Happy New Year everyone. Well I've been sorta out of the loop for a while. Not very long ago there was recent addition to the stable, and a very fun and exhilarating prancing horse at that! We finally got around to taking some pics pretty hard to do in Mid Atlantic winter of my F430 which I'd had for a while in 2014. As time goes on I'll probably update this thread with extra pics.

I started my quest out looking for a 458 and then a Scud. In that search I also considered F430 manual 6MT with the elusive 3 pedal. I really love manual cars, having raced and instructed for about 13+ years since my early/mid 20's and having an engineering background to me that gated shifter has always been special about Ferrari, sort of encapsulating the feel and sound as you "clink" through the gears with the climbing revs! From waiting and looking and driving each of these I found the 458 to be more refined and slightly quieter and the Scud and F430 to be more raw, louder, and less refined which to me felt like more of what I was looking for in a Ferrari. Eventually I found an F430 3 pedal which was incredibly fun to drive and offered me the most for my driving experience and just really felt like I was in tune with the car.

When I found this Nero F430 with full leather and yellow stitching it just looked perfect. It was exactly how I would have optioned it, yellow tach, SF shields, leather headliner, hi-fi CD changer, including the manuals/books, red covers bag and contents, tool kit and air compressor etc.. The car looked to be in great shape I asked a friend to check it out for me as it was in SoCal. To my amazement it had CCB brakes with yellow calipers, Polished challenge 19"wheels, and the extremely hard to find carbon sports seats, AND it was a 3 pedal! I talked to my local shop (Competizione in Mid Atlantic) and a few other sources and it was unanimous that this was the car to get, most sources told me finding 1 or 2 of these options in any given car was great, 3 was highly unlikely, and all 4 was almost unheard of...and that such an example such as this hadn't come thru their shop in the 10+ years they've around, shop owner referred to her as a "Unicorn" which I thought kinda summed it up nicely.

So I ended up doing the deal with CNC Motors in Cali. Worked with Fraser Thom and Liz Baker and they were great to work with. Fraser is an enthusiast and very friendly and will go the extra mile to try to help, and he always replies back extremely fast! I would buy a car from him again any day but next time I'd probably like to fly out myself and see the car and meet them and do the deal in person. Also Competizione set the suspension and corner-balance and chassis up perfectly. The only thing I've done is upgrade to a valve-less exhaust system mated to a Capristo bracket from Glen over at Nouvalari USA, and the setup is lightweight and sounds perfect nice high pitch (more on that to come in another thread with some sound clips). I also had the entire front end clear film protected again and had the trunk, front splitter, and front bumper side vents done it matte to accent some of the details. Oh and I found a pretty cool script for my License plate on a yellow and black State tag which was a limited edition, which just so happened to match the car's colors! Couldn't believe the script was available, lucked out with that one!!

Here is the Flikr link:


https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisw...57649669288519


Enjoy!!!

 

Very nice indeed!

 

Congrats again Sunir! Seriously cool catch

 

Nice find and congrats! That's def a rare find with all of those options.

 

What an absolutely gorgeous F-Car! I'm still a huge fan of the 430 even considering the 458. I had the chance to drive both at my local race track and you're absolutely right... the 430 feels a bit more raw, and strangely, felt like it was "on rails" a bit more than the 458. I think the 430 felt more raw because of the lack of computer controls found in the 458. There were some vibrations, some feedback in the 430 that was absent in the 458. The 458 felt "faster", but I felt less involved and, no offense to any 458 owner, a bit more tame and "anyone can drive it".

I think the only two cars I'd consider trading my V8V for are a 430 scud or a V12 vantage 6mt, but hot damn if your 430 isn't gorgeous

BTW, I've browsed CNC motors inventory a few times. Glad to know you had a great experience - they have such a large inventory that it's nice to know they're a reputable place to buy an exotic.

 

Congrats Sunir! I've been drooling secretly ever since I saw the pics on facebooK

 

That thing is absolutely perfect Sunir! I'm currently looking for the right 3 pedal Ferrari to add to my harem. I think you found it first though.. Congrats man! Really beautiful car!

 

Very nice indeed!

So frustrating that there are fewer and fewer cars available with three pedals these days. I hate this shift to automatics that everyone is doing.

 

Thanks for the positive comments and kindness guys. The Aston DB is still my go-to for longer highway drives, silky v12 is perfect for the DB grand touring and love rowing all my cars with a manual 6 speed gearbox, they all have one! I am holding on for as long as possible until I have to switch to flappy paddles!

 

Beautiful! I wish I had a triple car garage and an extra $150k burning a hole in my pocket...

 

In 20 years people will be climbing over each other for an original 3 pedal exotic. About the time I'll be too old for mine, so I guess I'll just keep collecting them now.

 

Very nice Ferrrari, Great choice on the trans as well.
Enjoy it.
Ron

 

Is there a Ferrari that is suited for daily driving? I do not know much about Ferrari...have heard stories that some of them cannot be driven hard - reliability, etc.

 

You can drive a Ferrari every day they are just not the best choice for the F430. They are loud, fast, low, wide, squaty, and generally you feel every bump in the road with the rear/mid engine cars. The 458 is more refined and quieter but even still its a low, wide, and relatively small car which is harder for other drivers to see in traffic. A better daily for a Ferrari would be something like an FF or anything front engine V12 such as the 599 GTB or F12, they are much more comfortable.

 

I'd imagine a 458 could be driven daily. I was perfectly comfortable driving a McLaren 12C and could have handled that daily - the 458 is supposed to be pretty comparable.

The 430, I dunno if I would. The one I drove had an F1 transmission. It was okay, but I had to pay attention more than I would want to for a DD.