A return to form: Say hello to Banana MK2, the Italian Prancing Horse (Ferrari 458 Italia)

Hi there


So collection day went well apart from traffic but still got there in good time, service was excellent and for the exciting part:



Car has a few nice little extras I did not realise being:
- Front sensors too
- Blue / Mobile phone pairing and it works
- Cruise control though of course its called pitlane limiter. :D


Thanks to both Kindai and Tomo for joining for the collection and the convoy to the pub was fun.


Few photos at collection:

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Drive to pub, simple but effective display, all configurable:


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Couple of photos from the Caffeine & Machine and it was a glorious 20c and sunny, its Winter but feels like Summer, global warming FTW:



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There is little point in me discussing how the car drives, I am taking it easy as first few things worth of note:

- Ceramics lack stopping power until truly warm, but they seem to getting better and better, I suspect car stood, lots of washing and no driving, brakes need a good work out or re-bedding in procedure, but won't do that until I've got healing pads fitted.
- Pzero, well zero grip, it was 17-20c but at one point it lit up the back wheels in 3rd gear. Again tyres might come back, they are 17 dated so probably not being on car long, again need to take easy.
- DCT, feels more like SMG in some ways, certainly has it quirks but todays first drive was stuck in traffic jams on M6 so a lot of crawling, it works quite well and car was well behaved.


It is my first mid-engined car, I have no idea how the nannies work or don't and it feels razer sharp, I did do a longer sweeper at near 3 digits and it felt like downforce was coming into play at such speed, felt pretty planted.
The steering and throttle are hyper alert, the front end just feels insane, but at same time if feels like the back end is gonna over take, again mid-engine feel of the car, everything pivots and feel as such around centre of car, takes time to get used too.
Car feels very light in weight, it even accelerates pretty strong in 7th gear and 75mph is 3000rpm, but if you select wet mode it all quietens down, revs seem high until you realise there is another 6000 to go.
In 5th gear acceleration is strong, I'd say stronger than SVR, but on flip side SVR was brutal in first three gears.

Really can't wait to get more seat time, temps are dropping fast so I've parked it for the night, looking forward too tomorrow, Ferrari gave me a tank of fuel, I've burned through half already.

The noise is simply incredible, I am leaving the valves fitted as they really add character to the car with the on and off barks its makes in race mode, it was also I noticed gurgling on over run, it is certainly loud and sounds pretty damn awesome, really struggling to get power down, so its either a very very quick one, or the Pzero are just being zero. A set of PS4S may come sooner than later if they don't improve somewhat, be interesting how it behaves in the wet.

Just eager for my next drive now! :D


Lots of positive feedback from punters at Cafffeine & Machine saying such a good choice it was to get yellow over the red, saying something they'd never considered but the colour is so much more special than flat red, at times it can look almost gold, such an incredible colour.
 
Mid engine is ace until it decides it wants to lead the front which happened to me twice at vast pace. Once at full chat down the craners and second around the Ring. First time systems saved me, second time all my own work but outside of that mid engine is ace and never feels as swapy endy as my GT3 did.
 
Simon said:
Epic, is the gearbox same/similar as the M-DCT?
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I'd say very similar indeed. No idea if its same box.

Smoother in wet or sport, full on inertia shift in race, but brutal at partial throttle, softens to just a thud at full chat to try and prevent unsettling the car but 2-3 full power upshifts was breaking the rear lose, but was do same in sport, so more of lack of grip from tyres.

Full auto works well, in short just gets into 7th as quick as it can unless in race and in full auto its super aggressive on downshift blips.

The down shift blips are magically though, so maybe is a very similar setup as just like an E92 M3 the downshifts are god like when it blips.

Django x2 said:
If you're taking the pics, who is the 50yo in the drivers seat?
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Cheeky git! :p
 
Housey said:
Mid engine is ace until it decides it wants to lead the front which happened to me twice at vast pace. Once at full chat down the craners and second around the Ring. First time systems saved me, second time all my own work but outside of that mid engine is ace and never feels as swapy endy as my GT3 did.
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What do you mean by that mate? You mean it pushed on as in understeer or something else?
 
Incredible car, the 458 has been one of my favourites since it's release, I only get to drive it in games though you lucky sod.

Enjoy it mate, great choice of car and colour. If you can make any videos that would be great so we can see how it sounds.
 
Gibbo said:
What do you mean by that mate? You mean it pushed on as in understeer or something else?
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When it finally goes it snaps in most mid engine cars. First time at Curborough when it was wet and with some lift off it’s great fun. When you’re committed at real pace and you lift as happened to me at Dinington due to a later overtake, missed apex and me being tired it was rapid. On that occasion Audi sorted it with clever traction control but at the Ring (not on track but on road) I had systems off and it was snap. Just caught it, just.
 
So what an awesome day it turned out to be!

Morning was shocking, set out half an hour early to make it upto ocuk and pick up Gibbo, ended up 45 minutes late due to the awful roads. Problems everywhere.

But once we set off, things got going really well. Made super time down to the dealership. If you can imagine a 4 or 5 year old bouncing up and down for christmas, this was Gibbo times 10.

Everything sorted and off to caffeine and machine, a lovely drive through the cotwalds, we took it (mostly) at a steady pace apart from a few mad moments with me and TomO :D

But Gibbos car, what a presence on the road. In the mirror it looks ANGRY, and as he accelerates you can see the back squat and the nose almost lifts to look at you as the gap rapidly closes :D :D

The noises as well, I was giggling my face off at how it sounds, even though Gibbo was behind me the soundtrack was something else, when the valves open up and the car growls, it really is absolutely spot on, and the flybys, it absolutely SCREAMS past at WOT.

A few favorite shots.

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Regarding the color on the bumper that people commented on before, it was just the lighting...

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Big congratulations mate, its been a lot of fun just taking part but seeing you get into one of your dream cars is just something else. Really chuffed for you.

Now just get rid of those **** pirellis!
 
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