430 inbound, can't wait!

I’ve been looking for the latest toy for a couple of months and ended up buying an F430. I’m so damn excited I can’t stand it. As a bit of context, I don’t work very hard buying a car. Every time I’ve tried to “force fit” a purchase it just never seems to work out. Conversely, the ones that seem to go easy have always seemed to be the cars I’ve enjoyed the most. For example, I’ve got a ’04 Gallardo I bought on a handshake that has been perfect. Not one problem and I’ve loved the car. I’ve really been shaking the trees for a Murcie but every one had a story, was owned by a rapper and so on. I just couldn’t find the right one at the right price and I know they are out there. Also, the further I looked at Murcies the more I liked the Gallardo. I ran into several friends that were raving about their ’05 430’s and I started to shift direction. More modern, lighter, more reliable, available and so on. I’ve always liked F of Denver and I stopped in last week and they didn’t have anything that fit. Through a chain of events they had a new ’07 F430 coupe that is almost exactly what I would have ordered come available. I’m not comfortable disclosing the price but I was looking at ’05-06’s and I think the price is more than fair. It should be here next week. Many thanks to RACERDJ for talking me through the +/-‘s of Murcies and the two 430’s he’s had. The board discussions around 430’s made it easy to jump in as well. Here’s what is on the car:

Exterior – Rosso Corsa
Interior – Beige
Carpets – Nero
Power Daytona style seats
Leather headliner
Leather rear shelf
Challenge wheels
Carbon fiber rear Challenge grille
Red painted calipers
Hi-fi stereo
Front and Rear parking sensors
Carbon fiber intake manifold

WooHoo!

 

F1. In a perfect world I would have bought a 6 speed but I thought I might be dead by the time one turned up like this. IMO, there are +/-'s to both so it ended up being a coin flip and I went with what I could get.

 

I stopped by the dealer yesterday with the thought that my presence there might some how make the truck bearing the car appear. No such luck. It left New Jersey at the begining of last week with 5 or 6 cars to drop off along the way. Current guess is that the car arrives Monday plus 2 days for prep and I'm having a clear bra put on. Best guess is Wednesday and the weather looks decent. This is idiotic, I'm paying more attention to this schedule than I did to what the obstetrician said when my wife was pregnant.

 

Off the truck in Denver this afternoon. Full detail and a clear bra to be done tomorrow. I'll pick it up on Thursday.

The car looks great. The interior came in differant than I thought. The car is red/tan with black carpets. It has daytona seats. The seats have black accent (for lack of a better word) patches and black piping. Very cool but I don't know where that is on the option/spec list. I sometimes wonder if they just stitch up what they like on that day. Good taste in leather though and it works with the carbon on the engine.

Pictures to follow.

 

I picked the car up tonight. I'm not easily wowed and I'm more than pleased with this one. Initial reactions:

I can argue 6spd vs. F1 either way but I'm really pleased with the F1. Maybe it's a bit less engaging but very subjectively the car feels like it was made to work with the F1. This is a huge deal to me as I was not convinced I'd like the F1.

The car feels very light on it's feet compared to the other cars I've got including the GT3. All the great lively feel that the 355 had.

One of the least intuitive audio head units I've run across but it actually has pretty good sound. Hey, I was on the highway for 80 miles, I had to listen to something.

Really nice leather piping and carbon bits on the car. Very nice finish quality.

pictures tomorrow.