Prelim 430 Impressions
Had chance to drive/ride in pal's new 430 for several hundred miles this past wkend through SF/Napa/Woodside. Some limitations on ability to fully exploit car as saw an apparently heavy CHP presence around SF region this wkend. But prelim view is car is phenomenal combo of sports and GT car.....430 captures many of best attributes of 996TTS and SL55 in one car w/infinitely more street presence...which can obviously be both very useful at times and troublesome at other times.... 
Visually, this 430 had ceramics......given the 19" Enzo-style wheels, car clearly needs the ceramic-size calipers to avoid having the "girlie-looking" brakes of smaller calipers (I vaguely recall non-ceramics as being smaller calipers)....and given a 430 is fundamentally an illogical, blingy, discretionary sports car toy, why skimp on $15K?
Exhaust note is phenomenal....IMO, one of the best....very throaty, more intimidating than the shrill/shrieky 360/CS notes. Must say that I'd be hard pressed to distinguish 430's exhaust note from CS' in absolute noise level as heard from outside of car in an urban setting (w/reverbs off of surrounding buildings). The racing exhaust option (no timeline yet on availability) may set a new gold standard for aural presence from a factory-spec exhaust.
Dynamically, 430's major upside vs 360 is immediate and plentiful torque. F1 tranny is once again even more refined (given how much F has improved the F1 tranny over past 5 yrs, makes one realize P will prob have a relatively buggy DSG box on initial intro on 997TTS); notably, auto mode is comparable to any auto tranny like 996TTS or SL55 in smoothness....great for urban commuter duty. Another major change vs 360 fortunately/unfortunately is that car has been GT-ized.....very supple ride (even in race mode), even through pock-marked urban streets; ride is comparable to those of 996TTS/SL55. Steering is precise but lacks nervous edginess/precision of CS'...more comparable to regular 360/996TTS steering feel. Brake pedal feel/fade resistance is very comparable to that of CS, even after several repeated high speed stops. Chassis/handling feel in twisties is more akin to 996TTS, a heavier car with brilliantly engineered deftness (let's not forget that German mags are weighing 430 at only about 150 lbs lighter than 996TTS).
Net, net....a superb piece of engineering....car is eminently more commutable/usable than before (even has Bluetooth); will hold its own in fwy "jigsaw puzzle" maneuvers vs torque-rich commuter cars like 996TTS/SL55, yet will also provide tremendous precision in twisties, beyond capabilities of prob 99+% of drivers....brilliant marketing approach on part of F....why let Merc and P capture the high-end commuter car mkt of SF/Greenwich?....kudos to F for smartly engineering the 430 for the needs of their customer base, which is prob increasingly composed of younger guys who often use their F-cars for both essentially urban/suburban straight-line commuting and wkend twisties, an increasing phenomenon of perhaps the past 5 yrs...these same serial buyers will eagerly snap up the 430CS when it arrives....and the 997TTS (W/DSG), 997GT3 (w/PSM&DSG) and 430CS will make for interesting competition in the next couple of yrs....
Visually, this 430 had ceramics......given the 19" Enzo-style wheels, car clearly needs the ceramic-size calipers to avoid having the "girlie-looking" brakes of smaller calipers (I vaguely recall non-ceramics as being smaller calipers)....and given a 430 is fundamentally an illogical, blingy, discretionary sports car toy, why skimp on $15K?
Exhaust note is phenomenal....IMO, one of the best....very throaty, more intimidating than the shrill/shrieky 360/CS notes. Must say that I'd be hard pressed to distinguish 430's exhaust note from CS' in absolute noise level as heard from outside of car in an urban setting (w/reverbs off of surrounding buildings). The racing exhaust option (no timeline yet on availability) may set a new gold standard for aural presence from a factory-spec exhaust.
Dynamically, 430's major upside vs 360 is immediate and plentiful torque. F1 tranny is once again even more refined (given how much F has improved the F1 tranny over past 5 yrs, makes one realize P will prob have a relatively buggy DSG box on initial intro on 997TTS); notably, auto mode is comparable to any auto tranny like 996TTS or SL55 in smoothness....great for urban commuter duty. Another major change vs 360 fortunately/unfortunately is that car has been GT-ized.....very supple ride (even in race mode), even through pock-marked urban streets; ride is comparable to those of 996TTS/SL55. Steering is precise but lacks nervous edginess/precision of CS'...more comparable to regular 360/996TTS steering feel. Brake pedal feel/fade resistance is very comparable to that of CS, even after several repeated high speed stops. Chassis/handling feel in twisties is more akin to 996TTS, a heavier car with brilliantly engineered deftness (let's not forget that German mags are weighing 430 at only about 150 lbs lighter than 996TTS).
Net, net....a superb piece of engineering....car is eminently more commutable/usable than before (even has Bluetooth); will hold its own in fwy "jigsaw puzzle" maneuvers vs torque-rich commuter cars like 996TTS/SL55, yet will also provide tremendous precision in twisties, beyond capabilities of prob 99+% of drivers....brilliant marketing approach on part of F....why let Merc and P capture the high-end commuter car mkt of SF/Greenwich?....kudos to F for smartly engineering the 430 for the needs of their customer base, which is prob increasingly composed of younger guys who often use their F-cars for both essentially urban/suburban straight-line commuting and wkend twisties, an increasing phenomenon of perhaps the past 5 yrs...these same serial buyers will eagerly snap up the 430CS when it arrives....and the 997TTS (W/DSG), 997GT3 (w/PSM&DSG) and 430CS will make for interesting competition in the next couple of yrs....
