Ferrari 458 Spider

Ferrari has released the first official photos of the 2012 Ferrari 458 Spider, the roofless iteration of the mid-engine 458 Italia. Other than losing its lid and gaining some structural enhancements, the Ferrari 458 Spider will be largely identical to its coupe counterpart.Besides shaving the Ferrari 458 Spider’s head,

 Ferrari 458 Spider

Ferrari altered the car’s throttle mapping, suspension tuning, and “engine soundtrack” specifically for topless motoring. The task of dialing in the sound of the Ferrari 458 Spider’s tightly wound 4.5-liter V-8 for
droptop duty seems to us like a two-step process. Step one: Remove roof. Step two: Rev engine. Regardless, the Spider’s soundtrack should be hugely satisfying, produced as it is by the same sonorous 562-hp engine as is used in the 458 Italia. That power is routed through the same seven-speed dual-clutch automatic as is used in the coupe to the same torque-vectoring differential. The Ferrari 458 Spider also inherits the coupe’s F1-Trac traction-control and performance anti-lock-brake system.

Ferrari claims the Spider will run to 62 mph from a standstill in less than 3.5 seconds before romping on to a top speed in excess of 198 mph. In a recent comparison test, we kicked a 458 Italia to 60 mph in just 3.0 seconds, so the Spider’s figure is probably a bit conservative.

Ferrari 458 Spider

Ferrari 458 Spider’s photos—and a video below—put to rest any doubt as to the style of folding roof the Ferrari 458 Spider will use. The car’s mid-engine layout makes a folding roof of any kind difficult to integrate, and after seeing the leaked photos of the car we guessed that only a relatively space-efficient soft top would fit beneath its low-slung tonneau cover. Ferrari, however, cleverly adapted its rotating-roof concept from the 575-based Superamerica to the Ferrari 458 Spider.
The Ferrari 458 Spider’s roof is a bit more complicated than the Superamerica’s rotating lid, and it hides under a double-hump rear deck when stowed (the Superamerica’s roof laid itself on top of the rear deck). Ferrari claims this solution is 55 pounds lighter than a soft top and takes up less space. The roof can fold itself down into a space ahead of the engine bay in 14 seconds, and the independently operable rear window doubles as a wind blocker. Ferrari 458 Spider believes the rear window to be so effective that occupants can converse normally at speeds above 124 mph. The roof mechanism is compact enough that Ferrari 458 Spider was able to keep a parcel shelf behind the rear seats.

Ferrari 458 Spider

To help combat flex, Ferrari did beef up the Ferrari 458 Spider’s chassis to ensure structural rigidity top up or down, but isn’t sharing exactly what it strengthened. The company does, however, claim that the Spider will only outweigh the fixed-roof Ferrari 458 Spider by about 100 pounds. The Ferrari 458 Spider will be on display in Frankfurt in September, and a good part of the production run is likely already spoken for.

courtesy by http://www.caranddriver.com/news/car/11q3/2012_ferrari_458_spider-auto_shows