458 Speciale vs. CGT - Owner's impressions

Thanks Josh, nice read. And I don't disagree with anything you're saying. You stated it perfectly yourself above. The CGT is really a race track bred car. It MUST have hot brakes and tires for you to get the max out of it. What I was stating was the obvious, that the car cannot "come in" unless it's under the demands of a race track. I stand by my evaluation and the way I phrased it... that the CGT is a Race Car with some extra downforce thrown in to make it feel safer on the road. Without a doubt, if I were to tune the CGT to win a race, depending on the track, I'd probably remove some downforce, but that's not it's role as a "consumer" car. It's like comparing the 918 that you can buy vs. the 918 that won Le Mans... the car is just going to be set up differently.

But without the street version CGT brakes being, to quote myself "hot laps hot", they do not offer the same immediate grip that the 458S does or other more modern street versions of race cars do. I have played with different brake pad compounds in my life (mostly on my Supra) and I can easily simulate the problem that I talked about on the CGT. In fact, I wrote a letter to Porsche after taking delivery complimenting them to the sky about the suspension and engine, but decrying the use of "racing pads" on their brakes because I felt it was just unnecessarily dangerous. Their response was very pleasant and they kind of acknowledged the problem, buy said they were not going to create a different pad for the car. So this is not just my opinion. (And for the record, I was offered a 918 almost immediately... actually saw it at the Miami reveal and talked with sales about it).

Look, take any race car and put it on the road and it's just not going to behave as it does on the track because it's tuned for maximum acceleration, maximum braking and maximum g-forces on the tires ALL THE TIME... conditions rarely if ever available on the street (unless it's a street course). My overall point was that, as much as I LOVED my CGT, it acted a bit like a "maximum heat" race car that can take maximum abuse and laugh it off, and that that can make it a bit twitchy on the street when and if you try to push it, because it's too "cold" for the street.

And yes the new tires did help "alert" when one is getting close to the limit, but the 458S just trounces it in terms of "feedback" that I can use to my advantage "on the street". I'm sure racing the 458S would require different pads and a few other adjustments to downforce.

There is NO DOUBT that modern supercars use a lot of computer gimmickry to make one feel like superman as you blindly careen around corners you might not have the skill level to take if those computers were not there. So what I was simply stating was that A) The CGT on the street can make one feel like you can't really let it all hang out safely, and B) That the 458S is a nice balance of brakes you can use even if cold, plus a nice balance of robotic driving aids to let you safely throw the car around.

Neither of what I've just said takes away from the awesomeness of both cars.

This is one of my own private reasons why I question this "drag race" mentality going on as the power and torque keep going up, because the higher it goes, the more computer power you need to safely use it. And does that take away from the driving experience? The CGT represents one of the most awesome cars that you can "thrash" and it just shrugs it off, all with very little computer intervention. But whatever techno magic makes more modern carbon/ceramic brakes work so well when cold I simply wish had been available on the CGT because then it would truly conquer all. Who knows.. maybe someone WILL come up with some new pads that you replace more often but give you that immediate bite at any temperature but from what I've read, it's a bit more involved than that (something to do with servo adjusting how much force is applied at certain points of braking, with more force to start with and easing up as the heat goes up).

But again, thank you for taking the time to relay your thoughts... very well said! Have fun out there!

 

You know, the truth is, you stop racing even for a winter and you get rusty and it used to amaze me and my co-driver how crappy our lap times were or how many times we spun out as we practiced to get back up to speed. One year, I raced FA in New Zealand during our winter, and at the first U.S. race at Phoenix International, I went from 6th to 2nd on the first lap. So the motto is, you can't practice enough, and you'll still lose something if you're not doing it all the time, not unlike any sport. This is what Jay experienced... had he been practicing at ovals for a season, he most likely would never have spun out.

So for me, any street use of a race car beyond a certain level is just asking for trouble unless you're actively racing at the time.

And look at Paul Walker's death in a CGT with his "race car driving" buddy at the wheel.

 

Best of both worlds

 

From a collector's point of view, that would be a very wise decision.