458 Italia

To start the new year off right I am going to cover a car today, which, without a doubt, is nothing less than stunning… The Ferrari 458 Italia. The 458 made its first appearance in 2009 at the Frankfurt Motor Show in Germany. This Ferrari is powered by a 4.5 Liter V8 engine, hence the name 458, which produces 561 horsepower and lets this car go from 0-62 mph in 3.4 seconds. The top speed of the 458 is 202 mph.

There are multiple variations of this car. There is the Ferrari 458 Spider, which is a hardtop convertible version of the car. If you want a more in depth look of the 458 Spider just let me know and I'll do that soon :) There is also the Ferrari 458 Speciale which is the same car with some modifications, the most noticeable being the 2 exhaust pipes instead of 3 and also the two openings in the front of the car and obviously the carbon on the engine which can be seen in the engine compartment. I did a post on that one which you can look at here: http://carsofgeneva.blogspot.ch/2014/09/ferrai-458-speciale.html.  The final and newest variation of the 458 is the Ferrari 458 Speciale A, which, like the regular spider version, is a hardtop convertible, but with the same engine modifications as the 458 Speciale. I haven’t posted anything on the 458 Speciale A yet because I haven’t seen one in Geneva yet, but I will make a post as soon as I see one.

I think the 458 (especially the non-convertible ones) is truly amazing, mainly because of its look. It just looks stunning! I absolutely love the curves of this car and the way it is formed towards the rear where the air is able to flow towards the engine compartments. The other thing that I love is the engine compartment itself. Just being able to look through that big glass panel and to be able to see the engine is awesome because there are so many cars where you are not able to do so, like the Porsche 911 or the Porsche 918 Spyder. The last thing is that I love the fact that the proportions just fit and that it doesn’t have an oversized nose like the SLS AMG which looks amazing from some perspectives but really stupid from others. Not trying to say that I don’t like the SLS AMG, I think it’s awesome especially the Black Series, even though some people think the gullwing doors are a bit showoffy, I think they are perfect.

To wrap things up, I believe that the Ferrari 458 is not just a car, it’s a work of art. If any of you guys know Top Gear, the Brtitish TV series from BBC, they had an argument about the question if a car could be art and they said that the Alfa Romeo 8C was truly art, but I think the 458 belongs right up there with it.