It’s clear within the first few kilometres that Ferrari’s decision to use a double-clutch gearbox was the correct one

Everyday cars. If only Ferraris were everyday cars. That’s the lingering thought after my eight hours with the company’s latest take on the mid-engined V8 Berlinetta. It is both a reason for celebration and, at the same time, no little frustration that the 458 is undoubtedly the finest all-round sports car that Ferrari has ever made. It has produced such a useable, amenable machine that it’s saddening to think so many 458s will never see everyday use, because it’s only when you delve into the car’s full dynamic vocabulary, covering everything from stop-start town driving to maximum-attack lapping, that you fully appreciate what Ferrari has achieved.

It’s hard to know where to start with the 458. The numbers are so compelling, so difficult to digest that, like the chubby child in the candy shop, it’s hard to concentrate on any single image or piece of information for longer than a fleeting second before darting to the next. I mean, I’m smirking just typing the power figure: 562bhp delivered at 9000rpm. The smaller Ferrari, the 'little one' of the family, now serves up over five-fifty horsepower. What a way to flick a single finger to the harbingers of sports car oblivion. And this puppy runs direct injection and emits 37 fewer g/km of CO2 than its predecessor.

Actually, it isn’t hard to know where to start with the 458 – or any Ferrari for that matter. Gone are the days when Enzo would charge you handsomely for a majestic V12 then get old man Scaglietti to bash some aluminium with a lump hammer and bung it in for free, but the motor remains the centrepiece of these cars. It’s a large displacement unit now, a full 4499cc, which makes its ability to spin to 9000rpm (the engineers say it could go to 9300rpm) without using any titanium internals all the more remarkable. It also accounts for the sizeable torque figure: 398lb ft is available at 6000rpm, but a quick check of the factory dyno readouts reveals over 270lb ft from just 2500rpm. On paper, the 458 doesn’t have a power-band, it has a dizzying power-crescendo that, in conjunction with a dual-clutch gearbox, results in a claimed zero to 200kph time 0.4sec faster than the absurdly rapid 599 GTB.

What a disappointment, then, that as I thumb the large starter button on the steering wheel, the 458 fires with a slightly bilious parp, then settles to a glum, ordinary idle. These pesky flat-plane cranks may facilitate vast engine speeds, but they’re pretty uninspiring at very low revs.

You sit low in this car, but the view out is still impressively uncluttered. The scuttle is low and the driver-centric controls, clocks and digital displays create a busy area around the driver, but equally a sense of space in the rest of the cabin. Straight ahead of you is a 10,000rpm rev- counter, flanked either side by TFT screens that provide everything from lap times to an analogue speed display. The most commonly used controls are now located on the steering wheel: wipers, indicators and the little ‘manettino’ that alters the suspension and chassis electronics. It’s perhaps the most radical re-think of a sports car’s basic control surfaces in the past three decades – if Ferrari has got it wrong, the 458 will be badly hampered as a driving machine.

I want to tell you just how good this car is at low speed. That’s unexciting, I know – you want tales of major sideways moments in the Modenese hills – but you need to stay calm and hear about the 458 in town. We can spank later. Now, I’ll stop short of saying that anyone can make a fast sports car, and that the real genius of the trade lies with those who can make them perform with decorum at low speeds, but there’s a lot of truth in that statement. The 458 is possibly the best supercar below 50kph.

We roll out of Fiorano onto the freshly wetted roads of Supercar Valley and it’s clear within the first few kilometres that Ferrari’s decision to use a double-clutch gearbox was the correct one. Less than 50 milliseconds after you flick either paddle, the gear engages, and the fanatical level of calibration carried out by the development team leaves you struggling to find fault with the way it operates. The real advantage is at low speed – you can dawdle in the 458 with no clanking actuators and no rancid clutch smell. A town centre road no longer constitutes a clear and present danger to untalented twits in this new Ferrari. Part of me thinks that’s a shame.

It rides so well too. Having learned lessons from the F430 and 599, you can now de-couple the damper setting from the chassis electronics as you can in the 430 Scuderia. On the road, I prefer it in Sport mode with the dampers set to soft. Like this, the 458 is extremely capable. The body structure is 20 per cent more rigid than the 430 in terms of dynamic torsional stiffness, lending a more solid platform to the front double-wishbone suspension and rear multi-link layout that it shares with the old car. Serious time has been invested improving both camber control and wheel centre rigidity for the rear wheels, and the result is a car that relies more on its spring and damper units and less on its anti-roll bars. You really feel this at low and medium speeds, the slacker bars allowing a greater degree of independence across each axle, bringing surprising ride comfort with the dampers on their softest setting.

Traction benefits hugely too. Heading up into the hills, the roads are wet and the surface cratered with poor repairs – not a place you’d normally want to be in a 562bhp Ferrari – but the 458 is about as tame as this type of vehicle can be under such circumstances. Its electronic chassis armoury is now impregnable – F1-Trac melds with E-Diff3 to create an acronym orgy of unparalleled dynamic brilliance. Roughly translated, the 458 is fool-proof, even on crappy Italian roads. And the intervention is so calm, so polite. Where a 430 would just shut the throttle with admonishing abruptness, the 458’s brain can deploy varying degrees of throttle angle as requested by its garrison of sensors, regardless of what the idiot driver is doing up front. In Sport mode there’s a few degrees of slip, whereas in Race there’s enough slip for the incautious novice to pirouette, leaving some vestige of hope for those who would like to see a shunted Fandango down a side street.

