Ferrari 458 Italia Spider Confirmed
Soft-top 458 due in a couple of years says Ferrari boss
In an interview with Italian car mag Quattroruote, Di Montezemolo said: "[Deliveries of the 458 Italia] will begin in the second half of January. We also plan a spider version, but not for a couple of years."
The planned introduction of a 458 Spider is not exactly earth-shattering news - Spider traditionally follows coupe in mid-engined Ferrari land much as night follows day - but it is nice to hear it straight from the (prancing) horse's mouth.
When the 458 Italia does arrive it will be powered by the same 4.5-litre 562bhp direct-injection V8 fitted to the coupe, so expect similar performance figures - a top speed of around 200mph and a 0-62mph sprint of around 3.4secs.
My problem is in no way with the cars themselves - I've dealt with Ferrari Italy on a business-to-business level quite a lot in the past and the design and engineering of their products is top notch. I just struggle a bit with the way they promote the products and product manage the range. The repeating pattern may be a good one in your eyes but most of the UK dealership network were asked in advance about a limited edition 430 Scud Spider and most of them said "we don't want it - it compromises the story we told about the Scud being a track-focused racer". So Ferrari made it anyway. Bit cynical in my book. And don't even start me on some of the recent marketing efforts...embarrassing doesn't come close.
I really hope they don't go down the same route with the 458 as they did with the 360 and 430. The current climate is a tough one and calls for a bit of spark and imagination rather than a 'repeat ad nauseum' approach.
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