Frankfurt 2013: Ferrari 458 Speciale
The Scuderia for the modern age!
By Shahzad Sheikh
The 458 Speciale was on show at the Frankfurt show. This is the ‘Scuderia’ version of the 458, if you like.
A track-focussed mid-engined monster with an ungraded 4.5-litre V8 producing 605bhp and 398lb ft of torque – up 35bhp.
The 1290kg super gets to 100kph in three seconds and can pull 1.33g of lateral force – extraordianry for a road car. 0-200 is in 9.1 seconds and the top speed is 325kph.
Downforce is aided by vertical flaps at the front which also aid cooling at lower speeds, but can shift downforce 20% to the rear at speeds of over 220kph.
There’s also Side Slip Angle Control (SSC) for on-limit cornering which can take into account lateral acceleration, yaw angle, steering wheel input and speed and is said to offering smooth controllable oversteer. There’s also an E-Diff.
The gearshift and suspension has been sharpened, and the braking has been uprated.
