430 What is the actual redline of the f430 engine?

Stock firmware restricts redline to 8560rpm

 

Wow, that must have rocked! Pushing the redline, holy cow

 

Is it worth driving if you don't hit the redline at least once every trip?

 

Since I've yet to go there, and have immensely enjoyed every trip, I'd say, YES!

I like that range too for the same reasons

As for hitting the redline, I know, this car SHOULD go there, and I am missing out, was just a bit concerned about my level of trust I guess in the car as of yet and fear of not wanting to hurt anything. Ok, I now have my mission plan for next time!

 

In sports mode it will not let you go into redline as I have found out a number of times due to my excitement and lack of focus on the RPM gauge. I rarely go into race mode where there isn't a speed limit(sports mode <=150) and you can redline all night long

 

Well that's super interesting

 

I haven't noticed this. I've hit 8500 a few times and I haven't switched it out of sport mode since I got it. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough though?

 

The sports mode will upshoft for you and won’t allow you to hit redline. It will upshift at approximately 8200rpm

 

Really, im sure i manually shift it even in sport??

 

I think what he might mean is it will not let you go into the "danger zone" if you forget to up shift, it will then shift automatically. Which I was not aware of.

 

Not mine


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An appointment with a chassis dyno is a great investment. Red line seldom represents the best place to shift up. A shop with a chassis dyno, and a tech that can interpret the results (which is paramount) will most likely show you that your prime power curve in each gear will most often be at an RPM that is not as high as the Red line on the tach. I found with my last car where the shift points were via a dyno run. Shifting through the gears where the power is (and then begins to drop off) felt like I was driving a different, much quicker car. Definitely worth it. Not to mention being able to stand outside the car as the tech runs through the gears is almost worth the price alone!

 

Redline is 99.9% of the time still the best place to shift, even if the redline is past where peak power is made. This is because it means you will drop into the next gear at higher revs in a higher HP part of the power band.

For example (991 GT3 dyno plot below):


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Per Porsche, peak power is made at ~8250rpm, where the redline is 9000rpm.

However, shifting at 8250rpm in 2nd gear would put you at 5900rpm in 3rd gear, where shifting at 9000rpm would put you at 6500rpm in 3rd gear. The car makes almost 50hp more at 6500rpm vs 5900rpm, so shifting at redline is still the best/correct strategy, even if power at 9000rpm is slightly less than at 8250rpm.

And unlike the GT3 example above, the F430 continues to make more power all the way up to redline, so the argument is even more compelling.

 

I know it's just hearsay, but a master Ferrari tech once told me the 430 engine is capable of going to 10,000 rpm, but they limited it to 8,500 for obvious longevity and reliability reasons.

 

10,000 rpms would be an amazing sound to experience.

 

You'll probably only get to hear it once.....

 

Yes, most cars make peak power way before redline. The 430, (and 360 I think) from dyno graphs I've seen, the power is still climbing at redline. So yeh shifting at redline will get you there faster. But, getting the car moving from low speed requires torque not horsepower. So short shifting around peak torque revs will get you going faster. But after that it's all about revs which equal speed.