Press Sighting: Playboy.com
July 30, 2008
Big kudos to our new friend A.J. Baime over at Playboy.com who wrote up a great little piece about his time in the F430. Alas, since you're all wondering, they did not provide us with Playmates at the end of their rental. Next time, guys. Next time.
From the article:Â "I had a thought while I was hurtling down Manhattan's West Side Highway in a Ferrari F430, right around the time the speedometer needle darted past 110 mph...Flooring a Ferrari is like having a baby. Until you've experienced it, there's no way you could understand how thrilling and unnerving it is."Â Full text below...
Link:Â http://www.playboy.com/style/features/ferrari-f430/ferrari-f430.html
I had a thought while I was hurtling down Manhattan's West Side Highway in a Ferrari F430, right around the time the speedometer needle darted past 110 mph. (From a standstill at a red light at 56th Street, it had taken mere seconds to hit that speed.) Flooring a Ferrari is like having a baby. Until you've experienced it, there's no way you could understand how thrilling and unnerving it is. As the filmmaker Roberto Rossellini put it in the 1960s, "There is no finer thrill in the world than driving a Ferrari flat out." The ride came courtesy of Gotham Dream Cars, a New York and Miami-based outfit that rents out exotic vehicles. There are companies all over the country that specialize in this business. (To find one in your area, check the directory at exoticcarrental.com.) Supercars are defined by their exclusivity. A very few are built, and their price tags read like telephone numbers. A junkyard economy and oil prices put these cars only more out of reach for Mr. Everyman. That's where companies like Gotham Dream Cars come in. For $1,950, you can drive the stunning Lamborghini Murcielago for 24 hours (pictured below). Take your pick: the Bentley Continental GTC ($1,450), the Aston Martin DB9 Volante ($1,450)... (See gothamdreamcars.com for info and rates.)
I chose the Ferrari F430, an automobile that showed up on American roads in 2005. How many times have you been asked the question in a bar: If you could have any car, what would it be? The F430 is it for me. What I adore is the feel of the drive, and the car's amazing heritage. The more you learn about the F430, the deeper in love you fall.
Take the dual front-end air intakes, for example. They are direct descendants of the gaping jaws on the 1961 156 Formula 1 Ferrari--nicknamed "Sharknose." As in, the car that charioted Phil Hill to world champion honors. (Only two Americans have ever won the F1 World Championship, Hill with Ferrari in '61 and Mario Andretti with Lotus in '78). Those hip-mounted air-intakes above the rear wheels first appeared on the now-priceless "P Cars" that raced at Le Mans throughout the mid-1960s.
When you step inside the cockpit, you notice the smell of the leather first. Ferrari should make a cologne out of this stuff. Only Italian leather smells like this. I've walked through the Ferrari factory in Maranello, Italy, and seen how this leather is stitched. Buy a new Ferrari and you can choose not just between a dozen colors of leather, but the color of the stitching and how far apart each stitch should be. True to Enzo Ferrari's vision when he started the company after World War II, everything is made by the hands of artisans.
The Pininfarina-designed body manages to scream Italian attitude without going over the top, as some of the 80s and early 90s Ferraris did. The lines are sensuous and elegant, perfectly proportioned. As one reviewer put it, "One look at the Ferrari F430 and it tattoos the word 'supercar' on your retinas."
As for the ride, the F430 is easy to handle on open road and in tight traffic. The 4.3 liter V8 is mounted right behind you, amidship. Plant your foot and your spine soaks up the throb. The numbers: 483 hp and 343 lb/ft of torque, zero to 60 in 3.9 seconds, flat out at 195 mph. There are production cars out there that'll rocket a full 50 mph faster, but who cares? Unless you're on a racetrack, you'll never need to go any faster than the F430 will take you. All the engineering was inspired by Ferrari's Gestione Sportiva F1 racing division. In sport mode, the suspension is tightly tuned so you feel the cracks in the road. A knob on the steering wheel allows you to quickly switch suspension settings, traction control, and the speed of the F1-derived transmission. You will not get Prius gas mileage, but Ferrari is promising to build cars that are 40% more fuel-efficient by 2012.
Bottom line? This is an automobile for the ages -- a perfect balance between the past and the future. Thanks for the ride, Gotham Dream Cars.
