My living experience with the 2005 Ferrari F1 F430. After I purchased the 575 Maranello in late June of last year, 2005, I immediately fell in love with Ferrari. I originally wanted a F430 but when I asked the salesman (Mike Finneran of MAG - Midwestern Auto Group in Columbus, Ohio) if I could get one of them, he chuckled politely and said there was at least a 2-3 year waiting list. But then he mentioned that they had a brand new 2004 Ferrari Maranello demo with only 110 miles on it. I asked why such low mileage and he said the owner was driving it as his demo and since they had 15 other brands of cars, he changed demos brands frequently, thus the low mileage. So we struck up a deal and I had my first Ferrari. Whoa Daddy!! It was all downhill from there! I was instantly a Ferrari addict! That's when I knew I had to have the F430! So my search began.
Since I didn't know where to look first, I thought, how about eBay? Well..... isn't that where you find everything you always wanted? After a couple weeks of searching, I found one at Scottsdale Ferrari in Arizona. She only had 117 miles on her but it was listed as used.... not a demo. This is where I begin to have trouble with Ferrari. They are SO much in demand that there's this outrageous game the dealers play. The following statement is MY belief and NOT a substantiated fact! They get someone to buy the car new and put say 200-400 miles on it. Then this person brings it back to the dealer who in turn buys it back (I'm guessing after giving the first owner the FULL purchase price AND a couple extra K dollars for his trouble). Don't you feel sorry for this poor guy? The dealership then sets the price to whatever the market will command because it is now a used car (usually something insane)! I've been told that Ferrari Proper does not allow Dealers to sell their cars above the Factory sticker. Thus the GAME! The sticker on my car read $187K but I had (well, they really weren't holding a gun to my head!) to pay $260K or else buy a Mattel Hot Wheels F430 model. You just can't get them unless you're on the 'so called list'! As the great comedian W.C. Fields once said: "Sometimes a man has to grab the bull by the tail and face the situation!"
I picked this particular F430 because of its low mileage (all the others on eBay had at least 400 miles or more). It also had the F-1 Transmission, Ferrari Red brake calipers, the Scuderia Shields, Carbon Fiber interior trim panels, rear Leather Shelf, the Leather Headliner, CD changer and the leather seats also had Red stitching AND Red piping to match. I actually didn't buy t it off eBay auction but called the dealer and hammered (yeah...RIGHT) out a deal. After closing the purchase, they arranged the shipping and I waited and waited and waited. Then I was told, all of a sudden, that the shipping was going to be a little more. All in all, it took close to a month to get my F430.
I had the trucker bring it to a small plaza in Poland because there was plenty of room for him to unload the car. BUT... the room wasn't the big problem.... the car's dead battery was! We couldn't even start the car to back it off the truck since it did have a dead battery. Wonderful! After much brainstorming and lots of swear words, we decided to manually push it back a few feet so he could open the side door of the car hauler and I was able to open the passenger door of the F430 and crawl into the car and take the passenger firewall kick plate off so we could get to the dead battery. Good thing he had one of those portable self contained battery chargers. I then touched the cables to the battery posts and BAM... a few sparks flew. Scared the hell out of me! Well, we got it started and backed it out of the truck. Then a small surprise arose..... the speedo was screwed up! It read 55.555 miles or something crazy like that. I was afraid that I had just zapped the electrical system! Great, just great!
I got her home that night, put a Battery Tender on and two days later after the battery came back to full charge, I read the owners manual and decided to try and reset the car's security system code. Bingo, the speedo was back to normal! Phew!
The F430 is absolutely the easiest of all my cars to drive. It's almost idiot proof (perfect for me!) You turn the key, put your foot on the brake, push the red start button, push the reverse R button on the console, back her out of the garage, touch the right upshift paddle for first gear and you're off and running! I like to keep her in the Automatic Mode. It's comfortable as heck and there's plenty of interior shoulder and leg room and the rear visibility is near excellent (probably the best of all the cars I have). The F1 shifts pretty smooth but sometimes in the AUTO mode, it tends to hold on to the Rs a little too long. The interior leather quality makes you feel like you're sitting on a King's throne! Absolutely stunning workmanship! The dash is laid out beautifully with red stitching everywhere and very easy to read gauges and a huge Yellow (in my car) RPM gauge. The radio is fairly easy to operate but the station digits and setting buttons are a little too small to see if you wear reading glasses (like ME) and don't have them with you. I also have the leather rear shelf and headliner plus the carbon fiber dash panels which really help to dress up the interior even more.
Then there's that that ENGINE..... oh my God!! It screams like a dozen hornets nests that were just broke open and they're all right behind your head chasing you ass wherever you go! Even if you get on it just a little, she whines and screams with an intensity that's hard to imagine. You absolutely have to hear it to believe it! There have been several posts elsewhere on the web that have said "forget the Tubi and other aftermarket exhaust systems, the F430 factory exhaust is absolutely perfect." Boy are they right and not kiddin a bit! Not only does she sound great, she flies with the 'greatest of ease'. The F430 just wants to try and chew up anything in its way. Touch the throttle and she jumps like a beautiful woman that's just been goosed! I'm telling you, this car is a rocket ship in the true sense of the word!
I've read various road tests all over about how fast the Murcie , the Carrera GT and the Ford GT are and you and I both know they're true. BUT, I think the F430 may be able to tickle their asses a little and give them a surprise. One thing you must remember: I personally haven't thrashed any of my cars yet because of needed break-in mileage. Although in reality, I usually don't try to set any Land Speed records anyway. IMHO, the F430 is a fantastic car that any owner would be proud of and never regret purchasing. Plus, I'm pretty sure their resale value will retain the highest percentage of the purchase price of all the supercars I own. That's certainly worth a little smile anyway.
There may be SLIGHTLY faster supercars cars (acceleration and top speed) around, but none that I think are so easy to drive and enjoy. The F430 is the true meaning of the phrase 'Let's Rock and Roll!' p.s. I accidentally forgot to put on pictures of any of the previous car interiors. Starting with this F430, I will do so and hopefully I can send the other interior pics to TT and he will put them on for me in the Gallardo and Murcielago reviews. Sorry about that! I hope you enjoy this review and the others (the Ford GT, the Porsche Carrera GT and the Ferrari Maranello) will follow shortly in a day or two.
I forgot to mention the rear picture of her with the license plate X HIPPIE. I purposely took it with the car running and the exhaust smoke surrounding the plate. Kinda looks a little psychedelic, doesn't it? Now you know why I picked that plate!
