430 has arrived.....some photos

Thanks, Richard. You need to drive this car, it's really amazing -- an F-car 8 cylinder with some torque down low, what a shocker! Of course, you already know about real Ferrari torque given that beautiful 550 in your garage.

Carl, I'm crazy like you. Great talking to you on Friday. Looking forward to seeing you at Buttonwillow soon.

 

Very funny, Richard. I think Carl is in trouble -- it might be time for an intervention. After all, that's what friends are for.

 

Lowering the car is relatively easy for an experienced suspension/alignment tech -- the car comes with height adjustable coil overs. IMO, you just need to avoid the temptation to lower it too much. Given the stock setup, there's plenty of thread on the shock body to drop the car to a height even lower than the Stradale, as shown in WCH's photos (see other thread). Send me a PM and I can give you the specific number of turns (i.e., threads on the shock body) we used to get to the reduced height for my car. I will going back after 1000 miles for a height re-measurement and an alignment recheck and adjustment, if necessary. We expect the car to settle somewhat (probably less than 6 mm) and provided for that possibility with the height we ultimately arrived at. I would have waited for the suspension to settle, but I couldn't stand the 4x4 look.

BTW, the ride quality did not deteriorate at all (in fact, it's quite comfortable in sport mode) and the handling got better. I would attribute the latter to the fact that the alignment was off from the factory -- the right rear had close to 0 toe and you definitely want toe-in at the rear.

 

If you're in the LA/Orange County area, I can highly recommend Envisage Design Labs. Call Edre at 310-613-4691 and tell him Uncle Jack referred you.