Automotive

Ferrari weaves its magic with 458 Speciale A spider

Ferrari weaves its magic with 458 Speciale A spider
The 458 Speciale A will make its debut at the Paris Motor Show next month
The 458 Speciale A will make its debut at the Paris Motor Show next month
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The 458 Speciale A can deploy its top in 14 seconds
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The 458 Speciale A can deploy its top in 14 seconds
The 458 Speciale A showing the Blu Nart and Bianco Avus stripe
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The 458 Speciale A showing the Blu Nart and Bianco Avus stripe
The 458 Speciale A will make its debut at the Paris Motor Show next month
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The 458 Speciale A will make its debut at the Paris Motor Show next month
The 458 Speciale A is powered by Ferrari's most powerful naturally aspirated V8 engine
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The 458 Speciale A is powered by Ferrari's most powerful naturally aspirated V8 engine
The 458 Speciale A has active front and rear aerodynamics
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The 458 Speciale A has active front and rear aerodynamics
The 458 Speciale A rear view
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The 458 Speciale A rear view
The 458 Speciale A interior
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The 458 Speciale A interior
The 458 Speciale A sterring wheel
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The 458 Speciale A sterring wheel
The 458 Speciale A control column
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The 458 Speciale A control column
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There’s been a lot of buzz about Ferrari coming out with a spider version of its 458 Speciale supercar, and now the buzz has become reality. At next month's Paris Motor Show, the Italian car maker is set to unveil the 458 Speciale A, with the "A" standing for Aperta, which is Italian for "open." Billed as the most powerful and aerodynamically efficient spider ever built by Ferrari, it boasts the company’s most powerful naturally-aspirated V8 engine for the road.

Standing out in its triple-layer yellow livery and Blu Nart and Bianco Avus stripe down the middle, the 458 Speciale A is a mixture of scoops, vents, louvers, and winglets making up part of its front and rear active aerodynamics that look like they mean business. And needless to say, the lines have the typical Ferrari mixture that blurs the lines between excitement and fear.

Underneath is a rigid chassis made up of ten aluminum alloys. Meanwhile, the retractable hard top opens and closes in only 14 seconds and adds just 50 kg (110 lb) to the dry weight of the 458 Speciale coupé to tip the scales at 2,954 lb (1,340 kg).

The 458 Speciale A has active front and rear aerodynamics
The 458 Speciale A has active front and rear aerodynamics

The 4.5 liter V8 engine is the winner of three international Best Performance Engine awards and has the same output as the 458 Speciale coupé, punching 596 bhp (444 kW) with 540 Nm (398 ft-lb) of torque and generating 275 g/km of carbon dioxide. On the track it does 0 to 62 mph (100 km/h) in 3 seconds, 0 to 124 mph (200 km/h) in 9.5 seconds, and on the Fiorano circuit the 458 Speciale A did a lap time of one minute, 23.5 seconds.

The cockpit of the new Ferrari spider has a strong racing motif using lightweight materials with the door panels and the central tunnel in bespoke blue carbon composites that aren’t exactly the best match with the grey and yellow trim. In addition, the minimalist and surprisingly well laid out dashboard is nicely offset by the racing-style steering wheel.

The 458 Speciale A interior
The 458 Speciale A interior

The Ferrari 458 Speciale A is restricted to a run of 499 units and with the 458 coupé selling in the neighborhood of US$250,000, it will probably be the priciest of the 458 line.

Source: Ferrari

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3 comments
3 comments
Mirmillion
Ah, Ferrari...the worlds most expensive impractical range of toys that will sit in the garage and collect dust 9 months of the year. Its good that new found wealth and egos go hand in hand, since this Ferrari target market has expanded until recently. The future, however, looks a little different. Electrically powered performance vehicles are coming down the pike and their performance specs are truly outstanding - all without spewing nano-particles of carcinogens from their cat-converters or needing a tune-up and/or new clutch after every track day. What even more telling is the fact that sales in Italy are dismal as a result of both outrageous prices overall sentiment. Still, nice example of squeezing every ounce of performance out of yesterday's technology.
Michael Wilson
@ MR Million
call me when electric cars can reach 200mph regularly. The Ferrari 458 is still the "workhorse" trackday vehicle seen at many race tracks and rent a race car events. Sure the La Ferrari and the Enzo may grab all the headlines but the 458 is actually what people race and enjoy. I love electrics, but the tech just is not there yet. I would also not necessarily call it tomorrows technology, as electric cars have been around even longer than ICE vehicles. Its simply a technology which has to rely on other tech to finally reach a mature, usable level. The tech will only get better, but as it stands, aside from the Tesla, the twingo, the AMG electric and a few other one offs, the performance just is not there yet. it will be soon though, and myself, like many enthusiasts will welcome it.
Catweazle
Electric cars?
Yawn...
It takes me about three minutes for me to put enough fuel in my Mercedes to carry me around five hundred miles, and the average weight of that fuel load is half the weight of the full tank.
When the toy Scalextric cars achieve that, let me know.