458 Speciale Revealed

like i said ferrari put the bar impossibly high with the design of the italia imho
result (imho): cluttered and not an improvement imho
the 360 CS and F430 scud and 16M: thats what I call improvement over standard!

 

I like the front a lot. Wish the rear sides were a little more aggressive. Not just some little wings sticking out. But I like it more than the standard car. I also like the Scud a lot more.
Can't wait to see more.

 

They call it the Ape Arse. It glows red when the car is ready to race.

 

Styling wise I am unhappy. We are told that Pininfarina was involved but we don't know to what extent. We do know that the PF badge is not on the car but it is on the base 458 Italia and Spider. The PF badge is also found on the F430 Scuderia.

Now this is my opinion: Ferrari in house design has badly mangled the 458 in the Speciale version, adding some very large, abrupt, and disparate styling elements that do not lend themselves well to the underlying design.

 

+1 (imho)

 

I tend to agree with this, although LaFerrari gets away with its being such an extreme statement because of its extreme nature. But the 458S is bizarre because the changes were grafted onto a superb basic design and most of them do not integrate well, creating visual discord.

 

Agreed.

I love the new exhaust set-up... and I do like the wheels... the rest is meh.

I don't like the shape of the rear grille... I don't like what they did to the front bumper... I don't like the way they did the stripe.

 

.. and what happened to the 9300 rpm redline?
at least it would have been neat to see the number nine in the tachometer colored grey instead of red..

 

The real question in my mind is, how much involvement will PF have in the next "clean-sheet" Ferrari design, after the 458's immediate replacement? If the Ferrari-Pininfarina relationship has worked so well for 60+ years, why tamper with it now? You risk ending up with the proverbial "camel, a horse designed by committee." Fred

 

Dry weight is down from 1380 to 1290. Thats 90 kilos or 198 pounds. That is pretty significant if it is true.

 

I don't like the new interior design at all:

I think grafting the LaFerrari center console "twig" bridge to the 458 is a bad choice. Not only does it not belong in the 458 from a design standpoint but even worse it cheapens the one in the LaFerrari too.

Next, they delete the dash insert on the passenger side of the car for a very organic rounded knee pad which again has nothing to do with the rest of the interior design language of the 458. This is both clumsy and unattractive IMO.

Exterior Design:

I am not sure I like the "cute" winglets on the rocker panels and front bumper either. And the redesigned rear, eliminating the oblique angles results in a car that looks less exotic.

I have got to say that most of the design work is not exciting to my eye.

 

With the 360 there was also little room for improvement but they managed to tweak it nicely with the CS. Still think the 360 is a good design by itself. The F430 was so terrible IMO (and hindsight) that the Scud came as a nice relief, not a masterpiece, though. Now... lets wait a little but I tend to agree that the 458 design is so good that it's almost impossible to improve, hence the Speciale "fiasco".

For what it's worth the front seems to me more overdone the more I look at it

 

I still love the CS+Scud...here's a front-end comparison of the CS/Scuderia/Specialé for y'all to chew on, more to come:
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5474/9554073189_05616c9c43_h.jpg

 

IMO The stripe is distracting especially over the air extractor
Think it would look better with a bi color option in lieu of the stripe Any thought out there?

 

Nice comparison pics.

Ferrari puts all his effort on the performance and number i guess,risking some look.

 

the CS is the simplest and most elegant. Timeless.

the 458S is the meanest. Will be hard to clean with all those little vents and crannies.

 

Definite +1. The 458S looks like a committee did it.

 

I still think the best one is the Challenge Stradale. From a performance standpoint this one is clearly better, but I fear the days of beautiful Ferraris are over.

 

Looks to me like they are really trying to give the 458S buyer a big enough differentiation from the 458 Italia to buy it. Some people want to just have something that is noticeably different.

 

I was just saying. I mostly care about 60-130 times. My GTR does it in the 3 second range.

 

Here's a side-by-side comparison to chew on:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7376/9554241373_c0441d7c29_h.jpg

 

Seems like I'm the only one who thinks it looks stunning. It has lost some elegance, true, but this is the track-focused version of the 458. I particularly like the front bumper, so aggressive and sporty, a perfect match for the headlights. The only part I don't like very much is the one above the rear diffuser, not so well resolved in my opinion (I love the full rear grill, though). Compared to the Scud it looks much, much better. Specs are impressive.

 

Agree, although I find the stock 458 Coupe is a thing of beauty. But the CS was the best looking Modern Day Ferrari, IMHO.

 

This is a car where performance trumps design and aesthetics
It's a new paradigm today where competitors are breathing down
Ferrari's neck so they got to deliver the ultimate in performance

 

+360 CS

I'm the only one who like the 458S? Just imagine her in real life.