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15 September 2015 marked the world premiere for Ferrari’s most high performance spider, the 488 Spider, at the Frankfurt International Motor Show; the latest chapter in Maranello’s ongoing history with open-top V8 sports cars.
This is the most high performance Spider ever built by the Prancing Horse and is powered by the 488 coupé’s 3902cc turbo-charged V8 which punches out a maximum of 670 CV with the Variable Torque Management system guaranteeing smooth, progressive torque delivery in the higher gears up to a maximum of 760 Nm at 3,000 rpm. This is an astonishingly sporty car with blistering acceleration (0 to 100 km/h in 3 seconds and 0 to 200 km/h in 8.7) and, even more significantly, a razor-sharp throttle response time of just 0.8 seconds which essentially eliminates the turbo lag typical of this kind of engine.
The 488 Spider uses the RHT (Retractable Hard Top) which debuted on the 458 Spider as world-first for such a solution on a mid-rear engined car. The RHT has rendered traditional soft-tops obsolete as it is not only lighter (- 25 kg) but also provides better protection from noise and elements even when lowered courtesy of a glass wind-stop adjustable to three different positions. Equally significant is the fact that the RHT can be raised or lowered in 14 seconds even when the car is moving.
In line with Ferrari tradition and drawing on the harmonics typical of Prancing Horse cars with this kind of architecture, this 8-cylinder has its own absolutely distinctive soundtrack, thanks to exhaust headers with longer, equal-length piping and the flat-plane crankshaft. The sound was crafted to be seductive but never invasive when the top is dropped, with both volume and clarity increasing in signature Ferrari fashion as the engine instantly responds to the accelerator pedal and revs rise, underscoring the car’s performance.
Frankfurt also provides the venue for another major announcement: the extension of the Apple CarPlay system to the entire Ferrari range. The FF was the first car in the world to adopt the innovative iPhone feature which offers instant and intuitive voice and touch functionalities: everything from phone calls to map use, messaging and music. The FF was quickly followed by the California T. The Apple CarPlay will also soon be available for the sportier, more aggressive Prancing Horse models – the 488 GTB, the 488 Spider and the F12berlinetta – on which it is premiered at the German Show. http://events.media.ferrari.com/frankfurt2015/
