Ferrari's newest offering is quite ridiculously capable and insanely quick, writes KYLE FORTUNE
I’M STRUGGLING to comprehend how a car can actually get any quicker. Last time I was in Italy, driving Ferrari’s 430 Scuderia, I thought the same thing, but the new 458 Italia has me asking the same question. Though this time I’m utterly convinced it’s not possible. Ferrari has clearly made a pact with the devil to produce the 458 Italia, as it’s quite ridiculously capable and insanely quick. Grab someone with a stopwatch and they’ll time it reaching 100km/h in under 3.4 seconds and it’ll do over 325km/h too if you can find somewhere to do it.
Make that anywhere, as it really wouldn’t take a moment to reach the 458’s maximum velocity. You wouldn’t even necessarily need an arrow-straight road either; so long as the tarmac got a bit less twisty after say 240km/h you’d be in with a shout. The Italia isn’t just fast; it’s fast everywhere. It’s hardly surprising that it is quick with its 4.5-litre V8 engine behind you pushing out 562bhp at a screaming 9,000rpm. That unit is a real mechanical masterpiece that contains some bafflingly complicated F1-derived engineering that allows it to produce 125bhp for every litre of capacity – a record for a naturally-aspirated engine. It’s not just a howling, maniacal racer though, the Italia’s V8 also delivering low-rev punch and any-gear urgency thanks to a wide torque spread that makes it a cinch to drive around town.
The gearbox helps here, Ferrari adapting the dual-clutch, seven-speed unit from the California to cope with the 458’s greater output. Stick it in auto, select Sport on the steering-wheel mounted Manettino dial and the 458 is remarkably easy to drive. Use the paddle-shifters to swap cogs yourself and the response is instant, and the change seamless. Up the pace a bit and you’ll be twisting that dial to Race, it intensifying the calibration of the throttle, gearshift and suspension to another level again.
As important as that magnificent 4.5-litre V8 and the quick-shifting gearbox are to the driving experience it’s the 458’s chassis that defines the drive. Ferrari’s engineers have developed a new multi-link rear suspension set-up that not only allows the Italia to provide phenomenal roll resistance, body and wheel control, but aids traction and helps the steering do a better job.
Turn the thick-rimmed wheel and the response is unlike any car we’ve driven on the road, the 458’s nose darting instantaneously at the merest suggestion of input at the wheel. It’s initially unnerving, the electric, near telepathic translation of wheel movement to reaction requiring a recalibration of where you’d usually turn in for a corner.
The carbon-ceramic brakes play a big part too: with repeated ability to scrub off the huge speeds it so easily gained, you can arrive at a corner with utter confidence. The magnetic dampers, which can be decoupled from the Manettino dial’s setting to offer a more compliant, softer ride, take the edge off the ripples and kinks in the road surface – without any resultant loss in attachment and feel.
The 458 Italia makes its 562bhp so exploitable and so accessible that it’s difficult to compute. The plentiful electronic controls and driver aids act like a virtual Schumacher, the function of which is all operated by that little rotary switch on the right-hand side of the steering wheel. Find a track so you can truly experience just how effective Ferrari’s trick E-Diff, F1-Trac and stability systems are at making you look good. Turn the Manettino dial around to its more extreme – and eventually everything off – settings and it’s clear that, although the programmers play a huge part in making the 458 Italia so quick, the engineers have created a beautifully poised, exploitable car even when the electronics hand you over all the control.
That it’s good is no surprise really, what is though is just how good it is. Ferrari demonstrated with the 430 Scuderia what it could do, and the Italia delivers everything it did along with a civilised side that makes it a genuine daily-driver proposition. Throw in a design that’s back to instant beauty rather than growing admiration, an interior that’s clever and functional – and surprisingly practical too with a massive front luggage area – and it’s all the Ferrari you could ever need.
That’s perhaps just as well, as with its price swelling well into the €300,000 bracket it’s likely you’ll not be able to afford anything else. The thing is, it’s worth every single cent.
Ferrari was serious last year when it said its mid-engined V8 proposition to complement the front-engined and more GT-orientated California would be a sharper, more intensely sporting car. It’s massively so, the leap from the F430 to the all-new 458 Italia is a vast one.
That it’s so useable too is a surprise, the 458 Italia answering all the questions asked from it by recently introduced competitors like the Porsche 911 Turbo and Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. Only McLaren hasn’t revealed its hand yet, but the British car is going to have to be very, very good indeed if it’s going to get anything like close to the Italia. That’s a grudge match we can’t wait to judge.
FACTFILE
Engine: 4.5-litre V8 petrol
Peak power: 562bhp at 9,000 rpm
Peak torque: 540Nm at 6,000 rpm
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch, rear-wheel-drive
Performance: 0-100km/h in under 3.4 seconds
Top speed: 325+ km/h
Emissions:307 g/km CO2
Combined cycle fuel economy:13.7 litres/100km
Price:€305,000 est
