F1 Proper down shifting?

Congrats on your 430! I have 10,000 miles of driving my 430 under my belt so far. I absolutely love the tranny. My suggestion is to experiment a bit to find the that sweet spot.
I drive in L.A. traffic a lot and I know exactly what you are talking about in terms of slowing traffic conditions. I totally disagree about letting the car downshift on its own. It's a Ferrari not a Lexus. I find that I downshift from 3rd to 2nd quite a bit, and sometimes from 4th to 2nd with a quick double shift. I wouldn't worry too much about the clutch either. In fact, I say drive the piss out of the car and get any issues out of the way during the warranty period. The VERY knowledgable staff at my service center always tell me that my car is best driving 430 they have ever worked on. WHY?? Because I actually drive the car the way it is meant to be driven. Once the engine is warm I pound on my car hard. Trust me the car wants to be driven, not pampered. Enjoy your car my friend. Mine is also my first Ferrari and I know exactly how you feel. If I can ever be of any help please PM me and I would be happy to share my experience with you.
ALl the best to you!
Ape

 

I've have been driving F-1 now for a couple of years. It was am interesting transition coming from driving a GT3. After this amount of time I have come up with a technique that seems to work for me. I allow the car to downshift when I am slowing for a light or traffic. When I come to a stop I double paddle the car into neutral. If the light changes while I am still moving ( or the traffic lets up) I downshift, usually to 2nd ot 3rd so I can put the car in the best possible rev range for good acceleration. If I want to slow for a sharp turn I brake hard to reduce speed and revs and downshift in a rev range that allows for smooth downshifting and good acceleration out of the turn. This is something that you have to experiment with to find what you feel is the sweet spot to do this. Good luck with the car.

 

If in doubt, leave it in sport and take the computer generated gear selection. I haven't had the car bog down when accerlerating. I can't imagine that Ferrari would program the F-1 to have damage occur when manually hitting the paddles.

 

i dont have a paddle shifter but my understanding is letting it shift down for red lites will wear out clutch. better to pull both paddles to get to neutral and brake to stop. have heard of f1 clutches lasting less than 5k miles. how much is new clutch?

 

Hey Joe,

I leave my 360 in sport mode and actively downshift 99% of the time... even from 2nd to 1st, I just love the way it sounds. If this runs my clutch down a little faster, who cares, we bought these cars to drive them.

With the F430, you have two killer options... Sport and Race, both of which should give you a killer throttle blip as you downshift yourself. The sound of this alone should be incentive enough to pull the lever yourself.

Regarding your radio... you've got the right idea. My radio has been on the exact number of times my daughter has been in the car. I can honestly say that in 1.5 years of ownership I only turned the radio on once during my test drive to make sure it worked. My tubis do all the singing.

Be well,

Frank

 

+1, drive the way you like to drive it and do not worry about the clutch.

 

My f430 has about 4400 miles and the clutch is smelling like its wearing down already. I notice the smell during normal shifting conditions. Is this covered under the warranty, or is the clutch a wear and tear item that is not warrantable?

Ken

 

Just downshift at the same time as you would as if it were a stick. If you doing it to speed up, apply alittle accelration before the shift, if your doing it to slow down, let off the throttle before the shift. VERY SIMPLE..

 

Actually, running in sport mode is better as it allows less slipeage of the clutch. Already had my pee-pee spanked on this one from my mechanics! LOL!



Robert