I Just Saw And Sat In The California

Why did you ignore me?

 

Here is video of the unveiling of the California that I took. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqbto5jp6BU

 

Fantastic! Thanks for sharing your thoughts Ronnie.

Did anyone get any pics or no pics allowed?

 

yeah

 

Doesn't this seem much lower than anticipated ?

 

What color will yours be?

 

It's still more than the Lexus or MBZ.......

 

I was taking pix of the babes until they threw me out.

 

Post them up then f*ck ya!

You did your civic duty my friend!!

 

Maybe tomorrow.......

Just from my Bberry. I'm sure Dilan's will be much better than mine anyway.

Just me and PiEro (True Tifosi can spell the name of Enzo Ferrari's son correctly ), Arnold, Mike Mann and Lovitz....

Nothing special!

 

Thats cool. Love ya pal.

 

God Damnit! Get your ass back up here already!!!!

 

I started it up. Damn thing sounds mean! And Lovitz was acting all weird, didn't really want to take pics with anyone nor himself after I offered to take a picture of him and the car. Yeah I had my little point and shoot, I'll post em in a few minutes.

 

Heres the pics
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Is Ferrari going totally over the top with this launch because they're trying to impress a new clientel, or because they're trying to create buzz for an unbuzzworthy car? I don't recall ever seeing all the hoopla over a new Ferrari like this, even the supercars. interesting.

 

The video of Mann?

 

I wasn't impressed at all, IMO it looks just like on the pictures. I was also thinking that in person it was going to look better, but it didn't. Even my son asked me, "Haven't we seen these cars on the street already?"

Honestly, that car looks like a Toyota. Ok, maybe Lexus. The interior is nice though.


They're also saying that it will do 0-60 in less that 4s. No way, with 460hp? It doesn't look like a very light car.

At least one of the cars on display had a nice set of wheels, it was different from all I've seen in the pictures so far. It's more agressive, not boring like the other ones. And it was painted dark grey.
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Cool pics, interesting feedback.

 

Anyone sit in the "backseats"? Are they usable? Pics?

Isn't this what this car is represented as..............a 2+2? For those of us with kids it would be perfect.

 

It looks just like a 911 back seat, in size.

 

Del, did you happen to notice if their were any mounting points for a child seat?

 

Great event... a lot of fun.

Everyone I talked to remarked at how comfortable the car is to sit in. I agree. It's also pretty small, which personally I like. The two seats are pretty close to one another. It's a great "date car" for sure.

The interior is well done and I love the big touch screen display. The rear hump is not too high to see over when looking backwards. When you sit in this car, you get the feeling of something small and light. Now, maybe I'm prejudiced but I happen to like small and light cars over big behemouths-- no matter how much power they have.

One car had the daytona seat option which I thought looked best (with outstanding quality as you would expect). There were two different style wheels on different cars. One was a sort of simplified challenge wheel and the other was the more traditional "plain" star that we've seen in photos. I liked the challenge wheels a bit better but both looked pretty nice on the car.

One button I liked on the center console: LAUNCH CONTROL. My guess is that this will make it this time to the US market.

The manettino has three settings: CST off, sport, and comfort.

The top goes up and down in a breeze. It's debatable whether the car looks better with the top up or down.

I thought the dash and guages were outstanding. The big center tack is a direct decendant from the original. The steering wheel is notched at the bottom so it's easier to get in and out of the car. It actually looks a bit small but I found it feeling great.

The engine comparment still has the engine visible with the hood up. But, there is more plastic coverings around it than you would have thought for a Ferrari that usually likes to expose all the bits right up front. Interestly, the battery is located exactly where you would think the water pump should be in front of the motor.

The front headlights have these little white LED's that illuminate but I thought they looked a lot better than the "christmas tree" effect of the Audi R4.

On the down side, well the rear still doesn't do it for me. I can see from the cut lines what the designers where trying to do. This car seems to look better in dark colors. One on display was what appeared to be a dark metallic silver with a charcoal interior. I personally liked it althought the metallic blue was also really impressive.

Forget ANY possibility to put anyone behind the front seats. It's good enough for a parcel or golf bag.

The trunk has quite a bit of space even when the top is down. Just make sure that whatever you put back there is less than 12 inches tall. I think anything but soft lugguage would not fit (again, with the top down). There is a ski pass through but I wonder about how long they can be before they end up touching the center console.

The "california" logo is only in one place on the car: the glovebox.

In the cars on display, there was very little carbon fibre anywhere on the cars. This may have something to do with the lower price.

This car is what it is. It's not a hard core fire breather F430. It's designed to be the best daily driver exotic on the market. Personally, I have no problem with this. If people can drive Aston Martins, Porsche's, Audi R4's, Nissan GT-R, and Bentley's everyday, why can't they drive a Ferrari? As a daily driver, it's a total winner. It's small, has great creature comforts, transforms easily from coupe to convertible, and seems to be really comfortable to sit in and drive. The new 7 speed gearbox should be interesting.

So, on the plus side of the car (without driving it) I would say the interior, the top function, but mainly the size and proportions turned me on. I can really see this car being driven as much as a BMW with a ton of power and a sense of style that blows most daily drivers out of the water. It's not a total knock out when it comes to looks but it still has that classic long nose Ferrari front engine shape with a lot of interesting details that certainly will turn heads.

And, now that Ferrari has a new "entry level" car aside from the F430, it gives them more flexibility to push the F430 replacement even higher (and, unfortunately, higher in price also) while the California holds the door open for first time buyers without pricing them out of the market.

In a changing world of Nissan GT-r's and Audi R-4's, I can see why Ferrari needs a car like this. But, more than the just using "marketing points" to justify this car, at least Ferrari did it RIGHT. This car oozes Italian design, style, and performance no matter how you look at it. That's a good thing.

 

Any pics of the wheels ? Both style ?

 

Sorry, I didn't pay much attention to it.