State of Grace: Can Maranello's Latest be Called a Proper Italian Supercar? The sky is a brilliant Bugatti blue, winding Sicilian mountain roads beckon, and a nice man has just given you the scarlet-red key to a new Ferrari. If Uma Thurman turned up with a bottle of Krug champagne and a pot of Stilton for two, life could hardly get better. Yet, be warned, today's drive may disappoint. The Ferrari we're about to sample is no beauty, with its fussy flanks, fat hips, and elongated trunk-more bustle bum than bikini bottom. This is disappointing, if not surprising. The days when Ferraris were beautiful, sculptures for the street, poetry in motion, Rembrandts on the road, are gone. For gorgeous Italian automotive design, today it's better to turn to Maserati or Alfa Romeo. The California is heavier than the bigger and much more powerful 599 GTB. Yet the 4.3 V-8 under the hood is some 30 horses shy of the output of the F430, currently Ferrari's least-muscled car. The motor is closely related, though the bore and stroke are different. It's direct injected, a first for a production Ferrari, primarily to boost fuel economy. The downside is not only less power but a lower redline than the F430's: 8000 rpm isn't bad, but it's 500 rpm short of the blood-curdling top-end wail of the F430 at full whack. Full Article: 2010 Ferrari California - First Drive - Motor Trend M
I really want to like this car, but I'm not falling for it. The styling is just everywhere. Very good looking in one photo, goofy and ill-proportioned in the next. M
