Yep thats it. It would be designated 450 if they had just went by displacement, but Ferrari is going back to displacement + cylinder count. I love it. M
Well, I'm not sure about the rest, but Porsche needs to get cracking on a new design language. It's been long enough with the bug eyes. I know, I know, I'm horrible. What do you mean? :eusa_thin At least you have an M5. I hope things workout for you man. If you get that Ferrari or Lambo, don't forget to share pics with us. As you know, we don't get jealous on this board and like to share the joy when one of us gets a new car, especially an exotic. As for when it will be available, I think in spring 2010, but if Ferrari haven't called you yet and tell you that your car is on order, then you're looking at 2012 or a $50-100K mark-up through dealers. :t-cheers:
Not to sound overly critical; but how does the new XJ make the front page of the forum and a brand new Ferrari doesn't? My head is literally spinning.
Can you imagine what the Scud version of this will be like? The saying a racecar for the street has never been so true or at least it promises. M
Wow... I'm greatly impressed and excited... never happened for a Ferrari. This thing looks sick... and its performance its probably even sicker!
^^Not bad. I'd still take the coupe though, though a hardtop (whether metal or glass) would be pretty nice.
Guess I'm in the minority again.. Not feeling the car at all. The roofline's too high. Looks like a mishmash of the 430, Enzo and a Zonda. But, as always, reserve judgment until you see it in the flesh.
Actually, I think the Ferrari design is heavily influenced by the cockpit of a fighter aircraft. But the Honda NSX adopted that design 20 odd years ago. I am looking forward to the pictures of the car's entire interior. I think the centre console is going to be something quite similar along the lines of the Ferrari California.
I want this toy so bad. Love this part. "The 458 Italia is capable of telling the driver when the brakes, tyres and engine are at the optimum operating temperature. Called virtual race engineer, a display in the dash to the left of the rev counter shows a schematic of the car, and components change colour according to temperature. Yellow means the temperatures aren’t high enough, green is the perfect temperature and red means the car is too hot." and this "The E-Diff differential and the F1-Trac skid control system have long been the flagship carryover technologies from Formula 1, but the 458 Italia takes them even further and adds another piece of F1-derived technology to the brakes. Instead of using individual ECUs for the E-Diff and F1-Trac, the 458 Italia has one ECU to control both (as well as the ABS system), resulting in streamlined processing and communication. Ferrari claims a 32 per cent increase in acceleration over the F430 (itself no slouch) out of corners. The brakes feature a new system called ‘prefill’. When the driver’s foot lifts off the throttle, the pistons in the calipers move the pads towards the discs; that helps to reduce the stopping distance from 62mph to just 32.5 metres."
Ah, the brake 'prefill'.......................touring car race drivers do this themselves by tapping on the brake pedal gently a couple times to build up the fluid pressure in the brake master cylinder before they stand on the brake pedal.
It's the same technique my dad taught me to use when I was learning to drive in the mountains of Washington State around the Seattle area. LOL, of course, we also had a car without ABS so this was a MUST.
This is a basic ESP function. Used first in the W221 and its SBC, then adapted to standard ESP systems (I think it's on every ESP 8.0 and later from Bosch), along with the micro-braking when rainy to keep the discs dry and the hill start assyst. This cars looks amazing, and its technical datas are even more amazing... That weight, that redline!!! Unfortunately, the noise seems a bit deeper than I'd like it too (still drooling over those fantastic F355 with Kreissieg exhaust, gosh what a noise, that metallic and raw scream that seems to go higher and higher and higher and higher! Also, the sudden fall of revs when finally, after seemingly endless revvs, the gearchange happens, and immediately that scream again... Totally surreal) I think the SLS will have a harder time then foreseen... Even if they don't directly compete as the Ferrari is sportier, harder, more expensive...and it seems, more fascinating...
I don't think the average SLS customer will be looking at the 458, but then again someone who can afford one of these could most likely afford the other one. The SLS will have a harder time on track than it will in sales.
I'm speaking of image here. The SLS will be more comfortable, safer, surely way more reliable, cheaper to maintain. So it will sell, no prob, the Ferrari won't be a problem for it, the clients are different. But in terms of image... Just like the SLR: excellent car. Its only problem was that Porsche released the CGT in the same time, with the same perfs. And that the SLR was constantly humiliated by it in every single review, comparo, interview. Taken alone, the SLR is good. Next to the CGT, it's a turd. I don't want to see that happen to the SLS. While it's a way better car than the SLR, technically speaking, the risk exists for it to be outshined by this surprisingly outlandish Ferrari, and that wouldn't be too good!
As much as I like the SLS, I'm sorry to say that seeing the technical info of this new Ferrari the SLS has already been outshined. We've seen a LOT of the technical stuff on the SLS, but we haven't seen it all. The only thing is though that we all will agree that it will not be as sporty as the 458, because of the clientèle, thus it will get embarrassed by the 458 on most head to head tests.
Very correct. The Ferrari will cost a good 100k more than the SLS, especially on the used car market -- not to mention the dream crushing waiting list that will result in each 458 costing at least 80-100k more MRSP. This was the case with the F430 when it came out, prices were absured up until last year when the recession brought everyone back down to earth. Also it will be more expensive to insure and will not have the same daily usability as the SLS and even the R8. Ferrari's are VERY expensive. This is like comparing the Audi S8 to the Panamera Turbo -- similar car but one is a notch more premium
