Drove a California for the First Time on Monday

On Monday, I had the pleasure of driving a demo California GT for approximately 30 minutes on a mix of primary and secondary roads and the freeway. Traffic was medium in all cases, so I couldn't really stretch its legs, but I was very impressed with the overall car and its handling. If anyone searches for my posts, they'll see I've been a long-time supporter of this car and have one of the early examples on order for June production - so I'm sure all the naysayers will offer that I can't give a balanced review. They may be right. But, after driving one, I'm really excited to take delivery. I previously owned a 360 Modena coupe and I currently own an F430 coupe, which I'll be keeping. The California is very different from those cars, and personally, I'm glad for it. It's exactly what I'm looking for - a very high performance automobile that I can, and will, use as a daily driver; occasionally carrying our whole family. I've been a Ferrari fan since about age 3 and I'm thrilled that I can get this sort of car from them. I enjoy all sports cars, but this keeps me in my favorite marque - I'm not out looking for a Mercedes, Porsche, Aston, etc that has enough utility to be my daily driver and haul my kids around.

So...

Exterior

Lots has already been posted about the looks of the car. Red is not its best color and the back end is, shall we say, accommodating of the roof and luggage. It's large, but better looking in person than in pictures. My wife and I followed it on the road as the dealer took it to the gas station after our drive, and it is definitely a different back-end treatment than any other car on the road (top was up). The lights (blinkers, brake lights, etc) are low in that "ribbon" that breaks up the back end. The back may take some getting used to. Not ugly, but not immediately beautiful either. The sides and front I think are gorgeous. Has a classic, low, flat look that sweeps up nicely to the rear. With the top down, it looks very clean, and with the top up, it looks pretty aggressive.

The one I drove had magnaride and the 19" basic rims. The wide flat spokes looked pretty nice in person, and the car doesn't appear to sit as high above the tires as my F430, so there seemed to be a bit less of the 4x4 look people have been concerned about.

We put the top up and down a few times, and it worked flawlessly and was very quick. We even put it up at a traffic light with no drama about the light changing to green on us.

Interior

The interior is simply gorgeous. Soft leather seats, beautiful stitching, excellent ergonomics - everything one should expect from a car in this class. The seating in front was very comfortable. This car had the fully electric seats, and I really enjoyed being able to adjust the height of them - especially given that I'm only 5'6" tall. These fully electric seats had lots of adjustments and I found a great driving position very easily. The steering wheel also is electrically adjustable. I moved it up and down and telescoped it. Again - excellent features as the rim didn't block the tach or my view out. This car also had the LED steering wheel. I didn't order this as I prefer an all leather wheel in this car (LEDs are in carbon fiber). And after using the wheel and seeing that the first LED doesn't even light until 6000 RPMs, I feel I made the right choice for me. Back seats are small - I believe my kids (6 and 8) will fit fine until they are maybe over 5ft tall. Not a lot of leg room for them, but they'll deal. The back seats are definitely bigger than those in a 911. The back seat seat-backs flip down revealing the pass-through. You release them with little levers inside the trunk. It looks like you can get a set of golf clubs through, with the top down, as pictures have shown.

Driving Zone

The driving zone looked to be laid out very well. Big, visible gauges, and easy to read displays. The climate control seemed simple enough and the A/C blew nice cold air. Didn’t try the heater. The radio seemed pretty easy to use and the nav system seemed simple enough also. Screen is touch-screen and menu choices seemed obvious. The nav is one of the slightly aerial views looking forward from above, not the straight-down street view. I think it also supports sirius traffic overlays, as I saw a config for that in the menus. And it supports blue-tooth phones. Mine wasn’t linked so I didn’t get to try it, but phone is a choice on the hard buttons around the screen.

The tachometer is big and easy to read. It also has a display showing which gear you are in, and whether you are in auto mode or not. If you are in auto mode, it says auto. If in manual mode, nothing. If you are in auto mode and use the paddles, the auto indicator blinks and you stay in manual mode for some period of time before it reverts back to full auto again – maybe 5s of no paddle activity, or so.

The multi-function display to the left of the tachometer is pretty neat. Has analog gauges it renders and also shows trip computer info. The trip computer logs top speed, so you may not want to have that displaying if you get pulled over!! This example showed 122 MPH as the top speed, but it wasn’t us who got it there. Fuel gauge, range indicator, temps, etc are all in that display also. I wish I’d looked to see if it calculates fuel mileage, but I didn’t notice if it does. I also didn’t notice if this car had cruise control.

