Saturday, March 28, 2009

Spied: 2010 Ferrari F450


Some manufacturers play spy shooters like fiddles (Chevy comes to mind, with its Camaro striptease). But Ferraris are tough to find, even for the best. But we’ll take what we can get when it comes to prancing horses, so thank you, Brenda, for nabbing this prototype of the upcoming Ferrari F430 replacement (likely dubbed F450, but F500 could be a possibility), even if it’s missing a few pieces.
Seen here as a coupe, this newest Ferrari looks promising, with sleek, windswept bodysides and a Lotus Evora–like tapering greenhouse, imparting a look that resembles the back half of an Enzo merged with the front of an F430, only with more elegance than both. What we can’t see are the fascias, which we hope will be more attractive than those of the new, bubble-butted Ferrari California and with more sensuous curvature than even the F430. The rear lights shoot off the deck even higher than before, and the vertical headlamps are longer and sexier than ever. In any case, it is pretty clear that Ferrari’s newest bread-butterer will take on a very exotic, more low-slung posture than even the F430, making us salivate at the prospect of tossing it around a track.
As for what is under the (likely Plexiglas-covered) rear deck? We don’t know the details, but it will almost assuredly be a slightly enlarged V-8, displacing perhaps 4.5 liters and making well over 500 horsepower. The engine will definitely be direct-injected, and a small turbo is a possibility, but a force-fed version of this V-8 will in all likelihood be reserved for the Millechili supercar. With Ferrari promising greater efficiency from its future models, some green technology is likely. Whether it takes the form of bio-fuel compatibility or something like a roadgoing version of the F1-developed KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems) technology, we’re not sure.
Look for the Italian stallion to make its formal debut this fall at the Frankfurt auto show. A Spider convertible variant should make its debut a few months afterwards. And when Brenda—or anyone else—catches that, you can bet we’ll bring it to you.