Ferrari 458 Italia Review

Ok, so I am back from my break, took a few weeks off(2 to focus on racing, 1 for Easter), and now I am back with another review, and last time I reviewed a Lamborghini Murcielago. This time, I am staying in my heritage county, but this time, reviewing in what many people believe, the best car made, by the best manufacturer in the world. This is what I am talking about.


This is the Ferrari 458 Italia, the latest and, in my opinion, the best Mid Engine V8 car they ever made. It is the successor to the already great Ferrari F430 that ran from 2004-2009. The car was unveiled by Ferrari at the Frankfurt Motorshow Show on September 15, 2009 with cars being produced and delivered in late 2009 to early 2010 with the car being made as a 2010 model.

The car features a 4.5 Liter V8 engine, which is 0.2 liters up from the 4.3 Liter in the F430. The horsepower is also up from 483 in the F430 to 562 in the 458. The suspension is double wishbone in the front and a multi-link setup in the rear of the car, which Cadillac claims that Ferrari borrowed from them, but I'm not 100% sure if I believe them on that one. The car also has a Electronic Differential and a 5 way F1-trac Traction Control System which helps the car turn 32% better than its predecessors. The transmission is Ferrari's 7 gear flappy paddle gear box, which makes it the 5th Ferrari to be offered with a Flappy Paddle Gear box and the First Car to EVER have only Flappy Paddles as an option as they do not allow you to have a regular manual transmission in the 458.

Now, as all of us know, the 458 was the cover car of Forza Motorsports 4, well at least on the regular and not the LCE, thats a BMW M5. The car in game costs $240,000, but it is a reward car at level 34. So, like always, here is a list of the "stats" and "good stuff" as the car is on the showroom floor.


The car has an amazing top speed rating of 9.7, which in my opinion may be a little bit too high on the chain if you ask me and the handling rating is a little bit too low, if I were in control, I would make the speed about a 9.1 and the handling about a 6.2 or 6.3, but like the say, the "stats" in this game are always a little bit misleading.

So I took the car onto Infineon raceway, and after listening to exhaust, I took the car for a few laps around the Infineon track and noticed right away some of the issues, so here are the "Things To Tackle" on this Ferrari 458 Italia.



I felt that the car just would NOT turn on cold tires and it took a while for the grip to come in even with warm tires, it took me about 11 laps before the grip was really good. So I took the car into the shop and upgraded it all the way to S700, here are the upgrades I put on the car to make it S700.


So I felt like the slicks were absolutely needed to make this car better for this car over a race weight reduction because having the slicks with the anti-roll cars gave me free way to get rid of the understeer and made the car much better. Finally, last but not least, here are the stats and good stuff when they get "Bobbo-fied"


So as you can see, I raised the handling and braking ratings by 1 whole point apiece and still kept it in the same class, while only adding 3 pounds to the car, to be honest that was very difficult to do. So I threw a very basic and modest tune on the car, threw it around my test track and came up with these lap times.


As you can see the 458 showed to be very fast at every track, it struggled a little bit on the Top Gear circuit, but that was arguably my fault due to me driving my Ferrari F33SP prior to that on the Top Gear circuit, but overall great results.

In conclusion, I now see why I fell in love with this car like I did, it is brilliant in every way possible, I know in Jeremy Clarkson's mind that the Mercedes SLS AMG is the best car in the world. But to be honest, I must disagree, in my opinion, the best car in the world at the current moment, the Ferrari 458 Italia.

Well that concludes my review, tune in next week as I head up to England to review the 458's chief rival, the McLaren MP4-12c. Stay tuned for that!

I gave this car a run a testdrive and have to say i was impressed. It was easy to drive and very consistent. My only gripe is that you seem to spend alot of time changing gear constantly - lengthen the gears maybe unless it has a small power band. Other wise great car and write up

Good write up bobbo, it's a shame i'm not really a fan of the ferrari's although it is an extremely good looking car. maybe i should get one of them out and atleast give them a chance.

Share it on the club garage. Great car

Clarkson thinks it the best Ferrari, according to AutoVista

RetPetty wrote:I gave this car a run a testdrive and have to say i was impressed. It was easy to drive and very consistent. My only gripe is that you seem to spend alot of time changing gear constantly - lengthen the gears maybe unless it has a small power band. Other wise great car and write up

I could do that ret, but the problem is I would have to install a race transmission into the car, which makes the car incredibly slow off its launch and pumps it into R3. I normally keep it from 3rd-6th as I rarely use 7th or even 2nd. So if you can keep it within that range, it should be ok .

Bobbo, your opinions are not true for everyone, but breat review.

Nice Review Bobbo!

slasher99999 wrote:Bobbo, your opinions are not true for everyone, but breat review.

thats why I said "in my opinion" that the 458 is the best car in the world

Really Slash? The S7? Other then Top speed and Accel it is nothing, and even then the Veyron is better in those two departments

i think the 458 is a consistent and jack of all trades kinda car that is prolly best suited to online lobbies.

not saying its a bad car cus i really enjoyed it but it doesnt seem to really excel in any one area. having said that its one of the best looking recent ferraris by a longshot imo.

BlmThug wrote:Really Slash? The S7? Other then Top speed and Accel it is nothing, and even then the Veyron is better in those two departments

Saleen is all power? It produces it's own weight in downforce at 160 MPH, Is faster, the standard can go 200 MPH and the Twin Turbo can go 248 MPH and has 7 ALMS GT class wins, and this was 10 years before the 458. Oh, and they don't catch fire.

will you be reviewing the SLS at all bobbo

SnippetyOggy86 wrote:will you be reviewing the SLS at all bobbo

Yes I have unveiled the car list for the next 6 weeks in my OP

Good review.
Don't even bother with the MP4. That car is a piece of something or other. No matter what you do it can't even compete with some S650 cars.

Toasterr x wrote:Good review.
Don't even bother with the MP4. That car is a piece of something or other. No matter what you do it can't even compete with some S650 cars.

+1

I absolutely hate the mp4's handling in this game.

I love the the ferrari 458 in this game. But I find the only way to get it competitive is to add that spoiler, and I refuse to add it, messes up the beauty of the 458 (even though I drive in hood view! haha).

I love the SLS handling in this game, for me its the most fun car to drive, but hardly competitive at least in stock, due to its oversteer (but that's what makes it awesome to drive). The cockpit view of the ferrari 458 is nicer than the SLS though.