Many people who have driven a Ferrari say that they are beautiful. Truthfully speaking, most of them are, but some are just wrong. For example, the F430's front end was nice, but looked a bit weird. The F50's rear wing looked like a space ship gone wrong. The 456 looked like a vulgar grand tourer with small rims. Besides these bad creations, Ferrari have made some good ones. The 250 GTO was a true classic car. The 612 Scaglietti looks like a stylish 4 seater limo. The Enzo is Ferrari's way of combining a Formula 1 with an actual sports car, and it turned out brilliant. Happily, there is another Ferrari that we can add to the list of bests. In fact, I think it's the best Ferrari ever made in a while.
This is the 2010 Ferrari 458 Italia, the successor of the old F430. As you can see, this car looks absolutely beautiful. Thanks to Ferrari engineering and Pininfarina designs, this is actually more of a scientific car than an artsy one. Most of the edges, curves, and the awesome nose in the front were designed to increase aerodynamics and ride comfort. What makes the 458 exciting, however, is the performance. You see, before the F430 arrived, there was the F355. This was a brilliant car with 375 horsepower under the hood. Then came the 360 with only 400 horsepower. Then F430 came into production with 483 horsepower. Now that you've seen the pattern, you would imagine that the 458 Italia would have a little bit more power. 500 horsepower? Maybe. 520 horsepower? It might. How about 530 horsepower? Nope. Instead, the Ferrari is powered by a 4.8 liter 570 horsepower handcrafted V8 engine with 400 lb-ft. of torque. With the help of the all new 7-speed dual clutch semi-automatic transmission, introduced by the Ferrari California, it will do 0-60 in an astonishing 3.3 seconds. That's faster than Lamborghini's suddenly lightened and more powerful LP570-4 Superleggera. It's also faster than it with a top speed of 205 miles per hour. It's so fast that if you were to hold a drag race between it's predecessor, the F430, it will destroy it. It just so happens the Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear actually did this. These are the results.
As you can see the 458 was way faster than its predecessor that it was an embarrassment. You're probably now wondering, since this car is seriously fast, it must handle corners well, right? You might even think all Ferraris are just excellent when you give it a whip of track, but, honestly, they aren't. The Enzo Ferrari was too fast and way too hard to control. The handling in an F40 was similar to that of a stick. So, you might think the 458 has faults in the handling. NOT AT ALL! I got a chance to test drive this car in Gran Turismo 5 with real-time physics. This car is incredible! Thanks to its lightweight body and the engine in the middle of the car, the rear stays planted on the ground giving you complete control. Comparing this car to an Enzo, it is much better. The steering reaction is so accurate, it's surprising. This car is definitely much better than Enzo and an F430.
The 458 Italia has definitely made the list of Ferrari greats. However, greatness comes at a price: $250,000 to be exact. Luckily, if you buy it now, it won't explode like the thousands that did due to faulty rear tires. But, besides that, this car is absolutely brilliant.
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