Ferrari F430

[Quiet]

Perform well

Car and Driver magazine found the car's performance worthy of the Ferrari heritage, and recorded a 3.5 sec 0-60 mph acceleration run in the F430[3] This makes it the third-quickest Ferrari road car ever made, after the Enzo and the 599. That being said, the 3.5 second 0-60 run was made on a European spec car, which has launch control, a feature designed to help launch the car from a standing start at high RPM's. Much like the E-Diff and the manettino, the launch control is a technology borrowed from Ferrari's Formula 1 racing program.[2] The launch control is unavailable in U.S.-spec F430's, presumably due to liability issues.

On the BBC Top Gear TV show, shown on the 17 July 2005, the Stig achieved a Power Lap time of 1.22.9. While the laptime was 0.9 seconds less than a Lamborghini Murciélago, the F430 was slower than the Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale at 1.22.3. The slower lap was blamed on the F430's Bridgestone tires supposedly having less grip than the Challenge Stradale's Pirellis.

Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson has commented on the F430's handling being absolutely brilliant, a marked improvement over the 360; he claimed that Ferrari holds that "even the most butter-fingered, incapable driver could drive the F430 around a track only one second slower than the most skilled test driver". He has in fact proclaimed, on more than one occasion, that the Ferrari 430 is "just about the best car I've ever driven", a status he previously attributed to the F355 (but never the Ferrari 360).