A Unicorn Cometh (with pics)!

Happy New Year everyone. 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. The shop owner referred to her as a "unicorn" which I kind of thought summed it up quite 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/chriswalshphotography/sets/72157649669288519

 

try it again I just went on there and re-copied and pasted the link. Also we did the photos at the Docks just past Annapolis so that the backdrop shows part of the bridge and the dock. It was raining/wet ground for some of the shots so please pardon the dirt around the side skirts and lower bits, sills etc. in some of the pics Enjoy!

 

^^^ Yup that's registered thru my State. I am the only one in my state to have that script 'FERRARI' ...I was shocked to see it available. I don't think I've ever gotten my credit card out so fast to reserve that through the State DMV website! Those tags were available (yellow/black Vintage 1910) for 1 year only Jan 1 2014 - Dec 31 2014 that's it, so I was lucky to have that even match the car it just so happened to be yellow/black, on top of that I was able to get the custom script! My Registration reads License Plate No. FERRARI Make. FERRARI

 

Def a typo ... Had around 18k miles when I bought it. To me it was not high miles had clean service history and documentation with clean highway miles. CNC did a full fluids/service prior to transporting her to me. Cali car from birth but now in east coast Ive been enjoying driving her In fact autocheck confirmed it was only a 2 owner car.

 

I agree I was looking for a Rosso 458 with the black roof and sideskirts and then I found a blue Scud I liked. Eventually I found the Nero to be just incredible looking when it's clean and has a deep shine luster. I think the premium Connolly full leather interior really goes well with the black paint on the outside. The full interior yellow stitching ties together the other accents of the car such as big yellow carbon brake calipers, instrument tachometer, SF shields, centercaps etc. and even the detailed stitching on the leather laden firewall, headliner surround, and other bits. The only thing is that you have to have a clean microfiber handy at all times just to wipe down the dust which is more visa or on the deep black paint.

 

The front hood, front bumper side vent detail, and front splitter were wrapped in a premium matte paint protection film so they can act as accents to draw the eye to subtle details of the cars frontal design. The film used was the leading premium film presently in the industry, I'd have to ask the PPF installer for details. The whole front clip was done in clear PPF, as was the A-pillars, leading edge of roofline, rockers and sills, wheel arches, side mirrors, door jambs, door handles, gas filler cap surround, leading edge of air intake pods, etc.

 

This particular car was defonately not one of the lower priced examples. Since it had the rare factory options on its build sheet (6 speed manual trans, carbon ceramic brakes yellow calipers, carbon fiber sport seats, polished challenge wheels etc.) it fetched a premium and CNC knew that, having extensive experience selling Ferrari cars. We were able to come to a number on the purchase price. After all things, tax tags, title work, transport etc it was right around mid $140s. I think that due to its rarity it was able to garner a premium, I have yet to find another Berlinetta with all the same build sheet items.