Out with my AMG GTS and in with the new. I had been wanting a 458 for the past 7 years, watched them skyrocket in value during Covid and then watched them come back to reality for a couple years and then all of a sudden this year they started to go nuts again, so I convinced the wife it was now or never. Found this one in May, bought it sight unseen from a dealer in Ft. Lauderdale who actually dropped the price on it a little, got a PPI from Ferrari of Ft. Lauderdale, who were absolutely amazing to deal with, and then shipped it up here in June. It was the last decently priced 458 on the market, luckily they stood by it as the prices were skyrocketing.
2011 Ferrari 458, 10,500 miles. Pretty decent spec, carbon fiber all over the interior, front lift, LED steering wheel.
You’re right, this one is completely stock, it still had the vacuum lines attached to the exhaust valves. First time I drove it it sounded like a Camry, until it went over 3000 rpms. I thought something was wrong at first. First mod was to go in there and pop those off and plug them. Car sounds amazing with just the stock exhaust flaps open, but could be louder and more F1 like.
Planned mods are S Line Exhaust with S Line straight pipes, and I agree with you the wheel gap could be less, so I’m doing spacers to push the wheels out and then lowering it on the stock coil overs. I can’t go super low with the front suspension lift, but it’s fine I don’t want to slam it.
Other than that there’s a couple little maintenance things I need to do over the winter, like the headliner, which is a common problem, the foam they use just falls apart eventually, especially hot climate cars, but luckily enough the previous owner already fixed 90% of the sticky buttons and the two leather parts of the dash that are typical failure points.
wheel gap is also a common issue on Vipers imho. i feel like they’re just putting 30 series tires on the front of these things to say ‘low profile tires’ when a 35 aspect ratio would be more comfortable and fill the wheel gaps better.
These things likely do not need much enhancement anyways but adding a few things to demonstrate that you’re actually an experienced car-guy vs. a Ferrari fanboy with $$$ is probably worth doing.
That’s my thought too, trying not to be the typical Ferrari owner and I’ll do my own work like suspension and exhaust stuff.
For example, I have a leaking shock under warranty and the guy is trying to tell me to take it somewhere to get the shock removed. I’m like dude, I got it, I’ll take it out and send it to you, I’m not paying a shop to remove it, it’s 3 bolts. I don’t think he knew what to do with me.
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