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GRAND PRIX INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD. |
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TAKING A RIDE: |
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New Ferrari 458 Spider : World’s first mid-engine sports car with fully retractable hardtop
Italian supercar manufacturer Ferrari has launched a new model for the Thai market – the 458 Spider. It has been priced at THB 28.5 million.
The new 458 Spider, which was first unveiled at the Frankfurt Auto Show last year, joins the 458 Italia, widening the range of Ferrari’s mid-rear engine V8s and offer¬ing the same uncompromising technological solutions, handling and performance in a refined open-top configuration. It is equipped with a Ferrari patented, fully retractable hardtop and a world first for a sports car with this lay-out.
The Ferrari 458 Spider is powered by Ferrari’s 570 CV 4,499 cc V8 which was named International Engine of the Year 2011. The power is transferred to the road by Ferrari’s class-lead¬ing dual-clutch F1 paddle-shift transmission through the sophis¬ticated E-Diff, itself integrated with the F1-Trac traction control and high-performance ABS for maximum handling dynamics. The car delivers 0 -100 km/h acceleration in 3.4 seconds and a top speed of 320 km/h.
Certain features, such as its accelerator pedal mapping and the damping of the multilink suspension, have been cali¬brated to guarantee maximum sportiness and absolute driving pleasure with the top down, in line with Maranello’s exclusive spider tradition. Even the engine soundtrack has been honed to ensure that the car’s occupants are completely captivated by the drop-top driving experience.
Entirely in aluminum, the hard-top solution adopted for the 458 Spider offers a number of advantages over the traditional folding soft-top, including a reduction of 25 kg in weight and a deployment time of just 14 seconds. Fully integrated into the styling of the car, the hard-top was engineered to fit neatly ahead of the engine bay without compromising aerodynamics or the performance of the car. The small space needed to house the roof enables the designers to include a generous rear bench for luggage behind the seats.
Its category-topping per¬formance aside, the new car also boasts class-leading fuel consumption and emissions lev-els. Thanks to the HELE (High Emotion Low Emission) system, in fact, fuel consumption on the combined urban cycle stands at 11.8 l/100 km with CO2 emis¬sions of 275 g/km.
The rear of the car is char¬acterised by innovative forms with the buttresses designed to optimise the flow of air to the engine intakes and the clutch and gearbox oil radiators. For maximum comfort whilst driv¬ing top down the 458 Spider features a generously-sized ad¬justable electric wind stop. The design was perfected to slow and diffuse the air in the cockpit, enabling normal conversation to be held even at speeds over 200 km/h.
June 2012
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BROWSE ARCHIVE
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