Hi guys, I apologize if this info is on the forum already, because it's a pretty simple question, but I've looked and can't find it.

Like so many Porsche guys in our secret moments, I find myself thinking about Ferraris more than I should. It doesn't help that I work 2 blocks away from the Park Ave showroom, where they seem to always be putting new goods on display (hello white 458 with black matte roof!) just as my itches subside...

As you know, F430 prices have come down a lot in the past couple years. With winter approaching out here, I'm thinking I could probably pick one up for a price I'd be very happy with and it would be a great intro to Ferrari. I'm not concerned about depreciation -- I buy cars to drive them as much as possible and as hard as possible.

Here's my issue though. I love to track (15-20 days a year) and would only buy the F430 if I could do so at a reasonable cost of maintenance. OK, so reasonable is subjective, but I'm hoping you guys can give me the straight costs and I can decide whether I'm willling to spend that every year. I would be comfortable using a good indy to perform service as I'm sure there are at least a few here in NYC. Also any feedback/anectodal evidence of the chances of incurring other possible costs beyond routine maintenance (e.g., a busted header or the like) would also be helpful.

I sum, I just want to get a sense of what I'd be getting myself into cost-wise after the initial purchase, given my track usage. Thanks so much in advance.

 

I would suggest you do a search on Ferrarichat. Routine maintenance is relatively inexpensive...yearly oil change, fluids every 2 years. The unknown cost is if something breaks in which case you can easily spend $10K or more to fix it. Having said that, the F430 is known to be very reliable.

If you track a lot and your car has ceramic brakes, the maintenance cost could get pretty hefty. You might want to consider a pre-2008 without ceramics in that case.

 

Cost of tracking a Ferrari is similar to that of a Porsche. I know because I track both regularly. Fluids change every year, or maybe even an additional fluid change mid season if you are doing a lot of days. Other than that, the same old; tires and brake pads and of course track day fees.

Clutch job on a Ferrari is about $8,000 with the bearing and flywheel replaced including taxes as compared to about $5,500 for the Porsche. I did clutch on both cars this year !!!

As someone mentioned the expensive part comes when something breaks. Buy and 06 or newer if you are buying a 430 with F1 because a lot of things were sorted with the F1 pump and E-Diff. The early 05 F1 pumps were smaller and were subsequently replaced with a larger pumps late in 05 onwards. The E-Diff ECU was also different. You don't want to have to replace an F1 pump as I had to at a cost of $20,000. At least this gets you the new larger F1 pumps found on the 06 and newer cars.

The 430 already comes with coil overs so you can lower the car for better center of gravity and aero dynamics. Unless you have a GT3RS, you would have to install aftermarket coil overs on your Porsche at the tune of about $5,000 for PSS10 and labour. You can find specs of both F430 and Scud ride height and alignment manual on this forum as I have posted them before. You'll need to get shims from the dealer but you'll only be able to dial in -1.5 to -1.7 camber up front as the studs aren't long enough to add more shims before you run out of thread unless you replace the original studs with longer ones.

The F430 is very fun on the track. Have fun.