dear all,

yesterday i drove 900km on the autobahn across germany. the performance is just great, and the sound while accelerating is so awesome that i did more rest area stops than necessary

however... the car is not flawless.

1. after 300km's some "E-DIFF ERROR" symbol was flashing in the LCD display. i stopped and consulted the handbook. there it says that the trip can be continued, but the E-DIFF won't work any more. i called my dealer and he told me that this problem is well known among F430's and shouldn't worry me. the E-DIFF will probably work, it's just that the electronics is over-cautious. the error message will probably disappear after i stop the car for some hours (and so it did, no alert today)

2. during upshifts (from 3rd to 4th or from 5th to 6th) suddenly the F1 tranny set to idle instead to the next higher gear. no 6th gear, but "N" instead. which is not nice in the left lane at 200km/h or on the acceleration lane. after some seconds and some pulling on the paddles the 6th gear was selected (even if car was only driving 50km/h). this happened around 4 times. after that i activated the "AUTO" mode and continued the last km's of the trip like schumacher used to do last season when ross brawn told him to drive "EASY".

3. minor, but worth mentioning anyway: the outer right exhaust pipe is rattling.

4. no bug... but stone chipping is really annoying



so it's time for a first check up at the dealer garage!


but... despite... the trip was excellent and more fun than i've ever experienced in my prior porsches on the similar route.