The Ferrari Modena 360 was replaced by this and no questions were ever raised on the replacement. It's not very hard to get the point behind the F430. It was always designed to give Ferrari enthusiasts a track experience on a road car.
The F430 shared design cues with the 360 but the changes stood out, courtesy of Frank Stephenson, who was in charge of Ferrari's design department, worked in tandem with design expert Pininfarina to deliver a modern car with retro styling elements. A fine example is the twin air intakes, which was inspired from the 1960's 'shark nose' F1 cars.
The F1 connection doesn't terminate cosmetically. The E-diff (Electronic differential) found on the F430 was borrowed from Micheal Schumacher's F1 car which helped it to shave off 3 seconds from its lap times around the Fiarano circuit compared to the outgoing 360 Modena.
The six-speed manual gearbox was from Ferrari's F1 car, controlled by paddles behind the steering wheel- just like how one would in a F1 car.
The mid-mounted V8 delivered 483 bhp to its rear wheels. Suspension, both at the front and the rear, was a double wishbone aided with coil springs. 0-60 mph came in at roughly about 4 seconds and acceleration continued all the way up to a staggering 196 mph. Interestingly, the engine is visible through a glass window fixed at the rear.
The F430 wasn't better only in terms of acceleration and top speed, but was safer and a lot better in handling too. It managed all of that weighing only a few kilograms more than the 360.
The F430 will be the closest Ferrari has ever reached to a production model. Even then, the keys belonged only to a fortunate few!
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