The 2009 Ferrari 458 Italia

 

My Uncle's Favorite Ferrari

 

 

 

     The Ferrari 458 Italia was created to become the successor of the F430 but would incorporate technology from Ferrari's Formula 1 team. The 458 Italia is a mid-engine rear-wheel drive supercar that is equipped with a 4.5 liter V8 with direct fuel injection. The V8 comes from a shared Ferrari/Maserati design that produces 562 horsepower at 9,000 rpm and 398 lb-ft of torque at 6,000 rpm. That is very impressive but of course it is a Ferrari. Top speed of the 458 Italia is an equally impressive 202 mph. Naught to sixty-two takes 3.3 seconds.

     The 458 Italia uses a dual-clutch 7-speed GETRAG gearbox, in a different state of tune shared with the sophisticated Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. No traditional manual option exits making it the fourth Ferrari road-car after the Enzo, Challenge Stradale, and 430 Scuderia not to be offered with Ferrari's classic gated manual. It is also the first mainstream Ferrari to not be offered with a manual transmission.

      To help with handling the 458 Italia features double-wishbones at the front and a multi-link set-up at the rear. This is coupled with E-Diff and F1-trac traction control systems that improve the car's cornering and longitudinal acceleration by 32% when compared to its predecessors.

      The brakes include a prefill function where the pistons in the calipers move the pads into contact with the discs on lift off to decrease delay in the brakes being applied. This combined with ABS and standard carbon ceramic brakes have reduced the stopping distance from 62 mph to 107 ft. Tests have also shown that the 458 will stop from a speed of 62.1 mph in 90 ft. (85 ft. with run flat tires), 85 ft. from 60 mph and 80 ft. from 60 mph with run flat tires.

      When the 458 was sold it did have some serious problems such as wheel-arch adhesive fires and engine seizures. The adhesive was fixed with mechanical fasteners while the engine seizures were fixed by having the owner of the 458 get a new engine fi         fixed by Ferrari North America or having a new crankshaft and bearings installed at the dealership.
      The cost of a Ferrari 458 Italia in the United States is an estimated $237,259.