458 Speciale Revealed

To the guys in the US that are getting allotments from their dealers for a Speciale, what kind of "premium" are you having to pay?

 

CF side fins look good for sure...but not $4,049USD good. How do the folks at ferrari sleep at night... LOL

 

+1

 

Agree, but considering that it cost $1100 for that tiny stick-on adhesive Italian flag badge (on mmollo's beautiful white 458 spider), then these CF fins are fairly cheap...LOL

 

No premium here...and hopefully the car will show up this week.

 

You must have got one of the earliest allocation. Congrats. What is the color your Speciale?

 

Thanks. The dealer got the allocation earlier than I expected. I initially put the car in as Rosso Corsa, but was considering silver, blue, and white....and Ferrari picked up the order and locked it in . So red it is....which is good, I think I probably would have ended up with that anyway. Lighter colors like silver look great on the car though.

 

What options did you choose? did you go with a stripe?

 

Yep, did the NART stripe, leather seats, black leather and alcantara interior, red calipers, white tach, radio/nav, telemetry, probably a few other bits and pieces that I'm not remembering.

 

Nice. If I am ever able to make a deal I'm thinking Rosso Scuderia with NART stripe but I'd like to see that color with NART stripe first just to make sure it clicks. It definitely works with Rosso Corsa!

 

I think the NART stripe would work fine with Rosso Scuderia.

 

Does the Speciale have a bi-modal exhaust?

 

Does the Speciale have the same electronic parking brake as the Italia? I like the old manual parkng brake in my Stradale. Is it easy to disable the e brake when you don't want to use it?

 

Yes, same electric park brake.
It can't be turned off as the gearbox has no Park-position...

 

Anyone knows if the springs on the Speciale is constructed of Titanium just like the Scuderia vs the F430?

 

Uhm, of course it can be disengaged. You set the car in N before you switch it off.

What do you think people do if they have to roll the car, or turn it off without cooking the brakes?

 

I'm not familiar at all with the e brake (stradales have a manual parking brake). If it's not too difficult, could you briefly explain it? Thank you.

 

The e-brake is a small handle to the left of the steering wheel below the control dial for the lights. It functions exactly the same way as in any car equipped with an e-brake these days. You push/pull the small handle to disengage/engage the e-brake. You can see it in the bottom left of this picture: http://photo.netcarshow.com/Ferrari-458_Italia_2011_photo_d7.jpg

To put the car in N, you have to pull both paddles simultaneously. It's not possible to get the car into N by just flicking down through the gears with the left paddle.

When you park the car in gear or have it in auto, the e-brake will engage when you turn the car off. When you start the engine again, the e-brake will disengage once you pull the right lever to engage auto/first gear, or press the reverse button (the light flashes until it goes out). It's possible to manually control the e-brake with the handle as long as the car is stationary.

 

Thank you for the explanation. I like to park in my garage leaving the car in first gear without setting the parking brake. If I'm understanding the e brake correctly I can still do this, right? Stop the car in first. Shut the engine off and disengage the e brake I guess, right?

 

I have never tried this, so I wouldn't know.

Perhaps someone else (who has actually tried/done it, no armchair experts please) can give an answer?

 

Caution - armchair expert post Although I thought after more than 4 years of driving a 458 I would know it's behaviour... So I doublchecked the owners manual to make sure what I'm talking about...

The Auto-EPB (electric park brake) can be turned off. For that you have do push the Auto Park button before switching off the engine. After the next engine start Auto Park is reengaged automatically.
However this does not mean that the car can be moved, as the gearbox will engage the Park Lock function. If you shut the engine down with a gear selected, Park Lock will be engaged immediately. If you shut down in Neutral, the Park Lock will engage after a "certain amount of time" in order to be able to activate the Car Wash function. In Car Wash the car can be moved with shut down engine, but as soon as you remove the key Park Lock will engage.

I think, people will use the Car Wash mode if they want to roll the car. Or if the Key has been remove they will unfortunately have to start the engine to get hydraulic pressure for Park Lock disengagement.

Armchair expert mode OFF

 

A parking brake that works?
In a Ferrari?


My, things have changed.

 

You might be right about the e-brake engaging once you remove the key, although that sounds rather stupid to me. If you want the e-brake off then you want it off. By the way I doubt the engine needs to be run to get hydraulic pressure. The little buzz sounds you hear every time you open the driver door after unlocking the car is the pump for the gearbox to build pressure for setting the car in gear.

 

Maybe I'm a more punchy today than usual :*) but I'm still not sure I understand if I will be able to pull into my garage, shut the engine off in first gear and NOT have the e parking brake engaged. I guess it's really not important one way or other, but I just prefer not to engage a parking brake when I'm parked inside my garage.

Thank you for taking the time to explain how the e brake works

 

After 3 days of track in CT OFF mode, Ferrari told me:
- rear break disc used at: 11%
- front break disc used at: 17%
(I wonder if it is not the opposite...)

And what I can see by myself:
- front tires have to be changed soon
- rear break pads also.

Some owners have noticed the same?