Ferrari F430

Ferrari F430 - Coasting isn't what management consultants would label a "core competency" at Ferrari. The black mare has been prancing at redline ever since current president and CEO Luca Cordero di Montezemolo kicked the door down in 1991. What had been a sleepy compound of squat red-brick workshops has become an Architectural Digest centerfold, the latest addition being Ferrari's Centro Sviluppo Prodotto, or Product Development Center.

Carrying over much of its extruded aluminum space frame, suspension, interior layout, and longitudinal V-8 configuration, the F430 isn't considered a replacement for the 360 Modena so much as an evolution of it. Inside Ferrari, the 360 was called the F131, and the company ladled out about 10,000 servings. Although 70 percent of the parts are new and the price increase should be about $9500, to $167,000 with gas-guzzler tax, the F430 is called the F131 Evoluzione or, more simply, "the Evo" by Ferrari's engineers.

Back in 1961, Phil Hill won the F1 world championship in a Ferrari 156 that featured similar "shark nose" vents, Stephenson explains. So it's retro? "I hate that word retro," snaps the father of the new Mini. "We're carrying over our DNA, much like you have your grandmother's eyes or nose." Family genetics also spawned an industry called rhinoplasty, but that's neither here nor there.

As in the 360 Modena, this new F430 is the only Ferrari or Maserati to use a flat-plane crankshaft. That means half of its connecting-rod journals line up directly opposite the other half, making the crank look as flat as a dash mark when viewed head-on. Most V-8s, including Maserati's own version of the motor, have a two-plane crank that looks like an X and spaces the rod journals at 90-degree intervals for smoothness. Ferrari says the flat way, which mimics two inline fours joined at the hip, increases vibration but pays benefits in breathing and power production. It also grinds a particular edge into the Ferrari's bark at high revs.

The F430's V-8 isn't just a spinner; its new dual-displacement intake plenum and variable valve timing put the pants press to the torque curve. American-delivered F430s with the optional F1 paddle-shift automated manual transmission go without the launch control that lets the driver commit hairy high-rpm clutch drops, but never mind; Ferrari's test drivers instructed us to just drop it in low and flatten the aluminum stick of a gas pedal—lightly at first to keep the 285/35 hams in back adhering to the pavement. While the engine went Bwwaaaaaa! and those crackle-red mounds twitched in the rearview mirror, the computer counted to 60 in—wait, does that say 3.5 seconds? Look, the quarter-mile is 11.7 seconds at 123 mph. Can't be. Fearing a test-box meltdown, we consulted with a rival magazine that was radar-gunning another F430 driven by a factory pilot. Results: practically identical.

Our time at Fiorano was unusually generous, thanks to the absence of an F1 testing crew. This late in yet another smack-down season, perhaps the Ferrari team doesn't even wash the cars between races. However, Ferrari's Gestione Sportiva, the racing department, rides along in every F430, most obviously on the steering wheel.

In the E-Diff, hydraulic pressure supplied by the self-shifting F1 transmission's pump (opt for an old-time stick, and you still get the pump and the E-Diff) compresses a stack of friction plates in the differential that transfers torque from side to side. The computer watches your movements and supplies the torque split needed in back to maintain traction and help rotate the car through corners. We can sum up the E-Diff in two words: It works.

Fiorano's lack of a suitable skidpad kept us from measuring lateral forces in our usual way, but we did see more than 1.05 g through some of the circuit's corners. Put in motion by a firm brake pedal, the carbon-ceramic discs—an option expected to cost the same as a Scion xB, or $14,000—performed four successive stops from 70 mph in fewer than 150 feet. Ferrari claims they're good for 350 laps at Fiorano without fade. They didn't mention the moaning that the huge carbon-impregnated silicon discs make when they're cold, or the wind whistle one of our sample F430s made at speeds above 60 mph, probably from an ill-fitting windshield gasket.

Now that the beginner's Ferrari has reached supercar levels of performance, maybe it's time to pump some excitement into the F1 program, too.