Ferrari F430 Scuderia: The Supercar to End All?
In a few short months customers in the United States will be receiving the car that is quite possibly the biggest thing to break cover this year. Some may say that the Lamborghini Reventón was the shocker of the year when it was released, and while it was amazing there was nothing to me that was even half as amazing as the Ferrari F430 Scuderia was and is about to be. Ferrari released the new super lightweight to the public with Michael Schumacher as its host at the Frankfurt Auto Show. The F430 Scuderia is the successor to the 360 Challenge Stradale of a few years ago, and the boss to the F-430 currently on sale.
Many speculated what this new super Ferrari would be called. The names ranged from Challenge Stradale to Pista (“lightweight” in Italian) only to finally be billed as the Scuderia which in Italian stands for “stable”. Ferrari most likely made the decision to name the new F430 the Scuderia because Scuderia Ferrari is the name of their racing division concerned with governing and providing help to the private and official Ferrari teams. They are also in charge of the Ferrari Formula 1 team.
Ferrari worked for years trying to perfect the engine, technology and so many other things for the Scuderia. They were somehow able to drop around 220 pounds just from the wheels/tires, seats, interior and the back glass by making it out of plastic. They also found a few extra ponies to throw into the 4.3 liter V-8 to up the horsepower from the standard 483 to 510 at 8500 RPM and trimmed the F-1 transmission to just take 60 milliseconds to shift. How they were able to do most of these things will remain a mystery to many of us.
The design itself is something to write about. The front air dam has been reshaped to produce more downforce and help direct air better. The underbody has been smoothed out and changed by moving the exhaust to come out of the bumper instead of under the car like the regular F-430. The brakes now come standard as carbon ceramic to shave weight and make the braking that much better and have been made bigger front and rear. The tires have also been made wider in the front and much wider in the rear to aid the handling of the 2755lb super machine.
The biggest achievement for the F430 Scuderia is that it races around the Ferrari Fiorano test circuit in the same time as the Ferrari Enzo at 1:22. That is one hell of a feat for a car that has less horsepower and a smaller capacity engine than the Enzo’s giant V-12. The Scuderia does however benefit from updated technology with the manettino switch on the steering wheel that lets you choose how the car is set up to drive by controlling the traction control, gearbox sensitivity and the E-diff with a separate button for the suspension setup. The Enzo had similar buttons to do so but where not as technologically advanced as the Scuderia’s.
This whole car makes me salivate just thinking of it. The beauty of the redesign and the amazing performance figures would make anyone know that Ferrari is better than ever and working to get better everyday. I wrote about the new Porsche GT2 last week and after writing about the F430 Scuderia I don’t think there is anything in this world that is much competition for a car that can hit 60 in under 3.5 seconds. Remember that the Enzo rammed 60 mph in 3.2s and still takes the same time to lap the Fiorano circuit as the F430 Scuderia. A friend of mine has already put in his order for the Scuderia and should receive his by summer of 2008. I have been in his F-430 Spyder and had a smile that plastic surgery couldn’t remove from my face at the end of the ride, now I can’t wait to check out his F430 Scuderia.
Photo courtesy of www.carmagazine.co.uk
