Apparently even the most butter-fingered, incapably hopeless driver could get the F430 round a test track just a second or so slower than the experts, and Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson has called it “just about the best car I’ve ever driven”.
The press is awash with reviews of the new Ferrari 458 at the moment, but it is testament to the F430′s awesome credentials that it has held Ferrari’s badge so high for quite so long. I have had the good fortune to drive one for a weekend, and its only then that you realise what all the fuss is all about. Just make sure you don’t turn off the traction control (like I did by mistake)!
As the hairpin bend unwinds, you start squeezing the throttle, and the engine note rises from a creamy bass growl to a screaming contralto howl, underlain by an increasingly fussy backbeat of cams and valve gear. It’s a delicious, utterly intoxicating engine noise. One that encourages you to use every last one of the 8500 revs that are on tap before you finger-flick the paddle shifter back and engage third gear, just like that…
Win the Stunning Ferrari F430 this month
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I think it about time this classic had a face lift!!! I wait and hope?