My new Stradale survived!!!

All I see is a bunch of Monkie business!! (sorry, bad pun )

One second, I gotta clean this up...


Okay, there... if you want to play with the Monkie, go to this thread... thanks!

 

Even more amazin... most of those pics are of a dirty car!

All those that writerguy posted were of a dirty car... ask anyone who was there... I had washed off some bugs off the front... but it was still covered with water spots from driving in the rain.

And some of the pictures that I posted in the sun (under the trees) are even worse... big bugs splattered on the 3M film protecting the nose! If you look real close, you can make out the bug guts. And there was a lot of dirt on the lower side skirts as well... quite filthy, in fact.

Fortunately, low-res digital photos don't seem to pick that up.


I plan to clean her up good tomorrow and then take some quality pictures!

 

LOL!! Well, I guess this Titanium Stradale has been my Holy Grail!

 

Its sooo unfair... my M3 didn't deserve this! Here I am, driving across town in my M3 (because my interests would not be furthered, in this case, by showing up in a Ferrari... might distort the negotiations that need to follow)... in the past, I'd have truly enjoyed the drive there in my M3. The car was once rated by a magazine as the "best handling car at any price". From there, I have further upgraded the handling via the well-known tuner Dinan's suspension package. I had always been so impressed at how supple the ride was despite the crispness of the handling. My wife and I have both long considered our M3 a jewel.

So, what is so wrong now? I've been spoiled!! My new Stradale does all those things so much better that its unthinkable.

At first I was thinking, "No, its in your head." So, I drove my M3 to the same road I had just earlier driven in my Stradale. Sure enough, the difference was clear... the M3's ride was harsher and yet not nearly as sure-footed.

"Damn, I thought; my shocks must be going bad; the ride has gotten so much worse than it used to be." So, I drove my M3 to some of the roads on which I have often driven my M3... roads that I am super-familiar with how the M3 rides. Hmmm... no, that's how the M3 has always felt on that road... maybe its not broken after all!

I've just been spoiled! And its not just me. I gave a ride to a friend the day before yesterday who has his own Dinan-shod M3. He had two key observations: 1) "wow, I'm surprised how well it rides... much better than my M3", and 2) "I didn't expect the A/C to work so well". But that's another topic...

My friend wrote me yesterday, "I can't stop thinking about the Stradale." He's not the only one... and I think my M3 is getting jealous...

 

Whew! I'm still in a state of sensory overload!
So are my tires, I'm afraid... the car is waayyyy too good for those tires.


Sooo, I started the day with 505 miles on the car. 55 miles from my house to the track (Motorsport Ranch). So, the first track session was a lot of short-shifting. But, since I hadn't been to the track in over 6 months (due to having my 360 Modena up for sale... meaning no squeaky track pads), it was a good way to warm me up as well as finish the break-in.

At that level of intensity (one notch above the most spirited driving that's sane on the street), the Stradale handles and behaves almost effortlessly. This was my first time to have the ASR off... forgot to turn it off at first... the second corner, I noticed it activate and I immediately hit the button to deactivate it. On the street I have occasionally activated it, but I was impressed that it was far less intrusive than the Modena ASR was. In fact, its never bothered me on the street (the Modena ASR often bothered me). But get the car on the track, and the ASR has to be turned off.

After the track session, I gave it a good long cool-down run on the highway and that put it just over 600 miles! Break-in complete!!

I decided to add RPM slowly... next session I short-shifted at roughly 6500 rpm... a few corners went up to 7k as I did not want to shift mid-corner. It was much like learning a completely new car! I hadn't yet felt the Stradale at that point in the power band. The gearing is different on the Stradale than the Modena, and then with me short-shifting, I basically had no idea where my shift points were on the track. My old Modena shift points weren't even close to correct. That surprised me a bit.

Then the third session, I ran it in the lower 7k's for the most part. That change coupled with going a bit faster once again had me completely re-finding the proper shift points. I seem to be running almost a full gear lower than I did in my Modena! Strange.


