Ferrari 458 Italia

The Ferrari 458 Italia is a mid-engined sports car produced by the Italian sports car manufacturer Ferrari. The 458 Italia replaces the Ferrari F430. The 458 Italia was officially unveiled at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show on 15 September 2009. Its design language has inspired its bigger sibling, the Ferrari F12. It competes with the likes of the superb McLaren MP4-12C and the sharp Lamborghini Gallardo.

Specifications

In Ferrari's first official announcement of the car, the 458 Italia was described as the successor to the F430 but arising from an entirely new design, incorporating technologies developed from the company's experience in Formula 1.

Engine

The 458 Italia is powered by a 4.5 L (270 cu in) V8 engine derived from a shared Ferrari/Maserati design, producing 562 hp (419 kW; 570 PS) at 9,000 rpm (redline) and 398 lb·ft (540 N·m) at 6,000 rpm with 80% torque available at 3,250 rpm. Due to the aerodynamics pushing more air into the engine at high speeds, the engine develops 570 hp (425 kW) at top speed. The engine features direct fuel injection, which is a first for Ferrari mid-rear engine setups in its road cars. The power it produces from its 4.5 L engine is more than the awesome BMW M6 produces from its 5.5 L twin turbo engine.

Transmission

The standard transmission is a Getrag dual-clutch 7-speed transmission, similar to the Ferrari California. There is no traditional manual option, making this the fourth road-car after the Enzo, Challenge Stradale and 430 Scuderia not to be offered with Ferrari's classic gated manual. It is the first mainstream model to not be offered with a manual transmission.

Handling

Ferrari 458 Italia pictured in Australia

The car's suspension features double wishbones at the front and a multi-link set-up at the rear, coupled with E-Diff and F1-Trac traction control systems, designed to improve the car's cornering and longitudinal acceleration by 32% when compared with its predecessors.

The brakes include a prefill function whereby the pistons in the calipers move the pads into contact with the discs on lift off to minimise delay in the brakes being applied. This combined with the ABS has reduced 100–0 km/h (62-0 mph) braking distance to 32.5 metres (107 ft).

The adaptive magnetorheological dampers were co-developed with Delphi.

Performance

Ferrari's official 0-100 km/h (62 mph) acceleration is under 3.4 seconds, while top speed is over 325 km/h (202 mph), with a fuel consumption in combined cycle (ECE+EUDC) 13.3 L/100 km (21.2 mpg_-imp; 17.7 mpg_-US) while producing 307g/km of CO₂. Note* Road & Track recently recorded a 0-60 mph time in 3.0 seconds flat. It even is as fast as an Enzo. Check out Ferrari's California here.