Side mirrors are power and power retractable. Could be nice for narrow spaces, but when open they don’t really stick out much past the rear haunches of the car, so beware that moving them in doesn’t really narrow the car much. Side mirrors are also a decent size – made it easy to see things in them.

View to the front is expansive, but the nose is nowhere in sight - it completely disappears. I’m glad I got the front parking sensors – they might be a must-have for parallel parking. This car only had the rear ones. They looked pretty clean – no thick bezel around them. Visibility to sides and back is pretty good, even with top up. The rear pillars aren’t too thick, which was nice for a convertible, and the back window was a nice size too.

The car has an electronic parking brake activated by a button, not a proper pull-handle. I didn't expect that, but with the nice, clean bridge, I guess I never noticed there wasn't a handle in the pictures. I didn't play with it too much, but it seems the parking brake can be enabled and disabled with a button below and left of the steering wheel. It may also engage when the car is turned off. I'm not sure about the whole sequence of events for the parking brake. It shows "hold" on the display when engaged and then "Park" lights when turning off the car, etc. I'm pretty sure it also has a hill-hold feature so you have a short window to get from the brake to the gas without the car rolling backwards on hills. With no parking brake handle or clutch pedal, I would assume this is a must-have feature for hilly areas.

Other random thoughts

Gas cap is on passenger side.
Windshield washer filler cap is under the hood and tiny – gonna need a funnel to fill this one!
The hood vent is going to let the elements through onto that shiny red crackle paint on the engine. We’re going to have fun cleaning the engine in this car.

Driving

This car has two distinct personalities, which was quite amazing. Top down, sport mode, manual transmission – and the car goes like heck and handles very well. A little softer, a little higher, and a little more roll than an F430, but for a GT it was very inspiring. The instantaneous throttle response is there and the grunt is terrific. Put the top up, flip to comfort, and choose automatic (actually, don’t do that) and the car is very very quiet and docile. It soaked up railroad tracks with no cowl shake and little drama. I tried the automatic mode, but it just seems odd when the paddles are so accessible. It did what it is supposed to, though it upshifts really early. I think we were in 6th gear at 35 MPH! Very quiet and smooth though. I’ve never been in a 599, but I’d say it is as comfortable or possibly more comfortable than a 612.

With the top down, at freeway speeds, there was no wind buffeting in the cabin and it was easy to talk to my salesperson who was in the passenger seat. There is also a cover that can be put over the back seats, which comes in the soft-sided briefcase-like case in the trunk. I think I’d leave it home. It seemed unnecessary.
This car had magnaride and 19” rims. I have no idea how to evaluate that as I didn’t get to drive one without it or with 20” rims. Suspension seemed pliant on railroad tracks and stiffer in ess-turns. Sorry I can’t give more feedback on this. I wasn’t anywhere near any limits to see how well it “stuck.”

Sound

Drop the top and be prepared for the sweet sound of our favorite flat-crank V8 engine. It definitely has a lower, throatier sound than the wail of the F430, and certainly a different sound, but very pleasant and exciting to my ears. Put the top back up and you don’t hear it so much.

Final Impression

I’m thrilled with the final product and can’t wait to take delivery. It isn’t intended to replace my F430 and it won’t, but it offers me an amazing daily driver. If you are at all considering a high-end, high-performance automobile and need the utility of a 2+ configuration, you should seek out a real-life example and test drive this car. It is very, very impressive.

 

My understanding is the wait list out here is pretty significant. I'm a repeat buyer and have anticipated this car and been inquiring about what it might be like for 4 years or so, so I got a very early allocation - within the first 4 they will get. It would not surprise me if the list was in the multi-year range. I guess it somewhat depends on how many are on the interest list that will actually commit to buying when called, and how many allocations the dealership will get. I suspect the interest list is long, but they won't know the yield until they start calling, which likely won't happen until they know how many are allocated per month or so.

As for my particular case. I was called in March, spec'd the car in late April (placed deposit with spec), and have a June production date. The dealer expects it to go to stage 10 (spec locked from changes) any day now. Delivery should be in late July or early August (I am not flying the car here, so it will take the slow boat across the ocean, enter the US through customs in New Jersey, then be trucked across the country to California).

 

Very different cars with very different purposes. In my case, I'm excited about the 2+ config so I can take both my kids - something I can't do in my F430.

 

I think I'll leave that for the car magazines. I only would have looked at other marques if this wasn't a 2+ as I stated in my original post - and even then, I may have just stuck with what I drive now. I have little passion for owning other semi-exotics. I love Ferrari's. I want to drive one every day. When this car arrives, I'll be able to. So, even if the sl65 is better in some categories, I don't really care. This Ferrari is excellent for me.