First look: Ferrari gets Scuderious

FERRARI has revealed its latest weapon, a street-legal racing car called the 430 Scuderia, stripped of any unnecessary weight and bristling with more power than even the F430 Challenge track car.

Seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher – who no doubt had a hand in the development of the car – will officially unveil the 430 Scuderia at the Frankfurt motor show on September 11.

It will hit Australian and New Zealand shores from the middle of 2008 - in limited numbers that are unlikely to satisfy demand, which already stands at around a dozen keen customers.

The limited-edition Ferrari's sticker price is yet to be announced, but the previous 360 Challenge Stradale carried a 20 per cent price premium over the F430.

The 430 Scuderia joins Ferrari’s regular road-going V8 line-up alongside the F430 coupe and the F430 Spider, but the newcomer is clearly a track-oriented car designed to showcase Ferrari’s technical expertise.

Ferrari describes the car as “a truly high-performance two-seater berlinetta which demonstrates how Ferrari’s Formula One know-how is carried across to its production cars”.

Compared to the standard F430, the 430 Scuderia is some 100kg lighter, coming in at just 1250kg, thanks to the elimination of various trimmings and the use of lightweight carbon-fibre throughout the cabin.

Ferrari has even gone to the extent of making the seat-backs and winding mechanism covers from this high-cost competition material.

About the only weight added to the car is a 60th anniversary badge on the dashboard.

With some 380kW of power at 8500rpm – that’s 510 horsepower in the old money – the naturally-aspirated 4.3-litre V8 generates 118hp per litre, which is well above the once-mystical 100hp-per-litre mark. Power-to-weight ratio is just 2.45kg per horsepower.

Ferrari has not yet provided performance figures, but with 15kW more power and 100kg less weight, the 430 Scuderia will comfortably eclipse the standard F430’s time of 3.9 seconds for the 0-100km/h sprint.

It should even eclipse the stripped-out F430 Challenge, which is 25kg lighter but has 15kW less power.

Gearchange times from the standard F1-style sequential-shifting six-speed transmission have been shortened to just 60 milliseconds using the latest F1 software, called Superfast.

Ferrari said that a new traction control system combines the standard F430 E-Diff electronic differential and the ‘F1-Trac’ traction and stability control in a single integrated system for the first time. The settings can be changed via a dial on the F1-style leather, suede and carbon-fibre steering wheel – including a ‘Race’ option.

“Vehicle dynamics, control and performance thus represent the zenith of Ferrari’s achievements in terms of developing road-certified sports cars,” said Ferrari.

“The new model is aimed specifically at Ferrari’s most passionate and sports-driving oriented clients. Development focused on light weight, minimum trimmings and innovative technology ... to exalt the car’s extremely high performance and ability to thrill the driver.”