It's the world's first mid-rear engined berlinetta and when it debuts at the Frankfurt motor show this month, it's sure to cause thousands of hearts to palpitate.
The main talking point is of course that new roof. It has been constructed entirely from aluminium and astonishingly the whole system weighs 25kg less than the fabric top used in the F430 Spider. And like the supercar, it opens and closes in a very rapid 14 seconds. However, the loss of hard-top has added to the overall weight of the 458, which now tips the scales at 1,430kg when the Italia weighed 1,380kg. That's 50kg heavier — not that you'd be able to tell in its performance. Anyway, that's still 55kg lighter than the soft-top Lamborghini Spyder Performante we tested last week.
Powered by the naturally aspirated, direct-injection 4.5-litre V8 via a dual-clutch F1 paddle-shift transmission, the Spider develops 570bhp and 540Nm of torque. The top speed is 320kph while 0-100kph is dealt with in a scant 3.4 seconds.
Ferrari also claims an improved fuel economy of 11.8 litres-per-100km. While the accelerator pedal mapping and multilink suspension have been tweaked to ensure the Spider behaves like a proper Fezza should.
But, since this thing looks so good, driving it fast would be a complete waste. Step off the loud pedal and cruise with the top down. Surely, you want to be seen in this 458 — or any Ferrari for that matter.
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