Honest question: Do you like the 430 Scud?

In the appearance department it is fact......newer does not mean 'better looking'...... it means more 'contemporary' ......and a bulk of it in technology (which is good). But we all know beauty is in the eye of the beer holder............. so since there are so many here that prefer the scud I will put my post 2k year beer goggles on. Yes even I can be objective...... .

Here is a short opinion on the looks of these 'newer' models (and soon to be 'older' models ).

360/430 had a good design intention with the aerodynamic thing going but it looks like the bumper height requirements made the wheel well gaps too large which exasperated the already bulbous front fenders. Also the rear ends are too thick ....... though some of this can be helped by lowering the car. The 360/430 interiors don't have that classic look to them. I remember seeing the 'old fashioned' interiors on f-cars and thought "ferrari just doesn't care what anyone thinks, they are going to build whatever they think is good and primadonnas be damned". Just when I embraced this 'retro ferrari interior styling' they installed a mitsubishi interior..... .

cs/scud are much improved over the 360/430 with the win going to the cs . The cs lines flow..... it just looks more tied together, where the scud looks like they tried too hard and made it way too busy. Though both have that classic ferrari theme with the minimalist interior .

Here is a link to the 360 styling methodology:

http://www.cadinfo.net/editorial/ferrari3601.htm


In summation.........I had spent too many years in the p-car world and we all know those cars have always been rounded. Everytime I visited a good friend of mine (who owned over 15 f-cars at one time), I was always stricken by the hard defined lines of his f-cars. I then went back into my 'rounded' p-car........only to daydream about those wedge-like f-cars. So by the time the 360 came out I was sick of 'rounded' cars. There was no way I was going to move from one 'round' car into another 'round' car. I wanted a wedge and there wasn't anyone going to talk me out of it !!!

+1

It says more about a person to prefer what they do regardless of the majority .... .

 

Interesting point, hadn't really thought about it that way. It's almost like the designers did the front, and then the next shift came on did the rear, and then the middle was whatever fit.

My usual issue with the 360/F430 is that it's too big and kind of shovel-nosed. With the F430/Scuderia, it also lost the quad tail lights and went with the "little red toenail" look that looked bad on the Enzo. The 360 is a handsomer car from the rear.

Beyond aesthetics: As far as the Scuderia, I enthusiastically support making these cars lighter, so in that respect I like it more than the regular F430. But it's still far too big for a sports car.

Whoa. As a 355 non-owner, I think it has aged extremely well, as well as any post-Daytona era Ferrari. The proportions are perfect. I don't think it's quite as dramatic as the 308/328, but it has all the right ingredients that scream exotic: flat deck, buttresses, tight dimensions, the quad tail lights. Plus it sounds better than almost anything, including my Tubi'd 328, which sounds pretty good in its own right, and the cockpit is a nice compromise between my 328 (snug, elegant and spartan) and the 360 (living room-sized).

I agree with you on the grey wheels -- those will look dated quickly, much like the gold BBS wheels of the '80s seemed like a good idea at the time but now look a bit cheesy. Ditto the matte colors.

As far as "getting stuck" on the older cars, I think the relatively recent 550/575M is a stupendous design/package for a GT car. In fact I'd rate it up there with the 328 and 355 as among Pininfarina's best modern production car designs (i.e., post-Daytona era). My problem with the F430 Scuderia is that the basic design direction Ferrari began with the 360 has always felt like the wrong one to me, so no matter what they do to it it's just not a car I'd want in my garage.

Re-posting another FChat'ers photo - 360 versus 355. Blobby versus svelte.

Again, I own neither, but I hope that when Ferrari scraps the 360/F430 design it's in favor of something smaller, tighter and exotic.
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