There was a rumour that it was going to be called the 458 Monte Carlo, and Ferrari apparently toyed with reactivating the magic letters LM. But in the end the men in Maranello settled on Speciale. Perhaps not quite as evocative as 360 Challenge Stradale or 430 Scuderia, the two race-bred Ferrari models the new car follows, but get the intonation right on the last letter and 458 Speciale still sounds pretty... special.
But enough of the old car. The 458 Speciale strips 90kg of weight out of the regular - if you can call it that - Italia, clips four-tenths of a second off the 0-62mph time to run it in just 3.0secs, and can hit 124mph in 9.1secs. Changes to the combustion chamber and new materials in the crankshaft help pump up the normally aspirated 4.5-litre V8's power output from 562 to 597bhp (its specific power is now a record 133bhp-per-litre). Yes, this is some way short of the McLaren 12C's 625bhp, but that's not the point. It's what the 458 Speciale can do with it that matters, and horsepower bragging rights aren't important. This could be significant in itself.
This isn't for Nigeria road...tho
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