Pista Lowered on Novitec Springs

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For those of us who cannot leave well enough alone, the real art of doing mods is simple: DO NO HARM. In my opinion, it makes little sense to pay a boat-load of money for a carefully engineered exotic and then diminish its performance in the name of appearance or back-ally tuning. Indeed, there are more than a few people who are convinced that ANY deviation from factory stock is counterproductive. By way of example, larger wheels and fatter tires often look impressive, but the additional weight and diameter adversely diminishes performance. I have been down this path more than once, and I think I've learned my lesson. Now, the only time I consider changing wheels and tires is if the aftermarket parts are significantly lighter than those supplied by the factory which spells money, lots and lots of money. (More about that in a future post).

So, when it came to lowering my Pista, I wanted to be extra careful. First, I should explain that I don't particularly like the factory ride height of the car...if you look at all the pretty brochure pictures published by Ferrari, you'll see that the cars as presented are significantly lower than the cars that are actually delivered, at least here in the U.S. There is a reason for this; the cars simply look meaner and more racy without that big gap between the fender arch and the tire.

As most of us know, the ride height of our cars is adjustable using the stock spring perches. However, lowering the car using this method compresses the springs and makes the car ride more harshly. To address this, Novitec produces a shorter spring, which as I understand it, maintains the same spring rate as the factory part. I had these installed on my 488 and liked them, so I repeated this mod on my Pista. Just like the factory springs, the Novitecs are compatible with the nose lift system. I specced this option on my car, knowing that I would eventually put the Novitec springs on it, and I wanted the extra security of being able to raise the nose for sharp inclines.

Once a car is lowered, it must be realigned, so I took the opportunity of have one of the best race car tuners in the the area do a full alignment and precise corner balance. He dialed out the understeer, and I'm very pleased with the outcome. You'll note from the pictures that the car is certainly not slammed. It remains very drivable on rough and uneven pavements. With the added security of the nose lift, I haven't had any issues whatsoever with scraping, and to my eye, the car just looks so much cooler when it is lowered, even conservatively like mine is. Overall, I couldn't be happier with the ride quality, and the pro-level alignment and corner balance was worth every penny. Glad I did it.

 

As I understand it, the spring rate of the Novitecs are similar to the factory springs, just shorter. Thus, the ride quality is also similar. My butt dyno seems to confirm this.

 

Correct. The install with alignment and corner balance was about $1400. I supplied the parts.

My dealer tells me that the only warranty issue is if there is a mechanical failure in the car directly related to the spring itself...which seems unlikely. What’s really interesting is that I could have lowered the car even more than it presently stands using only the factory springs and perches...it just would have ridden like a rock truck. These adjustments, however fool hearty they would be, could easily be done and then reversed without the dealer knowing…not that I would condone such antics or find them to be necessary.

 

10mm on the front, 20 mm on the rear. Anything between 10 and 20 will work, depending on your tastes. If you do 10 or 15, it will require longer lug titanium bolts, which are about $900 for two wheels. The reason you don't need different bolts for the 20 mm is because it bolts to the hub, allowing you to use the factory length lugs (which thread into the spacer). Not sure I would like the look of 20mm on the front..

 

Sorry, Gh21631, I realize that my statement was confusing; the spring rate of the Novitec is similar to the spring rate of the factory spring when both are taken out of the box to install. The Novitec spring is shorter, thus allowing for lower ride height without changing the spring rate. When the factory springs are used in a lowered configuration, they must be compressed to achieve the lower ride height. This pre-compression takes some of the compliance out of the factory spring, making it ride significantly more harshly than the Novitec.