Ferrari F430 Scuderia leaves us green with envy

Australia's Ferrari importer is touting the lighter, brisker Scuderia version of the F430 as the company's fastest and greenest offering yet.

To achieve this Ferrari has taken a leaf out of the Lotus hymn book by adding lightness, with the Scuderia 100kg lighter than the standard F430. Niceties like carpet were junked, the stereo simplified and carbon fibre sprinkled liberally throughout -- naturally the wing mirrors are made of the stuff, to remind your neighbours just in case they forget. The highlights of this crash diet are the lightweight racing seats trimmed in alcantara, and the clear screen, which both displays and shields the mid-mounted V8 engine, that's now made out of a gram-shaving glass substitute called Lexan.

These measures are coupled with a faster automated manual transmission (gear changes now take only 60ms), retuned suspension, smarter electronic differential (responsible for splitting torque side-to-side) and slightly warmed over engine (power is bumped up from 360kW to 375kW). Taken together, the AU$550,000 Scuderia can do the 0 to 100km/h dash in 3.6 seconds and lap Ferrari's Fiorano test circuit quicker than the million-dollar-plus Enzo Ferrari.

Oh yes, back to the those green claims. While it's no 100mpg (2.4L/100km) world champion fuel miser, official fuel consumption has dropped from 18.3L/100km on the standard model to 15.7L/100km. Accordingly its carbon emissions fall from 420g/km to 360g/km. Naturally, if you drive the Scuderia the way its makers intended, you won't get within cooee of these figures.