Ferrari's New Sales Pitch

Ferrari's new 458 Italia sports car. From PatrickMcMullan.com.

On Wednesday night at New York’s Ferrari showroom on Park Avenue, the centerpiece of the party celebrating the newly revamped corporate space was not the boldface guest list, but instead a white model of Ferrari’s new 458 Italia sports car, with a starting price north of $225,000. Scrubs star Zach Braff, The City star Olivia Palermo and boyfriend Johannes Huebl (who made their appearance particularly short and sweet, doing a once-around-and-out in about 10 minutes), model Kiera Chaplin, and actor and screenwriter Justin Theroux, were among those milling about the venue, paying homage to the luxury-car purveyor.

Many of the guests, who looked particularly dressy for an early-evening affair, were current Ferrari owners. While they perused the memorabilia and collector’s items that lined the walls, and, most important, checked out other attendees’ recently released 4G iPhones, they also swapped joyride stories. One guest even discussed his recent 149-mile-per-hour dash down New York’s Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in his Ferrari convertible.

The Park Avenue showroom is the first location in Ferrari's history to combine an apparel line with the cars. One executive explained that the aim is to feature the “Ferrari lifestyle” for those who cannot afford the luxury vehicles, pointing to a back room filled with Ferrari shirts, ties, hats, and other items priced just slightly less than the cars themselves.

Ferrari 599 GTO is an extreme V12 berlinetta

The new Ferrari 599 GTO is an extreme V12 berlinetta developed to a specific performance-oriented brief. The Ferrari 599 GTO is, in fact, the company's fastest ever road car. It is an exclusive limited edition special which, in true Ferrari tradition, is a completely new concept, albeit inspired by a production car. In fact the Ferrari 599 GTO is based on the 599XX, the advanced experimental track car, and can be considered almost a road-going version.

The Ferrari 599 GTO is reserved for just 599 clients who seek the maximum expression of high-performance driving. The Ferrari 599 GTO benefits directly from the technological transfer from racing and set a record lap time at Fiorano in 1'24".

The Fiorano lap time provides just one indication of the potential of this car. Just as significant are the technical specifications - 670 hp in a 1495kg car represents a weight-to-power ratio of just 2.23 kg/hp, and ensures a 0-100 km/h acceleration time of just 3.35" as well as a top speed of over 335 km/h.

Fundamental to the GTO's performance is the innovative approach to chassis development which, for the first time on a production car, saw the integration between a handling set-up tuned for a level of responsiveness that is close to the limit and highly sophisticated electronic controls. The result is the almost complete absence of understeer and a truly communicative chassis.

As is Ferrari's policy, every new Ferrari features new solutions for a road car. Thus the Ferrari 599 GTO is equipped with the latest, second-generation carbon-ceramic brakes which are lighter and offer better performance, new aerodynamic innovations, such as the wheel doughnuts which increase aerodynamic efficiency as well as improve brake cooling, and the Supersport tyres developed by Michelin include a wider front tyre for greater roadholding. The driver-car interface is also new with the adoption of the Virtual Race Engineer (VRE) which provides the driver with instantaneous information on performance.

Ferrari 612 GTO Concept by Sasha Selipanov

What will Ferrari's planned 2012 replacement for the big 612 Scaglietti grand tourer look like? Berlin-based Sasha Selipanov, who calls himself the Angry Car Designer, has dreamed up one appealing possibility: a killer 612 GTO concept combining the sinuous lines of Ferrari's latest models along with a nod to the famed 250 GTO. Considering that Ferrari just unveiled its 599 GTO it's practically impossible that a 612 GTO could follow suit so quickly, if at all, but that doesn't stop Selipanov's project from being beautiful. He hasn't engaged in the usual concept car game of laying out engine specs and such or gassing on about quilted Alcantara seats; concentrating instead on gorgeously rendered lines. Feast your eyes and dream on.

Ferrari 458 Italia Spider

The possibility of the Ferrari 458 Italia Spider sporting a folding hardtop roof has already become a topic of widespread and serious debate. Ferrari boss Lucas di Montezemolo though has confirmed the existence of the 458 Italia Spider but has never spent any word on whether the Spider would sport a folding hardtop, which is further reason for the debate to continue unabated.

The first racing car with the Prancing Horse up front to have a folding hard top was the Ferrari California. The F430 Spider was later outfitted with a soft top so as to save weight with its high performance variant the Scuderia 16M too being meted out the same treatment later on. While this also allowed for the engine to be visible at all times top up or down position, the addition of the hard top to the 458 Italia would certainly rob the car of this feature.

The hard top feature however adds to security as well as comfort that’s lacking with a soft top. A hardtop also adds a touch of solidity to the lines of the car when it is up, something that’s never to be taken lightly for a marquee as image conscious as Ferrari. This would also add credibility to the spy images of the hard top F430 Spider that had been flashed way back in the 2008. Previous versions were more focused towards weight and space saving techniques which the soft top offered while now it has been performance oriented designs that holds sway. The hardtop all in all goes well on the California and Ferrari has the options open for switching over to the soft top version for the Scuderia model of the 458 Italia Spider.