So, with so much focus on the track and all the sensory overload, I couldn't really focus on certain things... like the sound. It was beautiful, but I was too busy with all the other sensations to sit back and enjoy it. But every once in a while, especially on certain downshifts, the sound would catch my attention... I'd think "Wow, I need to do that again!"... and then I'd realize I wasn't paying attention to my driving... "Oh, $#it, turn-in point!"

So, completing break-in at the track may not have been the best idea... the driving kept distracting me from the details of the car... the sound kept distracting me from the details of driving on the track... experiencing the new car at 9/10ths and then 10/10ths (and a few times at 11/10ths)... waayyy too much for me to take it all in. I look forward to some more street driving this coming week to allow me to focus on each new thing separately... in particular, the sound. Gotta go run it up to 8k on a nice straight open highway where I can focus on the sound... and then make a detour through a nice tunnel!


Anything bad? The new horn position is questionable. I surprised myself a few times by honking the damned horn in the middle of a corner. The first time I was looking all around to see who the hell would be honking at me on the track!

Then I had a scare at one point when some fluids came out on my windshield... "damn, something burst" and I pulled off line... looked closely to identify... that doesn't look like radiator fluid... definitely not brake fluid... and... there's nothing else in front... wait, that looks like soapy water... argh, I just tapped the windshield washers during the last upshift... back to racin'... think they mounted that a bit too close to the shifter.

Really, the only bad thing was the tires. Didn't feel all that sticky to me... got a fair amount of tread squirm at the limit... they sing pretty loud at the limit. But worst, chunks of rubber would break loose. But that's worthy of a separate thread.


The good? The brakes were awesome. Stopped great; modulation was great; and virtually no brake dust! That's a good sign! This is the first time that I've ever had my wheels coated with far more tire rubber than brake dust! Kinda strange that way.

The power felt great. Though I need more time to make a proper comparison with the Modena. The gearing seemed so different today. Like I said, I was running in lower gears than normal, and that gave me MUCH more torque to the wheels in the same spots on track. In fact, I surprised myself a couple times coming out of corners, jerking my own head into the seat because I wasn't prepared for the kick I had available! Quite the rush, though it did sort of mess up the balance of the car.

The car was extremely well-behaved, despite the tires. I got it sideways twice... both times was able to catch it without too much drama.

The first time was in the first left-hander of rattlesnake... I was downshifting to 2nd there and getting on the power hard to rotate the car... overdid it that time, got sideways, but caught it and hit the next apex under power... pretty slick, though not the fastest way through the series.

The second time was after a particularly sweet sounding downshift that startled me... I then turned in a bit late, getting into the marbles a bit, and was sideways before I knew it... not good given a pretty red GT3 was right behind me (or right beside me mid-slide)... I caught it and waved him on by... and then lectured myself on not listening to the engine while driving at the limit!

The car also had its first OTE. The prior few corners, near the end of the third session, the tires started feeling particularly odd... I felt some roughness in them that would slowly smooth out on the following straight. I decided I must've picked up some marbles, and so ignored it. At the end of the longest straight doing north of 120mph, I hit the brakes hard... felt a little less grip than normal... went to turn-in and just got lots of push... so I straightened up and took it straight off (didn't want to go off sideways).

FWIW, the Stradale handled the off-roading far more gracefully than the Modena did (I've gone off there once with the Modena when I evaporated the stock brake pads). Not that I recommend off-roading in the Stradale!

Anyway, I decided it was time to come in and check things out... did a couple cool-down laps... which is always fun when the P-cars are still going full-speed... what did I find? The prior couple corners, what I was feeling was chunks of tread coming off the tire!! But as I said, that's a topic for another thread.


So, lots of firsts today... but I think I can safely say, I was having just too much fun... I think I only experienced about 70% of it!! Whew!! Awesome day. Now at 720 miles.

 

Thanks... and thanks to everyone else for all the complimentary comments.

Not yet... just got it "broken in" today. I'm going to go play with it tomorrow... want to hear it at full song... and try to recreate some of those awesome downshifts it belted out during the track sessions. I'll keep an eye out for an appropriate spot to try out the launch control. Maybe I'll drive out to TMS tomorrow and get into one of their empty lots.

 

Yeah, I wish I had set up a camera for the track day today so that I could relive it and hear what I missed!

