Stradale vs. F430 F1 CCB vs. Scuderia (German Magazine Sport Auto)

Here are the links to one of my favorite car magazines worldwide. They have been upgrading their website and lots of information from several years of testing is becoming available.

The three links refer to their SuperTest. The driver is Horst Von Saurma, he writes the articles and he is a very experienced track driver, with lap times around the Nurburgring very close to the Porsche factory driver, the great Walter Rohl.

These tests include a hot lap around the Nurburgring, a hot lap around the tight Hockenheim, a wet racetrack (to test handling/braking and traction on low grip conditions), a wind tunnel test, road test, the usual acceleration/braking/handling tests. It takes days to produce results out of these tests, but the results are indeed very detailed and extensive.

There are articles on other cars (GT3 RS, GT2, Nissan GTR, etc) so you can compare other cars as well.

It’s a German magazine with no English version for the website. The way the website navigates is not that common. On a given page you have multiple tabs (videos, pictures, data, etc) and once you go to those tabs, you can scroll down and get more information in the sub tabs.

The F430 F1 tested was a lot lighter than the standard model, it had the Carbon brakes and the optional Carbon Racing seats, both options reduce another 100 lbs from the F430. All these cars are European versions. The Stradale was also a lot lighter than the U.S version, because with the 360 Modena and Stradale, the Euro versions were a lot lighter. With the F430, such huge gap in weight between the Euro cars and U.S. cars vanished.


http://www.sportauto-online.de/supertest/ferrari-challenge-stradale-im-supertest-test-des-ferrari-challenge-stradale-auf-der-nordschleife-1041313.html

http://www.sportauto-online.de/supertest/ferrari-f430-f1-im-supertest-test-des-ferrari-f430-f1-auf-der-nordschleife-1041023.html

http://www.sportauto-online.de/supertest/ferrari-430-scuderia-auf-nordschleife-und-hockenheimring-1041447.html


Nurburgring Lap Times:

Stradale: 7:56 (8:09 on the 360 Modena)
F430: 7:55
Scuderia: 7:39


Acceleration 0-200 kp/h (125 mph):

Stradale: 15.5 secs
F430: 12.6 secs
Scuderia: 11.4 secs


Braking 200-0 kp/h (what a braking test should be, not the 60-0 mph meaningless test):

Stradale: 11.0 secs
F430: 11.2 secs
Scuderia: 10.2 secs


Aerodynamics Cd:

Stradale: 0.31
F430: 0.34
Scuderia: 0.33


Aerodynamics Front Axle Downforce or Lift at 100 kp/h (62.15 mph):

Stradale: 22 lbs downforce
F430: 24 lbs lift
Scuderia: 0 lift


Aerodynamics Rear Axle Downforce or Lift at 100 kp/h (62.15 mph):

Stradale: 46 lbs lift
F430: 13 lbs lift
Scuderia: 9 lbs lift


Lateral Acceleration (Skid Pad):

Stradale: 1.3g
F430: 1.35g
Scuderia: 1.4g


Slalom 18 meters apart cones:

Stradale: 65.5 km/h
F430: 68.6 km/h
Scuderia: 71.1 km/h

The three cars are listed with the 25.1 gallons fuel tank (95 liters). The weight of a full tank of fuel compared to an empty fuel tank car is 157 lbs higher.

Enjoy

Scuderia and F430F1 Nurburgring speeds in section
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That explains the good numbers from the F430 F1. The car was tested on Pirelli 225/285 P Zero Corsa, the same tires used by the Stradale and Scuderia, these are race compound tires.

So, with a lower ride height, same tires as the Stradale, and 100 lbs removed by using lighter brakes and seats, the F430 F1 becomes a nicer car at the track.

 

One thing that is not revealed by the SuperTest when comparing the new 2010 GT3 to the Scuderia is the difference in grip between the Michelin Pilot Sport Cups and the Pirelli PZero Corsa. I like the fact that the F430 F1, Stradale and Scuderia ran the same tires, so we can compare these three cars. But these Corsa tires are Ferrari's biggest handicap, they are skinny and the don't have good grip compared to Michelin Pilot Sport Cups, Dunlop Sport Max, Toyo RA-1/R888, Yoko A048. When comparing Ferrari performance against the Viper ACR (Michelin Pilot Sport Cups), GT3, GT3 RS and GT2 (Michelin Pilot Sport Cups), the grip difference from the tires needs to be considered.

I recently ran the Scuderia with both Toyo R888 235/295 and Hoosier A6 295/345, the time gap between tires was 3.2 secs on a 56 secs course. The same exercise with the stock Pirelli PZero Corsa against the Hoosier A6 produced in between 5 secs to 6.5 secs difference on three different days. By the way, the R888 gets better as it gets older so I expect them to close the gap with the Hoosiers. The R888 immediately became my choice for street tire in the F430, grip off the line has improved, braking and handling have improved as well. I expect them to last 2,000 miles or less.

On both the 996 GT3 and 997 GT3 RS, I used to compare the performance between the Michelin Pilot Sport Cups and the Hoosier A6, I was getting anything from 2.5 secs to 3.8 secs difference on typical 60 secs lap road course.

So, just switching the Corsa tires to a higher grip tire will automatically drop Ferrari lap times, acceleration, braking, handling.

I have been driving the GT3 platform for over 5 years, with a multitude of track days, autocrosses, and plenty of road miles. The weight on both GT3 and GT3 RS is much higher than the Scuderia, the 2010 GT3 is lighter than the 2007 GT3 but not lighter than the 2007 GT3 RS. The power difference between my two GT3 and the Scuderia is unreal, I doubt that a 3.8 in the new GT3 and another 20 Hp are going to help that much.

Braking and handling in the Scuderia exceeds the handling on both my lightly modified RS and heavily modified 2004 GT3 (Moton, full monoballs, 100% metal bushings, race springs, etc). Once I install the Traqmate data acquisition and take the Scuderia to the same racetracks where I tested the GT3 and GT3 RS, I should have more hard data to compare them.

 

Correct, the N-spec Michelin Sport Cup has wider grooves (less contact patch), and an extra groove.

My rear tires where N-spec 325 from the 997 GT2, later on I switched to the 345 (Viper ACR). At the front I ran both the 235 N-spec and the 265 standard MPSC. The best setup was the 265/345, the slowest one 235/325 N-spec, but in the worse case they were less than 4 secs slower than Hoosier A6 (265/345 A6).

The Corsa Ferrari spec tire was 5 secs slower than A6 in the best case compared to narrower 235/295 A6. When I switched to the wider 295/345 A6, the gap went over 6 secs.

My guess is that the Corsas are 1 second slower than the MPSC N-Spec, and 2 secs slower than the full spec MPSC on a 60 secs lap.

 

Sport Auto Supertest Acceleration 0-200 kp/h (0-125 mph)

Stradale: 15.5 seconds
2004 GT3: 14.8 s
2008 GT3: 13.9 s
Gallarado Superleggera: 13.6 s
2008 Corvette Z06: 13.6 s
2008 GT3 RS: 13.5 s
2010 GT3: 13.2 s
Nissan GTR: 13.1 s
F430 F1: 12.6 s
2002 GT2: 12.4 s
LP560/4: 11.6 s
2008 GT2: 11.5 s
Scuderia: 11.4 s
Mercedes SL65 Black Series: 11.2 s

July 2009 Sport Auto Supertest. Nissan GTR
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