Ferrari 458
As instruments of pure speed, few cars can touch the
458 Italia and its convertible counterpart, the 458 Spider. Powered by a 562-hp
V-8 mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and riding on an
F1-inspired suspension, the mid-engined 458 is as pure a sports car as anything
on the road. It looks the part, too, with X-Acto knife styling and an intense,
if overwrought, interior. Need to turn up the exclusivity? You’ll want the 458
Speciale or the 458 Speciale A, with 597 hp.
The “A” in the new Ferrari 458 Speciale A’s name
doesn’t stand for “awesome,” but it could. The “A” actually is for Aperta, the
Italian word for “open.” Based, of course, on the 458 Italia, this version of
the 458 Spider gets the same special upgrades as the transcendent Speciale
coupe.
That means 597 horsepower and 398 lb-ft of torque from
the naturally aspirated 4.5-liter V-8—it hasn’t gone turbocharged yet—making it
the most powerful spider ever to emerge from Maranello. The power increase
comes courtesy of a 14:1 compression ratio, a new manifold and airbox rendered
from carbon fiber, higher lift for both the intake and exhaust valves, new
pistons, and reworked intake runners and ports. The gearbox is a revised
seven-speed dual-clutch automatic with shifts so quick that they could bend
both space and time.
The Speciale A sports an aluminum lid that retracts or
raises in just 14 seconds; the price paid for the deployable roof is 110
additional pounds to cart around. Even so, Ferrari estimates that the car will
rocket to 62 mph in three seconds flat, but we’d likely be able to break into
the twos in a 0-to-60 run with our equipment aboard.
Other carry-overs ported from the fixed-top Speciale
include Side Slip Angle Control, the lines of code for which were developed in
part for the LaFerrari mega-ultra-hypercar. It aims to measure the car’s slip
angle in real time, then adjust the electronic rear differential and stability
control based on what it determines to be the optimum slip angle. (Learn more
about how it works, as well as myriad suspension, steering, and other chassis
upgrades, in our 458 Speciale first drive.)
The A also gets the 458 Speciale’s advanced
aerodynamic features, including a flap ahead of the front fascia’s Ferrari logo
that sends air under the car to create more rear downforce at high speeds.
Spring-loaded doors up front open above 105 mph to divert air from the
radiators and through vanes at the corners of the car. The regular Spider’s
three-tip central exhaust becomes a pair of wider-set cannons to accommodate a
big rear diffuser and a motor-actuated drag-reduction setup that drop from the
underside of the rear end to help achieve Vmax. The coupe can hit 202 mph; no
figure has been released yet for the A.
The car makes its debut at the 2014 Paris auto show,
and just 499 will be built. We’re guessing a big-ol’ chunk of the run has
already been spoken for.
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