Dancing With the Donkey

It’s shiny bright red, the top comes off and it has a snorting 480bhp V8 amidships driving the rear wheels: what is there not to like? Once again those nice people at Ecurie25 let me out for the long bank holiday weekend to pop my Ferrari cherry in one of their Ferrari 430 F1 Spiders, so I thought I’d share a few impressions.

The cockpit is a very pleasant place to be with comfortable seats, swathes of leather and in this example plenty of tasteful carbon fibre trim. As with other cars from this part of the world, I found that the driving position is tailored around those shorter in leg and longer in arm than I am which meant that I ended up with my head fairly high in order to comfortably twirl the wheel, but there was still sufficient headroom with the roof up even if I did get a little more of a blow dry than others when moving in al fresco mode. That roof mechanism is a joy to behold when fully automatically raised or lowered: it may not be the fastest in the world, but it is certainly convenient and adds to the theatre of starting or ending any journey. The only real ergonomic problem was in being able to reach the indicator and wiper control stalks behind the gear change paddles: not an issue in most situations, but I found that if I wanted to prepare for an overtake by indicating and downshifting a gear or two, one’s fingers need to be in PS2 gaming championship form to be able get everything done in quick time. Clearly I need more practice …

The main event though is the engine and the performance it endows the 430 with: the deep gargling at low revs changes to a bellowed roar at about 4,000rpm and then rises to a screaming crescendo that is pure F1 as the 8,500rpm red line is reached. This car is loud, and certainly not for those who wish to remain anonymous, even when burbling around town. It is also fast. Very fast. Thankfully it has handling to match with plenty of grip available on both dry and damp roads. Then there is the manettino to play with on the steering wheel to change suspension, E-Diff, F1 transmission, traction and stability control settings: thankfully there was no snow or rain to demand the lowest two options (with their default auto transmission mode), but it was possible to notice subtle differences between the ‘Sport’ and ‘Race’ settings. I’m not in a position to give a more detailed exposition since it was left firmly in ‘Race’ whenever there was a vaguely interesting stretch to drive which I can confirm allowed a little more freedom from the tail in power on oversteer.

I have to confess that I wasn’t a big fan of the concept of automated manual “flappy paddle” gearboxes (and even less so of full automatics), but this opinion was not formed from experience (having never driven one before) so I was keen to see whether the 430 F1 would change my mind. Sadly it hasn’t. Make no mistake the F1 ‘box is undoubtedly a technological tour de force: it slots cogs rapidly and accurately, but for me it detracts too much from the involvement in driving, and then for good measure throws in a few foibles just to irritate a manual gearbox user. How about having to have your foot on the brake in order to move into first from neutral? Understandable from a safety perspective, but not natural if you are wanting to move away on a flat surface. Then there’s the fact that it always defaults to ‘Auto’ mode … More surprising is that the gearbox doesn’t seem to do a very good job of matching revs on a downshift, always needing an additional blip from the driver on the throttle to avoid the 500-1000rpm deficit if left up to the ‘box. This is fine for adding driver involvement, but curious that Ferrari wouldn’t see fit to automatically make it happen correctly. Upshifts though are great fun - a slight lift on the accelerator timed with a flick of the right hand paddle and it is possible to get straight back onto the task of rearranging internal organs.

So, would I have one if I could? I’m undecided at present; to my eyes the looks of the front are unconvincing, and for some reason the front looks a little high (even though it isn’t) - perhaps because of the seeming large gap between wheel and arch. The rear is the best aspect in my view, especially given that large diffuser and sight of the powerplant through the glass cover. I think at the moment a Gallardo would just edge it, although if someone out there is donating a 430 I’ll take a manual please.