Ferrari 458 Italia

SPECIFICATIONS

1. Powered by a 4.5-liter V8, the 458 Italia makes 563-hp at 9000 rpm and 398 ft-lbs of torque at 6000 rpm, enabling a 0-60 mph time of 3.3 seconds. 2. The 458 moves away from Ferrari’s fast but jerky F1 transmission, for a new dual-clutch unit. 3. Pricing for the 458 starts at $225,000.

PREVIEW

For years, Ferrari ownership has been about compromise. A Ferrari is purposeful, racing-bred technology made to work well on the street, but it comes at a price, both literally and figuratively. Ferraris are expensive to own and maintain, and for that reason, many people only use them selectively to carve canyons on weekends and at racetracks.

Even worse, many owners simply drive them to the mall and back, stopping at Starbucks to show off real excess to people who think $4 coffee is a luxury. Besides the obvious expense of owning and operating such a machine, there are a few other drawbacks.

Yes, the paddle-shifted F1 Gearbox can shift in 100 milliseconds, but we’ve seen smoother clutch operation from drunk 16 year-olds who’ve stolen their fathers Corvette. The radio, sourced from Blaupunkt, is completely indecipherable and sounds like it was assembled at Best Buy. The so-called Navigation system, optional with the 430 Scuderia, is completely useless. The air conditioning doesn’t blow cold when it’s hot outside, but works great in the dead of winter. As for Spider models, the top is slow to operate, prone to breaking, and expensive to fix. And often, so many Ferraris simply won’t start when asked.

Young kids, dreaming of owning such a beautiful and powerful machine, will tell you that they don’t care about all those nuisances, and would happily drive a Ferrari year round, no matter the drawbacks. But those who can actually afford them nearly universally say they make terrible daily drivers, which is why they always commute to work in a car with the letters AMG, M, or S, and a series of numbers on the trunklid.

INTERIOR

The interior, though, is truly the revelation. Straddling the large, centered tachometer are two LCD screens with multiple functions each. On the right there’s the analog (looking) speedometer, radio functions, and navigation. On the left is all the car’s telemetry, from tire, oil, and hydraulic pressure to lateral G’s at the track. Once the proper menu has been selected, buttons on the steering wheel toggle radio stations and options. Even better? They actually work. The radio sounds good, the air conditioning blows cold even in the heat of Las Vegas traffic, and once properly explained, the navigation system is as easy to deal with as in “normal” cars.

Stalks have been eliminated completely from the steering column, and nearly all their functions have been moved to the steering wheel itself, most notably, the blinkers. It takes some getting used to, especially the “click on, click off” nature, but it adds a unique flavor to the 458 and saves weight. With Ferrari, every ounce counts. Except in the 612.

Also covering the face of the steering wheel are the high-beam controls, horn buttons, manettinoswitch to control traction/launch modes, and the “bumpy road” button, which softens the magnetically controlled suspension instantly for short bursts of bumpy roads – and works flawlessly.

UNDER THE HOOD

It surprises exactly no one that the 458 is significantly faster than the F430 it replaces. With 563 horsepower (up 53 from 510) screaming from the 4.5-liter mid-mounted V8, it rips off the sprint to sixty in 3.3 seconds using its advanced launch control, on its way to a 202 mph top speed. It’s 200 pounds lighter than the Scuderia. It laps Ferrari’s test track at Fiorano only 0.1 seconds slower than the Enzo. It’s even more fuel efficient, with a 12/18-mpg (city/highway) EPA rating.

The 7-speed Dual-Clutch transmission, hated by purists who would rather row their own, is best in class, so much so that this writer, for the first time, would choose it over a stick, given the option. It changes cogs, literally, in the blink of an eye, which is great when wringing the V8 to its lofty 9000 rpm redline, eager to extract every tenth on the track.

But more importantly, when left in automatic mode for around-town cruising, it feels like a real automatic. No more jerky launches, no more awkwardly-timed shifts. If gently accelerating around-town, the transmission will imperceptibly kick its way up to 7th by the time you hit 45 mph. Mash the gas from that pace and it will skip gears 6,5,4 and 3, and go straight to 2, sending the engine screaming towards redline and the CST (that’s traction control) working double-time to keep the rears gripping.