Ferrari F430

The Ferrari F430 is a sports car produced by the Italian automaker Ferrari as a successor to the 360. It debuted at the 2004 Paris Motor Show. European left-hand drive sales began in November 2004, but right-hand drive sales did not start until Spring 2005, and the North American market did not get the F430 until Summer 2005.

The F430's all aluminum chassis was produced in partnership with Alcoa and is virtually identical to that of the previous model, the Ferrari 360. In the F430 it has been slightly re-worked and improved with some extra stiffening beams around the floor pan area. The car shares a lot of common parts including the same roof, doors, front windshield and passenger compartment to engine glass. Internally, both cars are referred to with the same model number (F131), though the F430 has the Evoluzione tag attached to show that it features some major changes. Internally, the car is simply known as the "Evo".

The MSRP for a Ferrari F430 is between $168,005–$227,000 in the United States. in the United Kingdom, approximately €175,000 in the European Union and $389,000 for the base model to $450,000 for the Spider F1 Sequential in Australia.

The body has been redesigned to be more curvaceous and aerodynamic. Although the drag coefficient remains the same, downforce has been greatly enhanced. A great deal of Ferrari heritage is found in the car: at the rear, the Enzo's tail lights and interior vents have been added. The car's name has been etched into the Testarossa-styled driver's side mirror. The large oval openings in the front bumper are reminiscent of Ferrari racing models from the 60s, specifically the 156 "sharknose" Formula One car and 250 TR61 Le Mans cars of Phil Hill.

Along with a restyled body, the F430 features a 4.3 L V8 petrol engine derived from a shared Ferrari/Maserati design. This new powerplant is a significant departure for the F430's line: the engines of all previous V8 Ferraris were descendants of the Dino racing program of the 1950s. This fifty year development cycle comes to an end with the entirely new 4.3 L, the architecture of which is expected to replace the Dino-derived V12 in most other Ferrari cars. The engine's output specifications are: 360.4 kW (483 hp) at 8500 rpm and 465 N·m (343 lb·ft) of torque at 5250 rpm. The F430 will reach a top speed of 197 mph (317 km/h).

Information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari_F430

Related Pages: Cars, Ferrari Enzo, Ferrari F50, Ferrari F355,

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