Ferrari to unleash 458 Scuderia

Ferrari 458 Italia is one of the worlds finest sports cars in standard form.

Ferrari 458 Italia is one of the worlds finest sports cars in standard form.

Published May 22, 2013

Share

In Ferrari-speak, Scuderia (originally a stable in Italian, but now taken, in motorsport, to mean a racing team) means a stripped-out, significantly lightened, heavily tweaked, seriously track-orientated version of one of its road cars - which are not famous for being slow in standard trim.

The previous such car was, of course, the 2009 F430 Scuderia - 100kg lighter than the stock F430, with comprehensively revised suspension that made it very uncomfortable to drive on the road but absolutely superlative on a racetrack.

Now the cybergarage is abuzz with rumours that the long-awaited Scuderia version of the 458 Italia will make its world debut at the Frankfurt motor show in September.

But wait, we hear you say, such a car already exists - the 415kW 458 Challenge racing version.

Not so, says authoritative American publication Car and Driver, the Scuderia 458 Italia will be a whole lot more car than the Challenge.

It quotes inside sources as saying that the standard 4.5-litre direct-injection V8 has been beefed up with new, forged con-rods to raise its safe rev limit from 9000 to a dizzy 9300rpm, along with revised ECU mapping and a free-flow exhaust that's been described by an insider as 'angry'.

Just the way we like it.

While the new Scuderia may be questionably street-legal in certain parts of the world, such as Switzerland and California, it will have about 445kW to play with, as opposed to the standard car's 425kW.

But Car and Driver has been told that even more work has been done on the seven-speed Getrag dual-clutch transmission, to optimise the ratios for the extra grunt and shorten the shift times even more.

And that it has Ferrari's first active wing on anything other than a Formula One car, and that Brembo has promised an improved version of its carbon-ceramic brakes to keep everything under control.

Removing unnecessary luxuries such as interior trim and replacing some components with exotic material should bring the weight down close to the 1300kg mark - which will give it a power-to-weight ratio of more than 340kW per tonne, which is outrageous even by Ferrari standards.

Now that's what Ferrari means by Scuderia.

Related Topics:

ferrari