F430 has the 'bubble' burst?

[corinthian]

As another long term owner of an F430, may I also endorse the ethos of ‘enjoy to the full’. There’s hardly a road left in northern Scotland I haven’t driven it on, Orkney in particular was fantastic fun.
I’ve serviced it every year and had some big bills from time to time, ball joints and manifolds spring to mind, but even they weren’t too painful, I’d had my money’s worth from those bits.

[supersport]

I bought my 430 to drive.

I love looking at it, I love washing it, but I bought it to drive. No idea what it's going to cost, but I am going to enjoy it

[rat rod]

FezSpider said:

Agreed, I wrote of the value of my ferrari 15 years ago. I have had 15 years of wonderful memories with many more to come. It's only worth £230.67p now, but funnily enough looks just as much the same as a 100k car that's got 7k miles on it, but mine runs better.

This has all the hallmarks of the equivalent of a AA meeting , coming out and admitting to putting miles on your ferrari's god forbid, looks like the average 430 owners use their cars, not to old but new enough for todays traffic, some years ago i bought a 1 owner 308 gtb on carbs with 125,000 miles, it was his only car driven daily, the only problem with that it doesn't become an event anymore, it drove as well if not better than some of the low mileage 308's i've had , certainly felt quicker , worth only a bag of sweets at the time so turned it into a road legal track car, got nigel at emblem sports cars to build a factory spec sprint pack engine, emblem being owned by john woodfield he of koenig turbo charged body kitted ferrari's , put another 40,000 miles on it on both road and track , really enjoyed it come rain,wind and even snow and not feeling the need to wash and polish it every time i drove it, also having picked up a few battle scares i could park it were i wouldn't normally leave a ferrari, bonus about high miles ferrari is that you can just keep piling the miles on because value wise you've gone beyond the point of no return instead of worrying if the speedo is going to click over from 9 000 miles to 10,000 on your next drive, drive it or just polish it, it's your car you can do what you like with it but i know which one i prefer

[jtremlett]

rat rod said:

cgt2 said:

That's right and yes I'm old! There was a Roger there I'm sure, maybe it was Roger Maingault or something like that?

Now that name rings a bell but can't place it,that's going to niggle me all night ,there was a richard hackett now selling bristol's in the west country, a bit partial to bristols was richard in more ways than one paul baber, alan mapp and anthony stevens ( the major ) all great characters ,very posh but nice blokes,

I know I'm a bit late replying to this but Roger Maingot was the MD at Maranello's.

[rat rod]

jtremlett said:

know I'm a bit late replying to this but Roger Maingot was the MD at Maranello's.

thanks that's been annoying me ,name rang a bell but couldn't place it,did he spend a lot of time in thorpe as don't recall in the showroom,

[jtremlett]

rat rod said:

jtremlett said:

know I'm a bit late replying to this but Roger Maingot was the MD at Maranello's.

thanks that's been annoying me ,name rang a bell but couldn't place it,did he spend a lot of time in thorpe as don't recall in the showroom,

I don't know. Before my time but I wouldn't have thought so.

[chillo]

Gibbo205 said:

You should drive the cars your interested in.

I went Ferrari hunting because of the F430 for me it was always my favourite looking Ferrari and I particular loved the fact that the Spyder version you could still see the engine, something that was lost on the 458, but my hunt was for a coupe.

As I drive mine a lot (not much in Winter mind) for me the 458 was simply a far better drive, it has a dual personality, put it in wet mode and auto and you can cruise along pretty quietly and the gearbox is smooth and smart and the suspension extremely compliant. Flick it to race mode and manual gears and the car takes on a whole new personality.

I am still torn as to if I prefer 458 or 430 looks wise, I'd say 430 Spider trumps 458 Spider, but the 458 Coupe is just a thing of beauty and I've had a few comments from public saying its most beautiful Ferrari they had ever seen, am not sure I agree but I think the lines and curves of the 458 is desired by many as its such a timeless and very clean design, very much like the F12, funnily enough both of which were the last cars designed by Pininfarina.

F430 spider owner here, I looked at and drove both(several) of the 430 and 458.
The 458 is put together better and is of course faster, the speed and the handling/balance is next level compared to the 430! However I ended up going for the 430 as I love the glass engine cover! Just love being able to see the motor, feels modern enough and I felt the 430 is still more than quick (nearly 500hp) with enough electronics but not too many that dilutes the raw driving experience! I get more out of driving the 430 at lower speed than 458.

[rat rod]

chillo said:

Gibbo205 said:

You should drive the cars your interested in.

I went Ferrari hunting because of the F430 for me it was always my favourite looking Ferrari and I particular loved the fact that the Spyder version you could still see the engine, something that was lost on the 458, but my hunt was for a coupe.

As I drive mine a lot (not much in Winter mind) for me the 458 was simply a far better drive, it has a dual personality, put it in wet mode and auto and you can cruise along pretty quietly and the gearbox is smooth and smart and the suspension extremely compliant. Flick it to race mode and manual gears and the car takes on a whole new personality.

I am still torn as to if I prefer 458 or 430 looks wise, I'd say 430 Spider trumps 458 Spider, but the 458 Coupe is just a thing of beauty and I've had a few comments from public saying its most beautiful Ferrari they had ever seen, am not sure I agree but I think the lines and curves of the 458 is desired by many as its such a timeless and very clean design, very much like the F12, funnily enough both of which were the last cars designed by Pininfarina.

F430 spider owner here, I looked at and drove both(several) of the 430 and 458.
The 458 is put together better and is of course faster, the speed and the handling/balance is next level compared to the 430! However I ended up going for the 430 as I love the glass engine cover! Just love being able to see the motor, feels modern enough and I felt the 430 is still more than quick (nearly 500hp) with enough electronics but not too many that dilutes the raw driving experience! I get more out of driving the 430 at lower speed than 458.

Ye i find my 430 plenty fast enough in fact at 120 i found it almost boring ,i imagine it would take at least 160/ 170 to get a little bit scary , god knows what speed you have to do in a 458 to get excited, the 430 feels more old skool still retaining some of the curves of the 308 gtb's and the dino with a modern twist and for me anyway more involving than the new models, maybe something to do with the single clutch gear change, when i'm at goodwood and watch the cars thunder by on the pit straight it's a job to tell if the 360's and 430's are f 1's or a manual shift but the 458's and 488's sound fully automatic where they change so smoothly with just a hint of change in the revs , progress or sanitized we all got a different opinion, what does confuse me is the vastly different opinions on the forum of the shape of the 430 going from the ugliest ferrari made to the best looking modern one and often criticized for spoiling the 360 shape although they are different models not a face lift, i felt the new interior , more muscular body stance and those gorgeous enzo rear lights (i think i bought the lights and got the rest of the car free) made the 360 look dated and more like a bar of soap in comparison ,sorry 360 owners but still feel they sound better than the 430, was looking forward to a road trip to Italy in april to really stretch the 430's legs but with way things are at the moment looks like it could be north wales which will still be great less the sun tan,

Edited by rat rod on Sunday 1st March 16:12

Edited by rat rod on Sunday 1st March 16:46

Edited by rat rod on Monday 2nd March 00:03

[dereksharpuk]

rat rod said:

but still feel they (a 360) sound better than the 430,

I agree, but wonder why?

[cgt2]

dereksharpuk said:

I agree, but wonder why?

Ed Blasi wrote a detailed post about why on PH a few years back. When I had a 430 I asked Ed to make it sound better and was happy to spend money to get it sounding as good as a 360 but he explained it will never have that high pitched sound for various design reasons.