Ferrari working on V10

Word out of Maranello suggests a new V10 engine may power the successor to Ferrari’s F430, amid concern over the marketing advantage enjoyed by archrival Lamborghini’s 5.0-liter V10-powered Gallardo.

AutoWeek sources say Ferrari is developing a 5.4-liter V10 based around the 90-degree architecture of the F430’s four-valve-per-cylinder 4.3-liter V8.

Consumer Reports wouldn't know what to do with this $200,000-plus exhibitionist on wheels: "The Ferrari's all-aluminum, 32-valve V-8 produces commendable horsepower (483) for its relatively diminutive size (4308 cc), but its exhaust note destroyed our finely calibrated sound meters, which we judged unacceptable. Acceleration to 60 miles per hour is appreciably better than average--comparable with recent Estes model rockets we've tested--but produces significant and unflattering facial distortion, which we judged unacceptable. Finally, the F430's bodywork fails our entire battery of tests: It's excessively red, falls far short of standardized drive-thru height, and at stoplights attracts alarming numbers of animated and vocal passers-by, many of whom deposited unsightly drool onto our starched lab coats, which we judged unacceptable."

The truth is, no one who gets behind the wheel of this 3533-pound wedge of rolling blasphemy for even 30 seconds will give a damn about its horrific fuel efficiency or even whether its braking performance measures up to the latest Porsche's. You wouldn't climb out of a Blue Angels F/A-18 jet fighter and say, "Nice, but in the 767 they give you peanuts."



Press the big, red "Engine Start" button on the steering wheel, and the V-8 behind your ears lights off with a whump before settling into a steady yowl. People, household pets, birds--all nearby living organisms instinctively back off at the sound. Engage first gear with the right shift paddle, roll away briskly, and above 4000 rpm or so the automatic exhaust-pipe valves suddenly open, and you'll think you've just stepped on the tail of a Le Mans race car. Pull the right shift paddle again and...watch out! Somebody just exploded an M-80 in a trash can! Oh, wait. Sorry. That was the Ferrari completing a normal upshift. There's nothing understated about the F430 Spider. To drive it, you've got to be prepared to live large.



This car left our test equipment gasping. Zero to 60 mph takes just four seconds flat (credit 89 additional horsepower over the 360 Modena). Still, that performance is a few ticks slower than that of the F430 coupe we tested in Europe (MT, June). Why? Weight, mostly--the Spider is roughly 150 pounds heavier than its hardtop sibling, the result of the power-softtop mechanism and a few structural braces added to offset the missing roof. Also, U.S. cars don't get launch control, the computerized drag-start system that allows European F430 drivers to blast away from stoplights as effortlessly as Rubens Barrichello leaving the line at Monaco. Ferrari execs cite "liability concerns" for not bringing the system here.

Keep your right Puma buried in the throttle, and by the quarter mile the Spider has just about pulled even with the coupe, tripping the lights in just 12.1 seconds at 119.4 mph. We've tested lots of other cars that quick. Well, only a handful, actually. Not many at all, if you want to know the truth. Few.

Brilliantly accompanying the engine is the optional six-speed auto-clutch F1 transmission, the paddle-shifting equivalent of Paganini on the fiddle. Upshifts are smooth and quick, downshifts even smoother and quicker. No wonder roughly 80 percent of Spider buyers are forgoing the standard six-speed manual in favor of the F1. Our test car had clearly suffered through multiple magazine stays, though, and by the time it reached us its clutch was ready for intensive care--when it heated up, it became as grabby as a Boy Scout at a Girl Scout picnic. The Spider even stalled on us a few times in traffic, a fairly unsubtle event when everyone within a block is looking at you already.



If the F1's lightning gear changes aren't quick enough for you, just dial up manettino. Like similar switches on the steering wheels of Barrichello's and Schumacher's F1 rigs, the manettino control on the Spider's wheel allows the driver to summon any one of five different performance modes: Ice, Low Grip, Sport, Race, and CST. Switch from Sport to Race, for instance, and the suspension firms up and shifts quicken perceptibly. Unlike the quickest shifts in the Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale, though, the Spider's Race changes never whack you in the back. For now, the F430's F1 transmission represents the paddle-shifting state of the art.



The Spider's suspension is magic, too. In cruise, it feels like you're at the helm of a hovercraft: The ride is taut, sure, but there's an uncanny sense of gliding over the road, as if you're zipping along just an inch or two above the asphalt. The effect is magnified by the superlative steering, which is light yet allows valuable tickles of road data to filter through to your fingertips. Cut the wheel hard into a corner, and the front end follows almost telepathically, minimum forearm musculature required.



Aiding responsiveness is the Spider's standard, F1-inspired "E-Diff" electronically controlled variable-locking differential.