If I try out the launch control, I'll need to bring along a friend to film it from the outside... if for no other reason than I want to see what its like from the outside as well as the inside.

Videos will definitely appear here in the not too distant future...

 

Finally found time to wash my Stradale (poor thing, has been so neglected ). Washed my 911 at the same time and finished up my M3 with a final coat of Klasse sealant. It is interesting the differences you see when "up close and personal". (Sorry, no pics of the clean trio... need a sunny morning.)

The Stradale has an instantly different feel due to the aluminum. (Same can be said of any 360.) The metal "rings" different as you run your hands over it. It feels lighter, even to the touch. Not any weaker, just lighter... kind of a hollow feel. But when I lean against a body panel, the M3 metal actually gives more than the 360 aluminum does.

The Stradale paint is characteristic Ferrari. I just love deep, vibrant, richly-metallic paints... and Titanium, with both darker and lighter shades of metallic in the paint, has tremendous depth to it. My M3 has a very metallic bright-blue paint... turns lots of heads... "wow, that is, uh... really, uh... blue" ... but looking really closely, it doesn't have the same depth as the Ferrari paint. My 911 is a metallic burgundy... similar to Rosso Fiorano... but not nearly the depth... the darker and lighter bits of burgundy and orange metallic that you get in Rosso Fiorano makes the paint so much more vibrant.

But then, like Ferrari paint often does, my Stradale paint has various imperfections that give it (to be kind) that hand-made, Venetian blown glass feel. I'd expect a brand new paint job to have that glass-smooth feel that you get after freshly claying a paint job... like my freshly clayed M3 has right now (despite being 5 years old). But the Stradale, at least my Stradale, doesn't come quite that smooth.

As with the 360, the curves of the Stradale body are impeccable. Even going over it from inches away, each curve flows into the next with a level of artistic brilliance that's consistently satisfying. While my M3's lines all come together in a satisfying way, the individual contours are each just "standard shapes". My 911 is closer, with most of the curves flowing into one another... but the curves are just a bit more bland.

One of the biggest subtle improvements of the Stradale lines over the 360 I didn't even notice from the pictures. The body panel that runs under the doors is now squared off more... and that sharpness further emphasizes how much that panel curves out, increasing the sculpting of the door and the depth of the air inlet for the rear brakes. The next time I see a 360 next to a Stradale, I want to study that difference. I wonder if the actual dimensions of the change are as big as the overall effect on the car's look.

But because of that increased outward curve, that area took a lot more hits from hot rubber... lots more little black marks to clean off. My 360 paint took a fair amount of abuse on those panels; the Stradale will doublessly get more. So, I'm going to have them add some 3M film on that lower panel. The disadvantage is that rubber scuffs often do not wash off the 3M film like it does off paint... so, I imagine I'll regularly need to change out that film. But that'll be much cheaper than regularly having that panel sanded and repainted.


I hope to have some sound clips for you tomorrow... a tunnel perhaps...

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

 

Too much work to do to spend the day at the autocross... so, took some pics of my three recently cleaned cars and then drove to the nearest tunnel... to hear my beauty in her full audio glory!! And I brought along a recorder and a sound meter.

Oh my, what a sound! It had been a few days since I drove her, and I had forgotten how pretty the sound is... even just normal acceleration. But when I opened it up at the mouth of the tunnel... unbelievable! I'd try to describe the sound, but there are no words... other than "listen to the attached file".

How loud was it? Measured with C-weighting on my RS Sound Level Meter, pointed straight up, it registered 123dB peak in the tunnel, under full acceleration. It was loud! But didn't hurt my ears... rather, it was simply spectacular sound.

For comparison, I also measured the sound level under full acceleration outside the tunnel: 114dB. Then I measured just holding speed at about 90mph: 104dB. But that was mostly wind noise from having the windows down. Rolled up the windows and measured holding speed at 90mph: 97dB. Generally, driving around the streets with windows up and normal 3k-4500rpm gives 93-97dB. The sound of the AC on full produces about 90dB, FWIW.

Keep in mind... your computer will probably play this back at about 80dB... reality is more than 16 times louder!

 

Now that we can post MP3's, I can fit the rest of the audio clip with the downshifts that followed...