[PacoSaca]

I went driving today... it was my car and a friend's new F-430 on a beautiful highway along El Salvador's coast stopping for a hearty breakfast on a small restaurant overlooking the ocean.

We left at 6:00 am and after about 150 miles we were back at the office by 9:00 am ...each with a big smile on our faces, It was a fun drive!!!

I share some pictures just out of the oven... hope you enjoy.

 

[Andrew]

Paco,

Nothing like a nice drive in the Maser to start the day.

Are there some good vacation spots in El Salvador? I think I found my next destination, the roads and landscape look awesome.

 

[Troesma]

Fa-bu-lo-so

Ed

 

[PacoSaca]

Paco,

Nothing like a nice drive in the Maser to start the day.

Are there some good vacation spots in El Salvador? I think I found my next destination, the roads and landscape look awesome.

Yes Andrew, there are plenty of things to do here... we have excellent big game sportfishing, Mayan ruins, rainforests and plenty of shopping for the wife.

Once in a while we also have some motor/speed activites, for instance... at the end of September we are planning a Ferrari/Maserati trip to El Salvador/Honduras border to receive the two Ferraris 599 GTB coming from South America. I think they will be here for a couple of days and we'd be able to go to the track at least one day.

 

[Tex]

Hi Paco, looks like a great start to the morning! Your car looks great in the pictures, could you remind me how much you have lowered it? I am getting mine lowered next week and still trying to decide how far to go... thanks.

 

[Troesma]

Again, my 2 cents...

Whilst chatting today with my dealers chief Maser mechanic, and taking on board some feedback from Paco by PM, he told me that :

1. It's not as easy as said. Getting the alignement right is tricky, and requires (as Paco did on his Maser) a lot of trial-and-error until you get it right.

2. You will never get it done in 1 go : take some turns out, mount back suspension, ride it, go back to the shop, check mountings and alignement, usually dismount, adjust, re-mount and ride the car again... it could take 3-5 tries until you get it sorted.

3. In his opinion, 1/2 an inch front and back is best at giving the car a much improved handling (you virtually eliminate the Coupe's big-time tendency to oversteering) whilst making it suitable for everyday usage. Too much and you go for a car suitable only for butter-smooth / zero-bump roads. Too little and its worthless.

4. He was uneasy about doing an asymmetrical lowering. Paco did it on his car, and seems to work fine, so I'll go for his word on it. This guy said, given the car dynamics, it was not his recommendation. He asserted : 1/2 an inch on both front and back.

My car will go for it in 2 weeks time.

Hope this helps.

Ed

 

[maseratifan]

In the first pic that 360 looks positively huge in front of the maserati....angle? I didn't think there was that much of a difference.

 

[PacoSaca]

Hi Paco, looks like a great start to the morning! Your car looks great in the pictures, could you remind me how much you have lowered it? I am getting mine lowered next week and still trying to decide how far to go... thanks.

...yeap Tex, it was a great start indeed.
Lowering my car took a while... we first lowered it 5 turns on all four wheel, then we put the car on the road; drove it and applied brakes sort of violently to make the car settle... we did this several times until it reached the level I was looking for... we ended lowering it 15 turns at the front and 20 turns at the rear.

The inprovement in handling is tremendous... you'll be surprised... go out and grab some curves... challenge it... result will be sticky sticky sticky!!!

In the first pic that 360 looks positively huge in front of the maserati....angle? I didn't think there was that much of a difference.

...it's not a 360 but a F-430, nope there is not much difference in size between our cars and the F-430 the difference you see is because of distance and angle.

 

[Swiss-Maserati]

Paco, do you swap your cars with your friend? Your comments? The F430 in yellow is my favorite car if I remove the 4-seats criteria...

Bravo!

 

[maximus136]

Hi Guys I'm the owner of the yellow 430....just visiting your maserati forum today to check on Paco's pics. Great Job Paco the Pics are great!!!!!

regards

Maximus136

 

[Swiss-Maserati]

Congrats, Maximus, you have a beautiful car!

 

[Andrew]

Maximus,

Welcome to Maserati Life, love your car. Be sure to also check in at the Ferrari site www.ferrarilife.com. A nice group of Ferrari owners on that site as well.

Cheers,

Andrew

 

[maximus136]

thank you guys for your compliments and I will check the ferrari page andrew......tks

 

[bundas]

heavy traffic

paco, i noticed a lack traffic. there was a yellow sign on left, are you in a reserve? thanks for sharing your weekend drive, all that lush vegie must make middle east green.

 

[Tex]

Thanks Paco, Troesma

Great advice, I think the 15 and 20 turns (R/F) sounds very similar if you relate it to inches as I was thinking, my thought was half inch up front and 1 inch at rear to get equal gaps round the wheels front and back. 15/20 seems just a bit more, so what the heck I'll experiment and go for it as it seems to look great. I will takes before and after shots to judge the difference. The half inch doesn't seem enough at the rear - sorry but asthetics are almost (!) as important as performance!

Also having the centre exhaust section changed for a Larini straight through X pipe at the same time so will post thoughts on this once done.

Thanks again...