Ferrari's new mid-engine track toy

The track focused 458 Speciale joins its 458 Italia and Spider siblings, though aimed at owners whom are looking for an even more focused sports car that offers extreme driving emotions. Ferrari's core engineering philosophy ensures that even non professional drivers can extract maximum performance and driving pleasure.

The 4.5-litre power unit engine is the most powerful naturally aspirated Ferrari eight-cylinder ever developed, punching out 597bhp at 9,000rpm and maximum torque of 540Nm at 6,000rpm. The engine is produced in the factory's in-house foundry using the same machinery and processes as employed by the F1 team for complex components. Around 8kg was also slashed off the engine's overall weight by the redesign of the intake and exhaust systems.

One of the car's main characteristics is new Ferrari-patented mobile aerodynamic solutions where different aerodynamic configurations can be adopted in cornering, and on straights.

Two vertical flaps in the centre and the horizontal flap below them are closed at relatively low speeds, channelling air into the radiators to cool the engine. However, at speeds in excess of 170km/h, the flaps open, cutting drag. At speeds of over 220km/h the horizontal flap lowers to balance downforce between the front and rear axles, leading to a 20 percent shift in overall downforce towards the rear.

At the rear, moving the position of the tailpipes allowed a new diffuser to be designed which optimises the extraction capacity of the underbody. The rear flaps have two different configurations - raised for high downforce and lowered to minimise drag. Sophisticated sensors and a specific algorithm allow the flaps to be lowered by as much as a 17-degree angle, thereby stalling the diffuser and reducing drag coefficient by three points.