My new Stradale survived!!!

The good photos with the good camera are on my 35mm camera... I'll get those up later in the week... but here's some snaps with my digital (sorry, poor natural lighting... and the digital camera has a lame flash)... should get much better shots tomorrow when the sun comes out:

[ Note most the pics in this thread were lost in the disk crash... but they are now available here. ]

 

I need to get to bed... F1 race starts in less than 4 hours!! But quick thoughts on the drive so far...

I got the car at about 5pm with 49 miles on it... had to do a long dinner... but did manage to get to over 160 on the odometer before I parked it for the evening... almost all of those being hard-driven miles.

The car is amazing... they've fine-tuned everything about the 360... in a very real sense, they've driven to perfection. The feel of the steering wheel in your hands, how they contoured it to your fingers... ergonomic design at its finest. Even the shift paddles have been reshaped such that they fit into the curves of my fingers... and the new metal has sooo much better feel to it. The placement of the buttons are all each improved. The seats are not the same as the old racing seats... similar, but different... more comfortable but also far more cradling. I can't just slide/crawl out like before... I have to move the seat back so that I have room to dislodge myself. And that's not to mention all the obvious stuff I was expecting... like the carbon fiber panels being oh-so-much nicer than the aluminum-look panels of the 360... and I love the alcantara. And all that without even starting the engine...

The engine doesn't just start... it sort of rumbles to life... like the snarl of a tiger being awakened from slumber. The sound is not loud or obnoxious... but so much more distinctive than the 360. Much more intake noise... almost a "whistling wind" character to it. At high RPM, I bet that intake noise really adds to the symphony. And unlike the 360, the engine sound just linearly increases up to 5K rpm... its symphony entertains you at any RPM... and it sounds better the faster the RPMs are changing... either up or down. And, of course, with it being in break-in, I was constantly going up and down the RPMs. I've only gotten a hint so far of what the sound might do as I get it up to 6K+ rpm... don't guess I've yet to hear the valve open up! Interestingly, it actually drones less than the 360 at highway speeds! The sound remains a growl rather than changing as the 360 does into a hum that sort of resonates in the cabin at highway speeds.

I did put it in 'race' mode for a bit... sharpened the shifts substantially and raised that symphony up a notch... but it didn't seem to result in the exhaust valve opening at 3K rpm as others have reported... or perhaps my car is just not nearly as loud as I was expecting it might be in race mode at 3K-5K rpm.

On the F1 shifting... it is perfect. Literally, it couldn't be better. Every single start from still has been silky smooth but with no excess slippage. In normal mode, the shifting up and down, at all rpms under 5K and all different amounts of power from full-on down to full-off were as smooth as possible, yet quick as ever. Flip to race mode and the shifting flips from quickly-smooth-as-possible to smoothly-quick-as-possible... instant power-on... minimal time wasted not in gear... and some extra sounds are inserted into the symphony as the double-clutching goes on at super-human speeds. This is something that was barely noticable in the 360... now you can hear it distinctly, though its too fast to feel.

Is the CS 6th gear a little higher than the 360? I seemed to be going 110 when I only expected to be going about 95... not sure I can explain why... but seemed like 6th was geared differently... I'll have to pull out the stats tomorrow and try to figure that impression out.

As to power... it was never disappointing... had several people trying to follow me to get a look and had no prayer of keeping up, despite the fact that I was short-shifting at all times (and then braking via engine or brakes just to do it again). However, since I wasn't ever getting into the 360's or CS's real power band (6K-8500rpm), there's no way I can compare with my old 360 or my recent Gallardo test drive. I have yet to feel what she can really do.

What about brakes? The brakes have a strange sound to them... sort of like sandpaper on sandpaper. But modulation and feel was fantastic in all situations. But of course, I was doing bedding-in procedures, which doesn't really tell you much about how they'll be on-track. But on the street, the brakes are more than up to the task. Never once did any squealing.

The handling is razor-sharp... enough quicker than the 360 that I decided to be careful and take it easy with it until I get used to it. Never felt any under or oversteer, even with doing strange mid-turn braking (both with engine and brakes). So far, seemingly perfectly balanced... even over severely undulating roads. But the real test won't come until I get it into some autocross and on-track situations and really start pushing the car hard.

In sum... although I was "working" diligently to break things in properly, that was an extremely fun 100 miles of driving... despite it being on my favorite area roads (that I should be relatively bored with), not even able to use all the power band (short-shifting). The fun-factor delivered by the Stradale is awesome... I cannot wait until I can turn her loose.


I only have part of the day tomorrow to work with... so, not sure I can get through the 600 miles by the end of tomorrow, but I should make some excellent progress. If the weather holds, I'll probably drive out to MSRanch, though I'll be fairly slow since there's no way I'll be through the break-in (so I'll still be short-shifting).


P.S. I did think of one "negative"... with no carpet on the metal pan of the cabin, you can really hear the stones hitting the underside of the car and wheel wells... several times my heart skipped a beat as a larger stone was picked up by the stick tires and rang the underside of the car loudly. I'll have to get used to that!

 

Learned one thing yesterday...
I will never achieve the goal of reaching the mile limit of the warranty before the time limit...

The Stradale warranty is 3-years unlimited-mileage!

Oh, well, I'll have to rethink my goals...