Looking back: The Ferrari F430

This week we've been enjoying Web videos of the newest sports car masterpiece from Ferrari called the 458 Italia that should hit American soil within the next few months. The 458 was developed to be the heir apparent to another popular Ferrari performance model, the F430, so I thought it would be appropriate to a look back at the popular F430 model produced by Ferrari from 2004-2009.

The Web video here depicts the 2006-2007 version of the F430, and just like every other Ferrari I've ever seen, the F430 is indeed a beauty. Ya gotta love the sound of that engine at the 1-minute, and the "Launch Control" hot-start button shortly thereafter is a hoot as well. Get a good look at a famous Ferrari engine at the 2:07 mark, and it's neat to see the engine heave and reverberate as it accelerates. Then at 4:10 mark it's off to the race track to demonstrate the "manatino" settings and to really put the F430's speed potential and handling to the test. At the end, the narrator remarks that he likes this Prancing Horse so much that he's going to buy one--that's a stretch, right?