Meet The Turbocharged Ferrari California T: First Official Pics
Fresh look for Ferrari’s California…and a drop of forced induction
Imthishan Giado
Always the ugly duckling of Maranello’s range, the California has laboured in the shadow of its 458 and F12 brothers to be taken seriously. With an all-new engine and and a sharp restyle, that time may have come at last.
As before, it’s a folding hardtop. What Ferrari has done is take away the previously gurning face and treated it to a more …shall we say, elegant body, that emphasizes the coke-bottle proportions and minimizes the enormous posterior unfortunately necessary for the folding hard top gubbins.
Still, definitely looks better than the previous one. At last, people will no longer call this the ‘poor man’s Ferrari.’
Forget the restyle – the big news is under the hood. Gone is the old 4.3-litre 490bhp V8 and in its place an even smaller 3.9-litre V8. Except this one has twin turbos. Yes, this is the first turbo Ferrari since the much-loved F40. This one makes more power than that car – considerably more power. The new V8 puts out 552bhp and 557lb ft of torque, respectively 62bhp and 185 lb ft more than the car it replaces.
The 0-100kph sprint will be rapid – think 3.6seconds – and top speed is estimated to 315kph. Thanks to a retuned seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, 50% better response time from the magnetic dampers and a body that’s a whopping 5kg (it couldn’t all be dramatically better) lighter than the old car, this new California should be 15% more fuel efficient. 7.9L/100km, if you care about that sort of thing.
The Ferrari California T will be officially shown at the Geneva Motor Show.
