TRULY ROARSOME!
mini test
Ferrari California T Price as driven: £200,628
GOOD
ONE of the mos t beautiful supercars ever created, as gorgeous to look at as it is to driv e. The icing on the cak e is that this sumptuous tourer converts at the flick of a s witch from a svelte, hard-topped coupe into a gorgeous cabriolet.
And though there’ s fun to be had with the top down, it looks even better with the aerodynamic roof raised.
Although my picture shows a left-hand driv e model for the continent and U.S., I drove one of the firs t righthand drive models for the UK market on British roads.
THE car can accelerate from rest to 62 mph in jus t 3.6 seconds, to 124 mph in 11.2 seconds and has a top speed of 196 mph.
Powered by a ne w, highperformance, 3.855 litre, direct-injection V8, it sounds like a Ferrari should, too, with the specially tuned — and satisfying — engine notes coming out of the tw o pairs of twin exhaust pipes.
WITH seven gears — plus reverse — you are in seventh heaven thanks to the F1-style dual-clutch transmission. For general driving, simply put it into automatic. F or added engagement , work those easy-to-flick paddles up and do wn through the gears.
THE ne w California T’ s engine, gearbox and aerodynamics ha ve been engineered to be more f uel- efficient. So e ven though this ne w model has 70 more horsepo wer and 49 percent more pulling power or ‘torque’ in 7th gear, emissions ha ve been cut to 250 g/ km and the car’s range has increased by 15 percent.
YOU can also change the suspension set up to suit , choosing settings for comfort, sport or track.
THE exterior lines are to die for and turn heads wherever y ou go, y et the car is not over the top. It has a certain majesty, especially in the tasteful shade of dark metallic Rosso California red teamed with a black Nero Pastello retractable roof.
The car also has an unexpected side-effec t on men, turning you into Robert Redford or Brad Pitt in their prime. Remarkable.
I suspect it has a similar ‘ Hollywood’ or ‘ Monte Carlo’ effect on women who drive it. It would have suited Grace Kelly to a T.
LOTS of room for driv er and passenger up front , cossetted in beautiful leather. Proper knobs and buttons on the dashboard — so you don’t need a PhD in computer science to navigate your way around.
And it has a proper key. Slot it in, turn it and then press the big red button mark ed ‘Engine Start’. With a roar, the adventure begins.
STANDARD kit on models sold in the UK includes a tyre pressure monitoring system, heated seats, a Na vTrak security system to deter and foil thie ves, a four- year warranty and seven-year maintenance package, foldable rear seat backres ts, and ski-passage if y ou’re heading to the slopes. Y ou can e ven get y our golf clubs inside.
THE car con verts from coupe to cabriolet in jus t 14 seconds — but only when stopped, a deliber ate safety measure.
IF Y OU’RE a big f an of iPhones, y ou can connec t them direc tly to the car’ s ‘infotainment’ system and run all your music and other apps through the touchscreen on the dashboard t hanks to the special AppleCarPlay system.
BAD
NOT a car for shrinking violets. Put those shades on and own the road.
YOU will need to be pretty loaded, a top FIFA official, or a lotter y winner to afford one. You could buy a flat in the Home Counties or a comfortable house in man y parts of Britain for the price of this car — which s tarts from £154,490.
TECHNICALLY a 2+2, which generally means room for two up front, but little more than space for a couple of soft bags in the back.
Indeed, y ou w ould not want to be in the back and would struggle for legroom unless the front occupants’ noses were pressed agains t the dashboard.
That said, there are tw o Isofix fittings for child seats clicked in and ‘bolted’ to the car’ s supers tructure, for which there seems plenty of space. S tart ’em young, I say.
NOT a huge amount of room in the boot, especially with the roof down.
THE basic lis t price is a mere £ 154,490, but that’ s before you start clocking up those man y ‘mus t-have’ extras. The tw o red-andblack paint jobs alone will set y ou back more than £10,000 — the price of a budget car. The Magneride suspension adds £3,168.
Front and rear parking cameras — v ery helpful for such a lo w slung car — are £4,032 extra. And beautiful though they are, those 20in, black-painted forged wheels (replacing the s tandard 19 in ones) — add £3,552 to the bill.
Backbone-style seats are £2,112. But stitching the Ferrari horse into the headrest is another £720, plus £528 for the coloured piping and £432 for the stitching.
Even the y ellow Scuderia Ferrari badges on the front wings will set y ou back £1,056.