Road Test: Ferrari 430 Scuderia

We drive the intense, extreme, track-oriented version of the Ferrari 430.

After 200 kilometers of french B-roads, I am almost in a state of sensory overload, my nerves are buzzing as if I had just smoked my first cigarette after weeks of nicotin deprivation. Substitute here whatever addiction afflicts you and you will get the picture. The Scuderia experience is intense, raw, pure, and open roads have barely allowed us to scratch the surface of its potential. If the essence of sports cars is the perfect mix between performance and exhilaration, then Ferrari is at the top of its game with its latest creation: the 430 Scuderia.

Our journey begins in Genevain the showroom of Modena Cars, Geneva’s Ferrari official dealership. The car, dressed in matte black, looks more like high tech weaponry than automotive gear, like a stealth fighter jet parked in a luxury outlet or a semi-automatic casually displayed in a jewelry store. Compared to its sibling, the F430, the Scuderia is a bold demonstration of Ferrari’s philosophy where form follows function. From the entirely redesigned front bumper to the protruding engine lid and revised diffuser, a lot of modifications were made to the aerodynamic package to improve air flow above and underneath the car, resulting in an increase of 30 kg of downforce at 310 km/h (192 mph). Might not sound like much, but this represents an increase of more than 10% on the F430.

If motorsports is a religion in Maranello, the interior of the 430 Scuderia is a temple devoted to the cult of speed, with a superb combination of red-stitched suede and carbon fiber bucket seats covered with a mix of suede and high-tech textile called “3D”, optimized for breathing and grip. Down in the foot well, your eyes meet the laquered aluminum of the spaceframe; the carbon fiber pack, visible on another car, includes beautiful carbon fiber door sills, an alternative worth consideration. Ferrari’s Carrozzeria Scaglietti programme offers endless personalization possibilities to your taste (and check book), but the standard configuration is really pleasing to the eye and touch.

The bucket seats with adjustable back rest, available in different sizes to match your size, provide excellent support for my rather thin body frame, with precious lateral support to cope with the mighty grip of the car, and good lumbar support for longer trips to race tracks. Strapped with a 4 point harness, the driving position is excellent, your thumbs falling nicely on the carbon fiber, leather and suede wrapped steering wheel. The carbon fiber paddle shifters are at your finger tips, the blinker and windshield wipers are a bit too distant. In the center, on the left, the starter button, and on the right, the manettino and its five settings.

Ignition, a prod on the red button and the V8 explodes into life to settle on a busy, raspy idle note. First gear, a slight throttle input and the car takes off gently. Very cautious exit on the street, but in spite of riding 15mm lower than the F430, front end clearance remains realistic for real world use. In urban traffic, the car is amazingly smooth and discrete, as inconspicuous as a matte black Ferrari can be, although the slightest stretch of the your right foot immediately summons a loud response from the V8. In the tunnels of the Geneva bypass, it is very difficult to resist downshifting two gears and flood the surroundings in the glorious bark of the 4.3L: not politically correct, but resolutely enjoyable. The exhaust system is however well designed to keep the exhaust valves shut at semi-legal freeway speeds, allowing to cover long distances without risking deafness or tenacious headaches. Cruising gently along the sweeping curves of the A40 is near torture, better try to look cool on the shots taken from our chase car and bide my time until a nice cocktail of A and B roads brings some form of relief.

Damping is very firm and demonstrates the impressive rigidity of the shell, the car feels taut and composed, although it requires increased attention as the camber increases and can even slightly loose its poise on degraded asphalt. The 430 Scuderia is equipped with a damping switch located on the center console, decoupled from the settings and enabled only from the Race mode onwards, a feature added at the request of Michael Schumacher himself to offer optimal body control on bumpy roads like the Nürburgring Nordschleife. I unfortunately only understood its behaviour at the term of our test (I swear I’ll read the press pack in advance next time) as its function is a little bit unintuitive: it softens the damping, while one would expect that the more you tweak the settings, the more radical they get. On the perfect tarmac of French Nationales, corner speeds are as expected: completely unreasonable. To note, the fit and finish of this car is excellent in spite of the firmness of the damping. Not a hint of squeaking.

The new F1-SuperFast2 gearbox is unbelievably fast and requires a complete readjustment of your cognitive references, so strikingly fast upshifts are. A compelling synthesis between the swiftness of the best double-clutch systems and the sensational experience that only sequential gearboxes seem to be able to procure. The gears slam at each request of your right index, interrupting the thurst for a mere 60ms. With the Scuderia, a threshold has been crossed, this gearbox feels faster than the human brain. The gear is already engaged and the V8 has already resumed pulling strong while your cortex is still trying to make sense of the endless flow of aural and physical information. The sensation is unreal, an amazing showcase of a technical know-how that seems currently unique in the industry.

