My new Stradale survived!!!

Nope, still have no idea on the real top-end power... but the low-end torque is impressively improved! I wasn't expecting that as the peak torque number is unchanged. But I would guarantee that the low end of the torque curve is improved.

At 3000 rpm my 360 modena was a bit sluggish... at 2000 rpm it was really sluggish. It felt much happier above 3000 rpm... almost never drove below that as it felt like the car was straining... just didn't run nearly as smooth as it did above 3000 rpm.

In contrast, the Stradale is surprisingly peppy at 3000 rpm... and the engine pulls smoothly even at 2000 rpm. Now, its no torque monster down there... but it feels happy and smooth down there. Interesting and a bit surprising.

And that contributes to the daily-driver usability of the car... more on that later this evening... and I have some pics to upload...


Again, thanks for all the positive comments... though I feel a little like the proud father showing off pics of his newborn... but I guess you all can more easily ignore this thread if I start to bore you!

 

Glad you agree... though I think there's many out there who'd have voted "STRIPE!" I still struggle with it...

Here a few interior shots... sorry, my camera batteries were low... only a few of the shots came out good... I'll take better shots tomorrow...

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

 

Most people you take for a ride aren't going to say anything too negative... you can tell if they don't like it based on their questions and whether they fail to gush about the car. But there's always some people you can trust to tell you exactly what they think.

The first such is my wife, of course... but she's a sportscar fan, like me... well, not a 'nut' like me, but a fan (her car is the 911 cab). So, while she tells me what she thinks, she's biased to like the car. She did observe that the steering wheel feels great, the shifting was much smoother, and that overall she felt much more comfortable driving it than the Modena. Interesting, given its designed to be more "raw" of a sportscar.

My Dad is another who will tell me what he thinks... plus he's conservative (which spending big $$$ on a car doesn't quite fit into)... and he loves to play Devil's Advocate. So, he's a tough critic! And he's not unknowledgable or unenthusiastic... he's going cross-country with me to Monterey, afterall... but he's highly critical... especially when it costs big $$$. Worse yet, since he's planning to go cross-country in it, he's actually got legitimate reason to raise any issues!

To set the stage, my Dad found my Modena, with its hard racing seats, to be a bit too much race car and not enough street car... seats too hard, ride too stiff, noise in cockpit too loud at highway speeds, too much squealing from the racing brake pads, etc. He had fun riding around with me on the track, but could have done without the two hours of highway driving there and back. He was definitely worried about getting adequately comfortable for a cross-country trip. So, my Dad came by today to get a ride...

Verdict? I don't think he was too wowed by the styling changes... looked pretty much the same to him. But when we climbed in, he was surprised at the comfort of the seats. And liked the alcantara. He was impressed with the sound and the ride... not too loud** or too stiff. And none of that annoying brake squealing. He commented that this one made a much better street car than the Modena which felt like a targeted race car. I chuckled at the backwards-ness of that... as I am sure some of you just did... but that got me to thinking (as my Dad' s comments often do)...

While Ferrari was busy honing the Modena down into a track-oriented street car, they also made numerous refinements (many of which I discussed earlier). But they refined it sooo much and in sooo many ways, that the net result is not only a better track car, but also a much better street car... as hard as that is to believe given how great the Modena is.

Now, it still has its "rough edges" from a luxury sportscar point of view... no carpets, sticky tires flinging rocks, rocks sounding horribly loud due to zero sound insulation, stiff seats and ride, and so on. But the sum total package is still sooo much more refined, that its actually, debatably, a superior street car!


** "Not too loud?", you ask... "But its louder than the Modena", you rightly protest... True. But interestingly, its more musical... a more refined sound. The 360 Modena sound seemed to resonate a bit in the cabin at typical highway RPMs... resulting in a droning hum... not bad, but not particularly pretty. In contrast, the Stradale sound remains pretty at those RPMs... and doesn't resonate in the cabin... and so, actually ends up being more like background music than background noise. Its far easier to talk to each other than it was in the Modena!

More on that beautiful sound in the morning... here's a few pics of the outside... shows a slightly different tint to the Titanium color...

 

No. And I hope they never do... in a street car.

In a track-only car, you generally never move the position of your hands from the wheel... you never re-grip... so having the paddles move with your hands makes sense... you know the paddles are always in the same position relative to your hands.

But if you move the paddles with the wheel in autocross or driving on the street, where you must re-grip the wheel (shuffle steer or hand-over-hand), then you create chaos in trying to find the paddles... and the right paddles.

Instead, leaving the paddles fixed works fine, even on the track, in 99% of the cases. Why? Because generally you do NOT want to be shifting at the point of highest lateral g's... you generally downshift during straight-line braking (so your hands are in perfect position) and you generally upshift as you unwind the steering (not at apex). The Stradale did aid this by recognizing that you do need to upshift at times with some more wheel turn (unlike downshifting), and thus extended the upshift paddle some versus the Modena.

But the short answer is "no", I have no problem manipulating the paddles due to them being in fixed positions. And rather, it would be a problem if they moved with the wheel.

 

A few posts back, I mentioned that they seem to have pulled the power down into the lower RPMs. That's not all they pulled down there...

My 360 sounded good at startup and on up through the RPMs... but somewhere in the 5K's, under heavy load, it would really start to sing. I wonder if my Stradale will do similarly... I hear there's a huge change when that valve opens up above 6K. So, I suspect it will... but right now, its hard to imagine...

Starting up, and running up to 5K rpm, the car sounds awesome. And it does so even at constant speed (low load). Its even better under high load (accelerating hard)... and possibly even better than that under engine braking. And its not just louder... its more musical... it has more depth and character... its downright addictive. So, not only the power, they pulled awesome sound right down the RPM band.

So much so, that now when I get in my M3, I feel like I'm driving a Lexus (pretty fast, but too quiet). Understand, my M3 is not quiet. My kids don't look for my M3 when waiting to be picked up from school or wherever... they hear it coming! ("Hey, isn't that your dad" pointing at a BMW; without looking, "No, my Dad's is loud.")

My Stradale has spoiled me! I don't enjoy the sound of my M3 any more! And given I drive it as much as my Ferrari (its my family sedan), not sure that's a good thing!

Don't get me wrong... my 360 Modena sounded much better than my M3... but only incrementally at the common lower RPMS and/or lower loads... the Stradale gives this constant symphony of sounds that I cannot get out of my head... I was wanting to go drive it all night last night, just to hear that sound. (Of course, if I did, the local police would hear me coming and quickly zero-in on me... Valentine One can't save you from instant-on when there's zero-traffic.)

So, I just bide my time reading F-chat until morning, when I can get my next fix of Ferrari's Rhapsody in Red. I better go get my fix before night falls...

 

Ohhh... can't wait to hear that! And for the rest of you, I'll have recorders mounted... and I have tunnels and tunnel-esque areas in mind... all to appear hear (pun intended) as soon as I can capture it.

Coming soon to this thread... weather permitting... the Stradale's first full bath (detailed paint-check time), its first Ferrari get-together, its first track day, which should get it to its first drive after break-in, and soon after its first tunnel! Should be a fun week!!!

 

I was doing pretty good to Wednesday... then rain messed with my Weds evening driving plans... put some good miles on her Thursday morning up through lunch... but then all sorts of chaos messed with Thursday after lunch... now I have a pile of stuff to accomplish this morning if I am going to make it out to the track today! Argh!! Sigh. Gotta pay the bills, I suppose...

A mere 360 or so miles on her... gotta get busy!!