First we'll deal with the controversial bit.
This car belongs to Ferrari.
And I'm probably not supposed to be driving it.
But I'm not going to dwell on that.
Someone kind of subcontracted it to me, let's say.
And if I'm offered to drive in a
Ferrari I don't ask questions.
I just drive it.
The problem with this situation is that I'm now at
least a year late to reviewing the Spider.
You've all read about it and watched the video so you need
to see something different.
Now I've searched YouTube and there are lots of beautiful
shoots and factual films, but there isn't much bad behavior.
I've, therefore, decided in the interest of original
programming that I'm going to drive this car
like a complete idiot.
[CAR ENGINE]
[TIRES SQUEALING]
[CAR ENGINE]
[TIRES SQUEALING]
[CAR ENGINE]
Well, I have to say, it's dead impressive for a car with a
conventional construction that's got no roof.
570 horsepower, at about 1550 kilograms, at
little bit less, actually.
It's just as fast as you ever wanted a car to be.
Very direct steering.
I've got the suspension in full firm at the moment.
But I might just try and soften it off a bit and see
what it does.
[TIRES SQUEALING]
It might make the car a bit lazier.
[CAR ENGINE]
I hope you can get some of this noise.
Because it's--
[CAR ENGINE]
That's the defining aspect of the 458.
It's normally aspirated.
It makes a noise that the McLaren just
can't hope to match.
[CAR ENGINE]
The problem with these flippin' Spiders these days is
they kind of undo my argument that you have to have a hard
top on the driving front.
I mean, I don't have any doubt that the Coupe is
a little bit better.
But the difference is not night and day.
[CAR ENGINE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This car is barely a convertible.
The roof aperture is so small it's more of a targa really.
And it's quite a fussy shape from some angels.
Those rear buttresses rise unexpectedly high.
And those ultra-low profile tires leave annoying amounts
of vacant space in the wheel arches.
And this particular example has 63,000 pounds of extras on
top of the 200 grand list price.
The titanium wheel bolts are 1,900 pounds.
[CAR ENGINE]
But it's just, it's a very, very exciting car.
It's very obedient, the steering's fast.
The controls lack quite a lot of feedback.
But it's really interesting how quickly you can kind of
adjust your inputs to the speed that they require.
[CAR ENGINE]
Ha, ha, ha!
[CAR ENGINE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Now I have to apologize, because I haven't talked about
the clever folding hard top or the neat gear
shifts in auto mode.
I didn't have the time.
Because remember, I was too busy driving the 458 Spider
like I was in some sort of computer game.
But in doing so, I can now tell you that it's an absurdly
good car to drive.
You can chuck it around like a cheap rally car, and that
shouldn't really be possible.
Of course I could never buy a convertible Ferrari for all
the obvious reasons.
But I could just about forgive anyone who
bought one of these.
[CAR ENGINE]