I have to say I prefer the greater degree of nannying available in Sport because the feeling of invincibility is more consistent. If one enlists the help of the computer, best to use most of its considerable powers. Either have it all working, or not at all.

‘This is a brillantly balanced road-car chassis,   but it’s also one that questions conventions’

This is a brilliantly balanced road-car chassis, but it’s also one that questions the conventions of sports car interaction between driver and car rather more than I’d expected. You see, the 458 is no great communicator. Drive it fast and, at first, you’ll be disappointed by how mute the steering is, how smooth the gearchanges are, how little information regarding road surface and grip levels appears to be available through the controls and the seat squab. Familiarity will dispel some of those fears, but after something like a GT3 the 458’s steering rack will always feel a touch arcade-game. There’s a reason why: it’s a very fast, very aggressive system with just two turns between the locks (the 458 really can be driven through tight hairpins by just crossing your hands), so the hydraulic pump is a monster. For me, it doesn’t detract from the experience whatsoever, but there will be those who expect greater levels of communication from a mid-engined Ferrari.

Does it feel as fast as the claimed figures? Perhaps not quite. I say that because the last 599 I drove felt unhealthily, slightly scarily rapid in a straight line, whereas this car never seems quite so intimidating under full throttle. Nevertheless, the 458 sets new standards for straight-line performance in this class. It pulls convincingly from 2000rpm and builds so strongly in the mid-range that by the time you’re waiting for the final, frenzied attack on the rev-limiter you’re left a little disappointed that you don’t sustain some manner of neck injury. Don’t worry, this is still an engine that rewards every last ounce of abuse, it’s just that it would require rocket propulsion to inject a serious extra snap of acceleration beyond what’s already occurring at 7000rpm.

The sound is pretty awe-inspiring by most road-car standards, but it’s heavily synthesised – there’s a disconnect between what your right foot tells you that you should be hearing and what erupts from the exhausts. At times it’s irritating, especially in town in Race mode, where the exhaust valves open at very low revs and bombard everyone with noise.

Another criticism that creeps up on me during the day is the throttle response at low speed. Given how slick the transmission is at rationalising those vast numbers at a tootle, I find it hard to just tickle the accelerator and let the car coast because there is absolutely no dead travel at the top of the pedal. As the day wears on, this becomes my biggest but in fairness one of my few irritations with the 458.

I had expected the steering-wheel buttons and general control locations to drive me mad, but they just don’t. Okay, it takes some time to get used to the indicators, but their self-cancelling system works well, and while the amount of information available on the TFT screens could be bewildering, it’s made much less so by it being so easy to flick between displays. Ergonomically, it works well, but it would help if there was a digital speed readout in the rev-counter clock face. There is one definite black mark, though: Ferrari is joining the ranks of car makers whose steering wheel rims are only suitable for the larger primates, of which, despite my nickname, I am not one.

It’ll be no surprise to you to learn that the 458 is altogether sensational at Ferrari’s own Fiorano circuit. It was developed here, so it stands to reason that it should work rather well around its mixture of low- and medium-speed turns. Its 1min 25sec lap time is identical to the Scuderia’s, yet it weighs 1485kg (135kg more) and runs a regular road tyre, albeit one that was developed especially for this car.

What appeals to me most about the 458 on track is the sheer breadth of driving experience it offers. I can’t think of another car that serves up everything from computer-chamfered excellence to gratuitous, smoky sideways, and several variations in between. As on the road, the chassis electronics are superb. Traction is never an issue, even as the tyres get hot, but even greater improvements lurk in the earlier phases of each turn. That aggressive steering would count for nothing if the car couldn’t sustain such abrupt direction changes, but the added support from that rear suspension and some much firmer bushes means the 458 actually feels a good deal more alert than the lighter, shorter-wheelbased 430.

‘Be in no doubt, this is not an expurgated supercar experience’

I’d like to tell you that I could feel the electronic differential doing its thing, but you only realise how effective it is when you switch everything off and a dollop of understeer appears from nowhere and you discover that the rear tyres do have their limitations. The brakes, the same size as the F430’s but with fewer pistons in the front calipers (because of metallurgic improvements), don’t fade at all in five fast laps, and the pedal feel is spot-on.

However, be in no doubt, this is not an expurgated supercar experience. The inner mentalist is always lurking, desperate to be unleashed by the manettino switch and paint black lines at will. Not that it’s of any relevance, but the 458 has uncommon balance when it’s in full-slide mode. So, low-speed throttle response and steering aside, there is little to gripe about here and a whole load to celebrate – the 458 continues what must be the finest patch of road-car form Ferrari has ever enjoyed. Which leaves only the thorny issue of usage. So I’ll end with a suggestion: if Ferrari vetted each potential Enzo owner for suitability, perhaps it should make all 458 buyers agree to cover a certain distance? About 10,000 per annum would seem appropriate.

	Ferrari 458 Italia
Engine	V8
Location	Mid, longitudinal
Displacement	4499cc
Max power	562bhp @ 9000rpm
Max torque	398lb ft @ 6000rpm
Transmission	Seven-speed DCT gearbox, rear- wheel drive, E-Diff3, F1-Trac
Weight (kerb)	1485kg
Power-to-weight	384bhp/ton
0-100kph	3.4sec (claimed)
Top speed	325kph (claimed)
Basic price	c$ 265,000
On Sale	Summer 2010
Star	5 stars