458 Looks Looks Like a Lotus Evora

The Fisker Karma and the Artega GT were both designed by Henrik Fisker ex Aston Martin Designer (designed the V8 Vantage I believe). So it would not be surprising if there were styling similarities between the two.

The Artega has been around for about 2 years in Europe, so you could argue that the Artega influenced the design ideas of for Ferrari rather than the other way around! Pictures of the Artega in red from Artega's Website http://www.artega.de/index.php?a=124 No resemblance at the front to the 458!
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Évora... what a nice Portuguese town. You should all visit this great and very old town.

 

those Fisker machines are sweet little things.

 

Zinhead, dude were you drunk when you created this thread?

 

+10

 

You took the words out of my mouth, the 8C part that is

 

When I see the photo of Ferrari 458 Italia, I just start to dream driving this car. Someday I'll buy this car, coz it is cute, nice and wonderful.

 

I see allot of the "Ferrari Killer".....The Famous GT40....I am not Bill Gates when it comes to the computer. Is it possible someone could post a side view of both the aforementioned cars....and then you can "ALL" call me "Crazy"......OR NOT!!!!!.....Mark.

 

Cute, nice, and wonderful?

Oh, boy.

 

What he said.

 

Mr. Fisker is truly one of todays greatest automotive designers, and his new hybrid sportscars are on par with Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo and Maserati in terms of design.

 

Ah yes, I see the similarities now. They both have tires and are silver in color.

 

You guts are harsh, and that is being polite. Look at the two side profiles. Both have the same character line running from the bottom of the front wheel well through the lower part of the door and ending before the rear wheel well. Both have a similar character line running from the A pillar downward toward the rear of the car, which then gets picked up to form the character line making up the rear fenders. The shape of the "shoulders" over the rear fenders is nearly identical, with the main difference being the Lotus places an air intake here instead of it being hidden inside the C-pillar like in the Ferrari.

Ferrari did a really nice job here with the 458. It is a much better looking car than the bulky California, even if they did copy certain elements from Lotus.
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Dude

Seriously ....those design elements go back to the Ferrari P3/4 and then were used on Jims P4/5 both long before the Evora.

 

Another one in need of an eye examination.

 

In my opinion, there is more dissimilar between the two cars than there are shared elements. They're not design cousins if that is what is being litigated here, even if some elements of design are similar between the two cars. I don't see anything wrong with shared/lifted/stolen design cues. One can also read too far into this, insisting something was directly copied when it arose as simple coincidence within current design trends.

Auto designers have always looked at their competitor's cars and have drawn inspiration from them, sometimes outright copying a certain feature, crease, form, sometimes somewhat implying it. There is nothing new about that.

Cars of the 1950s are easy examples of this principle, all or most with tail fins: Everybody used the basic design elements of tail fins and chrome and made their own versions. Is this a negative thing to point out or just another aspect of a particular era in design?

 

There are indeed some similarities between the two designs. But I wouldn't go so far as saying that the 458 is a copy of the Lotus. I think there are also sufficient differences between the two designs to not mistake one for the other. Like the greenhouse for example. By the way I think the greenhouse of the Lotus is very Zagato like.

 

I agree that the 458 is a far superior design than the California. Doesn't matter who makes it, retractable HT's are all fairly poor styling compromises, and unfortunately Ferrari hasn't been able to crack the code and make a truly beautiful retractable HT.

People are free to say what they want, but it's stretching the limits of credibility when saying Ferrari copied the Lotus. You have to realize that the 458 design was locked in place long before the Evora was shown. The few similarities are purely coincidental, and only a non-connoisseur would ever mistake the two. The thought that Ferrari would copy a brand several notches down the automotive food chain is laughable, especially when it's clear that the 458 styling elements are inspired from other Ferraris. Both are excellent designs for their respective markets, which do not overlap.

 

The 458 definitely looks more sleek and aggressive than the Artega, which does look like the 8C quite a bit. I can see some similarities in the roof line, but as far as I'm concerned the 458 has it's own innovative design and I truly can't wait to see one in person.