I went to check out the inaugural Italian Motoring Festival in Boerne, Texas. I was shocked to see we had 2 of the most iconic cars in the world there – The Ferrari F40 and the Lamborghini Countach. We also had some of the best supercars to come from Italy including a Ferrari 512BBi, Ferrari Testarossa, Ferrari 512M, Lamborghini Murcielago, Lamborghini Aventador, and more!
When my brother and I were kids, we had 2 posters of cars on our bedroom wall – 1 was a red Ferrari Testarossa and the other was a black Lamborghini Countach with gold wheels.
We also drove out to the event in a good sized group of cars in the Texas Hill Country and had a great time.
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I want to be as transparent as possible and show you everything I know to be good AND bad about this car. The reality is that when a car is 15 years old and it’s actually been driven, it’s going to have some minor flaws such as paint chips. The good news is that because the car has been driven, it’s mechanically in excellent condition especially with respect to the engine and transmission!
Some of the items discussed are the modifications such as:
Brembo brakes
KW Coil Overs
Dyno tune by Eurocharged ATX
Headers, X-pipe, Tubi mufflers
Passport 9500CI radar detector and laser jammer
Kenwood Stereo and subwoofer
BlackVue dashcam
Carbon fiber rear diffuser
Carbon fiber engine bay panels
HRE Wheels
Window tint
Some of the bad things include:
Paint chips
Loose mirrors
Misaligned windows
Small oil leak
Rock pits in windshield
Minor wear on bolster
1 small door ding
The car is basically up to date on maintenance but could probably use an oil change in about 1K miles along with tires in about 5K miles.
We had just finished installing the new (and loud) exhaust in Stu’s Ferrari 360. After it was dyno tuned by Eurocharged ATX I had to take the Ferrari over to our friend’s shop so it could have some work done on it’s top.
This was my first time actually driving a Ferrari 360 and it was fairly interesting to see that it does have some significant differences in how the transmission behaves. I also got to see just how loud his car really is!
This is not a comprehensive review as I did not get to drive it very far.
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It’s time to make Stu’s Ferrari 360 LOUD and gain some serious HORSEPOWER! We remove the OEM Exhaust Manifolds and catalytic converters and replace them with Fabspeed Exhaust Headers and Capristo straight pipes.
Meg helped out and wrenched on a car for her first time ever! She even got dirty. We needed her help to start threading on the new nuts for the headers as her smaller hands could get into the tight spaces better.
Prior to installation, we take the car to Eurocharged ATX (http://www.eurochargedatx.com) to have a baseline dyno run. This will let us know how much horsepower and torque the 360 gains from the exhaust and tune.
The entire installation took us about 16.5 hours and 2 very late nights. Thankfully we had a good crew helping out and lots of beer.
It’s time to make Stu’s Ferrari 360 LOUD and gain some serious HORSEPOWER! We remove the OEM Exhaust Manifolds and catalytic converters and replace them with Fabspeed Exhaust Headers and Capristo straight pipes.
Prior to installation, we take the car to Eurocharged ATX (http://www.eurochargedatx.com) to have a baseline dyno run. This will let us know how much horsepower and torque the 360 gains from the exhaust and tune.
The entire installation took us about 16.5 hours and 2 very late nights. Thankfully we had a good crew helping out and lots of beer.
Josh Hill is a Ferrari Technician and he connected his computer to my car and checked out my clutch’s status along with my F1 Transmission. As it turns out, both are in remarkably good condition especially for how many miles I’ve got on my Ferrari F430.
One of the biggest concerns people have about the Ferrari F430 is with the clutch life, and with the F1 Transmission having issues. Although the F1 transmission in the F430 is considered to be very reliable and durable, there have been instances of it having issues that can be very expensive to fix. Worst case scenarios – people have had to replace the entire transmission although that seems to be fairly uncommon.
The F1 Transmission in the F430 has an electronically controlled differential called an E-Diff. This is also a very expensive component and can cost a lot if things are needing repairs.
Basically the F1 transmission is a hydraulically actuated manual gearbox powered by hydraulic actuators, solenoids, and a computer. This manages the clutch engagement and shifting between gears.
The clutch in the Ferrari F430 has a bad reputation of not lasing very long. Typical life seems to be in the 40K mile range with some people getting more and some less. It would appear that I’m going to get significantly over 40K miles as I’m already at 25K miles and have only 35% clutch wear. Many people talk about how that has to do with how you drive the car.
If you have questions for Josh you would like answered in future videos, please contact me.
If you want to replace your accumulator you can get one from Ricambi America here: https://bit.ly/2CSEDLw
This is the 3rd McLaren I’ve driven, and I really want to like it. In many ways I do, it’s everything you’d expect from a modern supercar. Fast as hell. Precise handling. Amazing braking ability, shifts are lightning fast. But it just has no soul!
The turbo’s mute the engine’s sound dramatically and although you can hear the turbos whistle, the engine’s sound is kind of odd. No matter how hard manufacturers try, there is still some turbo lag, and it causes the low end torque to be very disappointing. However the upper end pulls like crazy.
I know people are going to hate on me for saying this, but I just don’t like the McLarens. I wish they had a non-turbo car that was available, EVEN if it was slower and had far less horsepower.
But, that being said, it really is still an amazing car in just about every way. But I’m not sure I’d be willing to spend $350k on it.
I was somehow invited to participate in the Scuderia Society’s Raduno Rally out in the Texas Hillcountry. We started in Austin at the Domain and had a police motorcycle escort out of the city. Then we drove all the way out to Blackboard’s BBQ for lunch.
We drove some of the greatest roads in the area with lots of hills, turns, and beautiful scenery! Lots of the Texas wild flowers are in full bloom this time of year. The entire route lasted about 250 miles.
Near the end of the drive on Hamilton Pool Road, there’s a 1 lane bridge that is hidden around a corner. We were still going very fast when cresting a hill and noticed cars fully stopped covering both lanes of the road! I came extremely close to crashing into a bunch of supercars! CODE BROWN!
We ended the day back at the Domain and I must say, it was simply the most well organized, most fun, and exciting rally I’ve been on. The people participating were incredible with awesome stories and of course amazing rides! I can’t wait for the next one.
