FERRARI 430 SCUDERIA vs FERRARI 488 PISTA
Luciano Pavarotti takes on Andrea Bocelli for Italian tenor supremacy
POOR SCUD. HASN’T AGED WELL, HAS IT?
It’s not an especially pretty car, the 430. It wasn’t when it was new in the late Noughties, and nor is it now, sat alongside its modern-day equivalent some 10 years later. Looks old, inside and out.
DOES IT FEEL OLD, TOO?
Well, it hails from an era before turbocharging supercars became fashionable (and ultimately necessary), and flappy-paddle gearboxes got peerlessly good. So yes, kinda, but in a good way. The Scud has a nat-asp 4.3-litre V8 producing 503bhp, and a 6spd automated-manual gearbox. For the 430’s replacement, the 458, Ferrari switched to a DCT. Then the 488 added two turbochargers into the mix for upwards of 700bhp. Which is just unnecessary.
WHAT DIFFERENCES DOES THE NEW TECH MAKE?
On a narrow public road, with camber and crown, potholes and pockmarks, not to mention other cars, trucks, buses, cyclists and so on, the Pista is frankly too much. It’s so fast and so capable that even driven at five 10ths, a policeman would be well within his rights to remove your licence from your wallet and cut it into tiny pieces. So you have to slow things down. Concentrate on the bits you can enjoy – the chassis, steering, brakes, ride and gearbox (all of which are just astonishing) – without risking a spell at Her Majesty’s pleasure.
BET THE SCUD FEELS SLOW IN COMPARISON
This is a car that does 0–62mph in 3.6 seconds, so much like the 488 it is emphatically not slow. But the 430 offers more fizz at low speed. You can use more gears, more revs. You have to, because there isn’t unlimited torque from idle like there is in the 488.
And of course the noise is otherworldly – as dramatic and exciting as it gets. Makes the new car’s turbo V8 sound flat and contrived, however many revs you’re using.
And you’re busier behind the wheel in the Scud. More involved. Nowadays the trend is for hyperactive steering with an immediate, sharp off-centre response that noses a car into a bend with only a few degrees of lock applied. But back in the 430’s day, things were different. Every corner requires proper steering input from your arms, not just fingers. You can’t just think it through bends.
As for the gearbox – on part throttle the upchanges come with a big delay and a bob of the head. The trick here is to back off as you pull the paddle. Or floor it – full throttle upshifts are quick and clean and very exciting indeed.
SO, THE OLD CAR’S MORE FUN?
I think so. We all know that the 488 is a monumental thing. A proper masterpiece of supercar engineering. But sometimes it’s just that little bit more amusing to drive something that objectively is a fraction less good.