

Thanks to your earlier post I went out and bought a copy at lunchtime, a fantastic read and worth every penny.

[tonyhopkins]

Dan,
is he from Autocar? The scan is by someone else...i just borrowed it

[danhay]

I believe he's the publisher?

If you wanted to be really cheeky you could post it on the Autocar forums!

[tonyhopkins]

danhay said:

I believe he's the publisher? If you wanted to be really cheeky you could post it on the Autocar forums!

Let's not tempt fate It's all great publicity for them anyway, right?

[danhay]

Right, I wouldn't have bought a copy unless I had known about the article.

I thought it was a fantastic article. Driving a Ferrari is all about emotion, and I thought the story really captured the emotion of the driving experience.

[mindgam3]

yeah, they're my scans thank you :P

http://img16.exs.cx/img16/3268/Page2.jpg
http://img16.exs.cx/img16/3268/Page3.jpg
http://img16.exs.cx/img16/3268/Page4.jpg
http://img16.exs.cx/img16/3268/Page5.jpg
http://img16.exs.cx/img16/3268/Page6.jpg
http://img16.exs.cx/img16/3268/Page7.jpg
http://img16.exs.cx/img16/3268/Page8.jpg

[murph7355]

Hoorah!

One in the eye for not getting sucked into the power war and trying to keep weight down.

What the Fernandes could they do with a CS version?

Now if only it's arse wasn't so frickin amateurish.

[bad company]

I saw the 430 at the factory (picked up my 360 Spider last month) - It's Awesome!!!

[obiwonkeyblokey]

That Ben Oliver is such a jammy Git ( autocar editor and test writer),

and to think he used to work for me at Laser Quest in Reading.

...where did it all go wrong?