Ferrari 458 Italia: a truly astonishing supercar

2009 has been an incredible year for the Ferrari marque, largely thanks to the overwhelmingly positive response to the unveiling of the 458 Italia supercar at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September.



Just in case there was any doubt in people's minds as to how popular the Ferrari's F430 successor is, Top Gear magazine recently named it its Supercar of the Year and, more importantly, the 458 Italia also bagged the British publication's Car of the Year accolade – and this, in the same year that the McLaren MP4-12C and Mercedes SLS AMG showed up.

That's quite some achievement, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that the new Ferrari is as close to perfection as a motor can possibly be. Despite the 458 Italia being Ferrari’s new entry-level model, it’s got everything the F430 has and much, much more. Much of this can be attributed to the Italian marque recruiting a couple of big names to give input into its creation.



Legendary Italian styling house Pininfarina continued its longstanding relationship with Ferrari (Testarossa, 612 Scaglietti, 360 Spider) by styling the new car. And if that wasn’t enough for you, Michael Schumacher, arguably the greatest F1 driver ever, was involved with the 458 Italia project from its inception. His notable contributions include test-driving the 458 and influencing the implementation of an F1-esque steering wheel – which has many of the components you’d expect on the dashboard, all there right in front of you.



So what kind of performance levels are we talking about here? Well, you’re looking at an insanely fast top speed of 202mph and a 0-62mph that falls below 3.4 seconds, all courtesy of a 4.5-litre V8 (the inspiration behind the car’s name) that punches out an almighty 570bhp at 9,000rpm.

Sales are expected to begin in Europe in 2010, with prices for the new entry-level Prancing Horse starting at around £150,000.



Source: orange.co.uk