In Sport mode, the diff locks up more aggressively in corners, creating understeer. Switch to Race, and the differential behaves like a convenience store, staying open longer and providing more means to get loose. Still, on public roads the Ferrari has too much grip to slide the tail around, even when you're going fast enough to make your passenger shout, "Slow! Soon! Need! To! Unclench! Jaw!"

Driving on the track is a different story. There, where the F430's considerable limits can be approached and explored in relative safety, in-house hot shoe Chris Walton switched the manettino into CST--race suspension firmness with all stability and traction electronics off--and slid the Spider around like a hockey puck. Though Walton reported that the Spider didn't feel as balanced as the previous 360 Modena, tending to snap into oversteer if he wasn't smooth with the throttle, he still managed to crack off a blistering 70.7-mph speed through the slalom--bravura stuff. And on our MT figure-eight course, where any time under 25 seconds guarantees a few approving "ooooohhhs" from our jaded test crew, the Spider logged a 24.83-second lap, its V-8 repeatedly threatening to rewrite the 8500-rpm redline, its 19-inch Pirellis stuck to the tarmac like a quartet of lampreys.



For a machine that should be as high-strung as Paris Hilton at a Manolo Blahnik shoe sale, the Spider in fact is an impressively well-mannered driving partner. The engine, despite a power curve that looks like a NASA launch (peak output occurs at the searing redline), is unfailingly smooth and tractable around town. The driving position is near-perfect, with seats that seem to vacuum-pack you into place and a terrific, semi-bent-circle steering wheel. Visibility is awesome to the front, not too bad to the rear. And the cabin is nearly wind-free at highway speeds, thanks in part to a polycarbonate wind blocker behind the seats (don't expect to have many conversations in the presence of that yowling V-8, though). Who knows why you'd ever raise the softtop--a sudden meteor shower, perhaps?--but if you need it, at the touch of a button it'll unfold and lock into position automatically in about 20 seconds.



The structure is solid for a convertible, but drivers will notice the occasional shimmy. Reason enough to skip the Spider for the coupe? Not likely: Ferrari says the open-air car will account for 70 percent of F430 sales.



So, you see, it really doesn't matter if a rival supercar can top the F430 Spider in one respect or another. As a people-magnet, as soul food, as an otherworldly sensory experience, this Ferrari is all but without peer. Sure, it's just a machine. But have you ever seen a velvet rope around a toaster?

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2005 Ferrari F430 F1 Spider
Base price $204,867
Price as tested $220,174
Vehicle layout Mid-engine, RWD, 2-pass, 2-door convertible
Engine 4.3L/483 hp/343 lb-ft DOHC 32-valve/cyl V-8
Transmission 6-speed auto-clutch manual
Curb weight, f/r dist 3533 lb, 42/58%
Wheelbase 102.4 in
Length x Width x Height 177.6 x 75.7 x 48.6 in
0-60 mph 4.0 sec
1/4 mile 12.1 sec @ 119.4 mph
Braking, 60-0 mph 104 ft
600-foot slalom 70.7 mph avg
Lateral acceleration 0.94 g avg
MT Figure Eight 24.8 sec @ 0.78 g avg
EPA city/hwy fuel econ 11 / 16 mpg
What's Hot F1 transmission keeps improving with each version, is there anything sexier?
What's Not Our tester's worn clutch did not like stop-and-go traffic, $200K also gets you a nice house in Nice.
Like This? Try These Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG, Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet

Like This? Try These Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG, Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet

100 kg lighter
Ferrari is preparing the launch of the super sports car F 430 Challenge Stradale at the Paris Motor Show coming fall. The car is set to rival Porsche’s upcoming GT3 RS, which is equally due for launch this year.

The Stradale is about 100 kg lighter than the standard F 430. While the latter is powered by a 4.3 litre V8 engine producing 490 HP, the light weight Stradale‘s performance is said to rate around 520 HP with the same engine.

The photos are showing a prototype during road testing in Maranello. The pictured test car still has some tape at the front end for disguise. At the rear end clearly visible, the exhaust pipes are located further up in the middle and not on the side like in the F 430.

WASHINGTON -- Ferrari North America Inc. is getting a break on government airbag rules.

The Ferrari F430, priced from about $168,000 to $227,000, will not have to comply with all provisions of advanced airbag regulations in the 2007-08 model years, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration decided.

The exemption applies only to provisions requiring frontal-impact airbags to be engineered so that deployments do not inadvertently injure children or small adults who are not in normal seating positions.

Ferrari told NHTSA it could not find an airbag system that would fully comply without a premature redesign of the vehicle. Ferrari said it has taken other steps to upgrade the F430's safety. The model represents about 85 percent of Ferrari's U.S. sales, which in 2005 were 1,420.