Best 2010 Ferrari 458 Italia

2010 Ferrari 458 Italia

Ferrari SUV

After rumors about a Lamborghini SUV, is now time to talk about a future Ferrari SUV. And even if Ferrari is about supercars, it seems that company has finally decided that they need a SUV in their line-up. Maybe the conclusion came after Lamborghini decided to built one, or maybe after seeing the success of the Porsche Cayenne, but, in any case the SUV is on its way and will be launched sometime in 2010.

Ferrari 458 supercar

Ferrari's 458 is aimed at satisfying thrill-seekers among the Italian car-maker's hard-core audience.The Ferrari 458 Italia – the best supercar of 2010. Possibly. It’s certainly one of the most exciting, as evo new boy Chris Harris will happily testify after driving it at the press launch last month.

It leads an Italian special in this month’s evo magazine (which should be in all good magazine shops and on the doormats of loyal subscribers by Wednesday December 9), which also features the Alfa 8C Spider, Ferrari 599 HGTE, Abarth 500 Assetto Corse and Maserati GranTurismo MC Corsa.

Today on evo.co.uk it’s all about the Ferrari 458 Italia, though. Peruse a gallery of pictures at the bottom of this page (some of them web exclusives) from Harris’s drive in the Italian hills and at Ferrari’s Fiorano test circuit, click to read Henry Catchpole’s blog or watch Chris reviewing the car (and cocking about a bit) in our video section. Bellissima!

Ferrari custom 599 convertible loading

Ferrari’s current portfolio of cars too generic for you? How about a neat custom P540? Ferrari’s rather unique 599 convertible.

You know the deal with Maranello – money talks. If you have a practically unlimited budget and impeccable breeding the fabled F1 team’s road car division can be awfully accommodating to your design whims.

Enter Edward Walson. Doesn’t sound familiar? Well, that’s hardly surprising.

Chasing a TV dream?

Edward’s not a celebrity in his own right but his father John did invent cable TV and you can only imagine the inherited financial resources at Edward’s disposal.

So, when Edward decided he wanted a contemporary Ferrari custom built (to pay homage to the legendary Fantuzzi-designed Ferrari 330 LM built specifically for the 1968 Fellini film, Toby Dammit) it simply had to happen.

Aero duct louvres behind both axles look the business, as does the large aft deck area and superb rear wheelarch curve-line.

The P540 Superfast Aperta is based on Ferrari’s outstanding front-engined 599 GTB Fiorano. Some striking Pininfarina designed bodywork adds 66mm bumper-to-bumper over a stock 599.

Despite being open-topped the P540 is 36mm taller than a 599 and 20kg heavier, the additional weight due to carbon-fibre strengthening to offset the loss of rigidity sans roof.

Traditional V12 values

Powering Walson’s car is a 456kW 5l V12 shifting through a six-speed paddle-shift transmission.

Performance promises to be epic and kudos to Ferrari for producing the complete car from sketching to homologation in only 14 months – just in time to make this Christmas Edward Walson’s best ever.

An interesting aside to the Edward Walson project is that such a one-off Ferrari’s owner receives the car’s tooling as part of the purchase to ensure it cannot be replicated.

Conversely, Ferrari reserves the right to buy back both the car and tooling again, to ensure Special Project Ferraris are not speculated against.

2010 Ferrari 599XX Sports Car aimed at the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano

The Geneva Motor Show isn't all about hybrids, EVs and hopeful thinking. There are some hardcore sports cars there as well. Ferrari, as always, brought out some serous iron. Or in this case, some serious alloy, carbon composites and technical know-how.

Witness the 700-horsepower 599XX. It’s about as serious as a sports car gets, but sadly, we’ll never see it on the roads. The 599XX is designed exclusively for the track.

The 599XX is based on the magnificent 599 GTB Fiorano but is a different beast altogether. It’s slathered with all the latest high tech goodies from Ferrari’s racing department and is not aimed merely at the rich. The 599XX, like the FXX before it, is to be sold, in Ferrari’s words, to "a select group of clients," which is to say people are are both rich and want to go wheel-to-wheel during exclusive Ferrari track days. When those few fortunate souls aren't actually behind the wheels of their 599XXs, Ferrari will graciously store them.

2010 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano HGTE

At the 2009 Geneva Motor Show next week, Ferrari will hold two world premiers both having to do with its 599 GTB Fiorano.

Ferrari has developed a new track focused handling package for the car. Called the Handling Grand Turismo Evoluzione (HGTE), the new upgrade will help add some spice to the 599 as it draws toward the end of its product cycle.

Ferrari engine to use less fuel in 2010

Ferrari will have a more fuel-efficient engine in 2010, Spain's Diario AS has suggested.

To coincide with Formula One's ban on refuelling, the sports newspaper said the Maranello based team is working on efficiency improvements allowed under the current engine freeze regulations.

To comply with the test ban, Felipe Massa this week has at Mugello been at the wheel of a two-year-old Ferrari single seater fitted with demonstration tyres.

AS however implied that some "internal solutions" were trialled.

"The test was mainly for him (Massa) and what is certain is that he is even quicker than before his accident of Hungary," said Ferrari development driver Marc Gene.

The Spaniard also sounded confident about Ferrari's 2010 car, which is codenamed 661.

"The wind tunnel data is good and makes us optimistic, but we don't know where the others are so we will have to wait until we see it on the track," added Gene.