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What Makes The Ferrari 458 Speciale So Special? – Part III
That’s when you try to loosen the ankle, slightly numb from the boring pace you have to keep in city traffic, that the Speciale leaps forward, as if to encourage you to rape its tires on some curvy road. Just drive a few kilometers through the heart of France starting from Nice to meet views worthy of a postcard. And it is there, that after having taken a minimum of confidence, I decided to take the 458 for a day of one and one thing only, pure driving pleasure. No soundtrack besides the aspirated V8 engine, no schedule to be respected, no one next to me – just me and the Ferrari, and a fantastic road ahead. Open spaces, road surface almost perfect and zero traffic: I loved how the Speciale has a perfect chassis, such powerful and tireless brakes (carbon-ceramic discs), and the fact that I am not a driving God, not yet able to take to the limit such an ultimate super sports car.
I want to believe that its very limit is probably too far for a mere mortal like me. The Speciale has something more than me and does not mind being put sideways at every hairpin, with a grip that is always there ready to bite the asphalt. Tires are screeching, the engine revs high and you have to keep your right foot heavy on the throttle, without fear, without sweat, straightening the precise steering wheel which is first pointed to the rock wall on your right and then towards the precipice on the left – if I had to think about it, I would then come down to the valley by foot. And instead I covered over 160km between hairpins, bends, fast straights, slow downhill, some spinning, some poor braking and some well-accomplished, but above all with a lot of fun, catapulted into the real Paradise for every car guy. Hearing that incessant roar always behind my back, admiring my Ferrari surrounded by a landscape extrapolated from my deepest fantasies was simply amazing. That was my perfect picture: a blue sky, a picturesque mountain crossed by a road that seems designed by a crazy petrolhead and one of the best Red weapon from Maranello. And I had the honor to enjoy all of this.
Words by Christian Parodi
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