Ferrari 430 Scuderia

Ferrari 430 Scuderia: the lowdown

High-performance track focused Ferraris are back on the menu in Maranello. Ferrari announced its return to the rich blokes' track day market today with this road legal F430. Due to be unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show by Ferrari golden boy Michael Schumacher, the most hardcore F430 yet, named the Scuderia, or 'team' (a reference to the company's racing heritage), is likely to cost around £150,000, £20k more than the standard car. Like its predecessor, the equally track focused Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale, the Scuderia gives you less to give you more, and will hit our shores before the end of the year.

It all looks pretty stripped inside. What happened to the carpets?

Carpets? Don’t be daft. Ferrari has taken away all the luxuries associated with the ‘ordinary’ F430 coupe and spider. This 430 has undergone a serious diet and has managed to shed 100kg, leaving it tipping the scales at just 1250kg. That makes it 80kg lighter than Lamborghini’s supposedly lightweight Gallardo Superleggera. That reduction comes from stripping out all non-essential items - so that’s carpets, stereo, the standard heavy seats and rear windscreen all gone. Instead there are bare floor panels and a Plexiglass rear windscreen, through which you can marvel at the raucous V8 lurking behind your lightweight bucket seat.

And presumably it’s more powerful too?

It certainly is: the naturally aspirated 4.3-litre engine now produces 503bhp, giving you 20 more horses than the standard car, with peak power arriving at 8500rpm. The standard F430’s 0-62mph speed was an impressive 4.0 seconds but we anticipate that the new car could well take half a second off that given the weight loss and power hike. The Scuderia’s top speed will no doubt creep up a little too, so expect it to reach 200mph before it runs out of puff. Bigger brakes and semi-slick but road-legal rubber are also expected in the new package to help bring proceedings to a halt in neck-breaking times.

Has much technology been carried over from Ferrari’s F1 programme?The Scuderia will feature what Ferrari calls F1 Superfast and F1-Trac, the latest software developments derived from grand prix experience. The F1 Superfast transmission swaps cogs in just 60 milliseconds, less than a third of the time the Enzo’s box required. But the best development however, comes from the F1-Trac system controlled by the steering wheel manettino lever which integrates the F430’s E-diff electronic differential with stability control for the first time. You can now turn off the car’s traction control whilst keeping the stability control active, allowing the car to flatter the driver while keeping him out of trouble. What's changed on the outside?Visually, the front of the Scuderia takes an even more aggressive stance over its F430 siblings. The front air intakes have been reshaped and become even bigger, while a new front splitter helps the Scuderia carve a cleaner line through the air and keep the front end more firmly planted. The rear intakes too have been slightly tweaked, with a slight flare due to the larger sills that accentuate the new racing profile of the car. As this is the only view I will see of F430 Scuderia what should I look out for?The F430’s aggressive makeover continues at the rear with a revised exhaust layout. Gone are the four pipes of old, replaced by two larger exhausts situated either side of the number plate. The rear diffuser has been altered but retains the familiar shape of the standard car's, while the boot vent gets larger and a 430 Scuderia badge. The Scuderia makes its official debut at the Frankfurt show this September and CAR will be driving it shortly afterwards.