Lovely Ferrari 458 Italia

There are many supercars built with the sole purpose of blowing your mind, but none of them can quite stir your soul and make you fall in love the way a ferrari can. The 458 italia is testament to just that and there is no better place to experience that than in the hills around its birthplace resonating with glorious V8 symphony

Many a time I have been to the gates of supercar heaven and have always been richly rewarded. Yes, I know the almighty has been kind to me and I thank him every moment of my existence here. On my previous visits, I did get to sample and experience small bits of the sanctum sanctorum and it was both amazement and obeisance which followed me to the hallowed industrial district of Maranello where the Prancing Horse is stabled. This time round it was much more of the same but there was more to reveal, more exploratory stuff within the confines of the Gestione Sportive (no, not the F1 set-up but the equally impressive Corsi Clienti) along with well laid out visits to the V8 assembly line, the Ferrari design centre (Centro Stile to give it its exact calling) and also Ferrari Classiche.

When you have these many goodies to soak in and digest, what better dessert could there be than another great feast in itself? A no holds barred five-hour drive in the latest Ferrari over a 450km route in and around the hills dotting Modena was the feast laid out and to a dyed-in-the-wool Ferraristi, there could have been no better terrain to put the latest Prancing Horse through its paces. The last time I got to drive a Ferrari from Maranello, it was the 612 Scaglietti some four years ago and the procedure was the same – arrive at the main doors of the Ferrari plant on Maranello’s via Abetone 12, meet up with the product communications team which will give you a run down on the car and then tell you to get on with it. The difference this time was that the Ferrari on this occasion was a proper mid-engined two-seat supercar driving the rear wheels as against the front-engined, rear-wheel drive 612 gran turismo. Different cars with different charms but both undoubtedly carrying on the lineage since Ferrari founder Enzo rolled out the first car carrying his name – the 125 in the mid-1940s. Since then every new Ferrari is eagerly awaited and like each and every one to roll out of Maranello, is a joy to see, drive and take to its limits.

Time then to unravel what Italian joy is all about with apologies to BMW if we have borrowed this phrase! First and foremost the engine because at the heart of any Ferrari is its powerplant. True, the quintessential Prancing Horse has to be a V12 but Ferrari also built its rep on V8s to power its Grand Prix and sports endurance racing machines and this is where we begin to unravel, in these days of engine downsizing, the jewel of a V8 motor that powers the 458 Italia. No one can make a V8 motor sound like the Italians can. Sure, the Germans and Americans can make it rumble and growl like the sound of distant thunder, but when it comes to making it sing in operatic tone and tenor without forsaking the melody, you’ve got to hand it to the Italians, and Ferrari specifically – a case in point being the 4499cc direct-injection V8 engine in the 458 Italia. It is of course one thing to hear this car’s delectable wail when it passes you by, but to hear it just inches away from your ears all by the simple means of pressing the right foot on the throttle pedal to build up this musical crescendo is another thing altogether. With this gem of an engine, one that was voted as the 2011 Performance Engine of the Year no less, resting just a few inches behind the hip hugging bucket seat, and ready to scream its way to a heady 9,000rpm at the twitch of your foot, is an experience that is quite simply unmatched, even by other wild beasts with four wheels and mid-mounted engines.

But unmatched it would be, for the Ferrari 458 Italia really is a pretty special car, less a car and more a wild animal. And the engine that powers this beast is also a rather unique creation. Forged from decades of Formula 1 experience and sprinkled with what can only be pure magic, this 4.5-litre 90-degree motor was built all-new from the ground up and sets many new benchmarks. For one thing, with a monstrous power output of 570PS, this engine manages a specific output of 127PS per litre of displacement, making it the highest for a naturally aspirated road car. And the torque figures are no less impressive either – a stomach-churning 540Nm, 80 per cent which is available from 3,250rpm ensures unparalleled drivability at any engine speeds, and the specific torque figure of 120Nm per litre also sets new standards amongst performance cars.

To achieve these sorts of figures is no mean feat and digs deep into the art of developing championship winning Formula 1 engines that Ferrari has mastered for a great many years. To get the maximum out of the powerplant, Ferrari has made use of direct split petrol injection which modulates the fuel injection process into two phases, which significantly improves not just the combustion efficiency, but also the amount of torque available at low revs and reduces fuel consumption in the process. As is traditional for Ferrari engines, the new V8 is equipped with continuously variable timing on both inlet and exhaust camshafts and the engine’s electronic brain is mapped for four different configurations of valve actuation for optimum torque values at all revs. Of course, an engine that can spin so easily to 9,000rpm also needs a lubrication system that can cope with such ridiculously high engine speeds and for this reason, a dry sump oil delivery system was chosen for the task. Four separate oil pumps located in the cylinder block, two in the head and two near the crankshaft scavenge oil from every nook and cranny of the engine and ensure that it is circulated to every part of the block which needs cooling.

dry ensures that the 458 can respond instantly at the merest touch of the throttle and provides the kind of precision driving jollies that most other sportscar drivers can just dream about. But engine response is just one part of the equation. The vital link between the power delivered at the crankshaft, to it being sent to the back wheels, is the 458’s specially designed gearbox. For the first time in Ferrari road car history, this is a car that was designed ground up around a dual-clutch automatic gearbox, with an option for manual not even making it into the reckoning! The 7-speed F1 ’box on the Italia independently manages even and odd gears which are pre-selected using two separate input shafts and can change over from one input shaft to the other in virtually no time, effectively resulting in lightning quick gear shifts. Rapid shift times ensure that there is no drop in torque when changing through the gears and the 458 always has the power it needs to shoot out of corners when you step on the gas. The F1 gearbox also integrates one of the 458’s party pieces – the electronic rear differential aptly dubbed as the E-Diff.