With its 150ms upshifts, the F430 was a reference for mechanical sequential gearboxes until the 599 Fiorano (100ms) was launched. The 430 Scuderia is in a class of its own. If these number seem artificial, reality is striking. Glowing superlatives and lousy metaphors can’t quite describe the experience when, 5 LEDs lit on the steering wheel rim and tacho needle rushing to the redline, your finger triggers this brilliant electro-mechanical flash. The acceleration, the shrieking V8, the controlled violence of the shift, and this satanic ritual that resumes without the slightest respite. Downshifts are just as good, with glorious throttle blips and the occasional race-style exhaust sputtering. The SuperFast2 system is without doubt a very strong point of this car, as much for its sheer effectiveness as for the thrills it brings.

The engine of the Scuderia is an evolution of the 4.3L V8 of the F430, with a careful attention to details such as specific pistons raising the compression ratio to 11.88:1, polished intake manifolds, the removal of pre-catalytic converter (the car is still emissions compliant). Power is up by 20hp, with a claimed 10% gain in torque at low and mid revs. In spite of a rather high specific power output for a normally aspirated engine (118.4hp/litre), the engine pulls surprisingly hard from lower revs, making it a fierce weapon for hairpin exits and razor sharp overtaking. Travelling the rev range is an epic journey, with a sustained crescendo until the redline. If other car makers achieve similar rev ranges, the brilliance of Ferrari engines remains astounding, whether with this V8 or with the V12 of the 599 Fiorano. Where others demonstrate a great rev range – the Porsche 997 GT3’s flat 6 for instance – Ferrari gives a unique incentive to flirt with the redline in each gear. With a measured power-to-weight ratio of 2.78 kg/hp, is it necessary to stress that this car is very, very fast.

Though a bit less extreme than a 360 Challenge Stradale from inside, noise is LOUD as soon as the muffler valves open iup, with a balanced mix between induction and exhaust notes. Personally, I still have a soft spot for the V12 of the 599 Fiorano and its richer and more subtle harmonics, but the sonic aggression of the Scuderia is undoubtedly an integral part of the experience. Claimed acceleration figures are of course impressive with a 0-200 km/h (124 mph) in 11.6 seconds.

Like the F430 and 599, the Scuderia is equipped with the now famous Manettino, but with 5 specific settings focused on performance (what else ?):

• – a setting for slippery conditions,
• – a Sport mode for regular driving conditions,
• – a Race mode maximizing performance by limiting rear wheel slip,
• – CT off where traction control is disabled but the stability control remains engaged,
• – CST off where all driving aids are disabled.

The 430 Scuderia hence combines stability control (CST, common to the F430) with the F1-TRAC traction control developed for the 599, but whose electronic management is synchronized with the electronic differential, now called E-DIFF2. We were able to sample the respective benefits of each system on a wet track at the wheel of a 599 Fiorano and a F430. Their effectiveness is really difficult to fault, but the subtlety of their action is really striking. Far from diluting driving enjoyment, these systems offer the fortunate owner of a 430 Scuderia a broad range of settings which can be selected to adjust the car to his skills and track or driving conditions.

The carbon ceramic brakes are powerful, it is a euphemism, but sometimes a little bit grabby, as if the 6 piston calipers were reluctant to release their bite on the enormous rotors (398mm diameter, 18mm more than the F430 equivalent). The system has been designed for an uncompromising quest for performance, and Ferrari’s decision to supply their entire model range with this technology is a wise move as their standard steel brakes struggle to keep up with straight line performance.

Ferrari’s marketing department has pitched with insistence a dry weight of 1250 kg (2753 lb) and, more discretely, a kerb weight of 1350 kg (2973 lb). On Asphalte’s corner scales, the 430 Scuderia comes in at 1421 kg (3130 lb), 42.7% front, 57.3% rear, measured with a full tank gas minus 45 miles of freeway. This represents a mere 53 kg saving over a 2008 F430 with carbon ceramic brakes and sport seats, measured in the same conditions. The weight saving results are not as radical as Ferrari suggests. Efforts were not spared however, with hollow anti-roll bars, titanium springs and wheel nuts, a choiceful use of carbon fiber in the interior and engine compartment, and a rear window in Lexan. The Scuderia remains the lightest in its category, and the figures claimed by Lamborghini for the new Gallardo LP560-4 and Porsche for the 997 GT2 seem resolutely optimistic. We are eager to verify these claims at the next opportunity.

Behind the wheel, the absence of inertia is striking but steering wheel feel is odd, too light and not direct enough to my taste. The car being focused on firmness and precision, it is surprising that Ferrari chose not to fine tune this critical component compared to the F430.

With the 430 Scuderia, Ferrari has brilliantly done the 360 Challenge Stradale trick again. Behind the wheel, the difference with a F430 F1 in sports livery (bucket seats, CCB) is striking. This is by no means a criticism of Ferrari’s base model – it remains one of the best contemporary sports cars – but a testimony to the significant edge brought by the Scuderia. The 50’000 CHF difference in base price are not pocket money, but the difference in driving experience is arguably worth every penny. Against stern german opposition, it is undeniable that Ferrari continues to offer with this car the essence of extreme sports car driving.

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*based on manufacturer data – ** eGear + 12904€

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Our sincere thanks to Mr Gino Forgione, Managing Director of Modena Cars in Geneva for this opportunity to drive extensively this 430 Scuderia.

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