458 My First Ferrari...and a couple of questions

First and foremost, congrats. Enjoy it!

In regards to the throttle, the more you drive it the easier it is to modulate. I have ZERO issues with over-correcting inputs. True, I have had multiple Ferraris. BUT, you quickly learn the car. Honest.

The brakes are another matter. I had the CCB on my 430. No one told me about their cold behavior or needing to bed them. I came up to a light planning to turn. Fortunately it was green as I sailed through it due to zero braking.
In my 458 that I have had for 7 years, I recently tried to make a light in my area that is notorious for having the smart light sensor out of whack. Anyway, made the green with time to spare. However, I had no brakes as I started to turn! This was simply from having not needed to use the brakes aggressively for quite some time.
You will get a bunch of really detailed ways to bed the brakes after my post. I have found simplest way to do this is to get up over 70 mph and really stand on the brakes. Safely of course if someone is behind you. Do this several times until you start to feel the pedal come alive. You may have to periodically do this if you do not use them aggressively. Frequently my brakes feel fine when slowing below 50 mph. Then I need to slow much faster and find there is no braking!
NET: if you are going to go on a spirited drive, test your brakes before you "need" them. If not there, drive slower until you re-bed them.

Best

 

The throttle and brakes on the 458 should perform fine. I would try adjusting your seat position and see if that helps improve your throttle / foot angle. Also, are you driving in manual or auto mode? Auto mode is a write off; don't use it. Learn how to drive the car from a manual standpoint and you'll be much happier.

Brakes should stop just fine if everything is working correctly. You might want to go through a bedding in procedure and see if they start working better.

Ray

 

My brakes responded to hard stops well. I now routinely brake quite late for stops signs and red lights. I'm fine with the brake feel, but I'd imagine different pads could be tried for different brake feel if yours doesn't improve.

I'd get out of the city and drive the car hard to break it in. 9000 RPMs and full panic stops won't hurt it.

Love the spec! Beautiful pair!

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using FerrariChat.com mobile app

 

Yes the throttle is touchy but you learn to dial in your foot pressure. Yes I bounced the throttle in front of onlookers feeling like such a poser more than once.
The brakes do not have good bite even after a bedding, they are better after the bedding but not like Porsche.

I was expecting some good negative G's but the amount of pressure is an unnatural feeling. Moving the seat forward so you can apply more pressure without twisting your hips or stretching your leg way out of position is the best solution I have found for aggressive braking. You really need to stomp on the breaks to get them to wake up on the 458

 

Stunning. Ciao bella. There is something special about white 458s.

 

Congratulations Lee and as we say “welcome to the addiction!” Beautiful example. The brakes on the 458 need to be “bedded.” Not sure if your ceramics are squeaky but once you bed them that should improve. My first one didn’t have this issue but my current 2014 did until I bedded them. As far as throttle response it’s something you’ll get used to and won’t be an issue once you drive the car more regularly. The 458 is definitely meant to be driven aggressively. It begs you to get on it. You’re going to love it and you’ll find that every time you get behind the wheel it’s like the first time Enjoy in good health.

 

Congrats and welcome to the brotherhood!

 

I have the open flash throttle tune on my 458. I would have not kept mine without it. The throttle is an issue for some owners (like me) and the open flash tablet can fix it. I am long past my fist anything,. but I hope you enjoy your first OP, I am told that it is a big deal.

 

Is the throttle better in 488?

Reason I'm asking is I had a F430 before; never any throttle issues; have the 458 coming next month but also thinking of 488.

 

Congrats and it is a beautiful ride. I don't know if there are different degrees of twitchiness with the accelerator but I have adjusted to mine being only slightly twitchy. For me it doesn't warrant a major reflash but maybe there are differences between cars. Mine has 9,000 miles on it so I am not sure if mileage has anything to do with it, either. Maybe I have become used to it. Not much of a help, I know, but nice choice of a car. I had a 991 GT3 before I purchased my 458 and I have to say that it doesn't get much better than that as far as a driving experience. Everything that we tend to complain about our Ferrari's i.e., twitchy throttle, slightly wooden CCB feel just doesn't exist on the Porsche. They have worked on the 911 for decades and you have to know that they tend to mitigate every potential problem from one generation to the next. I drove a 992 a few weeks ago and I have to say that it is pretty perfect, but that is not what I want.
There has to be a little adventure in a car for me. Ferrari does adventure pretty well. Enjoy the new car.

 

Congrats on your 458! I owned one for 4 years and the brakes are probably the weak part of the car especially compared to Porsche. This was greatly improved on the 488. Twitchy throttle is just the way it is. This car wants to be pushed!

 

All that stuff on your car is normal and you will get used to it, and appreciate it (most likely).
The one thing that I really didn't like was the twitchy throttle (especially if you are used to Porsches). It is sometimes difficult to drive smoothly, especially when you are taking it easy. You will learn to modulate it better over time. It will always be less than perfect, but you will definitely forget about it.

 

I bought my 458 about 18 months ago and have owned many Porsches which made the twitchy throttle feel very intimidating to start off with..However after a couple of weeks, muscle memory sets in and it no longer becomes an issue..Same for the hyper reactive steering which initially felt too twitchy compared to Porsches..
Ferrari 458s are fitted with inferior brake pads compared to the Brembo pads fitted to Scuderias as standard..The pads on both are identical in size and fitting so recommend you fit the 430 Scud Brembo pads to your 458 which will improve braking noticeably..

 

I don't believe that you should buy a machine and then have to get used to it. The machine should work the way you want and if it does not find one that does or make the one you have work the way you want it to. The car should behave differently in race mode (or if you are old and never got used to traction controls coming out of corners everything off) OP and you will find it may not like shifts at certain RPM's and it may lurch. My car has close to 25K miles and it was not babied (I tend to push sports cars pretty hard), and once the brakes warm up I have no issues with them. Have fun with your car OP.

 

congrats on the car