Der-Schwabe

Indeed, in the magazine in the 'reader's letters' section he sat less on the fence than in the blog, and responded to the reader's question much briefer that if pressed, he'd pick the GT3 and keep the £ 100k difference for something else. --- Make of that what you will...on the subject of making of it what you will, have a gander at this:

Ferrari 458 Speciale vs. 430 Scuderia at Hockenheimring - YouTube

Not ideal conditions to track the vehicle at Hockenheim but still...

Conekilr

^^^ Is that Massa driving in the second half of the video ???

Joe@Fabspeed

I have a question for Ferrari driver ed & track racers. We all know that Porsche ceramics are not what you want for hard core track driving as they wear out fast and Porsche DE and racers often just remove the cool ceramic rotors and install big steel disks with aluminum hats and save the ceramics for originality and trade in time at the dealer.

All Ferrari cars manufacturered since I believe 2008 have big Brembo ceramic rotors............are the Ferrari ceramics brakes long durable brakes? SWapping out pads is okay but not swapping out $20,000 sets of rotors.

Thanks for sharing another Video. How abut those guys at Hockenheimring.............no helmets, no firesuits.............just driving and drifting all over the 'Ring.

Der-Schwabe

It struck me that the Speciale driver had his hands full under breaking even at what seemed moderate speeds, rather twitchy at times, something the 430 driver did not struggle with. I suppose tires used may explain that...

CAlexio

Good point.. The braking looked really hairy.. Lack of stability like that isn't normal.. What was going on there?

frayed

yeah 1.50 and 2.10 looked a mess. Almost like toe-out up front or a really bumpy track/tramlining.

Nizer

winter tires vs trofeo r's

Tacet-Conundrum

The Teams driving Ferrari's in the Cup Series, now this is just something I read a while ago and memory has faded. With a budget and an entire series to run they would swap out the entire set of brake, and yet back then I think it was $15k-$17k per swap. Not just pads.

And the Porsche GT3 driver's not wanting to run PCCB has a lot to do with the cost of replacing them because it's not even near the same price Porsche charge fresh from the Factory. And it is pretty much the same company making the brakes for everyone from Audi to General Motors for their ZR1.

What the GT3 driver's were running into a few year ago was leaving on TRACTION CONTROL with the PCCBs. That would literally screw-up a decent work set of brakes.

That's why a lot of good folks swap out the PCCBs and keep them around for re-sale. Can't blame them either; too much of a liability. If you're going to street the damn car just leave them on turn off the traction control if you take them up into the hills if you're scared of messing them up, or at least keep an eye on them if you leave the traction control on! And later turn off if you notice, by sight, that the disk are starting to get screwed-up.

I'm sure someone else can and will come a long and correct or add to this.

Personally, give me a plain on GT3 with Steel Brakes and Five Lugs - keep it simple jack asses! Leave the early adopter over-priced bob and bits to the Ferrari owners who don't mind being out of their car while its being worked on down at the shop.

That's why we have Porsches, so we know it's going to work when we turn the key and not give up a fuss when we flog it around some - and they will warranty what they say the car can do. Not go back and charge almost $30K for a damaged Transmission that couldn't hold it during a few launch control starts a la Nissan and the GTR.

TomTom77

The first head-to-head test, sadly done by TopGear, not by one of the 'real' magazine, leads to a win for the 458 Speciale over the GT3... making it the Supercar of the Year 2013 for them.

Der-Schwabe

The magazine does NOT contain a comparison test between the 458S and the GT3. It is the 'awards issue' and only contains first drive impressions of James May on the 458S and was also awarded the 'supercar of the year' award. One can argue 'till the cows come home' whether the GT3 falls into the category of 'supercar', it is probably testament to it's talent that it punches well above it's weight metaphorically and otherwise. Have a look on the Top Gear website to see a digest of these awards. In the magazine the following is said about the GT3: "Blindingly fast (...) and blessed with monumental front- and rear-end grip, the GT3 is one of those cars that is made up of a whole series of magnificent optimized mechanical bits, yet somehow transcends them all. In the year that gave us the LaFerrari, P1 and the 918, the 911 GT3 sets the new template for everything we look for in a truly spine- tingling high performance car. It's a work of unutterable genius."

roberga

I know Super Cup team were running PCCB for the season a couple years ago.

Zeus

I wouldn't doubt if a few of those cars where expertly photoshopped into that picture.

Ultimately, I get really depressed when I see the covers of magazines these days. They play on the enthusiast's hopes of seeing real-world, same day road tests and track data times whenever they bring cars like this "together" and proudly display them on the front cover. They want to impress me into a subscription? Put those front 3 cars on a racetrack and give me some good, cold-hard numbers.

I'll eat my shorts if we'll EVER see a same day test between even the front 3 cars in that photo: the P1, 458S, GT3. We could hope...

Boggles my mind that customers are receiving their P1's and we still haven't seen a single confirmed 3rd party lap time or real performance number on this "ultimate of ultimates" performance car yet. I question if the acceleration numbers quoted by Top Gear for the P1 were done by them, or released from McLaren PR.

CAlexio

I'd say EVO magazine does a pretty amazing job of bringing cars together for actual testing.

Terrence

Haha! Exactly. And the GTR owners too.

Zeus

Anyone at EVO Magazine listening?

You know how Motor Trend does an excellent job with their best driver's car of the year issue? All that excellent data, same day, same track, same driver?

If EVO continued to do what they do now, and ADDED what MT does at perhaps the SPA racetrack in Belgium - they would be without question - the ultimate car magazine. Nothing else could touch them. Nothing. Short of getting Chris Harris back of course...